Guest contribution — Ventura County Taxpayers Association — Performance theater over statutory power

Performance Theater Over Statutory Power: Board Urged to Hand Investigation Off to DA

Ventura County Office of Education Superintendent Morales authorized and received a $15,750 (5% of his $315,000 salary) one-time bonus in November 2024 without the required public vote or approval from the Ventura County Board of Education. By so doing, he violated state law that mandates board approval for any superintendent salary increase. Additionally, in 2023, granted himself and his five highest-paid deputies lifetime health benefits—a perk the office had discontinued offering in 1997 due to rising costs, also without presenting them to the board to legally approve the retirement-benefit changes.

While the impulse to react aggressively to Superintendent Morales’ admitted misconduct is politically understandable, the decision to launch an independent forensic audit is a fundamentally flawed strategy. It represents an exercise in administrative theater that ignores the realities of California’s dual-governance education system, lacks legal viability, and introduces unnecessary bureaucratic costs.

The core vulnerability of the Board’s decision lies in a profound misunderstanding of local governance structures. As an elected constitutional officer, the Superintendent answers directly to the voters of Ventura County, not to the Board of Trustees. The two entities operate in entirely separate silos; VCOE staff report exclusively to Morales, and the Board lacks any statutory authority to suspend, discipline, or terminate his employment. In a non-election year, a recall election is the only mechanism for forced removal.

The gravity of Superintendent Morales’ actions cannot be understated. By granting himself an unauthorized $15,750 bonus and quietly executing executive contracts that restored legacy lifetime health benefits to his top five cabinet members—a practice VCOE abandoned in 1997 due to fiscal unsustainability—Morales bypassed required public board approval. His defense that these actions were mere “oversights” with “no fiscal impact” because he returned the net bonus and rescinded the contracts is logically bankrupt.

To use an accurate analogy: if a shoplifter enters a convenience store, steals hundreds of dollars of merchandise, gets caught by an observer, and subsequently returns the items with an apology, a crime has still been committed. Returning the stolen goods does not erase the initial act of theft.

However, the Board’s chosen remedy—an independent forensic audit—while well-intended, is structurally unviable. It leaves several critical questions unanswered, none of which were explored by the local press or properly vetted by legal counsel during the meeting.

First, the Board cannot legally compel the Superintendent to fund an adversarial investigation against his own office using the broader County School Service Fund. Therefore, the cost of this forensic audit must be paid entirely out of the Board’s own limited operational budget line item. This diverts scarce public resources away from the Board’s core duties, such as handling student expulsion and charter school appeals.

No matter what administrative precautions or policies the Board implements, they cannot prevent a future Superintendent from choosing to lie to them. Creating a more restrictive environment will only add layers of paralyzing bureaucracy, slow down the county’s educational operations, and inflate costs, all while yielding little to no chance of preventing intentional future deception.

Instead of launching a costly and toothless independent audit destined for legal gridlock, the Board should have utilized the one of the five distinct, powerful levers already granted to them under their Series 9000 Bylaws. The Board should have issued a formal resolution of censure and immediately referring the uncovered evidence of unauthorized compensation to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office for a legitimate criminal investigation.

Remarkably, the attorneys for the Board were conspicuously absent or silent during this pivotal discussion on May 26th. Had the options proposed by the Trustees been thoroughly reviewed by legal counsel, the Board would have realized that state-sanctioned channels—such as formally petitioning the State Controller or FCMAT for an extraordinary audit—are the only ways to legally penetrate the Superintendent’s operational silo.

The Wrong Solution for Taxpayers

By attempting to bypass these established legal frameworks to appease an applauding audience, the Board has set a path toward an expensive, logistically paralyzed investigation that yields maximum political theater but zero structural remedies.

We urge the Board of Trustees to reconsider their decision and remand this situation to the District Attorney. The DA’s Office has both the resources and—more importantly—the legal authority to decide whether further investigation or prosecution is warranted.

VCTA is a non-partisan organization that does not endorse candidates. That said, there is a clear public interest in determining how these taxpayer dollars were spent. To avoid any appearance of election interference—especially since Superintendent Morales was a candidate—our Board deliberately delayed publication of this article until after the June 2^nd primary election.

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About the Ventura County Taxpayers Association (VCTA)

Formed in 1954, The Ventura County Taxpayers Association is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization dedicated to a non-partisan, fact-finding mission, emphasizing issues that affect Ventura County. We inform taxpayers, promote the wise use of public funds, oppose waste, advise public officials regarding issues of concern to taxpayers and recommend positions that will best serve the taxpayers’ interests. Our number one goal is to promote the wise use of public money and to oppose waste.

Ventura County Taxpayers Association

PO Box 3878

Ventura, CA 93006

info@vcta.org | vcta.org