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News / With On-Demand Extended Audio Recall! LB School Board Votes 3-2 To Ask Boardmember Ellis To Resign; Ellis Says He Intends To Finish His Term; LB Chamber-Backed Recall Begins
(Dec. 5, 2007) -- Before a hearing room filled to capacity, LBUSD's Board of Education voted 3-2 (Barton, Ellis dissenting) on Dec. 4 to approve a non-binding resolution asking Boardmember Michael Ellis to resign immediately.
Boardmember Ellis read a statement expressing embarrassment for past personal actions, said they wouldn't recur, defended his record as a Boardmember...and said he intends to complete his Schoolboard term.
By the end of the evening, Boardmember Ellis was served with paperwork making good on a LB Chamber of Commerce promise to back an effort to recall him,
LBReport.com provides extended on-demand audio of the School Board meeting on links below.
The School Board resolution brought by Boardmember Mary Stanton stated the following in its accompanying agendized materials:
BACKGROUND:
At the November 20 Board of Education meeting, Long Beach Area Chamber of
Commerce Chairman Matt Kinley requested, on behalf of the Chamber, that the Board
agendize a vote calling for Board Member Michael Ellis to resign. The Chamber cited
several concerns about Mr. Ellis’ judgment and performance. The Chamber also
requested that the Board initiate the quo warranto process to review election registration
requirements and determine whether Mr. Ellis was legally eligible to run for the Board of
Education.
RECOMMENDATION:
It is moved that the Board ask Mr. Ellis to resign effective immediately.
| LB Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Randy Gordon (photo right) was the first speaker. He lambasted Boardmember Ellis, calling him the worst Boardmember in LBUSD history. |
Screen save: LBUSD TV/24 (Charter cable) |
The comment drew boos from some in the audience, prompting Board president Dr. Felton Williams to caution against such further conduct.
Chamber Board President Gordon continued, forewarning that if Boardmember Ellis didn't step down voluntarily, the Chamber would immediately begin working to recall him.
A VP in the Teachers Ass'n of LB blasted the Chamber for its advocacy stances and its involvement in LBUSD matters, citing Chamber opposition to cargo container fee bill (on clean air grounds) and Chamber support for a City Hall-backed Airport terminal area expansion plan despite a LB School District lawsuit challenging the Airport plan's environmental assessment and failure to provide sound mitigation for impacted school.
The TALB official didn't explicitly defend Boardmember Ellis.
Boardmembers Mary Stanton and Jon Meyer (seconded her motion) read statements urging Boardmember Ellis to step down.
Boardmember David Barton (one of two TALB-backed candidates who won LBUSD seats in 2006) read a statement drawing a distinction between Ellis' personal conduct and his actions as a Boardmember. Saying that actions by some U.S. Presidents had also made them less than role-models, Boardmember Barton said that he doesn't believe Boardmember Ellis' personal conduct rises to the level of overturning the results of an election.
Screen save: LBUSD TV/24 (Charter cable) | Boardmember Ellis read a statement expressing embarrassment for conduct in his personal life. He he's since taken steps to ensure it will not recur..and defended his record as a Boardmember. |
Boardmember Ellis slammed coverage by the Press-Telegram and by a web site co-published by a consultant to the LB Area Chamber of Commerce and indicated that he plans to complete the final two years of his term.
TALB-backed candidate Ellis was elected in 2006 when then-incumbent LBUSD Board president Dr. Suja Lowenthal first filed papers officially seeking reelection to the School Board, then abruptly entered a special election to fill the 2nd district City Council seat unexpectedly vacated by Dan Baker. Lowenthal announced that she wouldn't campaign for the School Board seat, allowing Ellis to win the seat without a campaign challenger [who might have brought out issues involving Ellis that subsequently surfaced in the media.]
Boardmember Ellis was one of three TALB-backed candidates in the 2006 election cycle. Dr. Barton was elected but a challenger to Mary Stanton wasn't...leaving TALB one-vote-short of a controlling majority on the LB School Board.
Two School Board incumbents who are up for reelection in 2008 -- Board President Dr. Felton Williams and Board VP Jon Meyer -- may face TALB-backed challengers. If one TALB-backed candidate were to prevail, that would give the teachers' union a majority...unless Ellis is recalled and replaced by a non-TALB-backed candidate.
[A replacement is a recall wildcard; multiple candidates [not necessarily someone supported by the recall proponents] can run; recall the Gov. Davis recall with multiple contenders.]
Boardmember Stanton, who brought the resolution against Ellis, was the only one of the three School Board incumbents in the 2006 election cycle to remain, narrowly defeating a TALB-backed candidate in her district. (In ELB, TALB-backed candidate Barton defeated the incumbent aided by a simultaneous high-visibility Council election in which TALB's General Counsel, Gerrie Schiske, defeated then-incumbent Councilwoman (write-in candidate) Jackie Kell.)
The School Board's Dec. 4 resolution is legally non-binding. Downtown-area School District voters elected Boardmember Ellis...and only they have the legal power to remove him at the ballot box and choose his successor.
LBReport.com has posted extended audio of salient portions of the Dec. 4 School Board proceedings on the resolution regarding Boardmember Ellis, They're large files (and may take a few moments to launch. We've used the "real audio" format (.rm) (compatible with most computers) which should "stream" into your computer, minimizing download time. We've used a "whoosh" sound as an audio ellipsis to indicate edits [not all speakers are included].
To launch the audio, click on the links below:
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