蜜桃影视

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The ouster of Los Angeles Unified School District board member Ref Rodriguez 鈥� who resigned Monday after pleading guilty to money-laundering charges 鈥� means the remaining board members must now decide when and how to replace him.

They have 60 days to decide a path forward, and the clock is ticking.

Right now, board members have three options, said LA Unified鈥檚 general counsel David Holmquist: They can appoint someone to serve out the remainder of Rodriguez鈥檚 term; they can call for a special election, which would likely be held next spring; or they can do both, appointing someone to serve until an election.

Given the timing, it鈥檚 unlikely the board could hold a special election in November. The filing deadline to get that on the upcoming ballot is Aug. 11, and the board isn鈥檛 even scheduled to meet for its next voting session until Aug. 21. The board could call for a special meeting sooner than that, but a more practical option may be to call for a special election in March.

Also, in order to hold a special election, the board has to submit its request to the Los Angeles City Council and receive its approval, Holmquist said. That would almost certainly rule out a November election.

The rules governing school board elections are outlined by the , but the law doesn鈥檛 prescribe a particular process for deciding on a temporary board member, Holmquist said.

What is clear is that four of the six remaining members would have to agree on the appointee.

In a joint news release, board president M贸nica Garc铆a and vice president Nick Melvoin said they want to 鈥渁s soon as we can鈥� for a special election and work to appoint a board member to serve in the interim.

United Teachers Los Angeles, the local teachers union, didn鈥檛 challenge that plan, though it demanded 鈥渢ransparency in the process鈥� released this week.

The LA Times editorial board chafed at the idea of an appointment, however, and made a case to . That鈥檚 the way it was done when former LA Unified board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte , and that鈥檚 the way it should be done now, they argued. Besides, if the board appoints someone, that person would have an incumbent鈥檚 advantage in the next election, they wrote.

A similar situation played out two years ago in San Diego Unified, when a school board member pleaded guilty to accepting illegal gifts and was . Remaining board members appointed an interim trustee who went on to the seat outright in the next general election.

In that situation, however, the power dynamics were different: It was labor-backed board members who made up the board majority. LA Unified鈥檚 school board is now viewed as generally split between labor and reform-minded members.

Along with UTLA鈥檚 demand for a transparent process moving forward, Rodriguez鈥檚 votes on 4-3 decisions should 鈥渂e reconsidered or thrown out completely鈥� 鈥� including Rodriguez鈥檚 vote to start the hiring process for current superintendent Austin Beutner.

Holmquist, however, said that scenario is unlikely.

鈥淩odriguez was lawfully seated and voted in by his electorate. Unless a judge would determine otherwise, I don鈥檛 know how those votes could be thrown out,鈥� Holmquist said.

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