On Tuesday the Osceola County School Board voted to take action against board member Jon Arguello after a complaint was filed saying he had intimidated and engaged in hostile behavior against former state representative and Osceola School District lobbyist Michael Horner. This after Horner refused on numerous occasions to financially support Arguello’s sister, Jennifer Arguello, who is running for the seat on the board currently held by school board Chairwoman Terry Castillo.
At the meeting, the board voted 4-0 to sanction Arguello and to send an external investigation’s findings to Governor Ron DeSantis, to decide the fate of Arguello.
The findings by Attorney David Delaney stated that “Mr. Arguello did engage in intimidating and hostile acts against the vendor’s business interests that appear beyond the scope of his duty as a Board Member of oversight of School District contracts and funds.”
Now, a second complaint has been sent to the school district that shows Arguello had reached out to the school district’s Human Resources department, requesting information about a district employee and inquiring about that employee’s employment status. That employee was called into a Human Resources meeting, at the request of Jon Arguello, to discuss why the employee had not yet retired, according to the complaint letter. The district employee, who says he has never met Arguello, believes he may be a victim of discrimination by the school board member and is questioning why Arguello requested the employee’s personnel files.
“These investigations under scrutiny fall very short of any ethical standard, much like many of the school board members. here,” Arguello said at the Tuesday board meeting in response to fellow board member Clarence Thacker’s statement and motion to send the investigation’s findings to the governor.
“The Governor is not going to remove me over this BS. I think he sees straight through your BS, even the BS through the mask you are wearing. ‘I’m not ashamed to tell Mr. Horner to go to hell. I’m not ashamed to tell you Mr. Thacker to go to hell, not just over this or anything regardless,” Arguello said as he responded to the accusations being leveled against him.
Arguello went on to say, “Mr. Horner if you’re watching or you’re listening, write me a contribution tonight and I will still ask for your contract to be terminated because no one who represents what Mr. Horner represents in my opinion deserves to be a member of a community that’s serving their students.” Mr. Arguello also said, “ I believe that anyone who has taken a contribution from Mr. Horner should abstain from voting on this issue.”
School Board member Julius Melendez commented, “No school board member should be above the law, and no school board member should be treated any differently than any other employee that’s here.”
The Governor’s office has received the letter from the school district. Positively Osceola will publish an update about the governor’s decision as well as more information on the second complaint that was sent to the district pertaining to Jon Arguello.
