Dear Former Los Angeles Biocitizen Community,

Thank you for the support you gave Biocitizen as it attempted to share the gift of Field Environmental Philosophy programming with you.

We would like you to know that the LA school closed because the three former directors bankrupted it, and concealed its financial problems from the executive board until it was too late to take corrective actions. Two of them were on the executive board !!!, which would have made it very easy to address and solve these problems.

The directors’ malfeasance became obvious only after they had secretly decided to quit in August and September—without preparing and training new directors.

SO: our LA school closed not because the executive board suddenly decided to close it. It closed because the 3 directors destroyed it and ran.

Had they not abandoned the school in the secretive and selfish way they did, new directors would have taken over with the full backing of the executive board.

When they abandoned the school, they left us with a $6000 fine for a labor violation that they did not report to the executive board. It was not a pleasant surprise, but it was characteristic of their bad dealings.

They also cashed a $5000 Highland Park Neighborhood Purpose Grant check meant to fund Field Environmental Philosophy walks with economically disadvantaged youth.

They never provided the service, victimizing everybody involved—except themselves. They pocketed the money and ran. With deepest apologies and shame, we paid the school district back for the money the former directors enriched themselves with.

An unrestricted grant check of $2500 was received by the directors, but was never cashed and became invalid, exacerbating the financial ruin they caused.

The three former directors left at least $80,000 in debts, and multiple business accounts without login information, when they fled what they destroyed. It has taken months to clean up their mess. Our school in Massachusetts is paying off their debts.

Their destruction is not limited to Los Angeles. They damaged all our other schools and the communities that support them.

There were 4 LA residents on the executive board who formed a voting majority and acted as a bloc, berating other members when they criticized the LA directors lack of governance and mismanagement of the school. LA board members prevented sound governance of their own school. They failed to act on the emergency occurring under their noses, and are responsible also for the bankruptcy, the absconding and the malfeasance.

Unbeknownst to non-LA board members, they arranged with the 3 directors to have their salaries increased to about $100,000 a year, with paid vacations, at the very time they were destroying the school. Getting raises while destroying the school—we did not find this out until after the LA board members resigned in disgrace.

Had they been less selfish, LA would still have Biocitizen programming.

We have issued this statement so you know what happened.

We recommend you steer clear of these people and whatever fake Biocitizen they are trying to sell for their own personal profit. (Biocitizen is a non-profit whose mission is to serve the public. Their fake Biocitizen is for profit and its board members hold stocks in the company.) They have bad ethics and can not be trusted.

LA has an excellent Field Environmental Philosophy school called Everlasting Education run by Michael Galano, who co-founded Biocitizen LA in 2017 but left to develop STEAM-oriented curricula. We endorse it and recommend you give it a try.