|
|
Lindberg v. California Dep't of Education10/31/2005
later told Cervantes to approve a half-million-dollar payment to La Hermandad. When Cervantes refused because he felt La Hermandad's claim was unjustified, Cortina ordered him to process the payment. He told Cervantes he was dissatisfied with him for not going along with Eastin's plan to fund the CBO's.
The next month, March 1996, Cervantes was summoned into the office of Ruth McKenna, Eastin's chief deputy, where Cortina and McKenna handed him a letter of termination, signed by Eastin. Following Cervantes's termination, the fraud fighting system he had created was discontinued.
Cervantes wrote Eastin a letter protesting his termination and expressing the belief that he was fired in response to political pressure "related to my recent and effective efforts to stop illegal payments to certain private organizations."
2. Lindberg Is Removed As Compliance Monitor
In a department-wide meeting of CDE employees held in September 1996, Lindberg attempted to confront Eastin directly on the issue of fraud by the CBO's. He passed notes to her asking why Cervantes had been fired and why nothing was being done about the agencies that he had reported as fraudulent. However, his questions were screened out by a deputy superintendent and she never answered them.
Within a few weeks, Eastin approved a major reorganization of Lindberg's division. The Adult Education field assistance unit was eliminated. Lindberg, who had done compliance reviews for hundreds of programs over many years, was removed from Adult Education and transferred to a division called "Career Development," where he was given no assignments and no one talked to him. He tried to find out what he should be doing, making repeated efforts to meet with his supervisor, without success.
Because the Colegio review was still on his desk, Lindberg contacted Adult Education administrator Ray Eberhard, who agreed to let him complete that assignment. He visited Colegio and found evidence of ongoing and blatant fraud, including phony school site addresses, no classes being held, and lack of proper records.
3. Zimmerman Replaces Cervantes and Is Also Dismissed
Ted Zimmerman replaced Cervantes as director of Adult Education in November 1996. Zimmerman complained to Cortina that La Hermandad was not complying with regulations and said it should be audited, having been overlooked for two years.
After his consultants had found fraud on the part of Colegio, Zimmerman recommended they stop funding it and demand return of funds already distributed. However, nothing was done. Zimmerman knew Cortina had been in close contact with the Hispanic caucus and suspected something was going on between them. At one point, when Zimmerman expressed his concern about the ESL-Citizenship program, Cortina replied: " ouldn't you trade $15 million of federal money for $45 more million in your state appr
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Show All Case Laws California PEO
|