Suit Alleges Retaliation by Official Against Election Foe : Courts: A candidate who lost to county Supt. of Schools John F. Dean in November says his contract wasn't renewed because of ill will. Dean says the decision was based on restructuring.

Suit Alleges Retaliation by Official Against Election Foe : Courts: A candidate who lost to county Supt. of Schools John F. Dean in November says his contract wasn’t renewed because of ill will. Dean says the decision was based on restructuring.

By DAVID REYES

April 29, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SANTA ANA — A man who challenged and lost to Orange County Supt. of Schools John F. Dean in last November’s election has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Dean of political retaliation by not renewing his contract.

Darrell Opp, head of a vocational program for county schools since 1985, is seeking $5 million in damages in a wrongful-discharge lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, said Opp’s attorney, Mark S. Rosen.

Dean denied the allegations and said that his decision not to renew Opp’s contract was based on a department-wide restructuring.

“His position was part of the restructuring,” Dean said, adding that the charges of political retaliation were “ridiculous.”

Opp is still employed as head of the Central County Regional Occupation Program, which serves the Orange, Garden Grove and Santa Ana school districts. But Rosen said Opp has been notified that Dean has decided not to renew Opp’s contract, which runs through 1998.

Opp has contended that Dean’s decision was intended to get rid of a potential political threat and that Dean lacks authority to rule on Opp’s contract, Rosen said.

“Dean doesn’t have authority,” Rosen said. “It is the superintendent’s round table that can make the decision, and it’s made up of superintendents of Orange, Garden Grove and Santa Ana school districts. As long as (Opp) has been there, he has been supervised and evaluated by the three district superintendents where his ROP program serves.”

Rosen said Opp is not seeking money or damages against the three superintendents.

But Dean said Opp’s contract is vague on Opp’s contract date of renewal and is largely open to interpretation.

As for the superintendent’s round table, Dean said each superintendent had made evaluations of Opp’s performance.

“But mine is the only signature on that contract,” Dean said. “He works for the county department of schools.”

Ron Walter, superintendent of the Garden Grove Unified School District, said Dean did not consult with him before terminating the contract, and that Dean’s authority over the contract “is a legal issue yet to be resolved.”