Opinion
By Rich Lamken, 3-2-24 (updated 3-6-24)
Mr. Smith obviously was so interested in investigating me (see “Smith” article, below) that he both misspelled my name and misidentified my employer in Mendocino County, CA. I never worked for the “Mendocino school district”. What are the facts?
The county Grand Jury (GJ) in Mendocino was notorious for publishing baseless, unverified anonymous allegations made about senior members of management in public institutions. The county newspaper liked to splash these allegations on the front page. My turn came during my first year. I was interviewed by the GJ and asked a series of strange and unrelated questions. They refused to tell me why I was there or what the allegations were that were made about me. So much for due process. They also interviewed both the Associate Superintendent and the Superintendent of Schools, again with no mention of the allegations. The GJ published their “findings” after no investigation of the veracity of the allegations. All three of us were asked to respond and our responses published at the back of the newspaper.
The Superintendent made a public statement that he fully investigated these allegations and found them completely without merit. He stated that I was doing exemplary work and was a credit to the agency. Because of my expertise in organizational development, I was asked to lead a complete revamping of the agency’s structure starting with its core values. Passion, innovation, teamwork, customer service, accountability and integrity were the six we chose. We decide these values were all non-negotiable. Every present or future employee must live out these values every day. In the restructure, I was promoted to the position of the Assistant Superintendent for HR & Technology. I served on the Superintendent’s Cabinet for all six years there. I was a leader in the statewide professional organization of county Chief Human Resource officers. When I opted to relocate to be much closer to my wife in the SF bay area, I was chosen from a very large field of applicants to lead the HR department of a very prestigious school district.
It’s unfortunate that Mr. Smith feels it necessary to defame me based on allegations that were ultimately proven to be false, just to push his own agenda.
Nothing to see here, Mr. Smith, other than an accomplished HR professional/executive who was extremely successful in both the public and private sectors.
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This is what Mr. Lamken is responding to:

Here’s a more readable copy. We see that News-Leader has now dropped the “John Smith”, made it into their own article and dropped the paywall on this one, too 🙂 :
https://www.fbnewsleader.com/columns-newsletter/cdf-they-dont-practice-what-they-preach
3-6-24 update:
Mr. Lamken submitted this response to the News-Leader, but they declined to run it in today’s edition, so he sent them this:
Richard Lamken
From: Richard Lamken
To: Tracy Dishman
Cc:Foy Maloy
Wed, Mar 6 at 2:35 PM
Ms. Dishman,
On March, 1, 2024, you chose to publish a LTE from a John Smith, where he made scurrilous accusations about me with no real substantive evidence. He inferred that “my concern for the Nassau County School District is because I am so corrupt”. I submitted a response on Saturday, March 2nd and a modest revision on March 3rd. You chose to publish neither and yet you published a letter from Michael Miller that was submitted 24 hours after mine. You previously have talked to me about publishing them in sequence which wasn’t the case with today’s issue. When you allow an ad hominem attack and the one attacked submits a response, you have an obligation to print it in the next edition. Here is what I submitted on Sunday and what needs to run on Friday. I await your response.
Richard Lamken
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Also read:
Rich Lamken is retired and lives with his wife, Meg in Fernandina Beach. He is a retired Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Human Resources/Technology. He was the Schools Division Lead of Common-Sense, Fernandina Beach and is the President of the Baptist Nassau Hospital Auxiliary.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.