Cupertino School District, City On State's Radar

CUPERTINO, CA — With the state Fair Political Practices Commission practically having the Silicon Valley town on speed dial, the Cupertino Union School District starts the school year with a slight blemish.

The FPPC fined the district $2,500 two weeks ago for a violation pertaining to mass mailings in June and October of 2016 featuring board members on the promotional material paid for with tax dollars. The CUSD violated appropriate policy by producing and distributing more than 200 copies of the mailers, which featured elected officers, at public expense. The message was attributed to Josephine Lucey, the board’s president at the time. The June 2016 issue also contained statements regarding the board's accomplishments and accompanying pictures of the district board members.

The CUSD prepared and distributed a mass mailing regarding the Citizens’ Parcel Tax Oversight Committee to residents around May 2017. Two of the eight pages included pictures of Anjali Kausar, Soma McCandless, Kristen Lyn and Phyllis Vogel, who were all board members at the time.

The CUSD used public funds to pay for the cost of design, production, production and printing for these three mass mailings.

"We don't want public money in anything that would look like its from their camp, and the pictures featured elected officials," FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga told Patch.

This is political practices 101.

The settlement penalty is half of what it could have been, according to legal order officiated by Chief of Enforcement Galena West and Commission Counsel Ruth Yang.

State, FPPC familiar with Cupertino

The ruling comes on the heels of another controversial matter with the city regarding a large housing development the Sand Hill Property Company, which owns the old Vallco Mall, plans to build and model under affordable housing regulations in California's Senate Bill 35.

The demolition of the outdoor parking structures made way for the project located a mile south of the Apple campus off Steven's Creek Boulevard near Interstate 280 that would offer up to 3,000 housing units and 2 million square feet of office and commercial space.

The project has undergone a teeter-totter ride of controversy involving the city, its attorney, the property developer, Friends of a Better Community advocacy group and even Vice Mayor Liang Chao, who was challenged over whether there was a conflict of interest since the city councilman has property within 950 feet of the proposed project.

When all was said and done, the FPPC had ruled Chao may participate in decisions relating to the Vallco development projects approved by the city — but the mere challenge has forced more legal wrangling through a Jan. 15, 2019 letter to the city.

In response, the city referred the issue to the FPPC, which administers the Political Reform Act. In its letter, which considered the scope of the Vallco projects and their impacts, the FPPC concluded that the act does not prohibit the vice mayor “from taking part in governmental decisions concerning either of the two proposed mixed-use development projects located 939 feet away from her residence.”

Under that SB 35 project, the site would be converted to a mixed-use development with 2,402 housing units of housing, half of which would be affordable. It would also include 1.8 million square feet of office space and 400,000 square feet of retail.

This was not the first conflict of interest alleged by attorneys for Vallco. In letters dated December 6, 2018 and December 12, 2018, they argued that the city’s two newly elected councilmembers, Chao and Councilman Jon Willey, along with incumbent Mayor Steven Scharf, could not participate in any decision regarding the Vallco projects based on past statements that were critical of the projects.

The city released documents pertaining to any perceived conflict of interest allegations found at www.cupertino.org/conflictofinterest.

The legal wrangling may not end here.