By Robert Haugh
Last month, the Santa Clara Unified School Board Trustees voted to give disgraced former Santa Clara City Councilmember Dominic Caserta a generous severance package to drop his lawsuit against the district.
Caserta was a Santa Clara High School teacher. He sued the District because he alleges that his personnel file was leaked when stories came out about numerous female students accusing him of sexual misconduct and harassment.
At the time, Caserta was running for County Supervisor in 2018 but had to resign from the City Council and dropped out of the Supervisorial race.
Board Chair Vickie Fairchild announced the settlement last month. But she would not disclose the vote that happened on October 15, 2024. She would only say that it was 4-1.
Trustee Albert Gonzalez (also a City Council candidate) would not disclose his vote when contacted by Santa Clara News Online for an October 18, 2024 story. In that story, SCNO cited the Government Code that requires the District to disclose its vote for the sake of transparency.
After the October 18 story, SCNO reader James Rowen filed a “cure and correct” demand letter with the district, using the SCNO information about the Government Code.
Rowen effectively forced the Trustees to be transparent and publicly disclose their votes.
Here’s an excerpt from the district’s response letter to Rowen that’s dated November 4, 2024:
So Gonzalez voted yes to giving Caserta a generous and controversial settlement package.
So did Fairchild, Bonnie Lieberman, and Jodi Muirhead.
Michele Ryan voted against it. Jim Canova and Andy Ratermann were absent.
The Trustees gave Caserta $1.6 million and paid health care until he reaches the age of 65.
But maybe the most controversial part of Caserta’s package is the “neutral reference” from the district. That means Caserta could apply for another job involving young females and SCUSD will not be able to disclose Caserta’s history.
Satish “Sunny” Chandra, a candidate running against Gonzalez for City Council in District One, weighed in on the disclosure.
Chandra said he would not agree to any type of neutral reference for Caserta.
“As a Trustee, Albert Gonzalez has a responsibility to protect the young women in the Santa Clara Unified School District and other districts, too,” Chandra said.
Editor’s Note: Today is Election Day. Polls are open until 8 p.m. Here’s a link to Santa Clara polling sites and drop box locations.
According to media websites, approximately 50 percent of the expected vote was cast by yesterday. So a lot of people still have to make it to the polls.
[…] SCNO previously reported, in 2024, the school board approved a 4-1 deal to give Caserta about $1.6 million plus health […]
The corruption is absurd. Why wasn’t he charged with a crime when there were complaints by several girls? There is something seriously wrong with this picture. Instead of jail time, he gets a nice big payday because his rights were violated? What about the girls he allegedly violated? Why the hush hush on that?? Unfrickenbelievable.
Gee! Caserta is loyal to the 49ers. Is Albert already approving Jed’s payback requests?
First, a big thank you to James Rowen for holding the school board publicly accountable when Vicki Fairchild was in hiding and creating diversions by accusing our Mayor of yelling at her on a phone call. She went so far as to verbally attack her in an open council meeting knowing she could not respond and then posted it again on Nextdoor only to shut off comments when she didn’t like what she was hearing. This is a violation of the first amendment as a public official cannot block people or stop comments as she did. Amazingly, the post went away off Nextdoor as I’m betting they saw the same issue with her actions. As much as Suds comments on this I’m beginning to believe that he was in on this attack on the Mayor with her.
Also seems like she was trying to protect Albert being outed for his vote on this so close to the election. They have issues with integrity at SCUSD and it cost them a lot of OUR money and a creep that should be no where near any of our kids got a sweet deal as a result. Remember all these names when they are up for election and kick them out.
Suds also mentions false accusations against Becker, this coming from a person who is supposedly representing Santa Clara residents but did not find it important enough to say anything until he was in front of a grand jury about Becker releasing a civil grand jury report to the 49ers in an attempt to use it against our Mayor just prior to the 2022 election.
Who is this local Hero named James Rowen?
Sounds like this guy should run for office!
Mr. Rowan, Thank You for getting to the bottom of this, even if the bottom is really dirty, murky, green, and smells like goose poop.
Needless to say, this all looks very suspicious.
Where was the benefit to the residents in not to disclosing the actual vote?
How did this even remotely sound like a good idea? Transparency should be the goal. Trusting your elected officials to do what is best for the people who elect them should be the bare minimum.
So what was the motive???
As they say in every detective show, “You just have to follow the money.”
Another disgusting saying also might be true here.
“Birds of a Feather, flock together”.
Hopefully today we will fix our City Government.
When do we fix our local Santa Clara School Board?
This topic deserves our 100% attention. I don’t know all that is going on, but some questions need to be addressed.
New City Council?
New School Board?
Why not?
What is our Cities saying?
Answer is “The Center of what’s possible”.
Let’s hope at the end of today, our Mayor can have people she can work with to help bring the City back to us, the Residents.
If not I know many of us did all we could to help fix a wrong.
Burt Field
Why,???
Why do I do what do??
PUBLIC DECISIONS MUST BE MADE IN PUBLIC.
i was happy to read and research my idea for a novel abpuy an epic quest for the Holy Grail. (150 bools assembled(. I was happy to learn how to walk again.
But 67 secret meetings changed my mind
I will speak up for an ethics commission.
I will file cpras and cure and correct notes day after day.
I bured two great parents who watched council meetings and file brown act suits for the public right to know.
I dislike all IEs. But if York is spending 4 million then I will support poa and related answering back. Best wsy to curb IEs is to have. Jain made Haugh poserful. You want to reduce influence of outside bloggers then conduct your affairs in public. If you want to stop factions. Stop meeting at 4949 three at tine. Full ethics commission will redo the balance. Public officisls meet in public
No surprise CSC has no comment here – the Singer team was NOT prepared for the bomb that James Rowen dropped!!! Admirable work JR.
Has Jain finally moved from reality?
A cure and correct is standard.
Suds “government is secret” jain
The SCUSD doesn’t mind throwing our money around. What a waste.
Jain seems divorced from reality
I wonder if Kathy Watanabe would feel free to disclose closed session information from School Board meetings as seems to be the pattern of Lisa Gillmor — FIFA costs and false accusations against Anthony Becker. I’m sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Gillmor screamed at Vickie Fairchild when Vickie wouldn’t release closed session info.
I looked at Gillmor’s public calendar with POA president Jeremy Schmidt and with Firefighters Union president Anthony Pascoal between Feb 2016 and Sept 2024. I can find only 3 meetings with Anthony Pascoal on 3/9/2021, 2/3/2021, 2/28/2019 but when I was discussing the Infrastructure Bond with Anthony, he said that he had discussed the bond with Gillmor when she decided that $400M was better than $600M. I can find only ONE meeting listed with Jeremy Schmidt on 5/26/2022. I have listed even more meetings with Schmidt on my calendar.
Then I searched for meetings with Steve Eimer, from Related. I found 39 meetings but the topics discussed have not been listed nor can I find any minutes from any of the non-public meetings. How many other “secret” meetings does Gillmor have that she doesn’t list on her public calendar? I wonder why the Grand Jury didn’t look into those meetings with Related.
I mention this because POA, Firefighters and Related have spent more than Gillmor’s candidates on elections. Santa Clara pays $65 million more on public safety than Sunnyvale. Why?
And this is why you’re gonna lose. Keep pointing fingers at others instead of being accountable for your actions.
Is it 8 pm yet?
Suds, just go away. Your constant ruminations and machinations are obsessive and delusional. You are one of the worst and dishonest council members in the history of Santa Clara.
I was walking my dog outside City Hall this morning. I found a tin foil hat in the parking lot next to Suds Jain parking spot. Does anyone know how I can return it to him?
You’re on the city council and approved the budget. Glad after today you’ll be gone from office.
Dear Dog Walker,
This link features a photo of Suds Jain’s office wall. You can return the hat there:
https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/conspiracy-theories-and-human-psychology
Always deflecting, by trying to throw others under the bus. Only those who actually have something to hide do so. The obsession with the Mayor is extremely odd and creepy.
If you have so much hate towards public safety, why do you so badly want their endorsements? Or better yet, why do you act as if you’ve received their endorsements when you would NEVER get them? Posing in front of engines among other weird acts, such an embarrassment.
Vote NO on Gonzalez for City Council!
Time for change on the school board!
Shame, Shame, Shame