The four Republicans on the City Council voted “Yes” for Community Voters Rights

The five Democrats voted “No” against Community Voters Rights

Item 331 lost by a 5-4 margin.

In addition, Trustees Richard Barrera and John Lee Evans, two of the five San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Board Members (who are all Democrats) spoke to the City Council in opposition to “Term Limits” and “Vote by District” and Community Voters Rights.

How ironic.

The five “Voters Rights” Democrats on the City Council voted to allow five Democrats on the School Board to have unlimited terms and city-wide elections controlled by special interest groups friendly to the Democratic Party.

District Deeds does not understand how the five Democrats on the City Council, who represent many of poorest sections of San Diego and whose party has professed staunch backing of voters rights, have decided to vote AGAINST their own constituents voting rights best interest.

Even more ironic, or just more self-serving, was the testimony of Trustees Richard Barrera and John Lee Evans.

Here is what Barrera said:

“Currently we have five school board districts.  Three of the districts are roughly north of interstate eight yet the majority of students live south of there so this proposal would in fact disenfranchise voters where the majority of students live that have no ability to elect the school board.” – SDUSD Trustee Richard Barrera

District Deeds Deciphering Barrera’s twisted logic:

“If you allow School Board Districts south of Highway Eight (like Lincoln and Morse Clusters)  to elect their own Trustee through “Vote by District” they would decide not to vote because they couldn’t vote for the University City Trustee.” District Deeds Decipher of Barrera Statement  

Barrera obviously has decided to ignore the fact that Ms. LaShae Collins, a fellow Democrat who won her School Board District (Lincoln and Morse) by 59%, lost in the current city-wide November election to Ms. Sharon Whitehurst-Payne who was backed by Barrera’s special interest groups.  

The only problem with Ms. Collins is that she was not as controllable by Barrera as Ms. Payne.  

District Deeds asks our readers:

In which of the following two scenarios do you think Lincoln/Morse voters would become more “disenfranchised”:

• The current carpetbagger method of allowing wealthy areas of the city to use their money, power and influence to get out the vote city-wide and place a crony as trustee for their Cluster?

Or

• Allow Voters in School Board Districts to elect their own area Trustee without other School Board District voter influence?

Here is what Evans said:

“My main point this is a solution in search of a problem.”  Trustee John Lee Evans 

Evans is right, Lincoln and Morse are not his problem…he is the Trustee for University City and other schools north of Interstate Eight.   The problem that needs a solutiion is that the same special interest groups with wealth and power that got him elected have removed the voters right to be governed by their candidate from the poorest areas of the SDUSD! 

And Evans doesn’t see a problem with that!!! 

Here is the reason why from another quote from his testimony:

“We only have five members and a diverse board depending how you measure it. We have one African-American and one Latino and one LGBT and I’m the wasp of the board.”  – SDUSD Trustee John Lee Evans 

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Anyone, including Evans, who describes fellow board members diversity in terms of race or sexual orientation as opposed to the “content of their character” is not equipped to be a Trustee for a lemonade stand, let alone a district with thousands of diverse and unique stakeholders.

District Deeds believes that Trustees Richard Barrera and John Lee Evans, through their City Council testimony, have just made the perfect argument for why both “Term Limits” and “Voting by District” are desperately needed in the SDUSD.

District Deeds urges all SDUSD Stakeholders and Taxpayers to forward the link to this blog post to your City Councilmember, especially the “No” vote individuals, and ask them to reconsider their decision on “Term Limits” and “Voting by District” for the SDUSD.

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