A local resident has filed a lawsuit accusing the elected Orange County Board of Education of illegally appointing trustee Tim Shaw to a seat he had vacated a month earlier, and is asking a judge to order a special election in order to fill the position.

A civil complaint filed this week in Orange County Superior Court alleges that state law should have prevented the school board from voting Shaw back onto the seat he recently had vacated during the same term he had been elected to serve.

Shaw, who works in real estate and teaches political science at Rio Hondo College, had been serving on both the school board and the La Habra City Council, until a lawsuit from a constituent argued that his being on both elected bodies at the same time represented a conflict of interest.

In November, Shaw stepped down from his seat on the school board, denying he had a conflict of interest but describing the legal battle as potentially costly.

Then, in December, Shaw left his job on the City Council, and hours later was voted back by his colleagues on the school board to the seat that had been vacated by his own earlier resignation.

The lawsuit challenging Shaw’s appointment was filed by Michael Sean Wright, a local resident and founder of Wound Walk OC who is known for his work with the homeless.

“The public should be disturbed to find out the Board of Education is not following the law,” said attorney Lee Fink, who is representing Wright. “I think they should be concerned about whether there were games being played about the appointment process.”

Fink also questioned the school board’s commitment to transparency during the appointment process, which saw Shaw chosen to fill the vacant seat over a half-dozen other applicants that included two college professors, two teachers and a PTA officer. The attorney alleged that Shaw’s resignation from the City Council wasn’t made public until an hour into the school board meeting, and accused school board members of having improper closed session discussions out of the public’s view before appointing Shaw to the vacant seat on a 3 to 1 vote.

“It certainly seems like there is something afoot,” Fink said. “But more importantly, whether or not (the board) knew, there is a clear prohibition in a state law about appointing someone who has resigned from that position. Once (Shaw) made that choice, that is a choice you have to respect and let the process play out openly and transparently, rather than try to circumvent it”

The lawsuits asks a judge to find Shaw’s appointment unlawful, to declare his seat vacant, and to order the board of the superintendent of schools to call a special election.

Shaw denied the allegations in the lawsuit, calling it “a profound waste of taxpayer money.”

“It’s already Feb. 3 and we’re having an election on June 7,” Shaw said. “And they’re trying to wedge a special election before then? Special elections are expensive.”

Shaw said the law cited in the claim does not apply to the Board of Education because it refers to a governing body for a city, county or district.

“The county Board of Education is none of those things,” Shaw said.

“And let’s not lose sight of the fact that I won the election for Orange County Board of Education, district four, in 2020 fair and square,” he added. “These people are trying to overturn an election result they didn’t like through legal harassment.”

The Orange County Board of Education does not have direct oversight of any school district in the county, but has emerged in recent years as a high-profile and controversial opponent of pandemic health mandates, critical race theory and other hot-button issues.

The school board has also become involved in an increasing number of legal battles. Along with lawsuits against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order requiring students to wear masks in schools, the board is currently is in the midst of a legal feud with a county committee overseeing school board election maps on who has the power to adjust voter redistricting.

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