Officials seek legal advice after
activist says Anaheim City Trustee
Donald L. Garcia does not live in
district as required.
February 14, 2001
By JERRY HICKS
Times Staff Writer
Anaheim City School District officials
said Wednesday that they have sought
legal advice to see whether they "have
an obligation to take action" on an
allegation that board member Donald
L. Garcia filed false information about
his residency when he sought the seat
last fall.
A community activist charged at this
week's board meeting that Garcia, a
physician, and his wife live with their
two children on Serra Drive in Corona
del Mar, but that Garcia said his address
was 410 W. Vermont Ave. in Anaheim
in election filings. Garcia has vehemently
denied he did anything wrong, saying
that he considers both addresses
residences and that he lives in both
of them.
Duane Roberts, who once ran
unsuccessfully for a school board in
another district, vowed at the board
meeting to take his complaint to the
district attorney's office.
School officials say the election code
requires that school trustees live
within the district and that the home
must be his or her primary residence.
But Roberts, an Anaheim resident
who lives outside the district, says he
and friends have observed Garcia and
his family living full time at the Corona
del Mar residence and taking their son
to a school near there. Roberts also
contends that the Vermont Avenue
building is not used by the Garcias
at all.
Garcia had sought election to the board
last November, but when no one ran
to oppose him, he was automatically
appointed without an election.
County assessor records show that
Garcia and his wife bought the Corona
del Mar house in August 1999. The house
is valued at $929,000. The Anaheim
address is listed by the county as an
office building at a value of $223,362.
The Anaheim address is surrounded by a
wooden fence. Its yard is completely
paved, with white lines outlining parking
spots, some marked for "compact" cars.
This week the shades were drawn in all
the windows in the building.
Numerous neighbors said they have never
once seen a light on at that residence
and that it has been at least six months,
probably closer to a year or more, that
they have seen anybody on the property
at all.
"We used to see people come in and out
a lot," said neighbor Pablo Garcia, no
relation to the school trustee. "But last
year, nobody. It's been completely empty
for a long time."
Donald Garcia did not return repeated
telephone calls from The Times on
Wednesday. He runs a medical clinic on
Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim, directly
across the street from the Vermont
Avenue address. The clinic's office
manager declined to say whether Garcia
ever used the Anaheim address as a
home.
The Anaheim City School District board
oversees 25 elementary schools.
Spokeswoman Suzanne Brown said
the
district had taken steps to seek
legal advice
to determine what its role should
be.
District attorney spokeswoman Tori
Richards said that even if Roberts files
his complaint, which he had not yet done
late Wednesday, the prosecutor's office
might not investigate. Instead, it might
decide the matter should go before the
state's Fair Political Practices Committee,
which oversees election fraud.