Sunday, April 25, 2010

He's making a list and checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty and nice

SATAN BOY IS COMING TO FROWN. I skimmed through the agenda for Monday's meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees. I found a few things that might interest DtB readers.

$25K FOR G.O.P.'s GREER. We've reported the curious fact that Chancellor Raghu Mathur got some seriously pricey representation when he negotiated the terms of his exit from the district. Pricey—and unethical. I'm talking about defense attorney to the corrupt and incompetent OC GOP politicians (Street, Williams, et al.), Phil Greer.

He was paid $25,000 of taxpayer money for his work.

Gosh. That's seems like an awful lot.

The payment is reflected in item 5.10, "payment of bills." Check it out:


POERTNER RETIRING. Among "Academic Personnel actions" (6.7) are some resignations:


That's right. Gary Poertner is set to retire. Rumors have been flying that Gary has been, or will be, asked to serve as interim Chancellor should things go badly with the current Chancellor search. Maybe. In any case, it does appear that he's planning for retirement.

UNION PROPOSAL. 6.9 is the faculty union's proposal re the contract. Tomorrow night, the public will have an opportunity to comment on the FA's proposed changes (see exhibit A below):



CRONY BOY SEEKS NEPOTISCULAR SIN. Trustee Tom Fuentes is nothing if not contemptuous of public education and its employees. Naturally, therefore, much of what he does and says amounts to tossing red meat to his clueless Neanderthalic constituency, who readily believe charges of instructular corruption of youth, 15-hour work weeks, and devil worship.

Recently, Fuentes requested a report on "nepotism." Item 7.1 is that report. Here is its summary:


If you'd like to peruse the report's lists of alleged heinous SOCCCD nepotizers, go to pages 237-243 of the agenda, which can be downloaded at the district website. (At the home page, look for the blue box at right. See "click here for current agenda.")

Well, I will mention one interesting name that I came across. Evidently, IVC Prez Glenn Roquemore's father-in-law works for IVC as a "certified test proctor." I did not know that.

RICH RETIREES. Another report requested by Trustee Fuentes is a list of SOCCCD retirees who receive at least $100,000 annually. (Pensions for public employees has become a major Republican sore point in recent months.) Here it is:



Almost all of these people were administrators. There are some faculty names here too. At least two of them were in the gang of secretive and ruthless creeps who controlled the faculty union in the mid-to-late 90s and who brought us a dozen years of "conservative board majority" dominance.

Gosh thanks.

Raghu Mathur was an important member of that group. Steve Frogue was his pal. That's how he got the IVC Presidency gig, despite having zero experience as a full-time administrator and a history of unprofessional and unethical conduct.

Among this gang's achievements: making sure that senior faculty were well taken care of at retirement. How about new hires? --No so much.

BASIC AID DWINDLING. Item 7.5 is the "Basic Aid Report." Until recently, the district received about $50 million a year in Basic Aid money. Here's the projection for the future:

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't Phil Greer represent John Williams (as Public Administrator) in front of the Board of Supervisors twice in December when they considered taking away the majority of his job description (Williams was of course not there - was off on some family emergency it was noted). I guess that's a good way of paying your attorney without it coming out of your pocket!

Anonymous said...

Fuentes has turned the district into an annex of the local GOP.

Anonymous said...

Where's the billing statement?

Anonymous said...

'Well, I will mention one interesting name that I came across. Evidently, IVC Prez Glenn Roquemore's father-in-law works for IVC as a "certified test proctor." I did not know that.'

Watchdogs asleep during that deal?

That's the one where Joyce Arntson got in trouble for blowing the whistle, then retired in disgust...

Anonymous said...

We have long known that the father-in-law had employment at the college, though we did not know the details. Further, the situation was never presented to me at least as a major problem or issue. Finally, Mathur has long used these "nepotism" situations as a stick with which to beat R when that has been conventient, and it has generally seemed to me that it would be worse to assist Mathur's ugly machinations (intwined as they usually are with other dark Mathurian schemes and agendas) than to fail to report these nepotism issues. As I've noted before, there is much else that we've known about but haven't reported over the years for a variety of reasons, including the welfare of innocent bystanders. This blog is an ongoing balancing act. And we don't always get it right. We do the best we can. --BvT

P.S. Mr. Fuentes should consider his own vulnerability with regard to charges or appearances of nepotism and cronyism. It is very like him not to notice the beam in his own eye.

Anonymous said...

OK, got it. We overlook some corruption, the good corruption, involving the good people, because they're OK, and they're just doing what they have to do. So whatever they do, it of course can't be bad.

It's the bad corruption involving the people we hate that's really bad, because everything THEY do, well, it naturally has to be bad.

Was confused there at first, making the mistake of applying common sense, but thankfully we have a philosopher in charge to explain complicated things like this to the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

12:07, are you a simpleton? Did you actually read what I said?

You seem to be the incorrigible sort, so I won't argue with you.

I'll say this: there is nothing preventing you from posting a comment regarding troubling situations and the evidence that they are occurring. You'd want to put your name to it, of course, as I do. Otherwise, no one will take you seriously.

Or start your own blog, oh brave Anonymous.--BvT (aka RB)

Anonymous said...

12:07, just so there isn't any confusion, BvT is Roy Bauer, as is explained in the "Dissenters" post that appears literally at the top of this blog (see also "History of Dissent"). My picture also appears in the sidebar at right.

Will you emerge fron Anonymity? Or will you simply continue to carp and squawk from dark corners?

I doubt that anyone is holding their breath.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...