Monday, February 11, 2013

LASD offers to meet

This letter has just been sent to Ken Moore, Chairman of the BCS Board.


Ken-

This evening at our Board meeting, the District discussed the need for improved dialogue regarding the Prop 39 offer. As you are probably aware, we had previously considered holding a special Board meeting on February 25th to collect BCS input on the current prop 39 offer.

On behalf of LASD, I'd like to invite BCS to participate in a Prop 39 meeting on Wednesday, Feb 13th. Although this is exceptionally short notice, we believe this discussion would be beneficial to both sides. LASD is concerned that a meeting that late in the month would not provide adequate time to collect the questions you might have, prepare meaningful responses, and then to have that feedback incorporated in the BCS response due on March 1st. By accelerating the discussion, it gives a greater opportunity to provide information which might be important in your Prop 39 response on March 1st.

In keeping with the LASD requirements for openness and transparency, the meeting will be open to the public. In an effort to make the meeting as productive as possible,we are requesting that you send a team of no more than 2 people. LASD will do the same. Other Board members are welcome to observe from the audience, but our goal is to have a constructive dialogue, and we believe that is best achieved with small teams form both sides.

I want to make sure we set expectations correctly. Randy Kenyon will be attending a CACF meeting, and we are not likely to be able to answer a large number of questions. However, we'll collect the questions, discuss what you need, and we will commit to as quick a response as we can. All of our responses will be posted to the District web site, so that the public can follow along with the dialogue.

We are nailing down specifics of location, but I expect the meeting will be held at 7pm on Wednesday evening. Please let me know as quickly as possible of the BCS team will be able to attend. I've already discussed this with Joe Hurd, and I'm hoping that the BCS team will come in a spirit of collaboration and constructive dialogue.

Best wishes,

DJS