A termination-for-cause hearing for the superintendent of Cripple Creek-Victor School District RE-1 could be held in public.

The board voted unanimously Monday night to direct the district’s lawyer to negotiate with Superintendent Les Lindauer’s attorney to determine if that is acceptable.

Lindauer can refuse.

“Either side can request a closed hearing,” RE-1 board President Tim Braun said.

Board members also want the judicial hearing to be conducted in Cripple Creek, where the district is headquartered.

“We want to do this so it’s transparent,” Braun said.

The board in May suspended Lindauer, who’s been superintendent for four years, from all duties and launched an internal investigation that resulted in 13 charges that board members allege constitute violations of district policies and procedures.

The complaints include intimidating and threatening board members with accusations of election fraud, violating the confidentiality of executive sessions, verbally attacking staff and parents, improperly hiring and giving raises to employees and having an inappropriate website on his computer.

Lindauer refutes all of the accusations. He told The Gazette last month that he has done nothing wrong and is being scapegoated by an unscrupulous board. He called the charges “false and misleading.”

Lindauer requested the judicial hearing. A judge will issue a recommendation, but the board has the final say over Lindauer’s job status.

Meanwhile, Patty Waddle, the district’s former Head Start director, is continuing with her quest to oust board member Dennis Jones, who she says does not live in the district he has represented since he was recruited and appointed to fill a vacant seat in 2012.

Jones won the seat in the 2013 election and again in 2017. Waddle ran against Jones last year. She said Lindauer told a friend of hers after he was suspended that Jones does not live in the district.

That matter is one of the 13 charges against Lindauer.

Members say Lindauer threatened them with election fraud and demanded they either reinstate him or settle his contract with a two-year payout of his $108,000 annual salary.

Jones said he ran in the district that the then-election official told him he lived in.

“As far as the board is concerned, he’s been appointed and elected to that seat three times, and if she believes he’s not in that district – and it’s very hard to tell depending on which map you use – the board will not take action,” Braun said Tuesday. “She has to take it to court.”

Complicating the issue is that voters approved a redistricting measure on the 2017 ballot to switch from all district-represented board members to one seat from Cripple Creek, one seat from Victor and three at-large.

Jones’ seat is now an at-large seat, according to the ballot language, effective immediately.

But Waddle says under Colorado statute that doesn’t mean Jones’ seat automatically becomes at-large until the next election.

The board has interpreted the statute to mean Jones does hold an at-large seat and that if Waddle was going to contest any of the elections, she had to have done it within a month.

“I don’t know what she’s going to accomplish except keep throwing problems in the mix,” Braun said.

Waddle said Tuesday that she wants Jones to step down. If not, her choices are to take legal action or organize a recall effort. She said she’s researching the latter.

“If it was a mistake, he should have resigned immediately,” Waddle said. “I think they are just manipulating the statute. The board needs to do what’s right. Otherwise, it’s the Boston Tea Party all over. All we need is a harbor.”

On a side note, Braun said no one has applied for the seat vacated at the May 21 board meeting by member Tana Rice, who moved out of the district.

Contact the writer: 719-476-1656