San Mateo County superintendent questioned over conflict of interest

Over the years, board trustees were routinely told Littrell was behind Camp LEAD, but it wasn’t until 2022 that they learned she also had business interests in the program, they said during a meeting in February. Littrell is the founder and owner of Real Matters Inc., the parent company of Camp LEAD and another program featured in the county, Unity Days.

Joe Ross, a San Mateo County Board of Education trustee, said he discovered the connection by accident after searching the name Camp LEAD online and being directed to the Real Matters website. He and other trustees then discovered documents on which Littrell was the signatory for both the county Office of Education and Real Matters Inc. Despite frequently leading presentations about the program to the board, her affiliations with Real Matters Inc. were never disclosed, trustees asserted.

“It makes it look like we had a situation where the same person was on both sides of all the transactions involving Camp LEAD,” Ross said during the Feb. 15 meeting. “Unfortunately, the failure to disclose that and explain, I think is what’s cast a shadow, let me say an unfair shadow in many respects, over everyone involved.”

Questions and concerns

County Superintendent Nancy Magee, during the meeting, explained that under the county’s contract with Real Matters, the company agreed to forgo any payments from the county for the use of program materials as long as the material was used with fidelity. Littrell did not receive additional income from the partnership and performed tasks given to her by Magee, the superintendent said.

Given that the agreement was made through a no-cost contract, Magee said disclosing it to the board was not standard operating procedure. Attorneys also routinely reviewed the process and documents over the years, she said.

What funding was spent on Camp LEAD or Unity Days, including hiring contractors, was from targeted grants meant to be spent specifically on programs geared toward student mental health and social emotional learning. And while the office had to agree to only contract consultants affiliated with the company, Magee said those hired were experts who fit the legal definition to work as contractors.

Two consultants were paid $254,700 between February 2022 and September 2022 for their work on Camp LEAD and Unity Day. Littrell also received $62,700 for consultant work she did in late 2022 after leaving her post as deputy superintendent.

Magee also explained that Real Matters did not operate as a business, had no intentions of growing beyond the services it provided to the county or in San Diego and was only formed after the San Diego County Board of Supervisors offered to provide the program with grant funding and needed an entity to receive the funds.

“I just want to make it crystal clear that neither I nor the county office has violated any law or policy but also that I understand the board’s concerns and questions and their expressed desire to have more information in these very rare situations,” Magee said.

Ross and Trustee Chelsea Bonini, both lawyers by trade, called into question whether legal counsel knew Littrell was the CEO and CFO of Real Matters, asserting no lawyer would sign off on an agreement with a single party acting as the signer for both negotiating entities.

Bonini also pushed back on assertions that the contract did not need to be presented to the board given that a potential conflict of interest existed. And Ross said the board could have made different decisions, such as not working with Real Matters, had they known a for-profit company was behind the program.

Similarly, Trustee Hector Camacho said the issue has underscored his long-held concerns about contracting outside personnel to do community mentorship work. He also argued that Littrell could have opted to make the business a nonprofit rather than a for-profit and asserted that by working with Real Matters, the district was serving a promotional role for the company’s product.

“What makes me uncomfortable is that while that business entity existed in the background, no one can say what the benefits were of that business existing then,” Camacho said. “It being a for-profit and not a nonprofit just makes it very hard for me to understand the continued relationship with anything affiliated with Real Matters.”

Moving forward

During both the February meeting and a second discussion on the same issue March 1, Magee assured the board that staff was crafting a regulation to address potential conflict of interests by advising staff to disclose any potential business connections with a vendor the county is interested in working with and to recuse themselves from conversations and negotiations between both bodies.

Trustees plan to craft a policy of their own as well and agreed they’d like to move forward from the situation with a united front.

“I’m really glad and grateful we seem to be in agreement that whatever happened, that we’re going to move forward to do better and that’s really what the important thing is,” said Trustee Jim Cannon. “As educators, that’s what we’re doing all the time. We’re working with our students and they’re making mistakes and we’re saying let’s do better. We’re teaching and we’re forgiving and we’re understanding and we’re moving on.”

Magee said she thought concerns were settled a year ago after answering a number of questions from board members but she was still asked to present the information during a public meeting, prompting further discussion.

She and Littrell also now face complaints filed anonymously with the Fair Political Practices Commission regarding the issue. Magee said she was unaware of the formal complaint but that she expects someone will reach out if they take up the matter.

While Magee said she understands the importance of discussing the issue and implementing corrective measures, she also shared concerns that the at-times heated discussions distracted from the office’s goal of serving students.

Having participated in the program when she was a school teacher in San Diego in 1999, Magee said in a phone interview after the meeting that she knew Camp LEAD would be a beneficial program for local students. Since returning to in-person classes, Magee said more than 5,000 students across the county have participated in Camp LEAD programming.

“This is not necessarily helpful for kids, which is what my whole work is focused on,” Magee said. “That’s what I'm about and I regret that all this additional confusion came up because it does distract from what we’re all really focused on.”

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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