FRAZIER PARK, CA (Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015 at 3 p.m.)— El Tejon Unified School District Board of Trustees President Vickie Mullen has resigned. She said she will be moving to Bakersfield, outside the boundaries of ETUSD.  Regulations state that trustees must reside within the district.

Mullen’s husband, Charles “Chuck” Mullen, is president of the El Tejon Teachers’ Association (ETTA—the teachers’ union). He teaches at El Tejon Middle School.

The board of trustees must guide negotiations between the district and the teachers’ union at the same time that they are supervising the superintendent of the district, who is negotiating on behalf of the district. Trustees must represent the public’s interest and the prudent spending of public money.

Vickie Mullen was elected trustee in 2012 as part of a slate organized by Chuck Mullen to achieve the resignation of former ETUSD superintendent Katherine Kleier.

Kleier brought some benefits to the district early in her service, but difficult personal relations with many sectors of the community appeared to become deeper, alienating parents, teachers, staff and community.

Vickie Mullen and Lark Shillig, both married to teachers employed by ETUSD, were elected on the union’s slate in the 2012 contest in which four of the five board chairs were up for election. That new board led negotiations for a buy-out of the superintendent’s contract, which was a great expense to the district’s general education fund, but was a victory for the union.

This year the Kern County Grand Jury submitted a report indicating concern about ETUSD trustees not having a clear procedure for handling perceived conflict of interest among trustees. Conflict of interest, or the appearance of conflict of interest, is a major ethical issue for elected officials.

Union President Chuck Mullen has waved aside such concerns as trivial by saying that “it is not against the law” for teachers’ family members to vote on salary, health and retirement packages that benefit their own families.

Trustees (and teachers’ spouses) Vickie Mullen and Lark Shillig have echoed the ETTA president’s position without publicly acknowledging that an elected public official has a duty to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest.

Typically, board members are advised to “recuse” themselves from discussions and votes on issues that may appear to be a conflict of interest. The custom on other boards is for the trustee to state the agenda item on which they have a conflict or a perceived conflict of interest, and why, and then the trustee leaves the room during the discussion and the vote on that item.Neither Vickie Mullen nor Lark Shillig have followed that custom during their service as trustees.

As ETUSD board president, Vickie Mullen has conducted efficient meetings and her professionalism in most matters has been appreciated by members of the public who attend the regular monthly meeting—including the editor of this newspaper. It has been the “behind the scenes” procedural concerns that persist and have troubled the grand jury.

Mullen was invited by The Mountain Enterprise to make an announcement to the community about her decision to resign. She said she will, “but I have some moving to do first.”

—Reported by Patric Hedlund

This is part of the August 14, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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