School Board Plans Closed-Door Discussion Over Member’s Arrest

The Moreno Valley school board plans a closed-door meeting next week, apparently to discuss the arrest of a board member for suspicion of attempted murder, it was reported today.

Open government advocates told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that the discussion should be in public, under the state’s open meeting law.

Board President Tracey Vackar told the newspaper that an executive session — with the public excluded — will be held to discuss issues surrounding possible legal action against the still-jailed school board member, Mike Luis Rios.

An open government advocate, Terry Francke, said a closed-door discussion about Rios is inappropriate. “Members may have some concern about the trouble he is in, but that is not a matter for official attention, particularly in a closed session,” Francke told the Press-Enterprise.

Rios, 41, was arrested Thursday for suspicion of attempted murder and witness intimidation in connection with an alleged attack outside his home at 2:20 a.m. Monday. Rios is charged with firing gunshots at two men who had followed him home from a nightclub.

The board member claimed to deputies he had argued at a nightclub with two men earlier in the evening, the men followed him home, and was shot at by one of them, detectives said. Witnesses contradicted that account, according to detectives, and determined there was sufficient evidence to arrest Rios.

Rios is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

He was elected to the Moreno Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees in November 2010, campaigning as “the people’s candidate” and receiving the most votes in an eight-way race.