Court Opinion

ID: 9755093
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:24:31.189757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:02.458762
License: Public Domain

Atcheson, J.,
concurring: I concur in the judgment affirming the decision of the Shawnee County District Court that, in turn, upheld the administrative ruling of the Kansas Board of Education more than 2 years ago to deny a teaching license to Douglas S. Wright based on the aggravated circumstances of the conduct that led to his imprisonment for perjury and felony theft and to his disbarment. I do so reluctantly and largely because of the limited role the courts play in reviewing decisions of administrative bodies. In many respects, the Board supports its determination with factual distortions, specious legal interpretation, and lofty sounding rhetoric signifying little of substance. But shorn of those deficiencies, the decision still contains enough to support the denial given the statutory and regulatory standards governing teacher licensure and the decidedly deferential judicial review of administrative actions.
The majority opinion sets forth the facts and the law in detail, and I do not intend to repeat that discussion. Nor will I dissect the inadequacies of the Board’s written findings and conclusions. That exercise would considerably extend my comments to no particularly worthwhile end. I do, however, offer some examples.
*1064A short version of tire facts helps outline why the Board’s decision must be affirmed. While practicing law in Topeka, Wright repeatedly took money from the checking account of his great aunt without her permission and for his own use. He had agreed to manage her financial affairs because she was no longer competent to do so. Wright undertook that task without charging a fee for his services, although a lawyer customarily might, especially for a non-familial client. An investigation showed that Wright had improperly taken money from the account 43 times during a 4-year period beginning in 1998. The total amount was just over $86,000. The investigation also showed that Wright had repaid about $57,000 in 1998 and 1999. In re Wright, 276 Kan. 357, 358-61, 76 P.3d 1018 (2003). Nonetheless, Wright’s actions amounted to felony theft. Wright also took more than $12,000 from an estate without authorization — also felony theft. In 2001, Wright served as the secretary-treasurer of the Topeka Lawyers Club, a social organization. He took $3,000 from the club’s treasury without authorization in late 2001. The club’s president became aware money was missing, confronted Wright about the shortfall, and Wright repaid the organization in 2002. 276 Kan. at 361-62. The Kansas Disciplinary Administrator began investigating Wright’s conduct for possible violations of the Kansas Code of Professional Responsibility governing lawyers licensed to practice in this state. In the course of that investigation, Wright made false statements under oath amounting to criminal perjury.
In July 2003, Wright pled guilty to and was convicted of four counts of felony theft and one count of perjury in Shawnee County District Court. He was sentenced to 1 year in prison and was released after serving about 10 months. The district court released Wright from supervision in January 2006. And the convictions have since been expunged. In September 2003, the Kansas Supreme Court revoked Wright’s license to practice law because he had taken money that didn’t belong to him and had lied about his actions. 276 Kan. at 371. With that background, I turn to the Board’s authority to license teachers.
As permitted by K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 72-1388, the Board has adopted an administrative rule regulating the issuance, suspension, *1065and revocation of teaching licenses. K.A.R. 91-22-la. That regulation controls Wright’s application for a license. The Board may deny a license to an applicant based on “misconduct or other just cause.” K.A.R. 91-22-la(a) (stating grounds for suspending, revoking, or publicly censuring a license holder); K.A.R. 91-22-la(b) (Board may deny a license for the reasons in subsection [a]). The regulation outlines specific circumstances amounting to misconduct or just cause including conviction of any felony or particular misdemeanors and certain described noncriminal conduct. K.A.R. 91-22-la(a).
None of the enumerated examples applies to Wright, but the list is not exclusive. The ground for felony convictions does not apply to Wright because the Shawnee County District Court expunged his convictions during the course of the administrative proceedings. Under K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 21-4619(f), an order of expungement requires that the party “shall be treated as not having been . . . convicted ... of the crime” subject to certain listed exceptions. The exceptions include applications for law licenses, jobs in the gaming industry, and law enforcement positions. In crafting the exceptions, the legislature carefully surveyed various professions and fields to determine those requiring consideration of criminal convictions notwithstanding expungement. Neither application for a teaching license nor employment as a teacher is among the exceptions in K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 21-4619(f)(2) (A-K). The Board, therefore, could not consider Wright’s expunged felony convictions to be disqualifying in and of themselves. In other words, the fact of conviction could not be used to deny Wright a teaching license because that would be inconsistent with treating him as if he had not been convicted and, thus, would be contrary to the expungement statute.
But the Board contends the factual circumstances giving rise to the criminal charges against Wright and prompting his disbarment may be considered to the extent they constitute misconduct or just cause under K.A.R. 91-22-la independent of the convictions. The language of the regulation supports the Board’s position in that some of the listed bases for denying a license do not entail criminal convictions. In short, a felony or other criminal conviction is not a *1066necessaiy condition for denial of a license under K.A.R. 91-22-la. And bad behavior amounting to misconduct or just cause may be considered regardless of any resulting criminal conviction or the later expungement of that conviction.
As provided in K.A.R. 91-22-la(g), the Board may reconsider the denial or revocation of a license upon the applicant’s showing that he or she has been rehabilitated. The regulation provides: “The evidence shall demonstrate that the grounds for the denial or revocation have ceased to be a factor in the fitness of the person seeking licensure.” K.A.R. 91-22-la(g). And it lists eight considerations for making that determination: (1) “the nature and seriousness” of the applicant’s improper conduct; (2) the extent the applicant would have “opportunity to engage in conduct of a similar type” if the Board granted a license; (3) “the present fitness of the applicant to be a member of the [teaching] profession”; (4) the applicant’s behavior following the license denial or revocation; (5) the length of time since the denial or revocation; (6) the age and maturity of the applicant when he or she engaged in the improper conduct; (7) “the number of incidents of improper conduct”; and (8) the applicant’s discharge from probation or receipt of a pardon or an order of expungement of any conviction. The Board evaluated Wright’s application under subsection (g) although he had not been licensed as a teacher. Wright applied well after the wrongful conduct creating the impediment to his licensure, making his circumstances comparable to someone who had lost or been denied a license and then sought reconsideration under that subsection. The Board’s approach in that regard seems reasonable.
Throughout its written findings, the Board emphasized the seriousness of the misconduct based on the repeated instances of theft over an extended period coupled with Wright’s lying under oath to minimize certain aspects of that behavior. And that is a valid point. The crimes entailed chronic dishonesty, notwithstanding mitigating factors such as Wright’s repayment of some of the stolen money during the course of the conduct and his considerable efforts at rehabilitation since. The misconduct is qualitatively more serious than a single felony shoplifting conviction for stealing a computer worth $1,050. See K.S.A. 21-3701(b)(3) (theft of prop*1067erty worth more than $1,000 classified as a felony). But the Board largely fails to tie those concerns to specific, comprehensible reasons Wright should be denied a license or — in the words of the regulation — to his “fitness” to be licensed.
Wright has indicated he would plan to teach government, civics, or related subjects at the secondary school level. Nobody questions his technical competence in the classroom. By all accounts, Wright would ably impart knowledge to and stimulate the thinking of the students in his charge. The Board specifically found: “The Applicant’s competence to teach is not an issue in this matter.” But there is more to teaching than classroom performance. Especially among college-bound secondary-school students, grades and recommendations become important considerations. Teachers necessarily must fulfill those ancillary duties honestly and with integrity. Wright’s background could be problematic in that regard. Although Wright suggests that as a teacher he would not function as a fiduciary with access to large amounts of money as he did in his law practice, teachers commonly act as advisors to student groups and organizations that often engage in fundraising activities. The amount of money involved in those situations almost certainly would be less; Wright’s misconduct might still be of concern. And teachers presumably deal with expense reimbursements or other uses of district funds from time to time. Again, Wright’s misconduct might be troublesome there. All of those considerations are peripheral to the classroom abilities of a teacher, but they figure in the duties of the job. The Board, however, never identified particularized considerations of that sort linked to its stated concern about the magnitude of Wright’s misconduct.
In his thorough opinion, Judge Hill sets forth at length the judicial standard for reviewing administrative actions under K.S.A. 77-621. The standard is especially deferential to the administrative determination. Given that deference, I am constrained to agree that this court must affirm the Board’s decision to deny Wright a license. But the Board’s decisionmaking comes perilously close to being legally deficient notwithstanding the laxity of K.S.A. 77-621.
The record evidence and the Supreme Court’s findings in the disbarment proceeding against Wright (of which the Board and *1068this court may take notice) provide substantial factual support for the conclusion that the misconduct here was unusually severe both in breadth and duration. In turn, those facts and that conclusion are sufficient to warrant the Board’s determination to deny Wright a license in 2009, barely 3 years after his release from court supervision — the Board’s ultimate decision in this matter. That ultimate decision also comports with the criteria laid out in K.A.R. 91-22-la. Based on what is before us, the pivotal facts establishing Wright’s misconduct are supported in the evidence. The Board applied the controlling law. And given the comparative gravity of the misconduct and the brevity of the time following Wright’s exit from the criminal justice process, the ultimate decision cannot be characterized as unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Hainline v. Bond, 250 Kan. 217, 218-21, 824 P.2d 959 (1992), loosely supports the Board. In that case, the Supreme Court applied a predecessor regulation to uphold a 140-day suspension of a teacher on grounds of “immorality” after he was placed on diversion for burglary and theft and, thus, avoided criminal conviction. In short, the Board’s denial of Wright’s license request survives review under K.S.A. 77-621 and must be upheld.
Almost conspicuously absent from the record is any evidence of how the Board has treated similarly situated applicants for teaching licenses. Maybe there aren’t any. If, however, the Board had granted licenses to arguably comparable candidates, the decision here would have a look of arbitrariness.
Assuming Wright has continued his unblemished postrelease behavior and he were to reapply for a license next year, the Board would have to offer a less tenuous connection between the facts and a license denial. Indeed, in 2009, the Board itself noted Wright’s “repeated acts of dishonesty” while a lawyer “demonstrate^] a lack of fitness to engage in the profession of teaching and is sufficient and just cause for denying his application for licensure at this time.” (Emphasis added.) Depending upon Wright’s circumstances 3 years later and a decade removed from the misconduct itself, that rationale would be far more difficult to justify.
*1069As I have noted, much of the Board’s intermediate reasoning navigating from the facts of Wright’s misconduct to the ultimate determination it reached in 2009 was slipshod, impertinent, or erroneous. Those positions could not sustain the Board’s conclusion then and only erode with the passage of time. Illustrative of the specious arguments:
• The Board castigates Wright for saying the convictions for severity level 7 felony thefts, severity level 9 felony thefts, and severity level 9 felony perjury are not that serious. All are nonperson felonies. And by classification in the Kansas Criminal Code, they are, in fact, among the lowest grade felonies. The Board harped on Wright’s error in suggesting the Code establishes 9 felony levels for nondrug crimes when there actually are 10; it characterized what appears to be a simple misstatement as a deliberate and calculated effort to lie about the seriousness of the crimes. The Board repeatedly refers to the criminal prosecution of Wright and the disbarment proceedings against him as if they entail different conduct when they pertain to the same events. The Board disputes Wright’s suggestion that he voluntarily paid full restitution to the victims of the thefts. It referred to the Supreme Court’s order in the disbarment proceeding that Wright should pay his great aunt an additional $13,628 without pointing out that nearly $11,000 of that amount reflected interest the court determined should be included in a make-whole remedy and the balance entailed a small amount for overdraft charges and what appeared to be an accounting error as to the loss. See In re Wright, 276 Kan. at 371.
• The Board also relied on K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 72-1397 in denying Wright a license. The applicability of that statute is, at best, debatable. The statute precludes the Board from issuing or renewing licenses to persons convicted of certain crimes. K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 72-1397(a). But the Board may do so for persons convicted of other crimes, including theft and perjuiy, if they have been “rehabilitated.” K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 72-1397(b), (c). Even if the Board finds an individual to be rehabilitated, it appears to have the authority to deny a license based on factors quite similar to those outlined in K.A.R. 91-22-la(g). Because Wright’s convictions were expunged during the administrative hearing process, K.S.A. 2008 *1070Supp. 72-1397 would seem to be inapplicable and, thus, inapposite as justifying a denial of a license.
But one of the factors the Board may consider is “discharge from probation, pardon or expungement.” K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 72-1397(c)(6). Inclusion of the word “expungement” could be read as allowing the Board to ignore the comprehensive procedures for and legal effects of expungement laid out in K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 21-4619(f). But it seems unlikely to me that the legislature meant to craft such an exception to the expungement statute by including a single word among others in a list of factors in an unrelated statute. Had the legislature meant to include teaching as one of the fields in which otherwise expunged convictions could be considered in hiring or retention decisions, it would have identified teaching in the comprehensive listing of such jobs in K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 21-4619(f)(2) (A-K). See Randall v. Loftsgaarden, 478 U.S. 647, 661, 106 S. Ct. 3143, 92 L. Ed. 2d-525 (1986) (noting “‘“a cardinal principle of statutory construction that repeals by implication are not favored” ’ ”); Hainline, 250 Kan. at 220. (Both K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 72-1397 and K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 21-4619 or their predecessors have been frequently amended and were amended in the last legislative session largely negating any argument one should control as the more recent enactment.).
• The Board repeatedly cited K.S.A. 72-8501 to support its decision. The statute provides:
“It is the intent and purpose of the legislature that the practice of teaching and its related services, including school administration and supervisory services, shall be designated as professional services. Teaching and school administration are hereby declared to be professions in Kansas with all the similar rights, responsibilities, and privileges accorded other legally recognized professions.” K.S.A. 72-8501.
The statute is precatory: it conveys a sentiment but neither creates particular rights nor imposes specific duties. As such, the statute provides no legal support for Board action generally or in this case particularly. The Kansas appellate courts have cited the measure exactly twice in 40 years. The Hainline court qüoted the statute but never explained it or integrated it into the decision in that case. Hainline, 250 Kan. at 224. The Supreme Court rejected K.S.A. 72-*10718501 as a basis for imposing a legal duty on educators in a particular district to exercise due care commensurate with that of their counterparts in other districts in obtaining insurance coverage for students participating in school-sponsored activities. Wicina v. Strecker, 242 Kan. 278, 283-84, 747 P.2d 167 (1987).
But the Board’s frequent invocation of K.S.A. 72-8501 underlies a theme running throughout its decision — granting a license to Wright, as a convicted felon and a disbarred lawyer, would demean the teaching profession. The Board explicitly articulated that theme in adopting tire conclusion of the Professional Practices Commission’s Initial Order of March 14, 2009, recognizing that “teaching and school administration are professions in their own right” and “they are not professions by default or a safety-net [sic] for persons who have been barred from other professions for professional misconduct.” In other words, the Board intended to deny Wright a teaching license, in part, simply because he had been stripped of a professional license in another field regardless of the underlying reason. The Board declared that someone unable to hold a law license automatically must be unfit to be a teacher and any other rule would be insulting to teachers. The insulting part might or might not be correct. But it is not a legally recognized ground in K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 72-1397 or K.A.R. 91-22-la for denying an applicant a teaching license. And it reflects an improper consideration.
• In its decision, the Board cites deficiencies in Wright’s rehabilitative efforts without offering any meaningful criteria for curing those shortcomings. Essentially, the Board members have said to Wright: What you have done thus far is unsatisfactory, but we have no intention of telling you what will satisfy us. The Board has granted itself a roving commission — authority exercised without defined limitations or standards — to keep Wright from obtaining a license. See Interstate Circuit v. Dallas, 390 U.S. 676, 688, 88 S. Ct. 1298, 20 L. Ed. 2d 225 (1968) (An ordinance restricting the age of persons admitted to motion pictures based on an official’s determination whether the film’s content is “ ‘desirable, acceptable or proper’ ” impermissibly creates “ ‘nothing less than a roving commission . . . .’ ”); School District v. Community High School, *1072146 Kan. 380, 384, 69 P.2d 1102 (1937) (A statute that defines “the authority” and the “ambit of [the] duties” of a public official “is not a roving commission but a directed course of action.”). Government authority should not be exercised through roving commissions, especially as part of an adjudicative or administrative hearing process.
In 2009, the Board found just cause to deny Wright a license “at this time,” but it has nowhere indicated what Wright can or should do to make his application acceptable at some later time. The Board repeatedly stated that Wright’s misconduct “violates the public trust” without explaining the contours of that trust or how Wright might purge himself of that violation. According to the Board, teachers and all other state-licensed occupations hold a public trust. See, e.g., K.S.A. 2-2449(a) (persons may lose or be denied licenses in Kansas to apply pesticides if convicted of a felony unless sufficiently rehabilitated to warrant the public trust); K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 2-2512(a)(l) (same, licensed egg sellers); K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 65-1908(a)(4) (same, licensed cosmetologists); K.S.A. 2008 Supp. 65-1947(a)(2) (same, licensed tattoo artists). The term “public trust” is not, however, one of art or well-defined meaning. It is often what candidates for office, Fourth-of-July speakers, and social studies teachers chose it to mean. See In re Shumway, 269 Kan. 796, 808, 8 P.3d 735 (2000) (“Misappropriating client funds is one the gravest offenses against the public trust a lawyer can commit.”); but see Martin v. Davis, 187 Kan. 473, 479, 357 P.2d 782 (1960) (“While they [lawyers] do not hold an office or public trust in a constitutional or statutory sense, they are, because of their close intimate relationship to tire courts, an important part of the judicial system and are ‘officers of the court.’ ”). The Board has not provided any guidance to Wright on that score. The Board also criticized Wright for “failing to demonstrate any action he has taken to correct his conduct” in making false statements resulting in the perjury conviction. But the Board favors Wright with no indication of what he ought to do. The perjury amounted to a victimless crime in the sense that no particular individual (besides Wright himself) was directly harmed by the false statements he made under oath. Unlike the thefts for which Wright could and did repay the victims, *1073the perjury violation offers no readily apparent means of correction or avenue for redemption.
With those findings, the Board has constructed a challenge for Wright to meet to attain a license. But the Board has failed to share its definition or criteria for determining his success. The Board has slyly created a game without discernible rules, and such a game can never be won.