More Subpoenas May be Issued in Case Against COD

Palm Springs Considers Issuing More Subpoenas in its Case Against COD

PALM SPRINGS — This city is still considering whether or not to subpoena additional witnesses in its case against College of the Desert for withholding public documents during the previous administration, City Attorney Jeffrey Ballinger told Uken Report.

Discovery is expected to be wrapped up in September, he said. Discovery is a phase of pretrial procedure in a lawsuit in which each party can obtain evidence from other parties 1by using methods of discovery such as interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for admissions and depositions. Discovery allows each side to build evidence for their arguments at trial.

To date, former Superintendent/President Martha Garcia has not been subpoenaed, according to Ballinger.

At least 14 individuals, primarily leaders, and companies associated with College of the Desert have been served subpoenas in the longstanding lawsuit the city of Palm Springs filed against COD over the college allegedly not turning over public documents.

The city’s outside legal counsel handling the Public Records Act request served the subpoenas. The subpoenas were filed in California Superior Court, Riverside County, Palm Springs Courthouse. All of the party notices were sent April 17, with the exception of one, which was sent April 18.

The next steps would be for College of the Desert to provide the city with additional discovery responses, Ballinger said. In addition, the city is anticipating some of the witnesses providing the city additional documents.

In short, this case is about College of the Desert’s previous administration “willfully failing to provide documents to the public,” which they are required to keep and produce upon request, Ballinger said.

As the city ponders whether to issue more subpoenas in the case, the COD Board of Trustees is expected this month to discuss the College’s email retention policy.

In June, Stuart Davis, executive director of Educational Technology, sent out an email, saying that “effective July 25, 2024, Information Technology will be setting email retention to three years of history, which reduces retention by four years.”

Trustee Joel Kinnamon, former superintendent/president, successfully halted the mass email dump until the board could discuss it.