Hayward council candidate John Taylor is
also a member of the city’s school board.

HAYWARD CITY COUNCIL | Hayward City Council candidate John Taylor is taking credit for luring the school district’s superintendent who was later alleged to have attacked two members of the school board last fall.

While seeking the endorsement of the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee last week, Taylor, one of 10 candidates seeking four open seats on the City Council this June, said he personally recruited Hayward Unified School District Superintendent Stan “Data” Dobbs for the job three years ago.

Taylor, a current member of the school board, also described Dobbs as the “best superintendent in the country.”

Taylor, second from the right, at the Alameda County
Central Committee meeting Apr. 6 in San Leandro.

Hayward school board members William McGee and Luis Reynoso both filed police reports following the alleged closed session incident. No charges were filed, but the reports document Dobbs behaving in an aggressive manner toward both officials. The ordeal also precipitated other members of the five-person board to restrain Dobbs, according to the police reports.

During the endorsement meeting with county Democrats Taylor was also critical of a majority of the Hayward school board—including McGee, Reynoso and Board President Lisa Brunner—for “still creating chaos” for the last decade or more.

A variation of the criticism is common among Hayward business leaders and some elected officials, but the audience last Wednesday may not have taken kindly to criticizing a progressive Democrat like McGee, which the group had endorsed for re-election two years ago.

Taylor did not receive the central committee’s endorsement, which went to appointed incumbent Councilmember Elisa Marquez and newcomer Matt McGrath, a former department head for the City of Hayward.