Recall launched against Poway Unified board member
A recall effort has been launched against veteran Poway Unified School District board member Andy Patapow.
Recall sponsors include several outspoken district critics who contend that Patapow should be removed from an office he has held for 20 years because he voted in 2010 and 2011 to finance school campus costs with capital appreciation bonds, because he has never “adequately” explained his votes, because he allegedly received gifts from the bond underwriters who sold the bonds and because he never fired anyone associated with the CABs.
Patapow denies any wrongdoing and legally has the opportunity to respond to the allegations in writing. On Thursday he said he believes he is being targeted because he, along with two others on the five-member board, support Supt. John Collins. Recallers, he said, plan to replace him with an anti-Collins board member, securing enough votes to have the superintendent fired.
“Right now we’re 3-2 in favor of kids,” the Poway resident and former Abraxas High School principal said.
Whatever written response Patapow prepares will be included in the recall petition that will be circulated among registered voters within the PUSD.
A “notice of intention to circulate (a) recall petition,” the first step in the process to remove someone from elected office, was delivered to Patapow on Tuesday afternoon by Keith Wilson. Wilson was escorted out of the Aug. 24 school board meeting after alleging that the district was corrupt.
Among the required 10 signers of the petition are outspoken PUSD critics Chris and Kimberly Garnier. During several school board meetings the Garniers have accused the district of corruption and racism and have called for the firing of Collins.
Wilson is Kimberly Garnier’s father.
Others signing the petition include Wilson’s wife, Linda, Dr. Ramona and Winslow Garnier, Anjum Razvi, and Brooks, Monica and Virgil Iler.
In an e-mail sent Tuesday night to district administrators and fellow board members, Patapow said that he first heard about the recall try last Saturday when he received a call from board member Charles Sellers, asking that he and Patapow meet. According to Patapow, Sellers said that the petition had been prepared and that “he (Charles) was delivering the message that I could step down voluntarily if I wanted to avoid the embarrassment of a public recall election.”
Patapow said Sellers gave him several decision deadlines, the last one being noon on Tuesday.
According to Patapow, Wilson came to his home at 1:50 p.m. Tuesday and delivered the notice of intent.
On Friday, Sellers disputed part of Patapow’s statement. Sellers said “at no time did I utter the word ‘resign,’ much less suggest that he (Patapow) do so,. I did say that I saw three possible options: retire, do nothing and let the process play out, or contact the parties to see if some compromise short of a recall could be worked out.”
“I made a humane attempt to soften the blow of an oncoming train to another person,” Sellers said of his meeting with Patapow. Sellers also said that he is neither a participant or proponent of the recall.”
Patapow’s current term ends in December of next year. Earlier this year he said he would retire after this term. On Thursday Patapow, who recently turned 80, said he might reconsider.
Laws pertaining to the removal of a local public official require the circulation of a petition and give the recallers 160 days to collect the signatures of 10 percent of the 107,665 registered voters in the PUSD. If the signature goal is met and the signatures are verified by the county Registrar of Voters Office, an election would be held between 88 and 125 days following verification. Potential replacement candidates would be placed on the ballot as well. Voters would be asked whether a) Patapow should be recalled and, b) if so, which replacement candidate should be elected.
The capital appreciation bonds were authorized by PUSD voters in February 2008. School board members voted in October 2010 to begin the bond sale preparation efforts and again in May 2011 to proceed with their sale. Patapow is the only holdover from those boards.
The bonds were sold at interest rates of around 7 percent. Since interest was deferred and no payments were to be made for 20 years, the bonds will cost taxpayers about $1 billion when paid off. That’s a ratio of about 9:1.
Details of the bonds’ cost to taxpayers were revealed in 2013 and generated strong criticism from the San Diego County Grand Jury and the San Diego Taxpayers Association. State legislation was later passed, putting restrictions on the future use of CABs, including limiting them to 25 years and capping the ratio at 4:1.