10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, October 7, 2008
SAN BERNARDINO - School board members voted 5-2 to hire Jeffery Josserand as the San Bernardino City Unified School District's executive director of classified personnel and the district's personnel commission.
The approval of the contract came despite a civil lawsuit Josserand faces from another district alleging fraud.
Josserand called the allegations false.
Board Vice President Danny Tillman and member Louise Ayala voted against the contract.
Tillman said in open session before the vote that he had some "serious concerns about it" and planned to vote no.
Board member Marlin Brown suggested the board discuss the contract in closed session since it related to a personnel issue, and the board went behind closed doors for about 30 minutes before coming out to vote.
In July 2007, San Bernardino City Unified hired Josserand, a personnel commission director from the Montebello Unified School District, to serve part-time as acting interim director of the personnel commission.
The commission is an independent body tasked with overseeing the merit system for hiring and promoting nonteaching employees, a state effort launched in the 1930s to combat favoritism and cronyism, Josserand said.
Josserand said Tuesday he worked for San Bernardino during his vacation time, in the evenings and on weekends to help fill nonteaching positions for the district.
When he arrived, there were 500 open positions, and all of them have been filled, he said.
The Montebello school district filed a lawsuit in July alleging Josserand had breached his contract with Montebello Unified when he ceased to perform the duties of his full-time post to provide services to San Bernardino City Unified, according to court documents.
Josserand, who has worked for Montebello for 3½ years, disputes the allegations and vowed to fight with a countersuit of his own.
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