INSIDE INGLEWOOD-IUSD board member Arnold Butler resigned last Wednesday, April 9. IUSD State Trustee Dr. Donald Brann confirmed Butler's resignation on Monday via e-mail: "(Arnold Butler resigned) in a letter submitted to my office last Wednesday. I plan to announce this new development at this Wednesday's Regular Board Meeting." Brann was referring to the IUSD Board meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 16.
Butler was re-elected in April, 2013 for a four-year term but remained with only advisory power.
It was in mid-2012 when the IUSD school board's power was dissolved owing to the state takeover in order to give the district an emergency loan.
Last Sunday, April 6, a Chronicle editor reached out to Butler and left a message with the last known number for him listed in the 2013-14 IUSD Directory.
Although it was later learned that the number was incorrect, IUSD administrator Sylvia Franklin responded to the request on Monday. She said that she had forwarded the message to Butler via his personal e-mail as well as talked to him on his personal cell phone. When contacted again on Friday via Butler's apparently former office number, Franklin said that she would again relay the message to Butler.
The message that the Chronicle staffer left was regarding questionable campaign finances that Butler had received from the general contractor that built LaTijera Elementary School.
That contractor was Bakewell-Turner, as in Danny Bakewell Sr. who also owns the LA Sentinel.
Butler has yet to respond to the multiple requests for comment.
(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a monthly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 31
Pub: Apr 15, 2014
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 31
Pub: Apr 15, 2014
