DESERT TODAY
SPORTS
Danica Patrick makes
history in Indy Japan 300
Local residents
do their part
for Earth Day
SUNDAY
$1.25
April 20, 2008
mydesert.com/news updated throughout the day
WADE BYARS, THE DESERT SUN
Randy Caballero
A future
Olympian in
the valley?
Coachella Valley High
School senior Randy Caballero has a decision to
make. The talented boxer is in
line for the 2012 Olympics,
but can he wait that long
without going pro?
For now, the 17-year-old
will just have to settle for being the top amateur 112pound fighter in the United
States. C1
Good Morning!
TODAY’S VALLEY HIGH, LOW
82° 51°
Gomsi: I didn’t
forge credentials
Mosquito district manager denies
charges in e-mail to Pac Life director
BY KEITH MATHENY
THE DESERT SUN
Coachella Valley Mosquito and
Vector Control District’s general
manager emphatically denied ordering an agency employee to create counterfeit Pacific Life Open
tennis tournament passes in an email two days after the allegation
surfaced, according to records
obtained by The Desert Sun.
“The recent news reports of me
falsifying Pacific Life credentials
is totally wrong,” Donald Gomsi
wrote in a March 13 e-mail to
tournament director Steve Simon.
In the same e-mail, Gomsi
blasted a “disgruntled” fired employee for “false allegations”
against him and speculated
whether it was the ex-employee,
Brian Passaro, who made the alleged fake passes.
“We do use some similar badges
at our district and if the person
that was terminated tried to make
copies, I do not know,” Gomsi
said.
The e-mail offers the first indepth insights into Gomsi’s response to public allegations made
by Passaro during a March 11 district board meeting.
Among the accusations, Gomsi
is accused of directing public information officer Robert Mann to
create fake tennis passes last year
that Gomsi later distributed.
Gomsi, in a statement last
month, “categorically denied”
Passaro’s allegations, but has refused numerous requests for
comment by The Desert Sun.
The March 13 e-mail and others written and received by Gomsi
immediately before and after the
allegations were aired were obtained through the California
Public Records Act.
Gomsi was placed on paid administrative leave on March 17
while the district conducts an inPlease see VECTOR, A5
JAY CALDERON, THE DESERT SUN
Justin Martin, a teacher at Dr. Reynaldo J. Carreon Academy, works with
his students in Indio. Martin is among 118 Desert Sands Unified teachers
and counselors who received notices in March that their jobs are in limbo.
“The recent
news reports
of me
falsifying
Pacific Life
credentials is
totally
wrong…”
Donald Gomsi
Coachella Valley mosquito
district general manager
Read more e-mails and past Desert Sun reports at mydesert.com/vectorcontrol
Not bad
TODAY’S NEWS
Anniversary of bombing
Oklahomans and victims’ relatives paused Saturday at the Oklahoma City National Memorial to
remember the 168 killed 13
years ago in the bombing of a
federal building. A8
Teenager arrested in
DHS shooting death
A 19-year-old has been arrested
in the Friday shooting death of a
Desert Hot Springs girl. B1
IN TODAY’S PAPER
From: Donald E. Gomsi
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 9:23 AM
To: Steve Simon
Subject: News Reports
Hi Steve:
The recent news reports of me falsifying Pacific Life credentials is totally wrong. I
already get my two member passes for my wife and me to attend. Plus, when I assist
with the kids day, we have been given added grounds passes. I have let others use
these passes, including the person that made this allegation. So he must think I
made up the pass for him. This is not true. All I have done is let some staff from here
use the passes I was given. We do use some similar badges at our district and if the
person that was terminated tried to make copies, I do not know. This year, I am only
giving the two extra grounds passes to friends such as Allen Shapter if he needs one
and other close tennis friends.
This goes along with all the other false allegations he has made. He was terminated and is a disgruntled former employee. He has said just about everything bad
about me that he can think up. He was our Human Resources Director in charge of
hiring staff and also overseeing IT. Most of the allegations are things that he actually
was involved with, not me. Every manager would have made the same decision if
they had the facts I have about him.
This has always been a tough district to work at. The previous three managers
were fired on trumped up charges with the union behind all three. We will see how
this all comes out, but be assured that I don't make counterfeit badges.
Don Gomsi
Laugh with ‘Zits’
Check out the comics in today’s
paper, and pay particular attention to “Zits.” If you like it,
you’re in luck — starting Monday, Zits, starring Jeremy, Hector
and the gang from one of the
country’s hottest comic strips,
will be published every day in
The Desert Sun.
Advice
E2
Classified G1-16
Crossword E4
Horoscope G4
Lottery
B7
Obituaries B7
Pope to visit ground zero today
Opinion B8-9
Pets
E3
Scoreboard C9
Television
E5
Travel
E6
Weather
E6
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ETTORE FERRARI, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pope Benedict XVI sits as he celebrates Mass inside St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in New York, Saturday. Benedict winds up his trip to the
U.S. today a visit to ground zero and Mass at Yankee Stadium.
Visit mydesert.com to see a photo gallery of his visit.
The Desert
Sun is
printed
using
recycled
paper
© A Gannett Newspaper
FACES OF THE ECONOMY
Pope Benedict XVI
called for a new Pentecost, a spiritual renewal,
for the Roman Catholic
Church in America Saturday as he spoke to
about 3,000 clerics during a historic Mass at St.
Patrick’s Cathedral.
Benedict wraps up his
U.S. visit today with a visit to ground zero in New
York. He will then deliver
Mass at Yankee Stadium.
Read more about his
message to the clerics
Saturday on page A3
Budget crisis
turning dream
into nightmare
Teacher Justin Martin living in limbo
as state grapples with fiscal shortage
BY ERICA SOLVIG
THE DESERT SUN
Justin Martin found his calling
in teaching.
His entire face lights up when
the conversation switches to his
third-graders at Dr. Reynaldo J.
Carreon Junior Academy in Indio.
And his eyes twinkle with excitement when his students’
hands shoot up and they answer
his questions correctly.
Those kids, as he put it, are his
“inspiration.”
“The school I work with. The
team I work with. … I’m living a
dream right now,” Martin said.
But with the state’s $16 billion
budget crisis spilling over into every school district in California,
Martin’s dream is becoming a
nightmare.
He’s one of the 118 Desert
Sands Unified teachers and counselors who received the dreaded
“March 15 slips.”
He’s not fired. Instead, he’s on
notice that if the school district
can’t cushion a $13.4 million
funding shortfall, his job won’t
exist next year.
It’s nothing he did wrong. But
in this crumbling economy, impacting everyone from Realtors to
public servants, the dollars just
aren’t there.
It’s put him in limbo: Martin
comes to work every day and
gives his all in the classroom —
but at the end of the day, his best
might not be enough.
“At the end of the day, you’re
About this series
From the slowing real estate market
and sluggish home construction to
challenges in retail and tourism,
Coachella Valley’s residents and
workers are feeling the effects of the
nation’s economic slowdown.
In this occasional series — “Faces of
the Economy” — The Desert Sun will
focus on those struggling against, and
in some cases, succeeding despite
these forces.
Today’s story focuses on Justin
Martin, a third-grade teacher in Desert
Sands Unified who received a March
15 pink slip.
Do you have a story to share?
Contact Erica Solvig at
[email protected]
Wooing teachers
School districts nationwide are
posting ads in Southern California
newspapers hoping to hire teachers
warned they could be laid off. A9
tired and you’re in the car thinking that something wonderful
happened at work,” the 33-yearold said.
“And then you think: Will this
happen to me again?”
Martin spent three years teaching in the San Fernando Valley
before coming to Desert Sands
Unified.
It had all the makings of a long
career: An excelling district, near
his parents in Palm Desert, in a
Please see MARTIN, A9