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The tax payers of Kingsburg Joint Union High School District in Fresno, Kings, and Tulare counties have had their Christmas stolen.

The "grinches" are the registrars of the three counties.

Dr. Seuss didn't write about these other grinches. They're much nastier. There are 58 of them in California -- one in each county.

The district superintendent didn't like the results of the election -- Measure K lost by four voters when adding the results of all three counties. The measure was a $20 million bond that was near the maximum amount of bonds Kingsburg could have issued from a single election. ($23.49 / $100,000 on assessed value, maximum allowed was $30.00.)

As the Fresno Bee reported (archive.org) earlier today, the results for Measure K changed from losing by four votes to winning by one.

Both Kings and Tulare counties completed and made public their recounts before Fresno County completed its recount. Fresno County had the largest percentage of voters. The Fresno County registrar knew exactly how many votes were required to change the result of the election.

However, all three county registrars had, back in August, in lock step with each other, failed to perform their mandatory ministerial duty to reject the ballot question that was engineered from the get-go to influence the voters in direct violation of the statutory provisions of the Elections Code as well as the California and United States constitutions.

The Reporter

The reporter (Leqi Zhong) did a search for opponents to the measure and, thanks to our site design, she found our opposition web page. Ms. Zhong called us at 4:15 PM yesterday. The conversation was 8-1/2 minutes. She wanted to know why we opposed the measure. We explained that we created opposition pages for each of the 267 school bond measures on the ballot. We also explained that we didn't need to have personal knowledge of the situation in the district because our opposition was based on the government (the district and registrars) cheating by taking sides in the election and using public moneys to print and circulate ballots where the question was filled with the district's arguments in favor of the measure.

Ms. Zhong pressed us for a different answer. We held firm. After the third time, we said that we are not anti-tax. The voters of any district should determine for themselves whether they want to tax themselves. The election, however, must be fair. We are against the government cheating by taking sides in an election using pubic moneys. The government cheated in the Kingsburg election. We told her to read the ballot question and compare it to the argument in favor in the voter guide. Our impression was that she really didn't want to hear that.

Either Ms. Zhong or her editors decided not to include anything we said in the story. The local press NEVER does. They don't want to hear about the government stealing elections and picking the pockets of the tax payers.

The Measure

If Ms. Zhong had taken us up on our suggestion, this is what she would have learned. There are seven arguments on the ballot that also appeared in the argument in favor. We've color-coded each of them so you can easily see our point. The evidence is there in black and white and in color.

This was the question printed on the ballot in all three counties.

To improve the quality of schools; replace outdated HVAC systems; construct/ renovate/ modernize classrooms, restrooms and school facilities; and make health and safety and energy efficiency improvements; shall Kingsburg Joint Union High School District's measure authorizing $20,000,000 of bonds at legal rates be adopted, generating approximately $1,100,000 annually while bonds are outstanding, at average rates of approximately $23.48 per $100,000 assessed value, with annual audits, citizens' oversight, all money staying local?

This was the argument in favor written by the district's advisors (who stood to make a pretty penny when the measure passed) printed in the county voter information guides in all three counties.

Argument in Favor of Measure K

Measure K is about one thing: Improving the quality of Kingsburg High School. Safe and high-quality schools protect property values. While major improvements were made to the quality of Kingsburg High School over the past few years, the fact remains that our school is old and must be brought up to 21st century standards. This is why our students need your YES vote on Measure K!

Although our high school has been well maintained over the years, it is now time to finish our plan to fully renovate our campus into a sustainable 21st century learning environment. Measure K would allow the District to improve our school and the quality of education provided to local students. Kingsburg High School was first built over one hundred years ago, meaning that our classrooms and facilities are old and deteriorating. By investing in our high school, we can meet today’s safety, technological, and educational standards and better our community.

Without increasing the current tax rate, Measure K will provide funding to make facility improvements at Kingsburg High School including:

• Replacing outdated heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems

• Constructing additional classrooms and school facilities

• Modernizing outdated classrooms, restrooms, and school facilities

• Creating student drop-off and pickup areas for increased safety and better traffic flow

• Improving student access to computers and modern technology

Measure K makes financial sense and protects taxpayers.

• All funds must be spent locally and cannot be taken by the State.

• By law, spending must be reviewed and annually audited by an independent citizens' oversight committee.

• Funds can only be spent to improve our high school, not for teacher or administrator salaries.

Measure K upgrades and renovates old and inadequate school facilities, improves the education of local children, and maintains the quality of our community. That's something we can all support. Please join us and VOTE YES ON MEASURE K!

As anyone can see, there are seven arguments in the question that are repeated in the argument in favor. In fact, everything in the question before the word "shall" and after the word "with" are arguments.

The exercise above can be done with any one of the 267 school bond measures as well as all the other tax measures that the voters allegedly passed on November 8th.

The appellate courts have held that arguments belong in the voter guide and not on the ballot. "These points, however, properly belong in the ballot arguments in favor of the measure, not in the ballot question, which must be cast in neutral, unbiased language." McDonough v. Superior Court (2012) 204 Cal.App.4th 1169, 1176.

So the government intentionally took sides and paid for it with public moneys. Basically, the government cheated.

Then the district paid $15,000 of public moneys for the recount in Fresno County. It likely paid around $5,000 to each of Kings County and Tulare County registrars for the smaller recounts in those counties. To add insult to injury, the district will pay for the "costs of the election" (see full text, top of page 4) in all three counties and the cost of the recount with bond proceeds. Yeah, that language is buried in a 300 word paragraph that ends with ", as permitted by law." Of course, there is no law permitting it, but the bond counsel puts it in there to dupe the oversight committee and to protect itself from a malpractice lawsuit. "We didn't write that the list of operating expenses WAS permitted by law. We wrote that the list of operating expenses could be payable from bond proceeds IF those expenses were permitted by law."

The Remedy

What can the voters of the district do now? The law provides that they can have a judge set aside the election. The grounds exist.

They can also file criminal charges against all the actors who participated in this scam. Since the fraud was conducted by mail, the federal mail and wire fraud statutes are applicable as well. So, when the three corrupt local prosecutors make lame excuses as to why they will not to prosecute, the voters can go to the United States Attorney and the FBI.

Will any voter in the district take any action? They likely don't even know they were hoodwinked. Share this article everywhere you can so that the district voters in the three counties know that the grinches may not have the last laugh. It only takes one voter in any of the counties to file an election contest.

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