Lawsuit seeks to remove Sacramento County Office of Education trustee

The California attorney general’s office has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove a Sacramento County Office of Education school board trustee.

Paul Keefer was elected to the Sacramento County Office of Education’s board in 2018, and is also the executive director of the Pacific Charter Institute, which operates seven charter schools in Northern California. Two of his charter schools are within Sacramento County’s district lines in Folsom Cordova Unified and Twin Rivers Unified. 

Mara Harvey, a parent and teacher in Sacramento, is one of the people initiating the state’s lawsuit against Keefer. 

“He is essentially like the superintendent of those particular [charter] schools,” Harvey explained. “A little context, a superintendent of a school district cannot serve on that county’s board.”

Speaking on behalf of the California Teachers Association, also known as the CTA, she said Keefer’s two roles are a conflict of interest.

“He has oversight and authority over charter schools in the county, including hearing appeals when a charter school is either denied or non-renewed by a district,” Harvey said.

Keefer declined to comment on the lawsuit, while the Sacramento County Office of Education said it can’t discuss pending litigation. 

Harvey began the process after Governor Gavin Newson signed a 2019 bill to hold charter schools to the same transparency standards as other public schools. 

When individuals of the public are interested in legal actions against a public official, they must first request a quo warranto to the attorney general’s office to determine whether there is a legal right to dispute the position.

Harvey, along with Victoria Gunter, an administrator in Twin Rivers Unified, and Tanesha Travis, a CTA representative, filed a quo warranto in 2022. They allege that Keefer’s service on the County Board violates the government code prohibiting holding incompatible public offices. They also contend that it violates an education code making school district employees ineligible to serve on a county board of education with jurisdiction over their district. 

Attorney General Rob Bonta released his opinion, granting the three the ability to sue Keefer for potentially violating the government and education code, writing that there were “substantial issues of fact or law as to whether Keefer is simultaneously holding incompatible public offices.”

Both Keefer and the Sacramento County Office of Education have been informed of the litigation throughout the two-year process. In an opposing the quo warranto, Keefer’s representation questioned why the suit was being brought after Keefer was reelected in 2022 with a 57% majority vote.

“His qualifications to seek re-election to the position on the county board of education could have been contested in a pre-election writ proceeding or an immediate post-election contest,” they wrote. “But [Harvey and Gunter]—who supported Mr. Keefer’s opponent—declined to pursue those timely remedies and now seek, instead, to nullify the will of the voters.”

Ricardo Soto, general counsel for the California Charter School Association, also known as the CCSA, said Keefer’s roles are not incompatible.

“They are the leaders of nonprofit organizations that are not governmental and they're not covered by some of the laws that apply to school districts or to other K-12 schools,” Soto said. “I believe that the court will likely find that Paul Keefer is not a public officer for purposes of incompatible offices.”

This is the second time Bonta has released an unfavorable opinion on charter school employees serving on county school boards. The first was released in 2021, at the behest of state assembly member Jose Medina and stated that “an executive director or other charter school employee—like employees of a traditional public school—may not serve as a member of the county board of education in the county where their employing school is located.”

In Keefer’s opposition response, representation wrote that the attorney general’s finding in the 2021 case was “mistaken,” and ran under the assumption that a charter school executive holds the same influence as a superintendent.

“The underlying reasoning of that opinion is, respectfully, flawed,” they wrote.

Though CTA officials contend that the decision in this lawsuit could potentially apply to county boards of education throughout the state, Soto with the CCSA argues that’s not the case. He added that while the attorney general’s opinion on the quo warranto permits challenging Keefer’s position, it does not indicate whether the lawsuit will be successful.

“It's still incumbent on the court to make its own independent decision both evaluating the facts and the law that are applicable on the particular case to make it a decision about whether or not an individual would be removed from their public office,” said Soto.

The Sacramento County Superior Court will arbitrate whether Keefer can continue to serve on the county’s board.