At the end of the July 11 Paso Robles school board meeting, Kenney Enney commented on an incident he believed to be an overreach.
“I received a correspondence from an individual who comes to these meetings [that] someone on the board had issues with and notified the police,” Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board member Enney said. “I see that as very concerning because the individual is now afraid to come to the board meetings.”
That individual was Paso Robles resident Raymond Katz, and the board member who had allegedly involved Paso Robles authorities was Jim Cogan.
Cogan, who was absent from that July 11 meeting, told New Times that Katz threatened him via email over comments he made on May 15 regarding Pride Month-related events, specifically the announcement that the weekend of May 27 was Trans-Pride weekend.
In those emails, which Cogan shared with New Times, Katz detailed his plans to make 500 flyers to “help” Cogan get the word out by inviting people from Cogan’s church to the event Cogan had spoken about in May.
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea,” Katz’s wrote in one of his emails to Cogan, quoting from the Bible.
Cogan contacted district Superintendent Curt Dubost to see if they could get law enforcement to ensure that Katz did not intend to enact the quoted scripture. Cogan said he was afraid to attend his church because of the threats—something that was compounded when his pastor told him that Katz had contacted the church directly.
According to the church’s office manager, Katz requested the church do something about Cogan, told a story about someone killing a chicken and hanging the dead chicken around a dog’s neck, and said he would come to a school board meeting and hang a dead chicken around Cogan’s neck.
“Mr. Katz’s threats and harassment are meant to intimidate me,” Cogan wrote in an email to Dubost requesting district and police assistance. “I take his misquoting of scriptural references and chicken story, both involving hanging something around my neck, to be a thinly veiled threat of physical violence.”
Katz spoke to New Times about the messages that he said were rooted in his desire to discuss an “invitation to a children’s trans makeover event” that Cogan had made at May 15 meeting.
He said that if Cogan had simply replied to the emails, he wouldn’t have felt the need to contact his church directly.
“I’m not one to tell people like Cogan how to live their lives,” Katz said. “But I do have an issue with him suggesting everyone put that kind of event on their calendar when there are kids involved.”
Katz noted that he would no longer be interacting with the board in that capacity due to the conversation that he had with law enforcement that made him fearful of what he considers to be an overuse of power by Cogan.
“Once he got the police involved, I felt I had to bring it to the attention of [board member Dorian]
Baker and Enney to let them know I was being silenced,” Cogan said. “The fact of the matter is he is trying to weaponize the police to get me to stop speaking out for what I believe.”
Cogan told New Times that he had no intent of bringing up the emails and phone call at any board meeting, but felt it was necessary to provide context to Enney’s and Baker’s comments on July 11 regarding the alleged misuse of authority.
Superintendent Dubost said that he fully disclosed the nature of Katz’s comments and interactions to the rest of the board after that meeting—at Enney’s request—to clear up any confusion as to why Cogan felt it was necessary to get authorities involved.
New Times reached out to Enney and Baker, but didn’t receive a response before press time.
Cogan said that while he understands disagreeing with someone over policy and is open to having conversations, he wants people—not just Katz—to understand there is a more appropriate way to do so.
“If you truly have a problem with my statements and you want to do something about it, campaign and work to get me voted out,” Cogan said. “Because that’s not harassment—that’s just democracy.” Δ
This article appears in Aug 3-13, 2023.
