John Taylor’s Hayward City Council campaign
includes Superintendent of Schools Stan Dobbs.

HAYWARD CITY COUNCIL | The Hayward school superintendent who attacked two members of the school board this fall is taking a role in the City Council campaign of another current school trustee.

Hayward superintendent Stan “Data” Dobbs is listed as treasurer for Hayward school board member John Taylor’s City Council campaign committee. Taylor filed to form a committee last month for one of four open seats on the Hayward City Council next June. There are currently eight likely candidates in the race, including all four incumbents.

Taylor’s school board seat is also up for re-election in November 2016 and he appears to be hedging his bets if the council campaign is unsuccessful. A separate school board committee was also filed with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, but without Dobbs as treasurer.

Meanwhile, the superintendent’s involvement in Taylor’s campaign underscores a cozy relationship

Stan Dobbs attacked two Hayward school board
members in September, but was not reprimanded.

that goes back to, at least, Dobbs’ eventful return to the school district three years ago following a brief stint in San Diego. Taylor was one of Dobbs’ biggest supporters leading to his hire. In one instance, following questions over the validity of Dobbs’ transcripts from Stanford were being investigated by the East Bay Citizen, Taylor often spoke on Dobbs’ behalf. Ultimately, it was Taylor, not Dobbs, who personally provided copies of the transcripts in question.

Then, following extensive news coverage of Dobbs’ attack on school board members William McGee and Luis Reynoso during a closed session meeting last September that included the filing of a police report over the incident, Taylor offered a vastly watered down account of the violent outburst to police.

“Taylor acknowledged that Dobbs lost his temper but that it was limited to a very brief, 7-10 seconds, verbal outburst which was not directed at one particular member of the board,” according to the police report. In fact, Taylor portrayed Reynoso verbally “attacking Dobbs’ employees,” two of which were in the room during the meeting. In addition, Taylor said no physical contact was instigated by Dobbs toward Reynoso and McGee.

Taylor’s testimony is quite different than the descriptions of the scene by McGee, Reynoso and, according to the police report, board member Lisa Brunner, which in varying ways acknowledged Dobbs hovered menacingly over McGee and Reynoso while leveling invective against each. In a school board meeting soon after, another school board member, Annette Walker, also described a violent event had occurred, but sided with Dobbs.

However, McGee told police, at one point, Dobbs yelled at him, “I’ve been dealing with motherfucking punks like you all day and I’m tired of it.” And while McGee said Dobbs did not make contact with him, he described Dobbs pushing Reynoso with an “aggressive chest bump.”

Meanwhile, Taylor, like the questioning of Dobbs’ transcripts two years prior, he again acted as the superintendent’s caretaker. According to the police report, Dobbs, who had repeatedly avoided calls by police to state his side of the story, was suddenly willing to cooperate at Taylor’s behest. “As I was preparing to leave this meeting,” the police officer wrote,”Dobbs called Taylor and I was able to speak to him.”

Ultimately, Dobbs issued a statement which never specifically apologized for his action, but included a fair amount of puffery regarding his resume and work for school children in Hayward. Dobbs was never officially reprimanded by the school board for his actions. The entire ordeal, however, will likely be campaign fodder over the next six months toward the June election.

Advertisement