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Everything was going to be all right. Now it’s uncertain. 

In March, voters elected two allies of County Superintendent Sheila Jordan to the county board of education, including Berkeley delegate Jacki Fox Ruby. Many predicted the highprofile rift between the superintendent and board would come to an end, and that the county office would be out of the headlines. 

But not so. A nasty fight over the office’s $30 million 2002-2003 budget, a critical report by the Alameda County Civil Grand Jury and a looming computer software liability that could approach $2 million has disturbed the calm. 

The county office, which has broad jurisdiction over 18 local school districts and is directly responsible for six county education programs for “at-risk” students, is no stranger to budget fights. 

Last year, four representatives on the seven-member board squared off with Jordan and the board minority in a brutal, often personal fight over the 2001-2002 budget. The two sides eventually reached a compromise and passed the budget a month-and-a-half late.  

This year, Jordan submitted a $30 million budget to the board for its consideration. The board voted 5-2 on June 25 to approve the budget, with about $500,000 in revisions, a week before the state’s July 1 deadline. 

The board decided, among other things, to withhold $217,000 in payments to vendors until the district audited all of its contracts and to place a cap on salaries for administrators. 

The board majority painted the revisions as responsible oversight. But Jordan viewed the move as a hostile swipe at her authority.  

After the meeting, the superintendent declined to submit the June 25 budget to the state, preferring to wait until the two new members of the board, elected in March, took office in early July. 

The new board, aligned 5-2 in favor of Jordan, stripped the $500,000 in revisions made by the old board and passed the budget originally submitted by Jordan. The board also decided to place a series of policies approved by the old board under review. 

Jordan’s opponents have cried foul. 

“It was quite shocking to me,” said board member Gay Plair Cobb, discussing Jordan’s refusal to file the June 25 budget. “That’s a budget that was worked on for 12 months.” 

But Jordan said the move was appropriate given that new members of the board – Fox Ruby and Yvonne Cerrato, who represents Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore – had expressed interest in reviewing the budget. 

Fox Ruby, who unseated Jerome Wiggins – Jordan’s chief opponent on the board – defended the superintendent’s decision. She said the budget process should include newly-elected members. 

“There was an election. There was a reason one of the board members was defeated,” Fox Ruby said. “Get real.” 

But Wiggins said the budget reversal is simply evidence that the board has been “bought and paid for by Sheila Jordan,” making reference to the superintendent’s heavy contributions to the Fox Ruby campaign. 

Jordan has repeatedly asserted that she did not support Fox Ruby to gain control of the board, arguing that the new representative has an independent voice. 

The budget flap coincided with the release of an Alameda County Civil Grand Jury report that, among other things, found the county board ill-trained on budget matters and the administration in violation of a policy requiring it to bring contracts in excess of $25,000 before the board for review. 

Mike Lenahan, the county’s associate superintendent for business services, said the county is working to implement the contracts policy better.  

He said compliance with the policy, and the county’s general handling of contracts, has improved markedly since the office hired a half-time purchasing agent a year ago. 

But perhaps the most pressing concern for the county is a potential financial liability incurred through a 1997 “joint powers agreement” with 10 districts in its jurisdiction. 

Under the agreement, according to Lenahan, the county and the districts formed an independent agency to make a joint purchase of software that tracks student attendance and demographics. 

County officials declined to offer specifics on what went wrong with the deal because there may be litigation involved. But they said poor management of the agreement, inked by Jordan’s predecessor, may end up leaving the county with heavy expenses. 

Cobb says the staff has estimated a liability as high as $2 million for the county, but Lenahan said that number is too high. He declined to offer another figure. 

Jordan would not go into detail, but said the county’s finances are not jeopardized by the liability. 

Cobb said the county’s auditor, Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co., with offices in Pleasanton, has failed to include the item in its reports to the state Department of Education the past two years, suggesting that the auditor may be liable. 

Vavrinek, Trine did not immediately return calls for comment. 

Despite the recent turmoil, Fox Ruby said she hopes the newly-constituted board will be less divisive than its predecessor and make important strides for students. 

“If we are to raise the achievement level of all kids in Alameda County, we must establish a collaborative model for working together as board members,” she said.