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Lucia Mar to seek outside investigationAn independent agency will be asked to look into alleged conflict of interest violations by trustee Donna Mills Carol Roberts The San Luis Obispio Tribune The Lucia Mar School Board will ask an independent agency such as the District Attorney's Office or the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate alleged conflict of interest violations by trustee Donna Mills of Nipomo. Documents obtained through the Public Records Act show that Mills has voted on many district construction jobs and change orders on which her husband, Bill, was a plumbing sub-contractor. The records show she abstained on many votes too. Board meeting minutes reflect, as in a case at Paulding Middle School, she would say she had to abstain because her husband sometimes worked for whatever contractor was involved. "The school board lacks the power to do anything about this," Mike Smith, the district Fresno-based attorney, told a board meeting audience Tuesday. "It will be referred on after staff tells Mrs. Mills of the board's action." Mills didn't attend Tuesday night's meeting and has not returned calls to her home for comment on the issue. Documents of past meetings show most of the items in question over the past five years were on the board's "consent agenda," a listing of several items public bodies approve at once because they are expected to be noncontroversial. Tom Murray of Arroyo Grande, a former member of the district's Facilities Advisory Committee, asked the board for the independent investigation, based on the minutes of past meetings. He cited Mills' husband's participation in sub-contracting work done at Grover Heights, Oceano, Ocean View, Margaret Harloe, Dana and North Oceano elementary schools as well as Judkins Middle School and Lopez High School. According to conflict of interest laws, Murray said, Mills shouldn't have been discussing anything her husband might have been involved with, even if she were abstaining. She has been on the board for a decade. Her husband was the subcontractor on three of the four bids to build Hidden Oaks Elementary School. Concerned about potential conflict of interest, the school board rejected all the bids and will reapply for the $3.5 million toward building the new school in Arroyo Grande it had been promised from the state. Mike Winn, a friend of Mills, told the board Tuesday that no direct contract had ever been signed between Mills-Koehler, her husband's firm, and the school district. "So I'm not convinced this is a conflict of interest," Winn said. Winn said Mills sought advice from attorneys in the past who told her it wasn't a conflict, Winn said. "She's been an exemplary public servant to Nipomo," he added.
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