| P E Y T O N W O L C O T T |
| THE AG AND THE DA: TAKING A GOOD LOOK AT GCOE & SAMPLES |
| TRACKING THE 'YUMMY GOOD LUCK ANGEL' THROUGH GCOE |
| CALIFORNIA'S ATT'Y GENERAL INVESTIGATES GCOE SUPE SAMPLES By Peyton Wolcott - Oct. 12, 2006/1 am |
| Canto Del Sol (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico) - Site of GCOE supe's English-immersion training. |
| Sacramento Valley Mirror publisher Tim Crews confirmed this past week that the California Attorney General’s Office is investiga- ting the Glenn County Office of Education and GCOE supe Joni Samples. Glenn County's Office of Education is located in Willows, California, near Chico. |
| INTEROFFICE MAIL, GCOE (ANYTHING GOES) STYLE ? By Peyton Wolcott Oct. 11, 2006/11 pm |
| About the Glenn County Office of Education - www.glenncoe.org Glenn County Office of Education provides administrative, community and educational services in a variety of areas: Business Services Child & Family Services Facilities Human Resources Information Technology Library / Media Center Senior Nutrition Student Services |
| California Att'y General Bill Lockyer |
| "Is this appropriate on school computers?" asks Sacramento Valley Mirror publisher Tim Crews of the heavily edited photo above. One clue might be the caption accompanying the photo: "You've been tagged by the 'Yummy' Good Luck Angel!" Writes Crews, "Certainly acceptable on private computers and perhaps some very loose business environments, but pictures of naked people are frowned on when housed in public computers." Especially those belonging to public school districts and offices of education. |
| Crews, secretary of the board of directors of California Aware, the Center for Public Forum Rights, filed a series of public records requests which led to uncovering questionable circumstances and practices within the Glenn County Office of Education. According to Crews, Jo Graves, Chief Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Law Division, has disclosed that Mike Farrell, senior attorney in her division, will handle the case, assisted by investigator Chuck French. |
| Graves "has con- firmed that Depart- ment of Justice investigators are looking at Samples’ travel, the use of GCOE credit cards, election issues, destruction of records and labor issues," said Crews, adding, "this news comes at a time when GCOE has slammed the door on public inquiry, while planting favorable stories in friendly papers and shutting out critics." |
| He also points out that "many major compan- ies scrutinize the contents of employees’ e-mails, one, to prevent objectionable material, and, two, to get a measure of how much times is wasted 'surfing' or chatting." |
| Biography for superintendent Joni (pronounced "Johnny") Samples DR. JONI SAMPLES (530) 934-6575 Ext. 20 Affectionately known as “Dr. Joni,” our Superintendent is a renowned parent involvement expert. She is the author of Taking the Guesswork Out of School Success: A Standards Approach (2004). She leads parent involvement workshops throughout the state and writes a column for three local newspapers, where she shares her expertise through stories, humor and wisdom gained from her years in education and as a parent of four children. She is Past President of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) and was recognized by them as the California County Superintendent of the Year in 2003-2004. County Superintendent is an elected office. Dr. Joni has been the Superintendent since 1995. Her term expires in 2006. |
| Joni Samples (R), Tim Crews (AP photo) |
| Tracking the Yummy Good Luck Angel through GCOE Through public records searches, Crews has turned up the following: "On Monday, March 27, 2006, at 4:29 p.m., [GCOE employee Coleen] Parker forwarded the file she received before work that day from Kathryn Hood of GCOE, who had sent it to Mrs. Parker and a number of colleagues: Elizabeth Kelly; Gloria Carcione; Joy Amaro; Kristin Roe; Mary Ann Hagan; Nadine Viet; Sierra Grossman; Vicki Taylor." And, last but not least, Parker sent it to her future mother-in-law, GCOE supe Joni Samples. |
| Would District Att'y Holzapfel really "take care" of Joni? "Was the fix in, or did Joni Samples just think it was in?" asked Crews. "Several people heard the voice mail of Aug. 14 in which the Glenn County Superintendent of Schools says that her attorney is 'also calling Bob Holzapfel and he’ll take care of whatever we need,'” said Crews, noting this statement is in the second paragraph of a transatlantic telephone call ordering the delay of California Public Records Act releases |
| The ties that bind 1. The name of the district attorney looking into the Glenn County Office of Education and its supe Joni Samples is Robert Holzapfel. Robert Holzapfel's wife Judy Holzapfel, P.H.N., is a health services specialist and Local Educational Consortium coordinator for Medi-Cal Administrative Activities for California's Region 2 (Northeastern) encompassing Siskiyou, Modoc, Trinity, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama, Plumas, Butte and Glenn Counties--at the Glenn County Office of Education. 2. Coleen Parker is running for Joni Sample's office. Coleen is employed by GCOE as director of adult education and literacy programs at Glenn County Office of Education; she is also an alternate commissioner. Coleen is also the daughter of Joni Samples' fiance Bob Parker. |
| CALIFORNIA PUBLISHER TIM CREWS UNCOVERS $244,000 ON GCOE CREDIT CARDS BY SUPE JONI SAMPLES & STAFF By Peyton Wolcott - Sept. 21, 2006 - Updated Mon., March 12, 2007 - 1 am |
| A series of public records searches have led to the Sacramento Valley Mirror's publisher and editor Tim Crews' unprecedented look into the operations and actions of a county school district and its elected superintendent, Joni Samples of the Glenn County Office of Education. While administrators tell us again and again that it's "all about the children," again and again their actions would appear to belie their words. Here's an email Samples typed last summer on a district-owned laptop and sent to herself on a district email service while visiting Puerto Vallarta as part of an English-immersion training at the El Famoso Instituto de Espanol; Glenn County locals have questioned the value for Glenn County's students of Samples' attendance at such an institute given that the trip occurred only six months before her term of office ended, plus given that Samples had already announced that she would not run for office again. [Email above right in pink boxes] |
| THE CONTRA COSTER 32nd District PTA MARCH 29, 6:30 PM, GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING Please join us at this marvelous opportunity to network and hear from dynamic parent involvement expert and author, Dr. Joni Samples, Glenn County Superintendent of Schools. "Parent Involvement: From Homework Help to Leadership Roles." 7:15 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Joni Samples, Glenn County Superintendent of Schools Meeting location: Contra Costa Office of Education Joseph A. Ovick, Ed.D. |
| 6/25/06: I am sitting in this gorgeous location in Puerto Vallarta [Canto Del Sol]. I don’t want to go to the pool. I’ m not into pools. I like looking at the beach, but I’m not into sitting on the beach with all the sand. I went to walk through the stores and watch the people. I like that. |
| Canto Del Sol, Puerto Vallarta |
| This is still working. I can’t shut my head off to play when I’m still working and taking this class is still working. I can shut it off when I get back for a few days. Then when I leave for a week I can really shut it off because it will truly be vacation, but I can’t do that here. |
| I’m still doing deals and thinking about the office and my books deals. I need to call **** and set up the prining [sic]. I wonder how long it will take him to print books I think I’m only going to do English right now. I won’t need more Punjabi. I will need some Spanish, but I should have enough unless the schools are |
"I’ve just sold $75,000 worth of books and training." |
| Joni Samples |
| That could change, but I don’t care about the parties and the craziness. I like what I do. I am accepting what I do as just fine for me. Bob is a great match for me. He likes to do what I like, but will let me do the other stuff too. I don’t have to run off to work everyday with him. I can stay and write and enjoy my writing and let go of all the old stuff. |
| Canto Del Sol diners |
| People here just like to party. He likes to work often enough that he gets some big stuff done, but still take time to enjoy people, especially family, and traveling. I like the traveling and people as well as other things we do. |
| Poor Joe. I could easily have ended up with Joe [Contra Costa County supe Joe Ovick, below]. He likes me. I know he does, but he’s very married. I would make a great compliment to him as well as being a good wife for a senator. Joe was my mainstay for getting through all of this. I figured we’ d work things out eventually. ****’s cancer has kept us close, but sort of like Lancelot-just out of reach and rightfully so. She’s a wonderful lady and I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. He wouldn’t either, but I think we both probably thought that might work for us. I didn’t expect Bob to come along and sweep me off my feet. Certainly Joe is more good looking and healthier or so I think, but I know he doesn’t have the resources Bob does and he’s certainly more inhibited that [sic] Bob. Just a couple conversations let me know that. I don’t want inhibition right now. Right now I want free and easy. That’s not what I’ve know [sic], but I like it. Bob doesn’t drink and Joe does. We still have to go through some surgery for Bob, but Joe has to deal with **** and her needs for a while longer. God I know you’ll work this out just like it’s supposed to be. It’s up to you. |
| Canto Del Sol pool |
| I can also depend on him to take care of my financial needs. That’s a first. I sure haven’t had that before. Usually I have to take care of it all. This is a real treat to sit at the window and watch the beautiful scenery and write. I don’t have my writing down yet, but I will. I could sit for hours and do this. I’m not distracted by the view, it’s soothing and pleasant and I can write and think and play in my head. I’d rather play in my head than play outside it. I wonder what Bob is doing today. Maybe the grandkids came over. If ***** or **** came over they’d want to know about taking me to the airport. ****** will have all kinds of things to say. |
"Funny this is not vacation." |
| It’s sprinkling a bit. That’s okay with me. I like the rain and everything here is so green, it has to rain some to get it that way. |
How we take back our children's education: one person, one question, one school at a time. |
| FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of education issues vital to a republic. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., Chapter 1, Section 107 which states: the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright," the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use" you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
| ATTENTION EDUCATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS: Every attempt possible has been made to verify all sources and information. In the event you feel an error has been made, please contact us immediately. Thank you. |
| Copyright 1999-2009 Peyton Wolcott |
| Then-GCOE supe Joni Samples' emails to herself from Puerto Vallarta She sold '$75,000 worth' of her personal books & training on taxpayer-funded jaunt to Mexico By Peyton Wolcott Copyright 2007 Mon., Mar. 12, 2007 - 1 am |
| When you use a county-owned laptop and send yourself what appears to be a stream- of-unconsciousness email using your office email service, your email becomes a public record. The following is an excerpt from such an email Joni Samples sent to herself while visiting Puerto Vallarta as part of an English-immersion training at the El Famoso Instituto de Espanol: |
| Glenn County locals have questioned the value for Glenn County's students of Samples' attendance at such an institute as the one described at right in Puerto Vallarta given that the trip occurred only six months before her term of office ended, plus given that Samples had already announced that she would not run for office again. |
| Judge Byrd dismisses GCBE actions v. Mirror By Tim Crews Sacramento Valley Mirror March 3, 2007 Willows—A decidedly grumpy Superior Court Judge Don Byrd yesterday dismissed the counter actions against this newspaper. In the complex aftermath of the Sacramento lawsuit against the Glenn County Office of Education, the Glenn County Board of Education refused to join in a settlement, a victory for the newspaper — and for access to public information. The board, a somnambulating beast awakened when Arturo Barrera took office as the new Glenn County Schools Superintendent, tried to drag to unresolved matters. They mumbled about “enforcing a temporary restraining order” when none was issued. (One of the several judges involved, Judge Golden said that GCOE attorneys needed to describe the behavior they wanted prevented. And that would all boil down to prior restraint.) The board seemed to want the MIRROR punished for revealing embarrassing things about GCOE, misspending, destruction of records and the like. In the end Judge Byrd told the new GCOE attorneys that if GCOE wanted an injunction, they’d have to file it. And that way lies a great peril: Prior restraint. The board seemed crestfallen. MIRROR attorney Paul Boylan observes, "I have been working with the California Public Records Act for years advising public agencies on how to respond to requests for public records. When I agreed to represent the MIRROR, I really believed that I could negotiate an agreement where the MIRROR received the information it asked for and the GCOE privacy and confidentiality interests could be met. That is the way 99.9 percent of public records disputes are resolved. But not this one. After six months of |
| The real deal about public records: Generally & specifically By Peyton Wolcott - Monday, March 12, 2007 - 2:17 am Updated Thurs., Mar. 15, 2007 - 5 am |
| Tim Crews (PHOTO/AP) |
| To speak with any credibility about goings on in your local schools, you've got to have hard facts to back up what you say. The quickest and surest way to get hard facts is to file public records requests as we generally are not |
| able to count on information from either our local schools or our local news- papers for reliable information beyond sports scores. One notable exception Publisher Tim Crews at the award- winning Sacramento Valley Mirror has worked tirelessly and fearlessly this past year to expose goings-on in the Glenn County Office of Education, including GCOE credit card expenditures. $244,000 Via a series of increasingly contested public records searches, Crews found charges by then-GCOE supe Joni Samples and her staffers amounting to at least $244,000; items included Samples' travel such as trips to Texas which although financed by GCOE taxpayers appear to have been linked to promoting her book, "Taking the Guesswork Out of School Success." There was also the trip to Puerto Vallarta with the stream-of- unconsciousness email from Joni to Joni using her GCOE laptop and the GCOE email service. (See pink boxes at far right.) While Crews faces the same economic pressures other small-town presses do to publish only the "good" news about local public education, he has stood strong against those pressures despite arson during the height of his investigation in the building next door. Fortunately, this time, the good guys have won: |
| Here's The San Francisco Chronicle's article on Tim Crews; it makes clear the power of the individual -- especially a committed investigative journalist -- to improve a hometown |
| Small-town journalist makes big-time impact on Central Valley community Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, March 19, 2007 / (03-19) 04:00 PDT(Pge A-1) |
| Willows, Glenn County -- Tim Crews looks like a jolly fellow, with his thick white beard, suspenders and jiggling belly, but many Glenn County officials probably see his rosy visage in their nightmares. The 63-year-old owner, editor, reporter and editorial voice of the Sacramento Valley Mirror has a habit of sticking his nose where it isn't wanted. He has written exposes that have infuriated politicians, law enforcement officials, jailers, educators and developers. He has, in short, yanked the cloak of secrecy off Glenn County bureaucracy. "We're s -- disturbers. It's what a small county needs," said the bespectacled editor as he sat at his cluttered desk in his office, fielding calls and listening to a police scanner. "It is really important for a place like this to have somebody hold up a mirror." The kind of scrappy journalism Crews does may become harder to find if current media trends continue. With classified advertising usurped by the Internet, newspapers across the country are facing mounting losses and, in many cases, cuts in staff and resources. First Amendment scholars fear that investigative journalism may die as newsprint fades away. Crews won't have any of it. He is a country editor whose little paper is influencing public opinion on a shoestring budget. A maverick, old-school muckraker, Crews is notorious in this rural farming community of 6,220 people and the governmental center of Glenn County. In 2000, he was jailed for five days after refusing to name his sources for a story about a former California Highway Patrol officer charged with stealing a gun, a case that received national attention. Depending on who is talking, his financially strapped newspaper is either a beacon of journalistic integrity or an unsavory scandal sheet run by a scoundrel. "I would prefer a little bit of the good news for a change rather than the dirty laundry all the time," said Forrest Sprague, a local developer and former county supervisor, echoing a common lament. "We all know that controversy sells newspapers. The sad part is that local newspapers can fall into that trap of yellow journalism." Despite the criticism, the twice-weekly Mirror is surprisingly influential for a paper with a circulation of 2,944. Almost everybody in the community reads it, more than pick up the Willows Journal and Orland Press Register, which have a combined circulation of 2,122 and are distributed twice a week by the Tri Counties Newspapers chain. The Mirror is, readers insist, the most comprehensive source of information for the citizens of Glenn County, a historic agricultural county formed in 1891. Some 30 percent of the 27,000 people in Glenn County are Latino, and many people live in virtual poverty. The median income for a household in the county is $32,107, according to the 2000 census. Crews has written about farms and businesses failing, more children dropping out of school and the rising illiteracy rate. He has documented the slow deterioration of the downtowns in Willows and other Glenn County communities and lamented the movement of people to other places, such as Chico, in neighboring Butte County. He has castigated officials for taking years to build a promised soccer field for Latinos and pushed for the construction of an Indian casino as a way to revitalize the community. "The function of newspapers is that by reporting the truth we will make you better," he said. "When I came here, there were twice as many hardware stores, there were music stores, a department store. Half of it is gone. I care a lot about this community, and want to make it better." For his efforts, he has been snubbed and threatened, and seen advertising pulled and his beloved dog die in 2004, apparently with poisoned meat that he believes was left by an angry sex offender he named in the paper. An arson fire was set recently in an office adjacent to his newspaper. There have been several attempts to silence Crews, but he has moles virtually everywhere, and the plots themselves invariably end up in print. The most infamous involved a series of hard-hitting stories last year about Joni Samples, then the superintendent of the County Office of Education. The stories detailed Samples' alleged use of county resources for vacations, personal speaking engagements and financial deals with friends. Crews accused her of campaigning at work for her chosen successor, using the office computer for private business and trying to cover it up. Samples and her colleagues got so fed up that they held a brainstorming session on how to shut Crews up, according to statements in the Mirror from people who were there. "How do we quiet the lion?" screamed the front-page headline shortly after the closed-door session. It was a direct quote from an assistant superintendent as she kibitzed with Samples and other officials. "The public records act has been broken, individual constitutional rights violated, thousands of dollars of taxpayer money spent on controlling a political scandal," Crews wrote. "And now they want to 'quiet the lion,' or, put more plainly, silence this newspaper." The California Department of Justice is looking into some of the allegations in the Mirror. "We've been investigating allegations of wrongdoing involving the Glenn County Office of Education for several months now," said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for the California attorney general. "I know there has been a lot of reporting there on the subject." Samples has denied any wrongdoing and defended her 40-year record as an educator. She said she could not comment about the allegations because of pending court proceedings, but her supporters have characterized the articles as a smear campaign fueled by wild exaggerations. "I loved education. I still do," said Samples, whose chosen successor was defeated by the man Crews supported after she announced she would step down in January. Born in Aberdeen, Wash., Crews grew up in Olympia. He spent three years in the Marine Corps and, after his discharge in 1963, enrolled in Central Washington State University. He was a bit too rebellious to get a degree and instead worked for a logging company and a steel mill, and also did commercial fishing. He got his first newspaper job in the mid-1970s with the Santa Barbara News & Review. He worked for publications in Texas and Colorado before moving back to Washington in the early 1980s, where he wrote for two newspapers. After a stint as a documents expert at Boeing, he went to the Middle East as a freelance writer. Crews returned to California in 1988, and a year later he was hired as general manager and editor of the Tri Counties Newspapers, covering Willows and Orland. Soon after that, he heard that certain officials had been issued concealed-weapons permits, so he published a list of several questionable permits issued by the county. That infuriated the sheriff and other law enforcement officials, who, with political supporters, met with the publisher and demanded that Crews be fired. When the publisher sided with the sheriff, "I said screw these people," Crews said. He got a divorce, his fourth, and with $35 in his pocket started the Mirror out of a motel in the hamlet of Artois. The first issue came out on Christmas Eve 1991. The paper recently moved to Willows. He has won numerous journalism, photography and press-freedom awards, including the Bill Farr Freedom of Information Award from the California First Amendment Coalition and the California Society of Newspaper Editors. Still, critics claim Crews mixes his opinions so liberally with the facts that it is impossible to decipher the truth. "Frankly, I can't rely on stories he's written as being factual," said Denny Bungarz, a former county supervisor, who gave several examples of how he believes Crews jumped to conclusions about county actions before he knew all the facts. Even some of Crews' supporters acknowledge that his prose often reflects his point of view. "He's an excellent writer, almost a novelist, if you get my drift," said Roy McFarland, a retired judge. "He can take an incident and make it pretty big." But Jim Bettencourt, a landscape contractor and former Glenn County supervisorial candidate, said Crews' aggressive reporting has kept the public involved in government. "Tim is the conscience of our community," said Bettencourt, who, like many locals, regularly stops by Crews' dusty office. "He addresses issues that others choose not to. He has empowered the downtrodden and instilled fear in the majority of the old guard in this community." ----------------------------------------------------------- Sacramento Valley Mirror online To see what Tim Crews is writing about, read the Sacramento Valley Mirror online at www.valleymirror.us. E-mail Peter Fimrite at pfimrite@sfchronicle.com. |
| Status of California Attorney General's investigation of former GCOE supe Joni Samples Wed., Oct. 10, 2007 By Peyton Wolcott California AG Jerry Brown's media guy, Gareth Lacy, has not yet responded to queries with a status update. In all fairness to Brown's former deputy campaign manager, Lacy may still be busy dodging questions regarding Brown contributor Norman Hsu. On the other hand, we note the following from Samples' GCOE official bio: |
| the nastiest litigation I have ever been part of, I still don't understand why the GCOE fought so hard to keep these records secret. Why pay four different law firms so much money to keep so little secret? It just doesn't make any sense. "This should have been an uncomplicated, straight forward court proceeding. The court was going to decide a very simple question: Did the GCOE reasons for keeping documents secret outweigh the public's interest in that same information and the public's right to know? If yes, then the GCOE would have won. If no, then the MIRROR would have won. Simple. But the case got complicated when the GCOE attorneys — the ones hired to handle all of the MIRROR's requests — gave the MIRROR huge amounts of student and personnel information that the MIRROR didn't ask for. “How on earth did such an incredible mistake happen? These were the experts hired to stop exactly the sort of thing that they ended up doing. It makes no sense. But then the case got even more complicated when the GCOE tried to get that information back — as if that was even possible — and wanted the court to order the MIRROR not to report on the information the GCOE attorneys gave the MIRROR. “They knew or should have known that the MIRROR would not cooperate with any attempt to compromise its First Amendment rights to get the news and report the news," Mr. Boylan points out. Last year, then-Superintendent Joni Samples appointed a Sacramento attorney as a public records chief, and an expensive one at that. Mark Ellis released a disc to the MIRROR that continued seven years with of special education e-mails. The e-mails were supposed to have been swept clean of confidential information. They weren’t. We later learned that the attorneys couldn’t f figure out how to open them. So they were tossed in a box with spending records. And even later GCOE lawyers were supposed to have gone back and produced “clean” versions for us. They never did. The MIRROR reported that instead of protecting confidential information, the lawyer had negligently released it. And then we did a story on the failure of special education management to report suspected child abuse, a story with fictionalized names and the special education children protected, Mr. Ellis sought to have us punished. For his error. We had earlier turned over the discs, in a stipulated agreement we entered into most reluctantly. We did not agree to turn over our hard drives. Friday, Judge Byrd scolded both sides and complained about the complex litigation but congratulated both sides for an agreement. With Mr. Ellis appearing by telephone, Judge Byrd reviewed matters, noted that Mr. Ellis had filed for a TRO and “I denied that request.” He asked what GCBE wanted and Donald Anthony Velez Jr ., of Miller Brown & Dannis suggested that the information be eliminated from the MIRROR’s computers, perhaps by the appointment of a “tech savvy” referee. Judge Byrd waved that off, grumbled a bit more and said he was returning the cart load of records and discs to GCOE. The Mirror obtained the information legally. We retain it. Mr. Boylan notes, "We tried to end this nonsense - this huge waste of time and money. The MIRROR offered to settle many times. It didn't do any good. But then Superintendent Barrera fired his attorneys and negotiated an agreement that gave the MIRROR the records the MIRROR asked for in exchange for dismissing the Brown Act and the public records claims against the GCOE and the Board. We thought it was over. The issue of those confidential records - the ones the GCOE's attorney's gave to the MIRROR - was still out there. And no one seemed to know what to do about it. "Judge Byrd solved that problem. He is an excellent judge. He did for the parties what the parties could not do for themselves — he ended the case by dismissing the actions against the MIRROR. I am grateful." # # # |
| She is Past President of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) and was recognized by them as the California County Superintendent of the Year in 2003- 2004. |
| Given the tendency of such groups to circle the wagons and protect their own, wondering if General Brown has bowed to CCSESA lobbyists and quietly filed this investigation under "Allow to Die a Quiet Death Away from Public Scrutiny." We'll keep you posted. |
H o w w e t a k e b a c k o u r c h i l d r e n ' s e d u c a t i o n : o n e p e r s o n , o n e q u e s t i o n , o n e s c h o o l a t a t i m e .
| [EXCERPT FROM JONI SAMPLES' BLOG ENTRIES ON GCOE-OWNED LAPTOP USING GCOE-SOFTWARE WHILE IN MEXICO ON TAXPAYER-FUNDED TRIP AT WHICH SHE SOLD $75,000 OF PERSONAL MERCHANDISE] |
| Publisher Tim Crews, 'conscience of the community,' honored by California Newspaper Publishers Association By Peyton Wolcott Friday, October 31, 2008 - 6:04 a.m. |
| Valley Mirror Publisher Tim Crews raises the hand of Willie Olivarez, in new duds, on his release from the Glenn County Jail where he was kept in virtual solitary confinement for weeks. (PHOTO--ValleyMirror) |
| They say character is what you do when no one's looking. If this is true, Sacramento Valley Mirror publisher Tim Crews has plenty. |
| In addition to bringing public scrutiny to the local county office of education for the first time -- never a pleasant pursuit for anyone involved -- he also chose to take on an injustice being done to one of his area's most modest residents, an elderly indigent mentally retarded man, Willie Ollivarez who had been placed in solitary confinement in the local jail. Making a difference As Tim will tell you, a decade or two ago getting to look at public records in Glenn County, California was a rare and unique event, one likely to land requesters in jail. But then, Tim's from the old school of journalist who works every day because he has a passion for truth and is willing to spend time in jail to protect a confidential source. Read all about it along with a description of the award: |
| Mirror honored for Investigative Journalism, Freedom of Information Valley Mirror reports October 26, 2008 Sacramento Valley Mirror Editor and Publisher Tim Crews was among those honored in Los Angeles Saturday at the California Newspaper Publishers' Association 2008 Better Newspapers Contest. The MIRROR took first place in its division for Investigative/Enterprise Reporting and first place in the Freedom of Information category. The MIRROR was honored for stories that resulted in getting a developmentally disabled elderly man sprung from jail after more than 40 days in solitary confinement. Here’s a bit of one of the stories explaining the plight of Mr. Olivarez: |
| One needn't travel to Third World prisons to find human rights abuses. Consider the case of Willie Olivarez. Elderly and infirm, Willie Olivarez has been in solitary confinement since he was jailed Jan. 26 on charges involving pointing a BB gun at a neighbor. Willie Olivarez, 71, has the mental capacity of a five- year-old, has Alzheimer's- like dementia and a severe infection in both his legs. “And all day long in his isolation cell, where there is no television, no toys, no picture books, Willie Olivarez rocks and chants. And sleeps. He is, in fact, being punished for being developmentally disabled. The cell is perhaps six feet by 10 feet. The concrete blocks are painted a seasick yellow. He sleeps on the floor, his head resting on a folded blanket. He rejected a cot. Willie Olivarez has been deemed incompetent to be tried for a crime that's deemed most questionable — he can’t have the ability to form criminal intent — and could have been released long ago, says the district attorney, if the Glenn County Health Department had gotten off the dime. His court-appointed attorney didn’t raise an eyebrow, let alone his voice, when the disabled man signed away his rights in court. He can sign his name but cannot read. “When these awards come in,” Mr. Crews said last night, “it is vital that people understand that this is a group effort. There’s a lot of folks working incredible hours to put out a newspa- per. This is especially difficult in a chronically crippled economy and in a time when many people really don’t know how the system works. It is our job to reflect, to tell the stories that make a difference. |
| Freedom of Information The FOI award for all weeklies and twice- weeklies of 11,000 and under, was for lawsuits against government secrecy and coverage of campaigns prying information from Glenn County and the Glenn County Office of Education. The MIRROR was represented in these drives in court by Paul Nicholas Boylan of Davis. Mr. Crews said yesterday, “This honor is for our whole team, and especially Mr. Boylan. Without his help we’d still be getting stiff- armed by government attorneys and, in the case of GCOE, we’d perhaps have done time for violation of a non-existent court order.” He noted that the access to government information is vital to an open society. Thousands of entries for dailies and weeklies were winnowed to finalists. The winners were judged and announced by the a select national panel comprising: Chris Peck, Editor, Memphis Commercial- Appeal Maura Casey, Editorial Writer, The ew York Times Dave Offer, Retired Editor, Augusta & Waterville, Maine Newspapers Barbara King, Publisher, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland Suki Dardarian, News Managing Editor, The Seattle Times Jack Ronald, Editor & Publisher, The Commercial Review, Portland, In. Deanna Sands, Retired Managing Editor, Omaha World-Herald David Hawpe, Editorial Director, Louisville Courier-Journal Reid Maccluggage, Retired Editor, The Day, New London, Ct. |
| Samples' admission that she transacted personal business on taxpayer-funded junket |
| I will be in places like this to visit and train and give keynote speeches if I want. I can be in places to write and enjoy. I can go with Bob [fiance Bob Parker] all over the country and see places and talk to people and write and present. Bob can go or not. That will be up to him. Sometimes he will go and sometimes, like this one, he won’t. he doesn’t seem to want to go out of the country much. I like going out of the country to see places like this, but I enjoy sitting here and watching and writing right now. |
| predominately Spanish speaking. I hop [sic] we can do this without a lot of problem. [sic] I need to set up my computer so it will work well out of the area. It isn’t doing that yet and I want to be sure it will. I may also way [sic] to buy and new one like this for me so I’ll have a travel computer. If I do I will want it to connect easily and I’ll want Larry to make sure it does before I leave. Then I’ll switch to ***** and his brother. I will want them to maintain my setup and make it easy for me to work. That will be great if I’m in Chico because they’ll be close by. I think I want to work with them more closely. I can’t help but wanting to work. I will work no matter where I am, but I can work the way I want to work and write the way I want to write. I won’ t have to worry if someone doesn’t like it. Bob will like it. It will be fine with him. I just need to do what I want to do. |
| NOTE: To read more from then-Glenn County Office of Education superintendent Joni Samples' email to herself using a taxpayer-funded laptop and sent via GCOE-funded email service, while on a taxpayer-funded trip to Mexico at which in her own words she sold $75,000 worth of personal business, contact the Sacramento Valley Mirror. |
| NOTE: "Conscience of the community" is a quote from The San Francisco Chronicle," article (above right). |
| BIG NEWS: Glenn County Office of Education's check register is online here |
| I’ve talked to some of our group and I liked that. I could play cards. I can speak Spanish. I talked to the merchants. I liked getting to know new people. I like people. I like watching the ocean and the clouds and the wind in the palm trees. I don’t care about surfing or snorkeling or mopeds. I could drive in a car and stop and see the stores or the people, but I don’t really care about playing that much. I worked a bit. It’s what I do. Now I’m writing. It’s what I like to do. Accept that that’s what you like and do it. I took a nap. I liked that. It was so pleasant to do that. I slept a couple hours and feel quite rested. Others went out to parth [sic] last night. I don’t party, but that’s okay. That’s why I’m a superintendent of schools and they are teachers and maintenance people. They are nice, but they won’t do what I’ve done because they won’t work at it. I am in the nicest place in the world with a nice group of people. I prefer to be here writing and watching and enjoying what’s going on I like Lupe. [sic] She’s fun and full of life. I’m not Lupe. I don’t want to be Lupe. I like Marne. She’s 78 years old and going strong. She wants to learn Spanish to talk to her tenants. |
| Conservative Commentary - Glenn County Office of Education (CCOE) - California |
| Tim Crews (L) accepting California Press Association's Newspaper Executive of the Year Award (December 2009). |
Tim Crews, the bulldog publisher of the Sacramento Valley Mirror, has been named Newspaper
Executive of the Year by the California Press Association. Crews, who has served as publisher of
the Willows-based paper since 1991, will be presented with the award in December. He is the 43rd
recipient of the annual award named for Justus F. Craemer, former president of the California Press
Association. This isn’t the first prestigious award the Valley Mirror has received. It’s also been given
the CNPA’s Freedom of Information award three times, and Crews has won similar awards for his
paper’s impact on the community, especially by uncovering local government’s secrets. “Well, I’m
flummoxed. Dumbfounded,” Crews told friends, according to a report in the Valley Mirror. (SOURCE--
Chico News-Review)
Executive of the Year by the California Press Association. Crews, who has served as publisher of
the Willows-based paper since 1991, will be presented with the award in December. He is the 43rd
recipient of the annual award named for Justus F. Craemer, former president of the California Press
Association. This isn’t the first prestigious award the Valley Mirror has received. It’s also been given
the CNPA’s Freedom of Information award three times, and Crews has won similar awards for his
paper’s impact on the community, especially by uncovering local government’s secrets. “Well, I’m
flummoxed. Dumbfounded,” Crews told friends, according to a report in the Valley Mirror. (SOURCE--
Chico News-Review)
Presenting Tim Crews, the source of the reporting on this page,
called "California's most courageous newspaperman":
called "California's most courageous newspaperman":
