It’s not about the speech.
That’s what Dan Johnson and his wife Kendra have come to believe after nearly four months of criticism. This scandal is clearly about them — who they are and what they represent: success, money and development in a town whose politics run in the other direction. Yes, fine, he used portions of East Coast English teacher David McCullough Jr.’s “You Are Not Special” speech during his own address to the graduating class of Arcata High last June. And no, he didn’t give McCullough credit. He says that he didn’t know any better, and sure, he probably should have. But that’s not the point. This is personal.
“You’ve got these people and these board members demanding an apology,” Dan Johnson says. “Well, OK. You’re gonna hit me with a ruler? And you want me to apologize? It’s like, you know, c’mon. I’m an adult just like you guys. It doesn’t matter what I would have written; it would have been tore up. Because it’s not. About. The speech.”
The Johnsons are sitting in their living room with their three kids, eldest daughter Sydney, who just graduated from Arcata High and stood next to her dad onstage when he gave that fateful speech, 16-year-old Carter, who has his dad’s swagger and auburn hair, and youngest daughter Jayden, 13, who later this evening will call her dad “the most amazing person I’ve met in my entire life.”
Dan Johnson, the local construction company magnate, sits in a leather armchair in front of his brick fireplace. He has a thin smile and a fiery glint in his cobalt blue eyes. Behind his boyish looks there’s a flinty confidence. He speaks with the brusque, no-bullshit delivery of a hard-nosed coach, a role he’s filled for the Arcata High girls’ basketball team and the Mad River Youth Soccer League. Only the thin lines stacked across his forehead suggest his true age, 49.
After months of refusing to speak to the media, Johnson and his family have decided that it’s finally time to open up and talk about this plagiarism controversy and its aftermath. At a school board meeting last month, Johnson said his critics don’t know “who the hell I am as a person.”
No one story can capture the full scope of a person, but here, according to Johnson, his friends and his detractors, is something of who the hell Dan Johnson really is: He’s a man who grew up doing ranch chores, who made his first big money as a teen raising cattle. A business owner who employs 225 people and, in partnership with his wife and one other couple, owns the entire town of Samoa. A steadfast friend for a family who lost a daughter. A guy known for building green. A man who tells a journalist that he has never sued or been sued — and who later says he either forgot or wasn’t involved with dozens of lawsuits that turn up in court records. A man who calls himself “a freakin’ winner.” A school board member who, despite a 3-1 board vote calling for his resignation, tells the Journal this September evening at his Bayside home that no, he will not be stepping down.
Hard work runs in the Johnson family. Dan Johnson’s grandpa Carl built two trailer parks, one in Arcata and another in Eureka, and in 1948 he founded The Carl Johnson Co., a mercantile and auction house that still operates on Jacobs Avenue in Eureka. By the time Dan was 10, he was working there every evening after school and on weekends, said his father, Don Johnson, who now runs the company.
Dan and his older brother David were both in 4-H, and by the time Dan was 12 the Johnson boys were heading out to the family ranch with their dad every morning by 6. Dan raised Holsteins, David raised sheep and they both raised pigs. “We worked in a family where there was a strong work ethic and you worked until you got through,” says Don Johnson. About his sons he adds, “They were full of hell a little bit when they grew up, but these kids worked.” Dan is a workaholic, just like his father and grandfather before him, says Don.
At 16, Dan Johnson got his driver’s license and started a business with his friend Mike Burger. The two bought day-old calves at auction, bottle-fed them and raised them up to 1,000-pound steers, then sold them.
“I think they split up forty thousand [dollars] apiece,” says Don Johnson. “And some of the kids looked at him. … He bought himself a BMW when he was young, and he did that with his own money. But he worked so hard for it.”
Dan Johnson says he shouldn’t get all the credit. “I didn’t realize at the time that really the reason I was making money was because Grandpa was giving me the ranch, paying the electricity, giving me the hay. I didn’t have expenses. Now I really see the gift that he gave me; he gave me the gift of hard work.”
Still, when you’re able buy your own truck and ski boat at 17, as Dan did, community college can seem a bit pointless. After graduating from Eureka High in 1982, he briefly attended Shasta College in Redding but quickly returned to Humboldt County, where a friend gave him the opportunity to build the Carriage Car Wash on Broadway in Eureka. He’d helped his parents build a house on Fickle Hill, so he knew the basics of construction.
Shortly after, Johnson met local real estate developer Mark Rynearson, who hired him as a builder. At Rynearson’s request, Johnson took a crash course and earned his contractor’s license. In 1986 Johnson founded his eponymous company, Danco, which grew steadily during the 1990s, becoming one of the region’s most successful companies.
“We’ve probably built 600 houses in Humboldt County,” Johnson says. And that’s not all. Danco’s group of companies (there have been at least two dozen separate entities) have built medical offices, nonprofit centers, assisted living facilities, commercial offices, school buildings and more.
About 15 years ago, Danco’s insurance agent introduced Dan and Kendra, who co-owns the business, to an affordable housing developer named Caleb Roope. Through a partnership with Roope, Danco has become Humboldt County’s foremost developer of affordable housing projects, a complicated field that involves state and federal tax incentives.
In 2002, Dan Johnson was named “Construction Person of the Year” by the Humboldt Builders’ Exchange, and by the mid-2000s Danco was riding high atop the housing bubble with more than 300 employees, offices in Arcata, Bakersfield and Fort Collins, Colo., and projects spread across 13 western states. The economic collapse of 2008 caused Danco to cut its staff by more than half (and even to consider bankruptcy, Johnson says), but now it’s thriving again, with a workforce of 225.
The company’s most ambitious project has yet to see the light of day. In December 2000 Dan and Kendra Johnson partnered with Sun Valley Floral Farms owners Lane and Kathryn DeVries and, under the name Samoa-Pacific Group, purchased the town of Samoa and 75 adjacent acres from Simpson Timber Co. for about $4.8 million. The $105 million vision for the peninsula town includes almost 300 new homes, a business park, a major utility overhaul, retail shops and a town plaza. The project got rezoning clearance from the Coastal Commission in 2011, and Johnson says he expects it to be presented at county public hearings by next May or June.
Dan Johnson didn’t even want to run for the Northern Humboldt Union High School District school board in the last election. He’d run and lost in 2005, when current Arcata Mayor Shane Brinton, then just 18 years old, edged him out by 502 votes. The loss didn’t sit well with Johnson.
“I would have never ran a second time,” he says, “because who the hell wants to — I mean, I’m a freakin’ winner, man. I’m about as competitive a guy as you’ll ever meet. So who wants to keep losing? And I’m not gonna win in Arcata. I mean, it is what it is.”
But when Brinton won a seat on the Arcata City Council in 2008, the school board appointed Johnson to fill the seat for the remainder of the term. In 2009 Johnson ran again, assuming that as an incumbent he’d be a shoo-in. Instead, he lost again, coming in 575 votes behind Dana Silvernale, chair of the Humboldt County Green Party.
And so in 2011, Johnson didn’t even mount a campaign. On the final day to submit candidate papers, he got a call from Brian Stevens, the district’s then-assistant superintendent, telling him that no one had signed up, and if no one did so before the 5 o’clock deadline then the district would be short a board member. “So I thought, ‘What the hell,'” Johnson says. “I went down there, waited till 4:57 and said, ‘If nobody signs up I’ll do it.'” No one else came in, and so Johnson — assured of victory — submitted his name.
He took office in December 2011 and began serving in relative obscurity — until the graduation speech. On a June Thursday, Dan Johnson stood in front of hundreds of Arcata High School students and their families, called his daughter to the stage, and — according to scores of witnesses — said he planned to read a personal message to her.
Forrest Lewis, a graduating senior who delivered the welcoming speech that day, says Johnson quoted large sections of McCullough’s speech verbatim. Now in his freshman year at Harvard, Lewis, like many Arcata High students, had studied McCullough’s speech closely. “I practically had parts memorized by that point and was reciting some lines simultaneously with Dan to the people sitting around me,” he says.
At the Johnson house, Kendra, Dan’s wife, says she’s the one who introduced Dan to McCullough’s “You Are Not Special” speech, in which the son of Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough Sr. told a group of privileged college prep students that they’re not automatically special and should strive to lead extraordinary lives.
“I’m the one that heard the speech and shared it with Dan,” she says. “I heard it on the radio. … He was trying to use the message that I was inspired by.” As Dan remembers it, he and Kendra were together, traveling to Southern California and listening to a radio host read portions of McCullough’s speech. “I was writing down notes as it was being spoken,” Johnson said. “The [graduation] speech was rewritten in my words.”
Johnson says he has a copy of the speech he read that day, “but I’m not gonna give it to anybody,” he said. Why not? “I don’t want to start the debate,” he said. “People will analyze it to the nth degree. … I just don’t feel comfortable doing it. I’ve been advised not to do it, too.”
Even if it was plagiarism, Johnson says, he wouldn’t have known that he was doing something wrong. “I didn’t even know what the fuck plagiarism was.” His kids chuckle. “You know what I mean? If all’s I had to do was say, ‘Hey, these words are from this person,’ do you not think I woulda frickin’ said it?”
He’s still a little fuzzy on the rules. “I definitely need some more education on what plagiarism actually is, cuz it’s really gray. Is when you say the Pledge of Allegiance, is that plagiarism? I had a guy tell me, ‘Well, we need to file a lawsuit against NBC because last year at the Super Bowl the lady who sang the national anthem didn’t say who wrote it.’ You know what I’m saying? Where does it stop?
“And I haven’t looked at it in the dictionary to see if that’s what the dictionary says,” he continues. “The point being, you know, everybody says it’s plagiarism. Who are they to say that? You know, nobody really knows. … I mean, I don’t fuckin’ know. I’m not a goddamned politician. You know what I’m sayin’? I mean, I’m a business guy, I’m a father, I’m a husband, I’m a son. I’m just doin’ what I’m doin’.”
We looked it up in a dictionary. Plagiarism is passing off someone else’s words or ideas as your own. That’s why reciting the Pledge of Allegiance isn’t plagiarism and why, if Johnson had told his audience that he planned to read from McCullough’s speech, it wouldn’t have been plagiarism either. The pretending is what creates the offense. At least, according to Merriam-Webster, Oxford and other dictionaries.
After the controversy blew up Johnson consulted some “pretty high-level” educators and political consultants, including “a guy who worked on the governor’s campaign,” to see if he’d done anything wrong. “And they said absolutely not,” Johnson says. (He declines to provide the names of these experts.)
The criticism started almost immediately. Johnson got an email from an HSU professor on the evening of the graduation ceremony informing him that he was “a laughing stock,” neither special nor smart. As weeks went by without a response from Johnson the criticism grew louder, with people demanding an apology for stealing someone else’s speech, a major sin in academia. (Johnson says he was occupied through June and most of July with an intense family issue. He declines to elaborate except to say, “We were taking care of some concerns with our kids.”)
It’s true that some rules are different outside of academia. Arcata resident Sean Armstrong, who worked for 5 ½ years as a planning manager for Danco, says, “In most of the rest of your life, the standards for plagiarism are much, much less severe.”
In the business world, people frequently work collaboratively, loan out spreadsheets and freely share a lot of information, Armstrong says. He thinks that relying on the expertise of others is one of the things that has made Johnson so successful in his field. Johnson listens to the best consultants he can find and follows business practices that have worked well elsewhere. The results speak for themselves, Armstrong says.
So what, if anything, do Dan Johnson’s professional achievements have to do with his plagiarism scandal? It depends on who you ask. Johnson and his family believe that he’s being vilified by lefties who resent success, while many of his critics take the opposite side of the same coin, saying that he’s been allowed to skate by for so long because of his money and the influence it carries.
Elaine Cunha, one of the Arcata High students who graduated the day of Johnson’s speech, expressed a common sentiment in her July 17 letter to the Arcata Eye, in which she says that “if Mr. Johnson refuses to apologize or even acknowledge his error, it teaches us graduates that power and money lets you get by with a different set of rules.”
Both views hold that Johnson is being treated based on what he represents rather than the specifics of his speech. The only difference is that Johnson and his family feel he’s been punished inordinately while his critics feel he hasn’t been punished enough. Does this stem from differing views on plagiarism? Is it, in fact, about the speech? Or are Dan and Kendra Johnson correct? Is it personal?
The Johnsons look stern sitting in their living room as the setting sun pours through their bay-facing windows. Jayden, the blond-haired 13-year-old, sits perched on the couch with her siblings, her bare feet tucked beneath her. She was standing at the back of the crowded room during the Sept. 10 school board meeting that ended with the resignation vote, and she had a hard time listening to what people said.
“I saw all these people get up and talk about how much of a terrible person my dad is. And some of the stuff they were talking about wasn’t even about the speech.”
Carter’s been hearing things at school, like this one guy who came up and said the only reason Sydney graduated and is going to Santa Clara University this fall is because their dad paid for her good grades. “That kind of shit just pisses me off,” Carter says.
At public meetings and in letters to the editors of local newspapers, people have argued that by plagiarizing a well-known speech and sparking this whole controversy, Dan Johnson ruined his daughter’s graduation day. What does Sydney think of these criticisms?
“My entire school career, I’ve always been taught that plagiarism is not OK,” she says. “It’s not to mess with, and they teach you the proper forms of citation. So I definitely know that plagiarism is not something that should be tolerated or is tolerated.”
How does she square that with her dad’s speech? She says she hasn’t really gone back to compare it with McCullough’s. And her graduation day, she says, was great. “It was definitely special, and it was awesome for him to speak and everything he said,” Sydney says.
Friends say Dan Johnson is an incredibly generous man. Ken Quigley, who has known Johnson for about a decade, calls him “a special person in my life.” In 2008, Quigley’s wife was driving a Chevy Tahoe on State Route 299, carrying their twin daughters and a friend to soccer practice (coached by Johnson). Her vehicle was clipped and driven off the road by a Pontiac Sunfire whose driver was racing another car at speeds over 90 miles per hour. The Tahoe rolled down an embankment and smashed into a power pole, injuring Quigley’s wife and killing their 9-year-old daughter Nicole.
In the hours, days and weeks after the crash, Quigley says, Johnson “stepped in and took over.” He provided the Quigleys with a private, piloted airplane for medical appointments and personally flew their remaining daughter back and forth to out-of-town games. He brought the girls from the soccer team together to help them bond and even helped the family secure an easement near the site of the crash for Nicole’s memorial display.
Quigley’s wife died suddenly last September of a blood clot, and Johnson showed up hours later with several of Quigley’s daughter’s friend in tow. “He’s just a special man,” Quigley says. “I mean, he really is.”
Arcata resident Sean Armstrong, the former Danco employee, considers Johnson the region’s best — and most ethical — developer.
“Danco’s affordable housing projects are nationally recognized,” he says. Several of Danco’s projects, including Plaza Point, a low-income senior housing project near the Arcata Co-op, have earned platinum ratings from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program.
Even Kevin Hoover calls Johnson a nice guy. As editor and publisher of the erstwhile Arcata Eye (which last week merged with the McKinleyville Press to create the Mad River Union), Hoover has doggedly chronicled the plagiarism scandal as well as the good, bad and ugly surrounding Danco projects over the years. But while Hoover allows that Johnson is effective in his industry, he’s not nearly as complimentary as Armstrong regarding the quality of Danco projects. For example, residents complained about leaky balconies at Danco’s brand-new Courtyards at Arcata, a multi-family affordable housing development, and when a planning commissioner visited the place he leaned against a wall and the lights went out, Hoover says.
Lisa Brown spent years on Arcata’s Open Space and Agricultural Committee, and she, too, has been less than impressed with Danco projects. “There’s almost always a missing piece,” she says. A Danco project will come before the city missing its water quality certifications, or it will be slated for toxic sites that haven’t been cleaned up yet, or it will have access problems, Brown says. And Danco won’t make the necessary fixes until forced. “If the citizens weren’t raising their hands, you just wonder what would happen,” she says.
Johnson disputes the unflattering characterizations of Danco. During the conversation at his house he proudly says, “I’ve never sued anybody; I’ve never been sued. We’ve done a lot of shit in a lot of places, and we get along with people.”
However, court records show that Danco — and Dan Johnson personally — have sued and been sued, numerous times. Many of the suits involved Danco property management companies suing tenants for unlawful detainer, a routine legal step that’s part of the eviction process. But other suits were more serious.
Asked about this long list of lawsuits (more than three dozen in all), Johnson initially holds to his claim of zero litigation. After thinking for a minute he acknowledges the eviction cases (“We’ve had a shitload of those”) and apologizes for forgetting them. But regarding the more substantial cases Johnson says, “They’re news to me. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
Some specifics:
In 2003, Robert Morris (who’s now a county planning commissioner) and his wife Carol sued Danco and Johnson personally for $100,000 in damages, alleging that “negligent construction” (specifically, a leaky deck and lousy ventilation) had caused dry rot under the house. The case was dismissed pending repairs to the house.
“I used to live there,” Johnson says when told the address. He says his company built the house and his family lived there for a bit before selling it (not to the Morrises). Regarding the lawsuit he says, “I don’t know anything about that.”
Court records show Danco and Johnson represented themselves. So it’s unclear how the case might have escaped Johnson’s attention.
In 1993, Danco Construction was among 11 plaintiffs (all builders or construction companies) which sued the McKinleyville Union School District, challenging the assessment of developer fees. This case dragged on and on, ultimately resulting in a 1995 settlement that lowered developer fees in the district. Johnson doesn’t remember much about it. “I don’t know why my name was on it,” he says, “but it does ring a bell.”
In 2001 a man named John Shannon sued Danco Builders for refusal to pay a claim, with Shannon saying Danco owed him $47,256.26. The Journal tracked down Mr. Shannon, who explained via email that he’d been subcontracted by Danco to build new cabinets at Bloomfield School in Arcata. Shannon says Danco kept requesting changes, which drove up the cost of construction, and, “When it came time to pay for the changes Danco/Dan Johnson refused to pay.”
Shannon says he met personally with Dan Johnson and in the course of their dispute Johnson said something like, I’m bigger than you and have more money than you do.
“Not an exact quote but pretty close,” Shannon writes. “He was being a bully and he also knew that the statement was true.” At the time, Shannon says, he was in a serious financial crisis and so decided to take a settlement for a fraction of what was owed.
“Mr. Johnson’s unwarranted failure to pay me in full … put me and my business into a tailspin that I was not able to recover from,” Shannon writes. “It forced me into bankruptcy and the loss of my business.”
Asked about this case, Johnson looked into it. “I checked around. It isn’t me that he’s talking about,” Johnson says. “Who the hell knows who it was in our organization? … I’m not saying the conversations didn’t occur, [but] they didn’t occur with me.” Johnson also says that his company had to replace the cabinets Shannon installed.
But Shannon is insistent. “I met with Dan Johnson,” he reiterated. He says he remembers waiting outside Johnson’s office and then speaking with him for 10 or 15 minutes. And Shannon insisted that Danco did not replace his cabinets. If the company had done so, he says, it would have been legally required to notify Shannon of the complaint and allow him the opportunity to either dispute the claims or fix the problem. “This never occurred because it never happened,” Shannon writes.
We also asked Dan Johnson about a 2006 incident in which Danco was fined $25,000 for illegal removal of an underground storage tank. During construction of the Foxwood Estates subdivision in Cutten, a Danco contractor excavated and removed the underground tank without getting a permit or performing the required tests. Acting on an anonymous tip, the Humboldt County Department of Public Health Environmental Health Division investigated and found that the groundwater and soil had been contaminated at the site of the tank, which contained gasoline.
“I don’t know if I recall that,” Johnson says. Given more specifics he says, “I wasn’t involved in that project.”
However, in a 2006 Times-Standard story, the county’s then-environmental health director, Brian Cox, said Johnson had personally taken responsibility for the problem. Johnson himself was quoted in the story saying, “We’ve done everything they’ve asked us to do.”
In each of these cases, it’s clear that Dan Johnson doesn’t openly dwell on his past troubles. Whether it’s flirting with bankruptcy, dealing with lawsuits or paying environmental fines, his style is to move forward and leave the past behind. But the plagiarism scandal has stubbornly refused to go away.
Many have suggested that a sincere apology early on would have done the trick, and that the one Johnson delivered six weeks into the controversy fell short.
Back at the Johnson house, Dan and Kendra say they worked together to write that statement and they’re clearly annoyed at the reaction it received. “Shit, we put a lot of time into that apology,” Dan Johnson says. “Who the hell are they to say that my apology is sincere or not? I mean, is there a definition somewhere that says what is a sincere apology? I mean, I don’t know. Seriously. I don’t get it.”
In the written statement, Johnson did apologize for not crediting McCullough, but he also said he’d given a “personalized version” of the speech. And his statement concludes by condemning “the self-appointed referees of good and evil” — meaning anyone who refuses to move on — for having an intolerance that’s “a far more profound flaw than mine.”
In his second statement, delivered in person at the Sept. 10 school board meeting, Johnson said “I’m sorry” a number of times, but never for plagiarism, and never without judgment in the subtext. He was sorry that his critics “feel the way they feel,” sorry that the issue has wasted so much of the district’s time and sorry that his family has suffered from unfair attacks.
Johnson didn’t help his cause when he lashed out at a woman who’d snickered during his prepared remarks, calling her “Miss Teacher” and telling her to “go stand in the hallway while I speak.”
He chastised people for focusing on something so insignificant, saying, “Nobody was killed. No drugs were given or sold to any children.” And he sought to close the book on the matter: “We all need to move this district forward and focus on the kids.”
Turns out, though, that the kids are still focused on Dan Johnson. The school year’s first issue of Arcata High School’s student newspaper, the Pepperbox, was dominated by a large cover package devoted to Dan Johnson and plagiarism, including opinion pieces, a story on the school’s plagiarism policies and an illustrated timeline of events in the Dan Johnson saga.
In the introductory piece, student Editor-in-Chief Piper Bazard wrestles with Johnson’s accusation, asking in the headline, “Are we intolerant?” Bazard argues, “We have a responsibility as young scholars to participate in the ongoing dialog surrounding not just a key community figure, but the overarching topic of plagiarism.”
Dan Johnson suggests another lesson can be drawn.
“They talk about bullying in the high school, well what the hell do you think this is?” he asks. “Talking about people like they’ve talked about me? It is bullying. … I mean, who really owes who an apology?”
This article appears in Meet Dan Johnson.
Johnson is a stand up guy. The kind of guy that doesn’t ask for a job, he makes them. I can’t believe this plagiarism thing has gone as far as it has. I can’t help but think if someone else had done the same thing- especially some left of center type guy- the matter would have been dropped long ago.
The issue surrounding Dan Johnson is not whether he is a “stand up guy” or not, Fred. That is a “red herring argument” He probably is a stand up guy (for his friends and business associates). The issue is much bigger than that. It is about his blatent violation of one of the most sacred values of the institution he is supposed to represent and his subsequent, unapologetic, pugnacious, pugilistic response to any who criticize him. It is about his self-serving denial of his duty to accept the responsibility for his actions.
The controversy surrounding the series of ethical errors of Dan Johnson’s plagiarized speech at the 2013 Arcata High School graduation, his singling out his daughter above the entire graduating class, his subsequent vilification of his critics in what he claims was an apology for “making a simple mistake” (plagiarizing another’s words), his blatant denial at the September 10th board meeting that what he said were not plagiarized words, but words he crafted as a result of his being “inspired” by David McCullough, Jr.’s speech, and his hypocritically comical demand for his audience’s respect when his vitriol boiled over because a member of the audience was laughing during his contentious remarks at that meeting hinges on whether he “hurt anyone” by what he did.
Supporters of Dan Johnson consider his “petty mistake” trivial, because they claim it not hurt anyone. But it did, unnoticably, like a stealthy cancer that grows slowly at first until it reaches a critical point of no return. To those who are not academics, or who do not value the moral and ethical pillars that hold up the roof of the educational institution that Dan represents and is supposed to reflect, Dan’s error was harmless and trivial. But whom Dan Johnson “hurt” by his actions, inactions, and accusations was not any individual; rather, he harmed the institution itself and all those it serves.
Institutions such as education, religion, or charities gain their efficacy and respect because of the trust that citizens place in them — and the integrity of those who represent them. Take that trust away by a representative violating the foundational principles on which these institutions are founded, and the institution itself suffers a devaluation in the eyes of those they serve. Such a devaluation, in turn, hurts not an individual, but all individuals that these institutions serve. A priest or minister who violates a fundamental ethical or moral tenet of the faith weakens the respect for the church or temple the violator represents. A CEO of a charitable institution who earns a half million dollars for his job, yet pays his disabled workers 22 cents an hour, undermines the perception of charitableness of that organization (see Goodwill Industries). And a member of a school board who steals another’s intellectual property for whatever reason and claims it for his own, chips away at the efficacy and respect that is the foundation of the institution of education. That is what is hurt – not a “somebody,” but the “everybody” of a community to which that institution belongs.
Therefore it is my argument that the critics of this controversy are not making mountains out of mole hills, but rather, those who would dismiss this issue as trivial and “harmless” are making mole hills out of mountains, by defacing and eroding as trivial the institution’s core values, intellectual honesty and integrity being two of the highest values of the educational community. To allow such a violation of principals to pass away without severe consequence in order to “move on” or “forgive his tiny error” is to add to the downward spiral of respect for the institution of education itself.
What is most disturbing about this situation to me and to many people is that neither Dan nor his supporters seem to get is that this is not just about plagiarism. Because of Dans inability to acknowledge that he did something wrong in a fulsome manner with no provisos/exceptions he left people not only feeling slapped but he also made it quite clear that he did not get the gravity of what he did. His so-called apology was an insult. He then, after 3 months, finally came to a school board meeting and was, once again, accusatory and insulting. Nothing he has said so far gives any indication that he understands that he was acting while wearing the hat of a school board member, that, in fact, he took advantage of that position to be able to get up on stage and read a speech and that in that role he committed a blatant act of plagiarism after clearly claiming that he had written the speech he was about to give. He has demonstrated over and over again that he has no moral compass, that he does not value integrity. In fact, it’s clear to me that if he reads what I just wrote he will not get it. He’s simply missing that component, that part. This has nothing to do with politics, with whether his critics or supporters are left or right leaning, this has to do with a person in a leadership position , particularly one that is about children, who acted in a far from exemplary manner and does not get it. That he hasn’t even looked up the meaning of the word plagiarism says a great deal about Dan. That he lied about law suits says even more, and of course he did lie because it defies credibility to claim he forgot about all the law suits he has been involved in. The language that he freely used when being interviewed says more. The composite picture isn’t pretty. It’s sad that his children are in the position of defending him because that means that they may grow up and have the same attitudes and lack of a moral compass that he has. No, Fred, Johnson is not a stand up guy and he should step down from the board because he is not a fit model for the children for whom the board is responsible.
A “left of center type guy” would have given a sincere, no strings attached, apology shortly after the incident. THEN this would have been dropped back in June.
There is an old saying (in the public domain): If you’re stuck in a hole, stop digging.
In all fairness “stand up guy” is the intellectual creation of the Charleroi Mail of Charleroi Pennsylvania and first appeared in its April 1935 edition.
“What is most disturbing about this situation to me and to many people is that neither Dan nor his supporters seem to get is that this is not just about plagiarism. Because of Dans inability to acknowledge that he did something wrong in a fulsome manner with no provisos/exceptions he left people not only feeling slapped but he also made it quite clear that he did not get the gravity of what he did. “.
Kinda like Bill Clinton in Zippergate (whom I kinda defended) who said he was sorry but people didn’t thing he apologized enough?
Johnson was caught in an embarrassing situation. He apologized and it should have been dropped. It would have been dropped had he been any number of other people.
“In all fairness “stand up guy” is the intellectual creation of the Charleroi Mail of Charleroi Pennsylvania and first appeared in its April 1935 edition.”.
And most U.S. Presidents give speeches written by someone else.
It is 100% about the plagiarism.
I couldn’t care less about his politics, or his status as a developer.
He, as a school board member, shouldn’t be allowed to get away with CHEATING, any more than a student should.
Mr Johnson, your screwed up, own it, resign and move on.
Dan Johnson coached the soccer team my daughter played on for a few years. He is a very no nonsense caring and generous guy. He genuinely cares about people. I think this entire plagiarism thing is ridiculous. People should concentrate and all of the positive things this man has done, they by far outweigh the negative.
Until I read this article, I had no idea what Dan Johnson did for a living or how he made his money. I didn’t even consider it. And I still don’t care. The fact is, that as a member of the school board, he is held to an academic level of integrity. Plagiarism should not be condoned in an academic setting. Apologizing is fine, but Dan Johnson continues to imply that the entire episode is someone else’s fault. Reminds of someone I once knew, whose idea of an apology was to say, “I’m sorry YOU have a problem with me.” Show some respect for the students and the institution you are supposed to be serving, Mr. Johnson. A heartfelt apology, rather than one that was coerced, could have gone a long way in resolving this issue.
CindyLu wrote, “A heartfelt apology, rather than one that was coerced, could have gone a long way in resolving this issue”.
I’m not so sure it would. This is ending up more like the Bill Clinton Zippergate affair. Time after time people were saying Clinton didn’t apologize, or wasn’t sincere enough in apologizing. It got ridiculous. He’d try once, then again, but the pundits wouldn’t accept it.
Clinton: “I’m sorry”.
Pundits: “That’s not good enough”
Clinton: “I’m really sorry”
Pundits: “You don’t seen sincere”
Clinton: “I’m really, really sorry”.
Pundits: “Doesn’t sound like you mean it”.
Clinton: “I’m really, REALLY sorry.”
And so it went, and all I was thinking was DROP IT!
So in the world of Fred, no one should ever apologize, because it doesn’t really help. If an apology didn’t help Clinton one would not work anywhere else?
The thing is, Clinton parsed words and wagged his finger at the camera saying he didn’t have sex. Then he later attempted an apology. I didn’t really care about Clinton’s affair but I thought he should have given the job over to Gore after his finger wagging about not having sex (which was a lie unless you have a warped definition of sex).
The point is, if you give a sincere apology right away, you earn some respect for being forthcoming and the story doesn’t become about your inability to apologize or admit mistakes.
I had pretty much dismissed the Dan Johnson issue, but HE keeps it alive by using public venues (Board Meeting, NCJ) to do everything but simply apologize. It’s really an issue of his own making, but he will never see that. And by the way Fred – the President’s speech writers are paid for the right to use their words. That’s not plagiarism.
I think that Dan and Kendra are suffering from folie à deux if they believe this situation is about them personally. As previous posters have pointed out, Dan Johnson plagiarized a speech while serving on the school board. That is the only issue. And if he has not enlightened himself on the meaning of plagiarism since this event occurred, he is irresponsible.
Eurekan wrote, ” if you give a sincere apology right away, you earn some respect for being forthcoming and the story doesn’t become about your inability to apologize or admit mistakes. “
He apologized at least once. People haven’t accepted it. Oh, well. Move on.
Fred,
Johnson didn’t offer a sincere apology. He used an apology as a means of attacking his critics. A SINCERE apology goes something like this: “I apologize for plagiarizing a speech. It was wrong and a poor example for the students. I will endeavor to do better in the future.” THE END – no attacks, no conditional statements, no “but…”
Since this is not about money and only about the improper use of someone else’s intellectual creation, then can I assume that those who are upset would be content if Mr. Johnson just contacted the author and purchased the right to use his intellectual creation without attribution? Or is this really just about some people climbing up on a soap box to chest pound on their personal moral standards applied against someone they did not like much to begin with?
This man keeps taking a bath in the news media, and he comes out dirtier each time. This matter could have been resolved months ago if he had offered an immediate and sincere apology. The depth of the problem is now obvious thanks to the Journal’s reporting. The quotes in this article stir up great concern for me.
Fred you’re letting your conservative paranoia show…just saying.
Plagiarism happens–even to stand up- guys–but to
acknowledege a mistake should not include castigation of those who pointed out the error!!!
Every time he opens his mouth, he makes the situation worse. He may be a nice guy to the people he considers to be his friends. I would NEVER hire him or his company to do a job for me. (Notice how, when reselling a house, people will advertise that it was built by Gene Callihan, or by John Van der Molen? NO ONE advertises their house was built by Danco!) He conveniently forgets everything that doesn’t jibe with his personal vision of himself as he’d like to be perceived. Great. Tells lies. Believes them himself. That means he does not belong on the school board. My solution? Vote for the two challengers in the upcoming NHUSD election (coming to you in less than 4 weeks!), and Silvernale, who previously beat him. Make it so uncomfortable, ’cause his friends are missing from the Board, that he will leave. The new revelation for me from this article? It’s all Brian Stevens’ fault. What was he thinking???? (And yes, everyone I’ve ever heard talk about Dan mentions how delightfully wonderful his wife is. Everyone. Without fail. They don’t say the same thing about Dan.)
Being a good guy doesn’t give you license to be an asshole.
Whew…who wouldn’t know this guy after this article?
Very few people can say they’ve experienced the compulsion of holding onto a position they “never wanted”, with a death-grip.
Everything about this interview reminds me of my mother’s side of the family that were blinded by that familiar “blame/denial” psychosis attributed to their life of nightly imbibing of bibulous fermented fruits.
Individual’s are often elevated to positions of leadership based upon their decisiveness and successful “hard work” backgrounds. In reality, their decisiveness can be generated from an inability to care what happens next and their hard-work can be a dangerously obsessive, compulsive and self-destructive disorder.
“Fred” might have been right to invoke Ol’ Red-Nose himself….Bill Clinton.
The North Coast Journal article was very well done. This is about a clash of 2 cultures, possibly over-lubricated by envy. Whereas academics HATE plagiarism, society benefits from the better mouse traps created by business people who EMBRACE plagiarism. We live in a world that includes A-PEOPLE who do and say all the right things. (The truth? Who can know or search the secret corners of the heart?). B-PEOPLE People who at times, make stupid mistakes, appear to do wicked things or look like idiots. (the truth? Shit happens! We are all just people). I know Dan Johnson from a business deal that would test and search the heart of both A-PEOPLE and B-PEOPLE. He was a stand up guy under fire. My take on this? Dan made a mistake but I would have to do a triple homicide to get as much bad press as Dan did. Dan may not say all the right things but he gets things done… and When all is said and done,what gets done speaks a whole lot more loudly than what has been said.
I think I owe an apology to Brian Stevens. In the article, Dan Johnson says that Brian is the one who urged him to run. It is clear that Dan doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie, so, since that observation was not independently verified, it may not actually be a fact, but just Dan’s opinion. My apologies. I should have done a little more analysis before blaming Brian. The fact remains that Dan can’t tell the difference between the truth and a lie, and he doesn’t belong on the Board.
The teachers at Arcata High be harshin me bout my homework, I didn’t even know what the fuck plagiarism was. You know what I mean? If all’s I had to do was say, ‘Hey, these words are from this person,’ do you not think I woulda frickin’ said it? I definitely need some more education on what plagiarism actually is, cuz it’s really gray. And I haven’t looked at it in the dictionary to see if that’s what the dictionary says, the point being, you know, everybody says it’s plagiarism. Who are they to say that? You know, nobody really knows. … I mean, I don’t fuckin’ know. I’m not a goddamned english teacher. You know what I’m sayin’? I mean, I’m a stoodent, I’m a son, I’m a party dawg, I’m a doofus. I’m just doin’ what I’m doin’.
On the quote that plagiarism is less severe in the business world, was that taken out of context? Plagiarism in the business world can result in a lawsuit awarding monetary damages… how is that much less severe?
If any of us were to go and copy someone’s speech and use it as part of marketing materials for a product, we could be sued and lose a chunk of money. That doesn’t seem like everything is okay with plagiarism in the business world to me. Plagiarism is not collaboration, it is called theft.
The fact that Dan obviously plagarized is excusable now after reading this article. Why, you ask? Because Dan’s vocabulary is obviously lacking. He doesnt know words ya’ll! His brain capacity for using words higher than an 8th grade level is AT MAX. to drop the F bomb so many times in an article while sitting around your family goes to show he is clearly mentally challenged. he didnt know better folks! We cant persecute the mentally handicapped!
As someone who has personally known Dan… I can say Dan is a hardworking, generous person. he really is. but that in NO WAY shape or form excuses what he did. To play dumb and give a backhanded apology is apalling. He’s arrogant and he sets a bad example. He should be a politician. He can dance around a question and lie like a dog with the best of them. But again, it’s the handicap, obviously.
This article is very well written and gives an unbiased summary of the interview. Well done NCJ. However, as someone else mentioned, Dan digs his own grave. To be an adult and claim to not known plagarism is unacceptable. he should be held to the same standards as his kids in school. Zero tolerance!
In some schools today, “Zero Tolerance” means being handcuffed with a ride downtown in a police car for refusing to hand the teacher a note you were writing:
https://www.aclu.org/secure/kyle_thompson_…
There’s two kinds of people in this world, A) the Doers and B) the Done To.
Johnson is a Doer. A gift that keeps on giving.
How many credible hints does a reasonable person serving in a leadership role with (theoretically) higher standards need to believe that he should offer a brief, simple, unqualified apology using the word “plagiarism”…so that a community can focus on more important issues?
Dan Johnson seems to have all the markings of a guy who was born on 3rd base and thinks he hit a home run
Gee. Where was the outrage from Humboldt’s local lefties when D.A. Paul Gallego’s plagiarized a “My Word” op-ed in the Times Standard some years back???? Oh that’s right, at the polls voting for him. By the way “two wrongs don’t make a right”.
The Dan John scandal is a bigger deal than Gallegos and all these other examples people want to bring up for a few reasons. 1. He gave the speech at a high school graduation and was called out by the students of that graduating class. 2. He is a member of an academic board. He is supposed to be an example for the students in his community. 3. He wont apologize!!! saying “im sorry my family is hurt by this” and “im sorry all you losers have nothing better to do” and “im sorry i got caught” are not real apologies.
The final line of the article about Dan wanting an apology because he is being bullied is offensive to CHILDREN who have experienced REAL bullying first hand in school.
Excuses are like assholes. Everyone has one, and they all stink.
Efforts by Mr. Johnson and his supporters to explain this away as an instance of the culture wars, where his critics ‘just don’t like money and success’ or don’t understand that plagiarism is a way of doing business (not in the businesses I know about…), are just obfuscations of the basic axiom that should be at work here: the uneducated have no place in education, period. That’s why he should resign more than anything– the plagiarism is just a symptom of a more fundamental problem. If we continue to allow people like Dan Johnson into school boards or into the classroom, we will continue to have gaffs and cases of unsound judgment like this where people simply do not know or realize that they are doing something wrong, or if they do know it’s wrong, not realize that they can be so easily discovered. Not only do they fail to see past, but they are not even aware of, the horizon of their knowledge (to paraphrase Nietzsche. Shwew, almost plagiarized there). However accomplished and generous he is as a person, the man is simply out of his element in a educational context, and frankly it’s our collective fault that we weren’t there at 4:56 pm to put our name in the hat instead of his. We current and former students of NHUHSD deserve something better than leaders who, instead of having a life-long passion for education and learning, feel that a school board is an extension of local business connections and interests, or that a high school is first and foremost a vehicle for a football team. In spite of our adults’ foibles, though, as usual it seems like the kids are alright (The Who): kudos to the Arcata High students for using their education to address this issue directly and in a far more mature and intelligent manner than the very member of the school board who should be the exemplar– do we all now see how important education is in our community?
The article profiling Dan Johnson should put to rest the issue of whether or not he is fit to serve or whether he should resign. In my opinion he clearly should. And that opinion has nothing and I mean nothing to do with the fact that he has money and I do not and the fact that I am a green party member. We actually have quite a bit in common, I went to local schools and also graduated in 1982, we lived on the same road as kids, and I also dropped out of college, our kids went to the same elementary school, but I really hope that if I made the same mistake as Johnson the commonality would end. I do not believe that only intellectuals should serve in elected office, diversity on a school board reflects the diversity in the community it serves and I think that’s good. However when you breach the trust of those you serve and fail to take responsibility and learn from it there are consequences. That is what Johnson should be learning from this. Instead it appears he’s learned nothing. I’m sorry people have brought the kids into this, it’s inappropriate to do so, but Johnson and his wife have made them part of this so it isn’t surprising that they are also suffering unpleasant consequences. Johnson’s friends and supporters are treating him like a naked emperor and clearly he would be better served by folks who would stop fawning over his achievements and give him some clothes to wear.
All the Dan Johnson issue is about is Progressives using character assassination to remove a competitor from office. Unable to win political votes without recourse to dirty politics, Green Party polluted Prog Democrats are doing this nasty business and it is most definitely political gangsterism to the max. Under Judy and Ryan’s direction, the NCJ acts now as the Prog’s hit piece propaganda rag that exploits Humboldt County’s cultural news events in order to broadcast Prog Leftist ideology which is almost completely base on negativity: Against this or that, or him or her while actually trying to destroy Humboldt County’s economic infrastructure, already 2 former Humboldt anchor businesses employing hundreds of people and giving jobs to hundreds more servicing them, PL gone-replaced by Scotia ghost town, Evergreen gone-no replacement, now the attack is on Danco. All of these are anchor industries in Humboldt County. Get a clue Humboldt County citizens. The Prog Left wants you out of here if you’re a successful [EDIT] businessman or if you don’t give money to Prog causes for protection money against character assassination.
They can’t do it, Fred, these are people out for blood when it comes to political offices, big business, and Republicans. [EDIT] No job creation, only jobs taken away, and certainly no morality to offer, as Paul Gallegos plagiarized freely as the top Law Enforcement Officer. But does Gallegos or Salzman his promoter, get the now standard Arkley-Dan Johnson ad hominen personal attack? No, Gallegos doesn’t get a word of criticism by the same Prog attack squad that Dan gets–and why is that? Because a Prog Green Party leader wants to kick Republican competition out of the running by smearing his name. These are low-life pols all the way to the top of the heap which is now the Northcoast YellowJournalists leading the Prog gang in smearing the reputations of Humboldt County citizens doing far more for the community than any of these Green Meanies.
“It’s a Jewish conspiracy”?
“…Prog Leftist ideology is actually trying to destroy Humboldt County’s economic infrastructure”?
“Too many martini’s at the Johnson’s, Steven”?
Except for Arcata, with their damn “lefty-prog-lib-pinky” highest per-capita sales tax revenue, none of this county’s elected or appointed offices have ever had “leftist” majorities. Local economic “destruction” is owned lock-stock-and-barrel by the right-wingers, aka, the “winners”.
But plagiarism in the highest law enforcement office in Humboldt County goes by without a bleep of protest from the same lynch mob mentality Prog attack gangsters? That’s pure HYPOCRISY, all you who are trying to destroy a good man’s reputation, a man who by all the community support he’s receiving is obviously operating at a higher community giving level than any of his critics.
So go on, hypocrite Progs. Show your true colors as leaders in [EDIT] Leftist Class Warfare dragged into Humboldt County politics where it’s trying to pit Humboldt County’s working class against Humboldt counterculture and liberal professionals by creating hit pieces on prominent Republican businessmen then throwing gasoline on the resultant outcry of unfair attack on a community citizen well liked. Liked so much, the Prog Lefties want the guy out of competition for school board member in McKinleyville where Arcata Progs have their eyes set on Arcata-izing as if any Humboldt community in its right mind would ever want to be another Arcata with its crime problems and ugliness west of 101. It is classic Class warfare that Arcata based Progs are engaging in and at a very low ethical level where they concentrate on smear jobs against targeted [EDIT] Republican businessmen foes competing for political offices or community development.
The other incidents Stephen1 cites by other people resulted in public outrage (read local newspapers and blogs… outrage galore). It’s just that he’s talking about county-wide elections for influential positions where there are concerns held by certain people who make gobs of money a certain way who have a certain self-interest in seeing certain other people re-elected. And those concerns trample all political boundaries. Mounting a re-election campaign is expensive, and for certain elected political positions there is a money train waiting at the station. To blame progressives is to understand nothing about Humboldt County.
Whereas, a school board member has no political influence over those certain issues, and thus that money train won’t be out in force for a school board election (assuming he even tries to get reelected).
In addition to the alleged plagiarism, in this incident there are many new issues raised about his reaction to the allegation. He would have been far better off keeping his mouth shut and have people outraged by his silence rather than outraged by the new things coming out of his mouth. The Journal interview is nothing short of astounding. Before, I thought he could eventually repent with a full and unconditional (aka sincere) apology… but I think there’s just no turnaround from this interview. He’s revealed too much about himself.
Clearly the main issue here is that some people reacted poorly to a different plagiarism incident 10 years ago.
Antisemitism has NO place in our community. If “Stephen1” cannot participate in an online discussion without resorting to deeply offensive stereotypes of Jews — which are also entirely unrelated to anything in this article or the debates surrounding Johnson or his speech — then he should be excluded from this discussion and his comments removed from this site.
To all those who think we are making a mountain out of an anthill, it’s not just about the plagiarism. It’s about how Dan reacted to getting caught. Instead of owning up like a man of integrity, he has done nothing but give backhanded apologies, point fingers and lie. I’ll be worried when the public isn’t outraged when people who are put in charge of our children are less than honest and capable.
The article worried me further when Dan claimed he had no idea about any of those suits! So, either you are completely incompetent and unaware of anything that is going on in your own company or you are lying your ass off to save your skin. Neither of those qualities are desirable of someone in office.
Now I can’t help but wonder what else he is lying about.
If this man doesn’t understand one of the most fundamental aspects of a good education then he needs to immediately apologize and resign from the board. He obviously embarrassed his daughter at one of her most important times, her graduation from HS. Dan just do the right thing and put this humiliating issue behind you
Nice puff piece…obviously written by someone who’s not one of those “lefties who resent success”…maybe the author’s looking for a PR position with a local construction company?
Oh, and one other thing: what the hell is someone who OBVIOUSLY doesn’t care one iota about education doing on the Arcata School Board? Someone who fulfilled his educational destiny by dropping out of Shasta JC…who lost TWO elections and only won when running unopposed? I don’t know much, but it seems to me that the kids in Arcata DESERVE BETTER THAN THAT.
Don’t you get it , Dan? It is. About. The. Speech. And it’s about how dumb you must think we are to believe you didn’t know what plagiarism is. Hell, most of us learned that in Grade School. You did graduate Grade School, didn’t you, Dan? And it’s about your public display of contempt for those who are raising legitimate concerns about your use of someone else’s speech (in front of a group of students who had just studied that very same speech, no less) while claiming it as your own. It wasn’t about you before, Dan, but it is now. I couldn’t have give a shit less who you were before, but your arrogant ‘Fuck you all’ attitude now has me believing you should go back to building government-subsidized housing and leave the kids alone. And that apology? It reminded me of the time I saw a man use the ‘N’-word then apologize to a black man standing nearby by saying, “Well, I’m sorry you’re a nigger”.
I have known Dan since 1997. When I started working for him as a laborer. He was a great insperation to me. Here was a guy (with no college education) who built a company from almost nothing. He was always the first person there and the last to leave. We worked for Dan and we worked hard. he was not always the easiest man to work for but was fair. I worked my way up from the lowest position to a management position. Dan kept us working always I think in the first ten years I was layed off for ten days. You people that talk bad about this man have no idea what it takes to build and run a company of this size. He has more dedication than ten of you. You have made this issue because you dont believe in his politics. This is how the left operates when they lose an argument they personally attack. Dan is a good man he took care of me through thick and thin.
If you don’t like him run against him.
Dan I love you like a brother.
And would still do anything for you
John W Harlan
Betty Chinn could have done what Johnson did, and the issues would still be plagiarism, and his her public response to its the aftermath. If he doesn’t resign next month, we will recall him from office. Our children deserve better.
That’s funny. A man who couldn’t finish school won’t resign from the school board he was never elected to because the Commies are out to get him.
After reading the words coming from his lips (aka, lies, ignorance and feigned ignorance) I think it time for an audit of all of Danco’s business dealings with government contracts.
This man reminds me of George Bush, completed detached from reality and wondering how people could possibly disagree with him (unless, of course, they have been brainwashed by “lefties,” as if plagiarism and lying are party-line issues.)
Why is it, that when integrity and honesty become a public issue, it is called a communist witch hunt? Trying to change the subject, are we?
You are right, Dan, it is not about the speech. Now it is about YOU and your lack of fitness for holding public office.
Wow, Dan Johnson, what an asshole!