In its 26th year, the San Diego Taxpayers Association announced the first in its series of the best and worst examples of good governance in Education with its Annual Golden Watchdog and Fleece Awards. Winners of both categories in Public Health and Safety were released on April 21, and Transportation, Infrastructure & Utilities to be announced on April 26.
In the Education, the Golden Watchdog went to the Cajon Valley Union School District for its rapid reopening process during the prolonged COVID-19 school closures throughout the county. The Golden Fleece award went to the Sweetwater Union High School District for its misuse of CARES Act funding for the use of teacher raises.
Taxpayer Association CEO Haney Hong said the SDTA was formed in 1945 as a nonpartisan membership organization that is a broker for effective and efficient public policy.
“We want to see effective and efficient out of our limited taxpayer dollars,” he said. “Taxpayers around the region trust us to advocate on their behalf to get the best return on investment of the dollars that we all put into the kitty. In our annual awards, we recognize the good, the bad, and the ugly of public policy.”
Hong said Cajon Valley worked extremely hard to be creative, work with parents, and its stakeholders to get its schools back open during COVID.
The awards committee praised the CVUSD in its comments in a press release.
“While the San Diego County school system was indefinitely closed with no plans to bring children back to school, Cajon Valley Union School District took a brave step to safely reopen its doors to students. The school closures sent families reeling, leaving parents with no care for their children, and students facing a learning slide our country has never experienced. Rather than coming from a place of ‘no,’ we applaud the Cajon Valley Union School District for embracing creative problem solving to ensure children receive the education they deserve in a safe environment. Bravo CVUSD!”
CVUSD Superintendent Dr. David Miyashiro said from the beginning of the pandemic, it opened its channels of communications to hear from its families and communities.
“As stewards of taxpayer dollars, our governing board is very conservative in its approach, making sure that everything we do is in service to our students and their families,” he said. “At the onset of the pandemic, they needed them more than ever. So, that is what we provided.”
Miyashiro said the District was fully reopened by June 2020.
“We did not get approved (by the County),” he said. “There were no permissions, no guidelines or rules. We just opened our schools one at a time with the help of the County Public Health Department. We are grateful for our employees to be recognized for the hard work they did being the first ones to come back to school in person. It was very brave and very giving, and very service like in the way they approached the community. And we are pleased they will be acknowledged. Our elected trustees really showed strong leadership and we are grateful for their leadership as well.”
Hong said for a quarter of a century it has recognized local governments when they do well and acknowledging local governments when they have not done so well for taxpayers. “Like we say, they have fleeced all of us as taxpayers,” he said, with those who did well receiving Watchdog awards, and agencies that do not do so well with the Fleece award. “We give them little golden lambs.”
Hong said in acknowledging those who did not do so well, it gives those elected leaders or municipal electives a chance to share with the public what they are going to do to make things better in their agency.
The awards committee had the following to say about the SUHSD’s misuse of CARES Act funding.
“Sweetwater should really know better by now. Using pandemic relief dollars to fund teacher raises is a big ‘no-no’’ and is making us raise our eyebrows in shock! When the economy is crashing down around us, hospitals are nearing capacity, and students are struggling to connect with their teachers at all – we are curious as to how this seemed like a responsible use of public funds. Well, it wouldn’t be a Goldens without Sweetwater making the Fleece list, would it?”
Hong said the program is also done with a little bit of comedy so that it does not take itself too seriously.
“When folks take themselves to seriously, they do not really make progress,” he said.
Hong said it solicits nominations from the public and that because the Association is trusted, it gets quite a few nominations. He said the fleece nominations come in on a regular basis.
“We have a confidential awards committee comprised of members of the Taxpayers Association, and these folks go through these nominations and ultimately make the decision of which agencies did a nice and effective job, and which agencies have an opportunity to talk with the public about what things they are going to do to make things better,” he said. “We keep the committee confidential because we do not want them to get pushed around by elected leaders or municipal executives who might want to influence the process.”
Hong said there are actually four categories, Education, Public Health & Public Safety, Transportation, Infrastructure & Utilities, and Public/Private Partnerships. He said all of them receive a Watchdog and Fleece award, except for Public/Private Partnerships, which has no Fleece winner.
