Voters going to the polls next Tuesday to the School Board of the ABC Unified School District should think twice.
They might question the judgment of candidates Greg Uttrecht and Latha Vasam, who solicited and are using the endorsement, and money, of Cerritos Mayor Carol Chen and her loyal followers.
Hews Media Group-Community News has obtained documents from the County Registrar/Recorder’s Office indicating that Mr. Uttecht, an Artesia resident, received $250 from Mayor Chen and paid long-time Cerritos political operative Matt Kauble $1,000.
Mr. Uttecht’s latest campaign documents reads like a Who’s Who of Republicans in Cerritos. Even the stingy Republican Club of Cerritos donated $995 to Mr. Uttecht.
Another Cerritos business, Fu Ta Enterprises, at 183rd and Gridley in the Cerritos Triangle, donated $500.
Fu Ta, according to online documents is a “real estate investment trust.” Fu Ta’s agent for service is Chia Ling Yang with an address on Abana Street in Cerritos.
Ms. Vasam received $1,500 from the Comfort Inn and Suites in Bell Gardens, and why would the owner of a Bell Gardens two-star hotel 13 miles from the ABCUSD give money to a Cerritos School Board candidate?
Ms. Vasam also received $250 from Cerritos’ Ms. Chen, $1,000 from Cerritos Councilman Naresh Solanki, and $200 from Cerritos Planning Commissioner and well-known Torrance Det. Chuong Vo.
It is the usual cast of characters, led by Ms. Chen, trying to run “Cerritos ABC” like their own little fiefdom, supporting two candidates whose character and motives must be questioned.
In a 2014 interview with us, during the height of the ABCUSD Improvement Bond battle, ABC Supt. Dr. Mary Sieu blasted Mayor Chen for “gross misstatements” when Mayor Chen spoke at an ABCUSD Board meeting about the bond.
The two candidates undoubtedly knew about Mayor Chen’s lies. It was one of the best-read stories in our newspaper. The two can say they did not, but what kind of candidates would they be?
During the meeting, Mayor Chen went on a near 7-minute diatribe blasting the bond. Several times she was told to “sit down and shut up” by people attending the meeting.
Finance Director Toan Nguyen said that Mayor Chen was “factually incorrect” in “several key points” regarding statements she was distributing on paper to members of the community.
Yet the candidates are accepting Ms. Chen’s endorsement.
The two candidates also undoubtedly knew the lengths that Chen went to in 2014 to kill the bond, calling a secret meeting and not allowing HMG-CN to enter the meeting.
HMG-CN spoke to at least two people who were inside the private meeting held by Chen and they confirmed that it was the intent of those attending to “kill the bond, period.”
The Los Angeles District Attorney called the meeting “questionable.” See story click here.
And guess who was at the meeting? The same people who are running around Cerritos supporting the two candidates.
Chen was joined by ABC School Board Members Soo Yoo and Lynda Johnson, along with former Cerritos Councilman Bruce Barrows, former ABC School Board members Dixie Primosch, Cecy Groom, political consultant Matt ‘Uttecht’ Kauble, and former Cerritos Mayor Grace Hu, as well as a host of other key professional real estate executives.
In Chen’s written document read at the meeting, HMG-CN found more thanone dozen misstatements.
Sieu said that the “miscommunication” that was being sent to community members as a result of the meeting from Chen, Yoo, Johnson, Barrows, Groom, Hu, and Primosch was “astonishing.”
Yet the candidates are accepting Chen’s endorsement.
Mysteriously left out of Chen’s speech was that ABC has the lowest bond authorization amount per student in the County. ABC also has the second lowest Tax Rate per $100,000 in the County.
Sieu blasted Chen saying, “for her to omit that in her comments was reprehensible.”
Yet the candidates are accepting Chen’s endorsement.
“We worked very hard to make certain everyone understood the bond measure,” said Sieu. We met with every school and over 300 parents going over every detail to make certain the Bond was comprehensive.”
Indeed, the process started with an open meeting Jan 15, 2014 where they talked about the potential bond measure. The entire board, including Johnson and Yoo, approved that the ABCUSD move forward.
But once the bond measure came close to the vote to place it on the November ballot, Chen and her friends sprung into action to try and derail the Bond in a series of blatant misstatements.
The United Homeowner’s Alliance, led by Cerritos resident Ben Ao, who, according to documents, is still owed almost $2,000 by the UHA, spent $8,000 to fight the bond. The $8,000 spent is more than six of the eight current candidates have amassed in total for their 2015 campaigns.
Can you guess which two candidates have amassed the most money? The two backed by Mayor Chen and her cronies.
A defiant Sieu said at the end of the meeting, “We have a responsibility to the community, taxpayers and voters. When statements are made in public that are totally false, we have the obligation to set the record straight, and that is why we are concerned with the wrong facts being distributed.”
When you look closely at Uttecht and Vasan’s character judgment, and the company they keep, the choice to “set the record straight” should be clear.