THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608110073
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 66 lines
The misdemeanor malfeasance trial of School Board member Tim Jackson and former board member Ferdinand V. Tolentino begins Monday in the city's Circuit Court.
In February, a special grand jury investigating a $12.1 million school district deficit for the 1994-95 fiscal year called on seven board members to resign or face malfeasance charges. It is illegal in Virginia for public bodies to overspend their budgets.
Although all denied malfeasance, five board members resigned.
Jackson and Tolentino were the only holdouts, refusing to resign because they said they wanted to defend their names. They will be tried together.
Judge Glen Tyler of the Eastern Shore will hear the case, brought by Commonwealth's Attorney Robert J. Humphreys.
Tyler was tapped after local judges removed themselves because of their role in appointing replacements for elected board members who step down.
If convicted of malfeasance, both Jackson and Tolentino would face a $250 fine.
But the dollar figure belies the enormous amount of public attention the episode has attracted - as well as the ill will it has generated among some City Council and School Board members.
How the case's outcome will influence the current board or the administration of new Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney remains to be seen.
Humphreys described his strategy as simple.
``This is a case where there are no issues,'' he said. ``The facts are admitted.
``What we have to prove is that Tim Jackson and Ferdinand Tolentino were on the Virginia Beach School Board. They're not going to contest that. We have to prove that $344.3 million was appropriated by the city of Virginia Beach to the Virginia Beach schools for the fiscal year 1994-95. They're not going to contest that. The numbers are there.
``We have to prove that the School Board spent more than that without permission of City Council. They don't contest that either. And the only other issue is that (Tolentino) and (Jackson) voted to do that.''
Jackson and Tolentino have argued that they didn't know spending plans they supported ultimately would help put the district in the red.
The council has since paid off the deficit.
A separate trial is set for September on conflict-of-interest and failure-to-disclose charges related to the two men's participation in a board vote to have the school district pay some of their attorneys' fees.
Jackson, 35, is an associate minister at Rock Church in Virginia Beach and a former city police officer. Jackson was elected to the board in 1994; his term will expire in two years.
The council appointed Tolentino to the board in December 1993, a few months before the city's first School Board election in 1994.
Tolentino, 27, was the board's first Filipino-American member. MEMO: Staff writer Tom Holden contributed to this report.
Related profiles of Tim Jackson, Ferdinand Tolentino and Robert
Humphreys are published on page B3. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Ferdinand V. Tolentino
Tim Jackson
Robert J. Humphreys
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD BUDGET DEFICIT TRIAL by CNB