Arlie Ricasa pleads guilty, resigns Southwestern College board position

UPDATE: See new guilty pleas in Feb. 2014 by officials and contractors connected to Southwestern College.


Arlie Ricasa is Southwestern College's EOPS Director. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for crimes committed as a Sweetwater Union High School District trustee.

See all posts on Arlie Ricasa.
Ricasa pleads guilty, resigns board position
Lina Chankar
The Sun, Southwestern College
01/28/2014

SWC EOPS Director Arlie Ricasa pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor in the South Bay corruption case and resigned from her position on the Sweetwater Union High School District Board of Trustees.

Ricasa, who faced 33 criminal counts, including 16 felonies, will avoid prison by admitting to a single count of filing a false instrument.

Deputy District Attorney Leon Schorr said Ricasa made the following admission of guilt:

“I received, reviewed, understood and biannually voted on Sweetwater’s conflict of interest code delineating the Form 700 reporting requirements sent to the Sweetwater Board by the Superintendent. In 2009, I was an elected School Board Member for the Sweetwater Union High School District. I accepted gifts from Rene Flores (SGI) in 2009 with a value of $2,099 and I did not report them. The maximum amount one may lawfully receive from one source per year is $420. Rene Flores provided these gifts with the intent to influence my vote on business awarded to Seville Group Inc.”

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis originally charged Ricasa with the most counts of any of the 15 people indicted in the sweeping corruption case. According to a D.A. Affidavit For Search Warrant, Ricasa had accepted the following items:

1) $1,741.70 – Dinner and wine with her husband Ed Bagaporo, and SGI President Rene Flores.
2) $313.18 – Amigable for dinner with her husband.
3) $3,600 – SGI contribution to Ricasa’s campaign for State Assembly District 78.
4) $13,600 – From SGI for various political campaigns in 2007 through 2010.
5) $1,380.22 – From Henry Amigable to “wine and dine.”
6) $208.78 – Dinner with Amigable on May 12, 2007.
7) $132.98 – Dinner with her husband and Amigable.
8) $3,600 – Contributions from SGI for 2008 State Assembly campaign in June 2007.
9) $1,800 – SGI paid for the sponsorship of Ricasa’s daughter, Natalie Bagaporo, for Leadership Council in July 2009.
10) $5,000 – from SGI for campaign contributions in Sept. 2010.
11) $5,000 – from SGI for campaign contributions in Oct. 2010.

These and other gifts and contributions need to be reported on California Form 700, Schorr said. Ricasa failed to report any gifts or other reportable interest in 2008 and 2010, which is signed under penalty of perjury. The D.A. affidavit stated that Ricasa, trustee Pearl Quinones, trustee Greg Sandoval and superintendent Jesus Gandara all violated the California Political Reform Act Government Code section (8711-91014).

After a lengthy investigation that included raids on their homes, defendants were accused of bribery, perjury, conflict of interest, filing false instrument, offering a thing of value to a member of government and conspiracy to defraud another of property.

After Ricasa’s guilty plea, Schorr said that in every case there is the potential to negotiate an agreement to settle the case without going to trial.

Ricasa’s supervisor, SWC dean Beatrice Zamora-Aguilar, said Ricasa is a dedicated educational professional who cares about students.

“I trust her judgment,” Zamora said. “All of the work she does, anything that has to do with any kind of reporting and budgeting, I provide oversight to. I’m a very careful and meticulous manager and I feel comfortable with any of the information she puts forward.”

Schorr said he is moving forward with the case against other Sweetwater officials and the D.A. is prepared to go to trial.

SWC President Dr. Melinda Nish said she referred the matter to the acting vice president of human resources Lynn Solomita and the college’s legal counsel to see if the guilty plea has an impact on Ricasa’s $125,000 position.

“It was in her capacity as a Sweetwater elected official that the violation occurred,” said Nish. “Unless there is some nexus with her employment here, it has no bearing on her employment. So I’m asking for both HR and legal advice, and that’s where we’re at with it.”

Nish said if any disciplinary action is taken it would be a personnel and confidential matter and would not be discussed publicly. She said she would like to see Sweetwater issues put to rest.

“I’m really pleased that Southwestern has done a lot of work to clean up what it does and how it does it,” she said. “Sweetwater is our educational partner and I would hope the sooner they get their business cleaned up the better for all of us in the South Bay. So I’m looking forward to this coming to closure.”

SCHOOL ATTORNEY BONNY GARCIA CLEARED ARLIE RICASA IN 2009

But that's why Bonny Garcia was hired by the district, right?


Trustee cleared in flap over contract
Company listed wrong address
By Chris Moran
June 6, 2009

CHULA VISTA — No, everyone seems to agree now. The construction firm that got a $7 million contract from the Sweetwater Union High School District board last week is not located in the home of a board member's relative.

A construction industry Web site that compiles such minutiae mistakenly gave Rialto-based RC Construction a Chula Vista address. No big deal, except that the erroneous address happens to belong to the nephew of board member Arlie Ricasa.

“Peculiar,” Ricasa called it. “Bizarre,” said the school board's attorney.

To the attorney for a construction company that competed against RC Construction for the job but lost, it's suspicious.

“How is it possible that the address that they put to RC Construction, out of all the millions out there, belongs to Arlie Ricasa's (relative)?” asked Andrew Berman, attorney for HAR Construction in Chula Vista.

In an e-mail to Sweetwater attorney Kris Vaca that was part of the public record of the meeting, Brian Tyson of Reed Construction Data wrote, “We mistakenly added RC Const. Chula Vista, a company that had been in our database since 1995.”

Tyson did not return a phone call and an e-mail seeking further clarification.

Tyson's e-mail states that Reed has corrected its mistake and now lists RC Construction's proper Rialto address. RC Construction says it has never had a Chula Vista address.

“This is information that was totally inaccurate,” Ricasa said.

She said that neither she nor anyone she knows of in her family has a connection to RC Construction. Her nephew Domingo Ricasa, who owns and lives in the home at the Chula Vista address, works for a telephone company, she said.

Sweetwater attorney Bonifacio Garcia vetted the matter, concluded that it was all a big mistake and cleared Ricasa to vote on the contract. Ricasa said she regularly recuses herself on votes that affect Southwestern College, where she works, or community organizations for which she serves as a board member.

But she has no connection whatsoever to RC Construction, she said, and she participated in the vote on May 27.

In 2003, a grand jury report faulted Sweetwater – but not Ricasa specifically – for appointing Ricasa's husband to the volunteer citizens committee in charge of overseeing the work done through a $187 million bond measure passed in 2000. The grand jury did not allege any wrongdoing.

Why does "fiscal conservative" John McCann want to spend $1.4 million on special election instead of simply appointing a successor to Arlie Ricasa?

John McCann discussion with Mary Adato
Photo from San Diego Reader


Kevin O'Neill


Arlie Ricasa. See all posts on Arlie Ricasa.

Board must act
Carlos R. Davalos
Chula Vista Star-News
Jan 23 2014

Outspoken critic of the Sweetwater Union High School District, Kevin O’Neill, urged district officials to take immediate action to fill a vacated seat at a Thursday press conference in front of the district headquarters.

“I, as a resident, of this district have great concern about the district’s seemingly inability to move the appointment process forward on the vacancy with Ms. Ricasa’s force(d) removal,” said O’Neill, who is a member of the district’s bond oversight committee.

O’Neill accuses district officials of purposely letting the “clock run out” on a provisional appointment, so that the district can go to a special election.

O'Neill has expressed interest in either being appointed or elected to the position.

“I believe that they can better control the outcome of an election then they can of an appointment process,” he said.

At a special board meeting in January, Trustee John McCann said he wanted to move forward with a special election by mail.

O’Neill said he questions McCann’s intentions as to why he wants a mail ballot.

“A mail ballot particularly in a special election is going to favor white male Republicans and you’re not likely to get a good response from the general district,” O’Neill said. “On the other hand, voters in this district have never done a mail ballot.

O’Neill notes in the press conference that McCann used the stance of being a fiscal conservative when running for the district, and O’Neill said he can’t understand why McCann wants a special election if the district can’t afford the $1.4 million for the election.

He also said Superintendent Ed Brand is on a two-weeks vacation during a time when a decision on the process of filling the seat needs to be made.

“The timing of it all leads me to believe that the power block doesn’t want an appointment and that they don’t mind spending the money to get what they think will be a better outcome for their interest.

In the end, O’Neill said he just wants the district to publicly make a decision of what their plans on filling Ricasa’s seat entail.

O’Neill said he has sent e-mails and called board members to ask for an update of the process. None of his correspondence has received a reply.

McCann did not return calls from The Star-News seeking comment. A district spokesman was also available for comment.

No process yet to replace Sweetwater trustee Ricasa

Arlie Ricasa. See all posts on Arlie Ricasa.


Daniel Shinoff

No process yet to replace Sweetwater trustee Ricasa
Only three board members show up at special meeting
By Susan Luzzaro
San Diego Reader
Jan. 15, 2014

No one was surprised to see that the Sweetwater Union High School District board failed to agree on a process to replace former trustee Arlie Ricasa at a January 14 special meeting. (Ricasa pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor December 18 and was obliged to resign). However, many who attended the meeting wondered if the lack of agreement was the usual dysfunction — or orchestrated dysfunction.

Only three board members were present at the meeting — trustees Jim Cartmill, John McCann, and Bertha Lopez. According to Cartmill, trustee Pearl Quiñones could not attend due to a trip to see her ailing mother in Texas.

The meeting began with the district’s attorney, Daniel Shinoff, outlining a process in which an ad hoc committee might be composed of the board president, vice president, and the mayors of Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, and National City. Following a review of applications, the ad hoc committee would interview candidates and forward prospects to the board. Public comment would be integrated into the process.

Trust in the district is so low that many speakers argued against anyone in the district office handling the applications; some suggested that all applications pass through the attorney’s office.

Lopez, a consistent critic of schools superintendent Ed Brand, argued that she was neither president nor vice president, so the proposed process excluded her. She suggested an alternative selection process that had been used by Southwestern College, one that she felt was more inclusive of all stakeholders.

The twist in the evening came when McCann called for a special election —which he said he favored in the interest of democracy. When McCann campaigned in 2010, his website declared that he “stands for Fiscal Responsibility” and that he “will require a balanced budget for the District and ensure that District Bond money is spent wisely.”

McCann’s insistence on a costly vote seemed inconsistent — and foreshadowed the direction and possibly the way the replacement process will go.

The district must fill the seat within 60 days from the time of Ricasa’s resignation — they are already 27 days into the countdown. There are only two choices: get a selection process going or hold a special election.

A special election would cost more than a million dollars for a position that would last less than a year. Former chief financial officer Albert Alt and former interim CFO Rick Knott have expressed concern about the district’s continued deficit-spending.

On the heels of McCann’s statement, Cartmill stated that it was obvious that three votes could not be attained for a selection process. He appeared to be shepherding the dais to option two: a special election.

But before Cartmill could close the discussion, Lopez stated she felt “cheated.” She said that the district knew beforehand that Quiñones would not be attending the meeting; why had they not made every effort to arrange for Quiñones to weigh in via Skype or telephone, she asked.

Then the meeting teetered out of control, with the attendees calling for a vote, for clarification, and for a process.

Cartmill made a motion in favor of the process Shinoff had outlined but warned the other trustees that only a dissenting voter could ever return this proposal to the board. The motion died for lack of a second.

Finally, Lopez urged that the board make every effort to reach Quiñones by Friday and find out if there is a way she can participate. Lopez said a special election would rob the district of resources needed for the students.

The district has until February 17 to fill the seat. Ricasa pleaded out exactly 60 days before the corruption trial is due to start. Curious timing, according to some.

Stakes are high for the vacant seat and possibly highest for Brand.

School superintendents often move their agendas forward by relying on the vote of three trustees. Sweetwater superintendent Ed Brand has enjoyed the fairly consistent support of trustees Jim Cartmill, John McCann, and Arlie Ricasa.

In September 2011, Brand told the Reader that his staying on as superintendent is conditional. He said: “If it ever gets to the point that they stop accepting my recommendations, then the good news from my perspective is, I have the wherewithal to say, ‘Thanks, it’s been fun.’”