VC Superintendent César Morales' actions trigger financial investigation at the VC Office of Ed5/27/2026 Hot Dog. Lots of updates since my first blog on issues related to lack of transparency, undisclosed payments and a toxic work environment under the leadership of César Morales, the current VC Superintendent of Schools. I’m going to pick up where I left off in the first blog, and also cover what took place at the VCOE Board Meeting on May 26. If you don’t need the updates since you follow me on social, just scroll down until you hit the BOARD MEETING PALOOZA section. For those who asked for the updates in blog format, got you. Please tolerate typos. Most of this was written at like 1 a.m. Let’s start with the big ones. Since the publication of my first blog on May 12 (Facebook posts aside), César Morales had a statement admitting the nondisclosure of a 5% bonus quietly uploaded on the VCOE website late in the evening of May 15. This only happened because legal intervention occurred and essentially forced his hand. Full text of statement below: Dear Ventura County Community, I am writing to address a matter that recently came to my attention regarding a one-time stipend I received in or around November 2024. All Ventura County Office of Education staff, including members of my cabinet, also received stipends in varying amounts based on annual salaries. I have since learned, however, that the stipend specific to the County Superintendent should have been submitted to the Board of Education for review and approval prior to being issued, and that process did not occur. I have paid the stipend I received back to VCOE in full. I will also work with the Ventura County Board of Education to implement steps to ensure this does not happen again. I am sharing this information to be fully transparent, to acknowledge the error, and to reaffirm my commitment to accountability and sound governance. I appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through this matter and take the necessary corrective actions. Sincerely, Dr. César Morales, Ventura County Superintendent of Schools  WHERE EXACTLY IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY? I find this statement shirking true accountability and problematic for several reasons:
César Morales would have us believe that he was unaware of ed code and state law … and just simply didn’t know that he couldn’t take bonuses whenever he wanted without telling anyone. This coming from the man that supporters laud for his fiscal oversight? This coming from the man who is the chair of the board for FCMAT? What’s FCMAT? The Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team’s primary mission is to help California’s local TK-14 educational agencies identify, prevent and resolve financial, operational and data management challenges by providing management assistance and professional learning opportunities. Cesar Morales’ fiancée, Misty Key, is also contracted as a consultant for them. You’re telling me these people have no idea that taking taxpayer money for personal bank accounts without proper disclosing or seeking board approval is … wrong? And in violation of state law? I’m sorry, but were we born yesterday? If you want me to believe that the top two highest-paid leadership at the Office of Ed — which acts as a fiscal monitor to ensure districts remain financially solvent, manages payroll for school employees, and processes budgets — don’t know ed code, then you’re going to need to stop telling me he’s the best person for this position because of his experience and expertise with fiscal management. I mean, hop off it. But I’m going to be straight with you. I don’t believe that. I believe he knew exactly what he was doing, and I believe that is why he attempted to stall response to CPRA requests and only admitted to the payment after the board of education became involved in the matter.  And, to be clear, at the time of the statement he published … he said he had paid it back in full. That’s not entirely accurate either. Per VC Star: “He paid the office $7,619, Schermer said, which was the net amount he received from the $15,750 bonus after taxes and benefit contributions were taken out.” After obviously outrage over only half the amount being paid back, his director of communications, Dave Schermer, would provide a second statement to VC Star: “Schermer said in an email that the Office of Education has already been made whole for the remaining $8,131, by adjusting its payments to the IRS and other agencies that withhold money from employees' paychecks.” The VC Reporter also covered the news. SO NOW THE UNDISCLOSED BONUS WAS CONFIRMED. BUT …. THERE’S MORE. A TROJAN HORSE IN THE FORM OF A TRUSTEE?As you all know, I submitted a CPRA request on April 21, of which included a request for César Morales and Cabinet-level staff employment contracts. This was an important request because there were allegations circling that César had granted himself and his executives lifetime benefits. Lifetime benefits have not been offered by VCOE since 1997, except for a small pool of now 13 remaining retirees who chose to retire in 1996 to be grandfathered into benefits. After several additional follow-ups with VCOE to request a status on my CPRA request, Trustee Richard Lucas III called me on Friday morning, May 22, to ask if I had received any documents. I confirmed I had not. Shortly thereafter, I received a message informing me that Trustee Lucas was at VCOE, asking Dave Schermer to provide the requested documents. As a trustee, he should have access to that data, regardless of a CPRA request. That’s why he got it and was able to ensure I got a copy. If you caught Trustee Ramon Flores’ comment … he was quite salty that Trustee Lucas got the documents for me. “The intent is not to provide documents for someone to give to someone else.” Please, Ramon, clutch those pearls a bit harder. Lucas would have to spend his full day there, eight hours, to get simple documents that were already on file. I wholeheartedly believe that if he had not done that, VCOE would never have released them without court intervention, and that they would have very likely tampered with the documents to cover up these benefits. And I want to be clear here … VCOE’s own administrative regulation (1340) and Superintendent (1340) policies specifically include a non-exhaustive list of eligible public documents — of which all my requests meet the criteria for. They are literally line itemed as items that fall within the purview of a public record request.   SO, THE CONTRACTS. The language is right there in black and white in those November 2023 employment contracts for Misty Key, Juan Santos, Consuelo Hernandez Williams, Lisa Salas Brown and Joanna Della Gatta. And has been included in every updated contract since, as recently as March 2026 versions. 5. “Employee shall be entitled to Employer paid health benefits as a retiree upon separation of employment for Employee and Employee’s spouse for the duration of the Employee or spouse’s lifetime. The benefit is to be processed as Employer paid in the same manner as active employee benefits are provided. Employee (retiree) will pay the same proportional cost of the plan(s) selected for health, dental and vision insurance as paid for active employees. Employee will be eligible for retiree benefits after 10 years of service to VCOE or upon retirement from VCOE.” Education Code 1302(b) specifically says retirement benefit increases must be brought before the County Board of Education for discussion and approval at a public meeting. This did not occur. And remember, this comes out AFTER Morales already admitted violating Education Code 1209 by giving himself an undisclosed $15,750 bonus without board approval, even though technically the benefits were included in the contracts before he took the money. He's also in violation of 1302(a) based on the size of salary increases and one-time payments that have exceeded $10,000 for executive and director-level staff (all of which is supposed to be disclosed to the board). Did I mention that he also, in the November 2023 employment contract, gave his fiancée a salary bump from 92% to 96% of his salary? THE PROJECTED COST A conservative estimate for these types of benefits is approx. $30,000 per year. So, if we’re dealing these out for 10 special folks (these executives and their spouses), simple math would tell you that’s $300,000 a year … $3 million within 10 years, $6 million within 20 years … you get the picture. And that's based on TODAY'S insurance prices. Now that nearly $16,000 bonus looks tiny compared to this, doesn’t it? If our superintendent is busy spending his days orchestrating inflated, bloated salaries, hiring multiple assistants, sleeping with staff, stealing funds and granting perks to his favorites … who is really ensuring that the students supported by VCOE programs and schools are being prioritized? Those funds could be used for additional teacher support in classrooms — something I’ve been told is woefully under-supported, which harms both students and educators. Those funds could have been used for boosted, target support in special education and career technical education programs. Those funds could have been used to support educators. Instead, César and his fiancée have been identifying how to move large amounts of money around to pad their bank accounts … while charging districts an egregious amount for supportive services. SO NOW YOU’RE UP TO SPEED:
BOARD MEETING PALOOZA On May 26, the VC Board of Education held its regularly scheduled public meeting. Not surprisingly, the majority of the meeting was dominated by public comments and agenda items related to financial malfeasance. I was told that César Morales had certain staff asking other staff to show up and attend in support of him. If this is true, I wonder if every staff member in attendance was getting paid to be there. To protect the privacy of staff, all I can say is that you’d be right in assuming that they didn’t all attend in “support.” Not surprisingly, his supporters mostly lined up to speak during public comments at the beginning of the meeting. Clocking this, I decided to speak then, instead of toward a specific agenda item. Here is a snippet of a friend’s observation during this public comment period: “The entire vibe standing here listening to one apologist after another reminds me of something straight outta The Godfather. The parade of supporters talking about how supportive he is “for the community” while completely ignoring/discounting and excusing the obviously corrupt behavior.” She’s not wrong. It was clear that supporters were instructed to focus on specific messaging: “We all make mistakes. It’s respectable to see him taking accountability for his mistakes. We’ve all made mistakes like this.” I’m sorry … huh? We all steal taxpayer dollars? That’s a thing? I totally missed this. Dammit. I get none of my payments. I’ve received no Soros payments! No payments from developers. No payments from all the campaigns folks allege I’m running (I’m not on a single fucking campaign team currently, by CHOICE.) And now, I’m finding out that y’all have signed up for stealing education funds from kids? What a day! So, the comments were weird. Look, I’m not saying that every single thing César has done is bad. I mean I think he’s done a lot of bad things and is sexual predator, but I’m sure some people have had good experiences with him. I’m sure he has helped some programs. I'm sure he even likes some parts of his job. But none of that absolves him from stealing. It just does not. Any other person who was caught embezzling funds would be prosecuted and face criminal charges. Why are we giving César a pass? César’s base salary alone is $315,000 … let me remind you — a nearly $70,000 increase from his predecessor, orchestrated in part by his fiancée … you know, the woman whose pay is tied to his pay. JESUS. I really cannot with folks.  And, I’m going to be honest here … if your only commentary on this entire circus is criticism of the board, I think that is bad faith engagement. This man stole money. He intentionally hid from them that he was stealing money. He violated state law. They trusted César Morales, Misty Key, and relevant staff to be honest, upstanding persons in their respective roles. So no, they didn’t start each meeting with: “Did you happen to steal anything today?” The board does not operate like a typical school district board. César is an elected official, therefore they have less authority. He is the sole employer of VCOE. He does not require approval on expenditures, vendors or even employment contracts. There are some exceptions as it relates to disclosure of salary or payment increases that exceed $10k for example, but the board does not receive the same level of information as district school boards. And when VCOE leadership is intentionally working to deceive the board, and to move money around after interim reports without disclosure, and to rename funds and bury them deep in budget reports … let me be clear here who the bad actor is. It’s César Morales. At least three board trustees have demonstrated a strong response to me. Trustees Rachel Ulrich, Mike Teasdale, and Richard Lucas III all took my concerns seriously from the beginning. And they have vowed to do what they can on their end to put in whatever additional language and policies could be added to help prevent something like this again. But you know what prevents this? Voting for a superintendent who doesn’t steal and have inappropriate relationships with staff, especially those that control the money. So while we should also ask what the board can be doing, what they could be doing, and what we can expect from them to address this moving forward, I’m really not here for the deflection of this being a “miscommunication” or board issue.” It is a theft issue. Stop it. There were also excellent public comments from those calling for accountability. I will share what I said below… I have shared several others on my Facebook page. SOME PUBLIC COMMENTS Good Evening Board of Trustees and VCOE Leadership, Recently, I’ve connected with nearly 60 current and former VCOE employees and education leaders in our community. Accounts shared point to a consistent pattern of poor governance, a toxic work environment and questionable fiscal practices at the office of ed, structured to boost compensation packages for top executives. Dr. Morales’s executive cabinet has seen salary increases of nearly 40-45% since his appointment in 2021, as those salaries are tied to his own, based on allocated percentages. In her role as deputy superintendent of fiscal services, Misty Key, whom I’ve been told is engaged to Morales, is responsible for bringing forth data and advocating for salary increases on his behalf. In turn, she receives a salary increase when her fiancée does. She also got a nice little bump in November 2023, when her base salary increased from 92% to 96% of her fiancée’s salary. That wasn’t all that was updated in November 2023. Each cabinet member signed contracts with a special addition: the inclusion of lifetime benefits for themselves and their spouses. This was allegedly never disclosed to, nor approved by, the board, — a direct violation of state law. Lifetime benefits for VCOE employees ended in 1997. This has the potential to cost VCOE millions, and it was done in secret, for the top-paid employees. I was only able to confirm this after Trustee Lucas spent eight hours at the VCOE office last Friday, to insist a response to my public records request. I still await a response to several other items — all of which are listed as eligible public records documents in VCOE policies. As you know, Morales also confirmed that he gave himself a nearly $16,000 undisclosed bonus in November of 2024, revealed only after legal intervention. Morales is the current chair of the board for FCMAT, and Misty Key, is contracted as a consultant by FCMAT. Would you have us believe that these folks don’t know state law and ed code? For those unfamiliar, FCMAT is the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team for California’s TK-14 educational agencies. To recap, we have a superintendent who is illegally granting himself undisclosed bonuses and his cabinet undisclosed lifetime benefits. Fiscal leadership is moving around millions of dollars, after budget adoption, allegedly without proper disclosure to the board. We have dozens of accounts from past and current VCOE employees that have cited workplace retaliation and toxic working environment. And, we’ve heard first-hand accounts about how this superintendent has retaliated against local school districts, and whose actions have harmed students as a result. Respectfully, I’m asking that a full investigation be launched into the office of ed’s financials and the numerous allegations of a hostile, toxic work environment. Students deserved leadership that is student-centered. Educators deserve leadership that is supportive. And the community deserves transparent leadership. Morales is not the victim here — those who relied on him to set an example and lead in this role, are.” *************** I also want to take a moment to share a letter from LVUSD Superintendent Dan Stepenosky that was sent to the board of education yesterday morning (with permission). “I am writing to express my perspective, which is shared by a number of my superintendent colleagues, regarding the direction and leadership of the Ventura County Office of Education under Superintendent Dr. Cesar Morales and Deputy Superintendent Misty Key. The organization has strayed significantly from its intended mission of supporting students, promoting student achievement, and serving the educational communities throughout Ventura County and the surrounding region. I respectfully ask the Ventura County Office of Education Board of Education to help ensure the County Office returns to a student-centered, collaborative, transparent, and professional approach in its work with school districts and educational partners. My concerns are rooted in multiple interactions and decisions that I believe demonstrate unprofessional, retaliatory, and exclusionary conduct toward the Las Virgenes Unified School District, its staff, and most importantly, its students. One specific example occurred on September 11, 2024, when LVUSD staff received a communication from the Ventura County Office of Education indicating that Agoura High School students would no longer be permitted to participate in the Ventura County Mock Trial competition, ending a 28-year history of participation. This was just days before the event and was directly connected to Dr. Morales unilaterally removing all contact with LVUSD, as outlined further below. The sudden pull left students and families scrambling, wondering whether their hard work would be recognized. The reason provided was that Las Virgenes Unified School District is not located in Ventura County. However, prior to this exclusion, VCOE had included AHS students because a portion of LVUSD does, in fact, reside within Ventura County boundaries. LVUSD has approximately 300 students whose Average Daily Attendance generates funding for the Ventura County Office of Education. Additional actions by Dr. Morales and Ms. Key have further reinforced the aforementioned exclusionary conduct that LVUSD has experienced over the past two years. Dr. Morales has prohibited me from attending superintendent meetings and has excluded members of my senior leadership team from professional and job-alike meetings that LVUSD staff had participated in collaboratively for decades. He also attempted to remove LVUSD from the SELPA structure; however, I understand that Mary Samples intervened and advised that such an action would be illegal, unethical, and harmful to students. We are very appreciative of Mary and her perspective that students should not be affected by the unfortunate stance taken by Dr. Morales and Ms. Key. Furthermore, LVUSD staff members have been excluded from the Ventura County Office of Education's professional development opportunities. For example, just this year, our Director of Secondary Education registered for and paid for a professional development training (Multilingualism Leadership Network) through VCOE in October 2025, received the associated books and materials, and then was abruptly informed that she would no longer be permitted to attend without explanation. These actions are inconsistent with the collaborative spirit and regional support role that county offices of education are intended to uphold. I also have significant concerns regarding the conduct of Dr. Morales and Ms. Key in relation to VCSSFA and their fiduciary responsibilities associated with that organization. Specifically, during a dispute between our insurance provider, ACSCIP, and VCSSFA, I believe Dr. Morales and Ms. Key failed to act in the best interests of the VCSSFA JPA and its member districts. It has additionally come to light that Dr. Morales and Ms. Key maintain a close personal relationship with VCSSFA CEO Elizabeth Atilano-Melvin. In my opinion, this relationship raises significant concerns about conflicts of interest and impartiality and may help explain the unusually personal and adversarial responses directed at LVUSD throughout this process. I believe these circumstances warrant careful independent review, particularly given the resulting litigation between ACSCIP and VCSSFA and the significant financial and legal exposure now facing VCSSFA and its member districts. In addition, I am concerned that Dr. Morales and Ms. Key failed to fulfill their legally required oversight responsibilities related to the District of Choice program (Education Code sections 48301 and 48307) involving Oak Park Unified School District. Specifically, I do not believe appropriate due diligence or monitoring occurred regarding the legally required 10% cap between Oak Park and Las Virgenes Unified School District. This action has put OPUSD and its very new superintendent in a position of extraordinary fiscal vulnerability. Since we are part of two counties, Los Angeles County Office of Education ultimately retained an independent external investigator, who found that Oak Park had exceeded the allowable cap, placing millions of dollars in ADA-related funding at risk for Oak Park Unified School District. Collectively, these issues raise broader concerns regarding governance, transparency, fiduciary responsibility, retaliation, a hostile work environment, and the overall culture and direction of the Ventura County Office of Education. Accordingly, I respectfully request that the Ventura County Office of Education Board of Education take the following actions: Recommit VCOE to being an agency of support, advocacy, and collaboration for all students, educators, and school districts across the region. 1. Retain an external and independent auditor to investigate potential financial malfeasance and fiduciary failures. 2. Retain an external and independent investigator to review allegations and concerns regarding retaliation, harassment, exclusionary practices, and hostile work environment culture. 3. Ensure appropriate oversight, compliance, and due diligence regarding the District of Choice program. 4. Reinstate Las Virgenes Unified School District leadership staff participation in superintendent meetings, job-alike sessions, professional development opportunities, and regional collaborative structures. 5. Recommit the Ventura County Office of Education to transparency, professionalism, and student-centered leadership.  Now, after some regular board meeting business, we got to board member and superintendent comments. César Morales chose to read a legally prepared statement. It essentially stated that both the undisclosed bonus and lifetime benefits were oversight errors, but that since he returned the money and cancelled the benefits for the cabinet staff (wow, bet that was a fun Tuesday morning huddle!) it didn’t actually cost the county anything … so all good right? Like it never happened! I beg to differ. We, the taxpayers in Ventura County, and the students — whom should be benefitting from robust funding for education and programming — are most certainly paying. Not only did the Board of Education have to retain legal counsel as a result of this fiscal malfeasance, so did César. They're not paying that out of their own pockets. Remember … that was César’s first response. He declared that he was getting a lawyer and that the devil was after him and asked for prayers. You know … if you weren’t behaving badly, you would have just turned over the public records as requested. This man has spent thousands of dollars on VCOE swag branded with his name on each and every item so that it could double as campaign materials when the time called for it. Don’t even get me started on the “work trips” he’s taken. There was no apology. His posture was slumped. Bro out here acting like he’s the victim. Victim of his own actions. The only reason we are here, talking about this, is because of HIS actions. It’s not “because” of me, or “because” it’s an election season. It’s because these rumors have been circulating forever and finally, brave whistleblowers trusted me enough to share information. These are no longer rumors. They are facts we are talking about.  And speaking of costs … Per VC Star’s succinct description: “The Ventura County Board of Education will investigate and audit its own agency after Superintendent of Schools César Morales admitted twice to granting himself and his top deputies pay and benefits that weren’t authorized by the board. The board voted 5-0 on May 26 to appoint two of its members to a committee to oversee an investigation that will include a full forensic audit and interviews with current and former staff of the Ventura County Office of Education. The two board members who volunteered for the committee, Michael Teasdale and Richard Lucas III, are tasked with appointing experts to investigate the office’s finances, management and compliance with state law.” The right move, but that certainly isn't at “no cost.” Trustees Teasdale and Lucas were both strong in their support of a full investigation, with Teasdale initiating the motion. He was direct in his commentary, citing broken trust and an impacted working relationship. Chair Rachel Ulrich also spoke to the necessity. While it received a 5-0 vote, you could tell it pained Trustee Flores to support it, and frankly ... I've got nothing for Arleigh Kidd. I didn't find any of his comments to be contributions worth including. I’m going to speak for a brief moment on how much Trustee Ramon Flores’ comments concerned me in general. Not only was he an apologist for César in his online statement — and remains a featured and ardent endorser — I felt his overall maneuvering at the board meeting really problematic. When the agenda item pertaining to filming board meetings came up (right now, only audio recordings are posted later online) … he focused his comments to questioning “What problem are we solving here? How will we prove ROI?” I said TRANSPARENCY. And, of course, my eloquent and smart friend Cindy Liu also said: ACCESSIBILITY. It’s wild to hear a trustee balking at video recordings or live streams of public meetings (while attempting to gaslight us into dismissing theft because we can’t “see into the heart of someone.”) He just kept asking about how we’d prove ROI. Maybe Flores could do a study as to the ROI of preventing approx. $9 million to top executives for lifetime benefits. Holler back at me on that Flores. Also, I’ve got another bone to pick. Flores also made a point of criticizing a community member, MEEEEE, for submitting a CRPA request, which VC Star also caught: “Flores also said he thinks some of the records requests are so broad they amount to a "denial of service" attack, a term for when a hacker floods a computer or network with repeated requests in order to overload the system with traffic. He described Weihe's requests for all payroll data and purchase orders as "someone trying to slow down the operation of this office." I realize there is a thing called blackmail. And I’ve been told César has got some on Flores. But he should be ashamed of allowing that to dictate how he shows up as a trustee. Asking for records VCOE’s OWN POLICIES say fall within purview, is not “slowing down the operation of this office.” I was especially surprised to hear as well, that Trustee Lucas had followed up yesterday morning about my remaining records requests and he was told they wouldn’t be complying with them at that point further. A PRA UPDATE! I followed up again this evening to the folks over at VCOE and this time I let them know that if I didn’t have a response by 10 a.m. tomorrow, I’d be pursuing full legal measures. And well golly gee. Guess who got an almost instant reply back? Now, the documents will be ready for me to pick up at noon tomorrow, I’ve been told. If my request is filled as requested, I should be receiving: 1) Payroll data exported from ESCAPE ERP for fiscal years 2020-21- to current for: * Misty Key, Consuelo Williams Hernandez, Juan Santos, Lisa Salas Brown, Cesar Morales * This should include all forms of compensation, including regular pay, one-time payments, travel reimbursements, stipends, etc. 2) An exported spreadsheet of purchase orders and expenditures for fiscal years 2020-21 to current.  SO WHAT'S NEXT1. More PRA docs tomorrow — let's see what we learn
2. Hopefully he's voted out on Tuesday, June 2 3. An investigation conducted by experts and professionals that the VCOE board hires 4. Whistleblower protection ... the threats and fear flying around the offices haven't stopped.
2 Comments
Beth Lovelace
5/28/2026 08:56:59 am
Thank you for all of your hard, amazing work. You are a rockstarette
Barbra Williamson
5/28/2026 09:30:08 am
Thank you for exposing this rascal. Leave a Reply. |
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