This Wednesday, Santa Clara County Office of Education board members will publicly discuss new details emerging from multiple internal investigations launched last year into misuse of public funds complaints. The complaints targeted former County Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan and some members of her administration at the time.
Although the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office did not find enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime, independent investigators hired by SCCOE have made at least 14 serious findings. A document has been posted to SCCOE’s website showing a summary of the findings, which include:
- Public funds were used for non-SCCOE (personal) purposes without the knowledge of the Board.
- Fiscal mechanisms (i.e., County Superintendent segregated account) were used to redirect grant funding for purposes unrelated to the grant’s original purpose without public transparency and accountability.
- Several SCCOE contracts were awarded in a manner that suggested personal favoritism versus public benefit
- Ethical safeguards were ignored with several SCCOE employees using public resources to show public support for their superior.
“All of those things are serious, egregiously serious to the work of a public agency,” said John Di Salvo a former SCCOE board member who served for 16 years, including during the time of the complaints. “I was deeply disturbed by having my role eviscerated by the county superintendent by not being transparent, not answering queries from board members about budget, about staffing.”
“Previously, I was unable to disclose a lot of the extent of abuse of public trust and public dollars,” said former board member Grace Mah who was also on the board during that time. “It felt good to see that all of the trust and details have been coming out.”…