EDUCATION: Activist says sole Hispanic on
Anaheim City board lives in Corona del Mar.
February 14, 2001
By SARAH TULLY TAPIA
The Orange County Register
ANAHEIM - An Anaheim City School
District board member has been accused of
illegally living outside district boundaries.
Community activist Duane Roberts
accused Don Garcia at Tuesday's board
meeting of making a $929,000 Corona
del Mar oceanside house his main residence
rather than a $223,362 house he owns
inside district boundaries. State law requires
to maintain their primary home within the
district they serve.
Roberts said Garcia should resign or move
into the district. He said he will submit his
complaint to the Orange County District
Attorney's Office.
Garcia said his primary residence is in
Anaheim, but that he lives in both places
and in others. He said he doesn't have a
set schedule.
"The American dream has afforded me to
have more than one home," Garcia said,
adding that moving around is part of his
migrant-worker background.
Elected officials who falsify campaign
documents, such as stating a phony
address, face a $1,000 fine and up to three
years in prison, said Ebrahim Baytieh,
a deputy district attorney.
Garcia, a physician who ran unopposed,
is the only Hispanic on a board that
oversees elementary schools where about
80 percent of the students are Hispanic.
In May, he registered to vote listing an
Anaheim home across the street from one
of his clinics as his residence. A check he
wrote to the Registrar of Voters Office for
printing of his candidate statement listed
his Corona del Mar address.
A neighbor of the Anaheim house said
she has never seen anyone in the home.
"I've never see a light in that house,"
said Wilma Brooks, who lives across the
street. "I've never seen anybody go in
and out of the house."
Neighbors of the Corona del Mar
house said they know a doctor lives there
with his wife and children. Monica Burke,
who lives a few doors down, said the
family has lived there about a year and
a half.
Anaheim City board members receive
$400 a month, health benefits and
expenses.