California school district scolded for open meeting law violation

 A California school district violated the state’s open meeting law by raising its superintendent’s salary during a closed-door meeting, but it will not face sanctions, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a Sept. 2 report.  

This is in fact the Capistrano Unified School District’s fourth violation of the open meeting law in a year, according to the Los Angeles Times. The district attorney’s report described an investigation of a closed Feb. 25 meeting in which the board awarded Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter a $58,000 raise and a $400,000 severance package, and failed to disclose the decision.  

Although prosecutors considered pursuing sanctions against the school system for its open meeting violation, the Times says, the district attorney’s office opted not to take legal action in part because the contract was revoked. Previous district attorney’s office reports said incumbent board members had routinely broken the state’s open-meeting law.