EDC school board pays superintendent to quit
By Kathryn Reed
Jeremy Meyers, the disgraced former superintendent of El Dorado County Office of Education, is receiving more than seven months worth of severance – aka taxpayer money.
The attorney for the district, David Girard, did not return multiple calls or an email asking how this is not a gift of public funds. Lake Tahoe News also asked Girard, as well as the public information officer for the district Dina Gentry, to site the Government, Education and/or Election code(s) that allow for the board to financially compensate an elected official upon his resignation. Neither did so.
Jeremy Meyers when he was booked Aug. 22.
Board President John Lane also did not respond to an email from LTN.
After being arrested on DUI charges twice in five months and pleading no contest to the first offense, Meyers opted to sign a resignation agreement Nov. 13, while the board acted on in Nov. 16. Meyers had not worked since his Nov. 5 arrest.
On that day he had a blood alcohol level of 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit, according to the California Highway Patrol. This was in the middle of a work day. The district office shares a parking lot with an elementary school.
Meyers will receive $114,821.55 – the equivalent of his salary through June 30, 2016. The five elected board members agreed to also give him $10,930. This is what the value of his medical, dental and life insurance would be for that same time period.
Per the agreement Meyers has until Dec. 1 to return all property belonging to the district. This includes master keys, credit cards and security passes. A condition of getting paid off is those items must be turned in.
The agreement contained language that the document would not be released without an entity like Lake Tahoe News invoking the Public Records Request Act.
Lake Tahoe News had two attorneys with experience in municipal government law review the agreement and offer input into its legalities. Both believe it’s possible the payment is a gift of public funds.
“I have not found any basis upon which the $114K can be paid. If he had a contract with a severance clause, that would need to be examined, also the basis of such a contract in the first place,” one of the attorneys said. “The salary schedule for the superintendent does not outline a severance. Ordinarily when a resignation occurs, there is no basis for payment, although they may claim that it is in exchange for a release from potential suit.”
Anyone can challenge the agreement in court. This must be done within 90 days.
Because Meyers was elected and was not accused of committing a felony the board had little recourse.
Gentry emailed this statement, “The board of education determined that the separation agreement is in the best interest of the El Dorado County Office of Education. As an elected official, the county superintendent was legally entitled to complete the remaining three years of his term of office, and any legal or other challenge to the county superintendent’s right to continue in office would have been potentially expensive and lengthy.”
Had the board waited for a recall to occur, the odds are the process would have taken until next summer. Meyers would have been collecting his paycheck that whole time. Plus, there is no guarantee voters would have recalled him. Without a recall, he would have been on the job for the rest of his term – the end of 2018. With a recall, the district would have to pay the expense for a special election.
The statement from the district went on to say, “The board, with strong public input, came to the unanimous conclusion that it must take all reasonable and feasible steps to effect an immediate leadership change in the El Dorado County Office of Education.”
The board is looking to finalize the application process by Dec. 1, with the goal of naming a replacement in January.
Govt out of control with other people’s money. You should see the deal the new schools’ chief in Reno just got.
Why are public servants treated differently than private sector employees? If a company employee violated a company policy, there would be a company policy to handle if they had to resign and what their resignation compensation would be, there would be a company policy to handle termination for cause due to a violation of policy or just a reduction in force and what the ensuing compensation to the employee would be.
If our government doesn’t handle running our business this way, then the upper managers of our business should also be held accountable.
He promised only to drink on days that ended with a Y.
tahoeadvocate, so you know public employee unions are different than private employee unions because of the system in place. Have you ever heard of the media saying that such and such a union is powerful? Ever wonder why? Its because a public union can elect their own boss.
Ever hear a candidate say something like, “I’m going to fight the unions?” Those candidates seldom get elected because as soon as they say that, the unions go after them and support the other candidate. (insert your favorite attack ad, or method at this point)
Ever wonder why government workers get nice benefits? Because they elected someone favorable towards themselves and had them “give” them those benefits.
Examples: Teachers that are tenured in, have their jobs protected by the union. Police officers accused of misconduct, they get paid time off because that was the deal the union got for them. In both cases those were benefits granted in negotiations with your elected officials. Often those officials can say to the public, oh the compensation we have set up is just trying to keep up with … whatever comparable source they find that also happen to give those benefits away. Hey you gotta keep up or lose your best people right?
Yes lower level government employees can get screwed, take how SLT govt retired employees lost a lot in health care fairly recently. It would also be good to point out that many public employees are very dedicated and hard working.
To close, have you ever seen an elected official all of a sudden have a “scandal” blown up on them? Ever wonder who started those rumors? Ever wonder why it happened? I’m talking the real reasons, not the moderated things said in open session. Remember in politics whenever you take a position, you are going to make someone mad.
For example, it doesn’t matter if its giving commercial property owners in Meyers better private property rights, or take the side of locals who want things to remain the same. Someone is going to be mad. Or if you’re on a local water board and you keep costs down, then people’s pet projects don’t get done and quality goes down, employees don’t get raises, someone is going to be mad.
Think of a locally public official who was fighting for you, I’m not talking someone who is a good politician, perhaps someone who’s a regular person like you or a neighbor, who got involved to make a difference. The problem is when one makes a difference it hurts a status quo. Said person who tried to make a difference gets jaded, maybe they go away, maybe no. Regardless, all that are left are the friends of a friend of a friend, someone who isn’t going to make people mad.
After all its not their money they are spending. Who cares? There is a famous saying in Greece now, “Politicians love to spend other peoples money, until there is nothing left for anyone.”
Seven months severance pay is outrageous and irresponsible when this guy is unable to perform his job on workdays in a sober manner. He should have been terminated immediately and driven home by a designated driver.
This lounge lizard, having pulled one off on his naïve, benevolent employer and the taxpayers, is laughing all the way to the bank as he searches for the next happy hour.
AMEN
LOUIS AND STEVE, COULDN’T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF.
THANK YOU
There is absolutely no question this is a gift of public funds. Absolutely disgusting!
We need to lobby for a change in the law, as a recall would have taken far too long. There needs to be a way to remove elected officials who have engaged in such egregious conduct in a speedy fashion to avoid liability to the public entity and further, to avoid further erosion of the public’s trust in government.
I am sickened by this! He should be ashamed of himself.
There is no question – this is absolutely a gift of public funds.
We need to lobby to have the law changed to allow for more expeditious removal of elected officials who commit such egregious acts. Under the current laws a recall was the only other alternative and that takes far too long, creating liability for the public entity and further erosion of the public’s trust.
I am sickened by this. This man should be ashamed!
John Barleycorn wins again and the taxpayer loses again.
And this sort of thing is why there is a recall effort. Don’t necessarily agree with the recall effort, but what ARE we going to do about the constant giveaways of our money?
Wow, are we ever in the dark in our society about the disease of alcoholism. There was zero clear thinking or ill-intent in the process of getting 2 DUI’s in the middle of the day at twice the legal limit. That’s because it is a disease. Alcoholics, by definition, have no control around it- and it’s everywhere. Soon there will be a genetic test that will determine who will be able to drink without a problem arising and who will not. This guy is obviously among the latter and needs tons of help and support in order to get a handle on the disease. I do not believe that anyone would ever make a conscious choice to do this to their lives, their community or especially their family.
So he has your full permission to abuse the system and the taxpayers because he has a “disease”.
How ’bout YOU pay his salary and benefits out of your pocket then? How do all the other millions of alcoholics manage to maintain sobriety during the workday, and then take full responsibility on their OWN dime if they do screw up? This guy got caught TWICE in a few months time. How many times did he not get caught???
Sure, empathy and help is one thing. But repeatedly taking advantage of a system that holds nobody to account is heinous.
It is curious that a resignation was tendered, accepted, THEN followed up with severance pay for the rest of his ‘this year’ salary. . .was his resignation not accepted in good faith due to an obvious dereliction of duty (?). . . then to be followed ‘out-the-door’ & via offering him his due package defies common sense…
As some on the bureaucratic side decry ‘entitlement’ for others when they can’t seem NOT to throw more money (six-figures) out when it is most obvious they have little left (in the county budget) to use for things productive for their constituents – the children – who’re always destined to suffer ‘zero tolerance’, but not the “grown-ups” (?). . .
What lesson is there here. . .(?)
Dog and Tahoeadvocate. Ever hear of Captain Joe Hazelwood… he was accused of being drunk when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska, but was cleared when “witnesses” said they thought he was sober [enough] at the time? Yes, good ‘ol private industry indeed.
Hmmm. Coulda sworn we already had lots of government regulation on that industry at that time?
Why didn’t your government oversight work????
Dog. Why didn’t somebody on the Exxon Valdez do some oversight? How many times did Hazelwood not get caught? How come Hazelwood was not held accountable, he had a .6 BAC 16 hours after he claimed to only have 3 shots of Vodka… he still has his Master License.
We know that 30% of Americans have problems with Alcohol and of the 30%, 13% are dependent on Alcohol day to day.
I ask you again: Why do you expect perfection from the private sector, yet when government intervention repeatedly fails, you make excuses and demand MORE government.
It’s not a perfect world. It will never BE a perfect world. More regulation and less freedom won’t make it so.
Dog, I agree with you, neither private industry nor gov are perfect. But private industry left to its own devices would fail big time in not delivering clean air, water, or buildings that would not sustain themselves in earthquakes, relatively safe cars, etc. Our air and water quality is better today then in the 1960s BECAUSE of gov regulations, not in spite of them. I believe like Teddy Roosevelt, the capitalism works best, with government oversight. Can we expect perfection from either private or public industry – no, but we can push for competency and never give up striving to better systems in both the private and public sectors.
Rick
” Why do you expect perfection from the private sector, yet when government intervention repeatedly fails, you make excuses and demand MORE government.”
I didn’t read anything in detail but I am guessing that your paraphrasing is inaccurate and you are intentionally framing this part of the discussion to avoid an actual discussion.
“So he has your full permission (…)”
Again, same set up.
“Why didn’t your government oversight work????”
A different but related twist with a side of red herring.
Classic straw doggery.
Is there a defined logical fallacy that encompasses objective ‘myopic obfuscation’ and subjective ‘conceptual ambiguity’?
Dog. When did I ask for “perfection?” Since the previous post went over your head I will be blunt.
Thirty Percent (30%) of the American Population is drinking excessively. This means Teachers, Doctors, Priest, Pilots, Military, Police, Judges, Jurors, Truck Drivers, Cooks, Card Dealers, Managers, CEO’s etc.
In a society, we have Laws and Regulations to protect lives and property. Are you saying Drinking and Driving, Piloting or Boating is ok for society and should be deregulated?