Published in the June 8 – 21, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Rick Badillo
When we started Morgan Hill Life three years ago, we did so with a mission to protect and enhance the quality of life for everyone in our community. We sought to focus on the positive aspects of our South Valley city, highlighting the “good stories” about our local citizens. We decided that if circumstances required us to publish a story focusing on a tragedy or a negative situation, we would do so based on the criteria of the public good. That’s why we decided with careful consideration to publish the story about Morgan Hill Unified School District trustee Rick Badillo and the issue of public safety at school board meetings. You’ll find it on the front page of this issue’s second section.
Twelve months ago, we published an editorial describing the fracturing of the school board. We were concerned about its disintegrating state when we learned that a Morgan Hill police officer had been called to the closed session of a May 2015 meeting because of concerns of potential violent behavior from one board member. Shortly after that editorial came out, we received a call from an individual who told us that one of the causes for the contention was the behavior of trustee Rick Badillo toward fellow board members and district staff. The person informed us Badillo has a police record for grand theft and domestic violence. They had located this information in court public documents and shared it with us.
At that time, the individual asked us if we might be willing to do a story on Badillo’s police record. We declined because we felt it did not follow our mission to provide positive and uplifting community stories to the public. In the months following our learning of Badillo’s police record, the MHUSD school board continued its spiral down into an increasingly divided group of trustees. In August, the district faced the recall campaign of Board President Bob Benevento by a group of parent activists unhappy with a vote to have sixth graders attend middle schools. That group had a member who began to harass trustee Amy Porter Jensen through emails and phone calls, leading to her resignation from the board in late October. That led to local news publications requesting emails from the trustees to determine what kind of harassment had taken place, revealing that trustee David Gerard had used his school district email address to send correspondences with demeaning racial and sexual comments about various school board members, Superintendent Steve Betando and administrators in the district. Those emails led to a censure vote of Gerard Feb. 2, which resulted in a 3-3 tie. Soon after that vote, the school board room was put into a state of disorder when police pursued trustee Badillo through the packed audience and questioned him based on a call from someone who observed a “bulge” on his back waist and believed he had a concealed gun.
We believed the drama was over. Then, prompted by Badillo’s police incident, trustee Gino Borgioli requested two items be placed on the May 3 agenda for board discussion. One concerned the state of public safety at school board meetings, the second concerned having the school district hire an attorney to “investigate” the circumstances behind Badillo’s Feb. 2 police encounter.
Trustees Borgioli and Gerard stated they had received “many” comments from individuals describing how they would not attend the board meetings after Feb. 2 for fear of their security. Other board members and the superintendent said they received no such comments. The board voted to create a subcommittee to look into changing district policy on public safety and also voted 3-3 to not conduct a district-funded investigation. Those two items brought into light the question of how safe the board meetings are for the public.
There has been much misinformation spreading throughout our community about why a security guard was hired. Misinformation has also spread through the public dialogue about the police call on Badillo. Morgan Hill Life knows the identity of the citizen who initiated the call but the person spoke to us on the condition of anonymity. The police know the person’s identity but will not release the name.
The citizen had concerns about Badillo’s past behavior and known ownership of guns and so, based on a sheriff deputy’s advice, called police when they believed (wrongly) the trustee had a concealed weapon.
We did extensive interviews with various people aware of Badillo’s behavior and put the details through a stringent fact-checking process. We also decided to hold the story until after the June high school graduations so that we would not tarnish the celebrations.
The story on Rick Badillo’s behavior on the board is not one we take pleasure in publishing. We believe in the interest of accountability and transparency the public has a right to know about the school board’s current conflicts and how they relate to the concerns several trustees have about public safety at board meetings.
