(continuation of Part I)
Saddleback Community College District Trustee STEVEN J. FROGUE:
EARLY SKIRMISHES, Part II
Irvine World News
Frogue, Williams and Fortune to lead college board
12/13/96
OC Weekly Letters:
LOSING THE FORTUNE [WALKER/MOXLEY]
The office of college trustee is nonpartisan. I regretfully observed the presumption of attitudes or opinions based on political registration, as stated in R. Scott Moxley's "Adventures in advertising" (Nov. 15), which focused on an anti-gay mailer that Moxley alleges "benefited" Fortune's campaign.
Fortune was supported by members of both political parties in the November election because she will serve the community and students rather than partisan interest groups.
Prejudging an individual's performance before he or she takes office is unwise. As a longtime South County resident, I can vouch for Fortune's integrity and abilities. She has served as chair of the 73rd Assembly District and worked diligently. Her Democratic credentials are impeccable. To allow the OC Weekly to continually bash her by interviewing her losing opponents is detrimental to the spirit of unbiased and open inquiry. I prefer to see reason preserved and bipartisan cooperation encouraged.
Why don't you ask about Fortune's ideas for Saddleback Community and Irvine Valley colleges' futures? The election is over; let's get on with the job of educating our students.
—Janet Walker, Laguna Niguel
R. Scott Moxley responds:
Rather than "continually bashing'' Dorothy Fortune, I wrote one article detailing an anti-gay mailer cynically used by four candidates--including Fortune—for the Saddleback Community College District Board. Although The Orange County Register and the L.A. Times knew of the mailer before the election, they chose to withhold the story. We didn't, and I'm sorry that Walker is bothered by the truth. However, those behind the mailer—including Christian Coalition backers—despicably sparked homophobic sentiments in a race that had nothing to do with gays and lesbians.
If gays are taking control of the school system as the mailer sinisterly alleged, then Walker and Fortune should come forward with evidence. But they won't because they don't have any.
For the record, I did interview Fortune for the one or two minutes she permitted, but she forcefully refused to talk about the mailer and how it pertained to improving education. And finally, Fortune contacted me after the article appeared to thank me for writing a "reasonably fair" account.
Orange County Jewish Heritage: The Jewish Grapevine
COMMUNITY WATCH
Prof. Richard Prystowsky's Holocaust course at Irvine Valley College (which is now open for registration) gained notoriety two years ago when eccentric Saddleback Community College District trustee Steven Frogue attacked him for participating in the Anti-Defamation League's Oral History Project. It seems that Frogue believes, among other things, that the ADL ordered the assassination of President Kennedy. Now that the election is over, and Frogue has another four-year term on the board, people are suddenly willing to talk to HERITAGE about this idiot. We will be writing extensively on Frogue, and his appalling alliances, in future editions. And perhaps he won't be on the board as long as he thinks.
12/15/96
LA Times
Letters to the Times:
Trustee Reelection Reveals Flaws
TIMES.LETTERS
• Every time I hear someone denying the existence of the Holocaust, I would like to smear in his face the blood of my family (grandparents, uncles and cousins) who died under torture of the Nazi butcher, Riga Latvia ("Studying the Lessons of Steven J. Frogue," Nov. 25).
Shame on you people in Orange, County, who with your votes put this man back in a pulpit of hatred and bigotry.
— E.J. FRIEDMAN, Fullerton
 |
| The union's choice, Dorothy Fortune, was very assertive. |
• Unfortunately, I have to come to the conclusion that the voting public is not informed enough to select officials to local low-profile positions. Here in Irvine, Mike Ward, who voted to borrow, bet and lose millions of dollars, and who apparently wishes to approve any business development and have the city look like Harbor Boulevard, is returned to the City Council.
In the Saddleback Community College District trustee election, Stephen J. Frogue, a man who believes Lee Harvey Oswald was in the employ of the Anti-Defamation League and who wants to "debate" the validity of the Holocaust, is also reelected with over 60% of the vote and allowed to make crucial decisions regarding educational standards.
The returning of such individuals to public office indicates that a better system of selection is in order.
— JAN RAINBIRD, Irvine
12/96
CONCERNED FACULTY LETTER 12/96 [TO CCA/CTA]
Letter sent, in mid-December, 1996, by 109 full-time "concerned faculty" of the Saddleback Community College District to CCA president Kathy Sproles:
Dear Ms. Sprowles [sic]:
We are faculty members at the sister colleges of the Saddleback Community College District: Irvine Valley College in Irvine and Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.
Some of us are current members of the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association; some of us are potential members of the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association. All of us are concerned with the current crisis that has been precipitated by a very small number of people in the Faculty Association.
While we have no intention of decertifying CTA/NEA as our bargaining agency, we also have no intention of allowing the current practices of a small minority of rogue faculty to embarrass--both in the press and on our campuses--the majority of faculty at both colleges or to link CTA--through name, money or both--to questionable campaign practices and to questionable organizational procedures which limit both members' access to information and members' open hearing of their voices and the reflection of those voices in the policies and practices of the SCCD Faculty Association.
We are primarily concerned with the ethics of the small number of faculty who control the Faculty Association; particularly the ethical nature--or lack thereof--of a campaign waged during the November elections for the SCCD Board of Trustees.
A small group of faculty members working under the names of "the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association," "O.C. Citizens for Quality Education," and "Taxpayers for Responsible Education" have, in recent months, waged a political campaign using campaign tactics which include one campaign mailer—"Tax Payer Alert: Same-Sex 'Marriage'"—characterized by "local political observers" as "'the most scurrilous and vile' campaign ad of the season" (OC Weekly November 15-21, 1996, page 8). According to the OC Weekly, the "anti-gay mailer was paid for by Taxpayers for Responsible Education, a political-action committee (PAC) established by the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association." (See section 2.)
An editorial of retraction concerning a parallel newspaper ad placed in O.C. Jewish Heritage states (in part): "Heritage regrets having run the ad without authenticating its accuracy and intent and apologizes to Harriett Walther for publicizing false charges about her. Heritage further regrets any role it may have inadvertently played in damaging the reputations of candidates Lang, Rhodes, Brooks and Moraes [opposing candidates], and affecting the outcome of the election" (November 2, 1996, page 2).
The distribution of the "Taxpayer Alert" flyers mentioned above outraged and galvanized the faculty. In a single swipe, the taxpayer alert flyer 1) misrepresents positions of opposition candidates; 2) misrepresents information regarding cost, number and guidelines for establishing domestic partnerships in the Saddleback Community College District; 3) attacks instructors' academic freedom in the areas of Gay and Lesbian studies; 4) denigrates the Gay and Lesbian faculty, students and administrators in our college community; and 5) "attempt[s] to kindle fear and hatred in voters as a technique to garner support for a candidate" (The Laguna Beach Democratic Club's statement of withdrawal of its endorsement for one FA candidate).
As a consequence of the taxpayer alert mailer, Women For: Orange County joined the Laguna Beach Democratic Club in withdrawing support for the same candidate [Fortune]. An additional ramification was the resignation of several union members.
Although all opposing candidates voiced approval for domestic partnership benefits should the item be brought forward by the Faculty Association during the negotiations process, none of the candidates focused campaigns predicated on the issue of domestic partnership benefits.
In response to the mailer, Trustee Lee Rhodes is quoted as saying, "'Personally, I am open to the idea of domestic-partner benefits. But it just isn't on the radar screen of pressing issues we face'" (OC Weekly November 15~21, 1996). In the same article, newly-elected Trustee David Lang used more stringent language in addressing the "issues" raised in the flier: "That flier appealed to the worst in human nature by trying to incite certain elements in our community that are susceptible to hatemongering and hysteria. The piece could not have been further from the real education issues at stake. It was just an underhanded smoke screen."
In a letter to OC Weekly, Lisa Alvarez responds to portions of the flier addressing college class content and seminars and conferences: "As an associate professor of English at Irvine Valley College, I can say that the gay and lesbian faculty of Irvine Valley and Saddleback College and the faculty whose classes contain gay and lesbian content are shocked and saddened to find ourselves tossed into such rough, unfriendly waters by our colleagues--a powerful minority willing to sacrifice the rest of us--along with a hard-fought academic freedom--in order to fatten their salaries and pensions" (OC Weekly, November 22-28,1996).
Finally, members of the District's Gay and Lesbian Task Force question the accuracy of the "information" provided in the flier: "We have always been told that the implementation of domestic partnership benefits would not appreciably change district insurance costs" is a recurring comment expressed by members of the Task Force which has worked intensively to establish guidelines for domestic partnership benefits, provisions for definition and criteria for benefit approval and processes for documentation of eligibility.
Another issue of grave concern is the Faculty Association's troubling endorsement record: a candidate respected by the faculty is abandoned while a candidate disdained by the faculty receives support.
Trustee Lee Rhodes, a retired Saddleback College biology teacher and former FA head negotiator, well-respected by the faculty of both colleges, was led to believe—until the week before the $4200 ballot statement fee was due—that he would again be endorsed by the FA. That the promised endorsement was dropped—and dropped on such short notice—incensed many faculty who saw the sudden withdrawal of support as a means of stalemating his candidacy.
Upon withdrawing its support of Rhodes, the FA then turned to unprincipled tactics to ensure his defeat.
Rhodes himself characterized the tactics as "lies" (November 18 Board report). Statements attributed to Trustee Rhodes include an assertion in the October 1996 FA newsletter that he "advocat[es] the elimination of the last ten steps of the faculty salary scale" (page 3) and, along with other candidates, "wants to cut faculty salaries and instigate a different faculty evaluation system which CTA has declared to be a violation of the contract and a threat to academic freedom" (page 3).
According to Rhodes, at the November 18 Board meeting, he directed Chancellor Bob Lombardi to look at page 2 of the Taxpayer Alert flyer. He then asked Lombardi, "Is the statement that it costs $9,000 per partner true?" According to Rhodes, Lombardi replied, "It's not factual."
"I replied, 'Then you mean it's a lie?'"
 |
| Paid for by union leadership |
Rhodes' second question to Lombardi was, "Who approves [negotiations for benefits]?" And he (Lombardi) replied, "It's the FA." Rhodes then said, "If they do this [that is, if they are responsible for forwarding negotiated items regarding benefits] then they know what they have here is false."
When asked for clarification of his comments to the Board, Rhodes said, "I was getting at the fact that they lied and they knew they lied and as far as I'm concerned, they're breaking the law. As far as I'm concerned, it's fraud."
The Faculty Association's continued support of Steven J. Frogue is especially disturbing. Trustee Frogue, first elected in 1992, was once again endorsed by the FA in 1996 despite objections raised by FA members. In past years, Frogue's behavior both in the classroom and in the board room has come under public scrutiny. According to reports published in the OC Register, former students in Frogue's high school history class complained that Frogue denied or diminished the existence of the Holocaust (OC Register April 4, 1995).
During this same period, Frogue devoted extraordinary amounts of time to matters that would seem to have no relevance to a college Board of Trustees; namely, the work of the Anti-defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL). Indeed, as the LA Times recently reported in a front page article, "his tirade against the ADL took up hours and hours of open meeting time."
Frogue's attacks on the ADL arose in conjunction with his criticism of a course on the Holocaust taught at Irvine Valley College by Dr. Richard Prystowsky. Additionally, Frogue has spoken favorably about the work of the Institute for Historical Review, an organization characterized by the LA Times as "assailed by academicians around the world for saying that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust is exaggerated and claiming that no Jews died in gas chambers."
In an interview conducted by the IVC Voice (March 23,1995), when asked about the work of the Institute for Historical Review, Frogue observed that "Well, I hear that they have raised some interesting questions." Further, Frogue now asserts that "Lee Harvey Oswald worked for the ADL" and "the ADL was behind" the Kennedy assassination (LA Times).
Given the crisis situation that exists in our District—and, particularly, in our representation by the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association—we are asking that CTA formally intervene to reestablish the justifiable pride we once felt for our Faculty Association. The state leadership has a responsibility to keep a local affiliate true to the ethical and representational standards exacted by CTA and NEA.
We expect you to exercise your responsibility in the following areas:
1. facilitate our enrollment as dues-paying members of SCCDFA/CTA/NEA;
2. distribute to the present and potential membership copies of the current Faculty Association Bylaws;
3. interpret and clarify the articles of those Bylaws;
4. ascertain times and procedures for the election of officers;
5. supervise such elections and monitor all attendant processes;
6. investigate claims by Faculty Association members that their voices have not been recognized by the current leadership and that they have been denied information regarding the expenditure of campaign funds and the role of their dues in such expenditures;
7. censure the actions of those who have denigrated the names of Saddleback College, Irvine Valley College, the Saddleback Community College District, and the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association;
8. provide copies of CTA/NEA Bylaws;
9. provide copies of CTA/NEA Codes of Conduct;
10. monitor and direct our efforts to take back our Faculty Association.
We, the undersigned, hope that soon we can participate in a union which is truly representative of its membership. We appreciate your efforts to realize our shared goal.
Respectfully,....
12/20/96
Letter sent by mail by Faculty Association to membership [newsletter]
Dear Faculty:
We feel that it is necessary to contact you because the California Teacher 's Association has informed us that a group led by Harriet Walther is continuing in its attempt to destroy the Faculty Association by making at-home calls.
There are several lies that are being spread. The most ludicrous one is that the Faculty Association is anti-faculty and anti-sabbatical. In truth many members of the Faculty Association Council have donated enormous amounts of time to produce and protect our contract, which is considered to be one of the best anywhere. We have fought continuously to protect and expand sabbaticals and will always do so.
As to the reassigned time issue, the Faculty Association does not negotiate college reassigned time. It is given at the discretion of administrators. Yesterday we checked with the CTA about the issue, CTA said that many state funded districts are experiencing problems with reassigned time in tight budgetary situations. It is a divisive issue for faculty. Faculty members who have reassigned time naturally want to protect it. Faculty who teach full-time and do not get reassigned time for non-teaching projects often object to what they perceive to be inequities and favoritism.
Our current system of allocating reassigned time is outside the purview of the Faculty Association.
The Partners in Education (P.I.E.) group is circulating a book of newspaper articles to prove that the Faculty Association is not respected by the community. The "many groups that they quote can all be traced back to the same few people: P.I.E. leaders.
It is true that Harriet Walther is very successful at influencing newspaper reporters. (Just ask any District administrator.) Ms. Walther has been less successful in imposing her agenda on the electorate in south Orange County. The Faculty Association has a very positive image in the community as evidenced by the landslide victory of our endorsed candidates in the recent election.
The only P.I.E. candidate who won election to the Board (with only 36% of the vote) was David Lang. Mr. Lang presented a plan to the Board on December 16 to cut your salary.
Can you imagine what the New Year would be like for you and your family if his P.I.E. colleagues had won the election? Lang's specific proposal was to cut salaries across the board. In spite of all their nice-sounding rhetoric, the bottom line is that the leaders of P.I.E. think that you are overpaid and underworked.
During the up-coming in-service week the Faculty Association is housing an open forum where all of these issues can be openly debated. After that we hope that P.I.E. will allow us to direct our energies to teaching and to negotiations.
Divisiveness in the Faculty Association subverts negotiations. We do not know whether that those who continue to produce strife are driven by the conscious goal of undermining negotiations, but they will undoubtedly produce that effect. As Ben Franklin used to say "we can all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang apart."
Best Wishes for a Great New Year!
— The Faculty Association
12/29/96
LA Times
THE 10TH ANNUAL TIMES ORANGE COUNTY NEWS TRIVIA QUIZ
By MICHAEL GRANBERRY, TIMES STAFF WRITER
For Orange County, it was the year of "the oust." Oustees included a principled bus driver, a congressman who refused to believe he'd lost, a baseball manager canned by a band of Angels and a former tax collector-treasurer who finally got his comeuppance. We look back on 1996 with the 10th annual Times Orange County news trivia quiz, a review of the events that made headlines during a year in which Bob Dornan said good-bye and the Orange County Board of Supervisors told its South County constituents, "You're getting a new airport whether you like it or not!" To quote Loretta Sanchez: "Enjoy!" ........
#7. Maybe he's spent too much time on the grassy knoll.
Steven J. Frogue, president of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees, accused which group of playing a role in President Kennedy's assassination?
A. The Bolshoi Ballet.
B. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.
C The Orange County Board of Supervisors.
 |
| Union leadership defender Patrick Fennel often seems unhinged |
1997
1/14/97
Letter from Ron Albright (FA member) to Sherry Miller-White:
Dear Sherry Miller-White:
As I told you in the Faculty Association meeting for questions and answers which you scheduled and held on Friday, January 10, 1997, during in-service week at Saddleback College, I am once again a paying member of the CTA and the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association. I have always been a member at every University and College I have ever taught at, save for the past two years at Saddleback when I dropped out because, as I explained to you at the time, I felt that my voice was not taken into consideration by anyone in a position of leadership.
At the January 10th meeting, you held up a dark blue packet of information for new members that you said I would receive. Since our mailboxes are in the same room at Saddleback, it will be easiest for you to simply put the packet in my mailbox. I have not yet received it.
You also said at the meeting that [the CTA's] Diane Fernandez-Lisi was planning to mail to all faculty members in the district a copy of the most current by-laws which govern our Faculty Association. In a telephone conversation with Ms. Fernandez-Lisi on January 9th, 1997, I understood her to say that you were asked at the December 16th, 1996, meeting with CTA President Kathy Sprowles and with Diane Fernandez-Lisi to mail out a copy of the most current SCCDFA bylaws by which we are governed to all Saddleback and IVC faculty members, paying and non-paying members, during the holidays. I may have misunderstood. Please check with Ms. Fernandez-Lisi so we can all have a copy of the most current bylaws as soon as possible.
At the January 10, 1997, Faculty Association question-answer meeting, you said twice in your presentation that the "Taxpayer Alert" flyer which was sent out by the FA's PAC, "Taxpayers For Responsible Education" (ID# 942285) was "homophobic", but that you felt it was the right thing to do because the FA had to win the election and could not have won without that flyer. You stated that you would not personally have chosen this flyer but that you were outvoted and as President of the FA you gave the final approval.
I would like to have a copy of the minutes of the meetings in which this decision was taken, in which the vote was taken. I wish to see how such important decisions are made in our Faculty Association.
Also at that same January 10, 1997, meeting, Professor John Allen stated in very strong terms that he deplored the FA's full page ad in the Lariat just after the election (November 7, 1996) in which a staff member at IVC was attacked along with Harriet Walther, former member of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees, retired. He said he felt that this was an "immoral" and "unprofessional" way for the FA to deal with this issue. In response, vice-president Sharon MacMillan offered the information that the FA has not paid for this ad and has no intention of paying for this ad because the student newspaper, the "Lariat", ran an editorial in the same issue of the paper in which they criticized the FA's taking out of the ad.
I would like to have a copy of the minutes of the meetings at which the taking out of the ad was discussed and decided upon, and a copy of the minutes of the meetings in which the decision not to pay the student newspaper for the ad was discussed and decided upon. I wish to see how such important decisions are made in our Faculty Association.
It is clear that we have a crisis of the first magnitude in our SCCDFA. Consequently, I am asking that the leadership immediately request of the CTA leadership crisis funds for an outside, independent assessment of the SCCDFA.
In summary:
(1) a new-member packet for Ron Albright
(2) a copy of the most current bylaws which govern our SCCDFA mailed to or placed in the school mailboxes of all Saddleback and IVC faculty members
(3) a copy to Ron Albright of the minutes of all meetings in which discussions were held and decisions were taken concerning:
a) the "Taxpayer Alert" flyer of the "Taxpayers For Responsible Education" (ID# 942285);
b) the full page ad placed in the Lariat by the FA in November;
c) the decision not to pay the student newspaper for the ad because of some persons' displeasure with the student editorial in the same issue of the paper.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation,
—Ron Albright, Professor, Saddleback College
(714) 582-xxxx
cc: Kathy Sprowles, President CTA
Diane Fernandez-Lisi, CTA
Diane Crowe, Manager Region #4, CTA
John Allen, Professor, Saddleback College
1/30/97
Saddleback College Lariat, front page:
Trustees allegedly violate Brown Act
By KEVIN ZACHARY HESSEL - EDITOR IN CHIEF
In a battle waging between the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees and the academic senates of Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges, the senates have accused the trustees of violating multiple laws and codes during the closed session of their Dec. 16, 1996 meeting.
According to letters issued by both academic senate presidents, the trustees discussed and voted upon inappropriate matters during the closed session.
"It was reported to us by a confidential source that the board discussed and voted on our reassigned time," said Katherine Clark, IVC Academic Senate president. "They are clearly in violation of the law."
The board announced at its regular meeting Jan. 27 that it did indeed reach a 4-2 vote Dec. 16 which stripped members of the IVC and Saddleback academic senates of their reassigned time.
The board confirmed this decision by approving it in public session Jan. 27.
However, because of the nature of the issues discussed, the senates claim the board violated the Ralph M. Brown Act.
"There are quite a few violations here," said Robert Cosgrove, Saddleback Academic Senate president. "Because this was a discussion of budgetary matters, they could only discuss this in public."....
1/30/97
Saddleback College Lariat
Letters:
Union's leadership embarrassing [BAUER]
Roy Bauer
By any reasonable standard, the conduct of the Faculty Association—or at least its leadership—during the recent election campaign was shameful and embarrassing. Among the FA's more sordid tactics was its use of the now-notorious "same-sex marriage" mailer. The mailer, which targeted South County Republicans, was a transparent effort to exploit ignorance and homophobia.
FA leaders seem willing to concede this. During an FA-sponsored event January 10, FA President Sherry Miller-White, who approved the mailer, acknowledged it was "homophobic." ("It was too homophobic for me," she said.) On other occasions, Miller-White and her colleagues have seemed to say that the FA did indeed resort to distasteful tactics, though only out of "desperation." (See, for instance, the FA's December newsletter.)
One might therefore suppose that apologies—and even resignations—are in order. But none are forthcoming. Indeed, on Jan. 10, a defiant Miller-White defended the "same-sex" mailer on the grounds that "life as we know it" (a phrase that seemed to refer to the relatively high-salaried life enjoyed by faculty of this district) was threatened. It was threatened, evidently, by a slate of trustee candidates who—Good Lord!—seemed unwilling to put faculty salaries above all other concerns.
Miller-White's reasoning was breathtaking: Her decision to approve admittedly vile campaign material, she seemed to say, is not deserving of condemnation because the union's goals were important and because sleazy tactics were necessary for the victory of FA-sponsored candidates. That is, "the end justifies the means."
Yikes!
During the same event, when repeatedly confronted with the charge that FA leadership behaved unethically, Vice President Sharon MacMillan responded by asserting that the FA's opponents behaved unethically too.
Her reasoning, then, is as follows: "Our unethical behavior should not be condemned because some of our opponents also behaved unethically." Wow.
This pattern of gutter moralizing was already apparent months ago, when Miller-White and others sought to shield themselves from blame for the mailer by implying that responsibility lay, not with the FA, but with the professional firm it hired to compose and distribute it!
Here, the reasoning is as follows: "Though composing and distributing vile campaign literature is wrong, paying someone else to compose and distribute vile campaign literature is not wrong." Geez.
An FA member might well ask herself: Ought we to retain union leaders who demonstrate the moral IQ of a turnip? And: Given the union's pattern of conduct, is it surprising that some faculty refuse to join?
Roy Bauer is a philosophy instructor at Saddleback College.
[Note: soon, Bauer, of IVC, joined the FA and sought to join with others in reforming the union.]
Harriett Walther's so-called legacy [by the FA's Anthony Garcia]
Judging by strident cris de coeur uttered in the Lariat by a fistful of vitriolic malcontents, one might assume the Faculty Association is about to be run out of town or that Joan of Arc has been reincarnated as Harriett Walther. Neither is true: The Association is still here and Harriett Walther is still Harriett Walther.
The conflict fought in the "Opinion Section" of the Nov. 21 issue of the Lariat, pitting the voice of teacher against teacher, is not the specious moral issue (obfuscated by Roy Bauer's ramblings and peripatetic logic found in the same Lariat issue), but a battle for power, a battle between IVC and Saddleback to determine an advantage in District-wide issues, between special interest groups and the faculty at large, who do not support their issues.
Letters reflecting the "Walther platform" in the aforementioned issue of the Lariat-tainting their specious presumption of morality with scurrilous, debasing and less-than-forthright attacks on newly elected board members-accused the Association of being self-serving.
The footnote to that, which should have been included, however, is that the core of the Association comprises Saddleback's finest teachers.
Her departure reminds me of the phrase, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, I'm free at last!"
When I think of her political ragtail constituency, I'm reminded of the fitting line of David Denby, "...filled with sycophants, toadies, hangers-on, and other moths looking for the flame."
Anthony Garcia is an English instructor at Saddleback College.
[Garcia is a long-time FA crony. Recently, he was involved in the Anne Cox/Clasby "slapping" episode.]
1/30/97
Saddleback College Lariat, 1/30/97 [graphic?]
 |
| Mr. McLendon never missed a chance to defend union leadership |
2/13/97
Saddleback College Lariat
?
10/24/97
Two articles in the OC Jewish Heritage 
1. Supporters of Frogue pack meeting of college board
Opponents of controversial South Orange County Community College District president Steven Frogue found themselves all but locked out of Monday night's monthly board meeting after a group of roughly 30 boisterous Frogue supporters arrived early and took the board room's limited seating.
2. Official recall petition says Steven Frogue is ‘disgraced’
From the Oct. 24 edition:
1. Supporters of Frogue pack meeting of college board
By Stan Brin
Members of the group described themselves as followers of Willis Carto's "Liberty Lobby," identified more than 30 years ago as a neo-nazi organization.
Roughly 100 persons, most of them Frogue opponents, listened to the proceedings on a loudspeaker installed in the courtyard of the Saddleback College library, Many complained that the seats inside the board room were occupied long before the meeting began.
Opponents are organizing a recall petition drive, inspired by Frogue's attempt to promote a college seminar that would promote anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
One after the other, the neo-nazis came to the microphone and accused the board minority and the Anti-Defamation League of trying to deprive Frogue of his civil rights and to cover up an alleged ADL Mossad plot to kill President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
"I'm tired of a thought police running things," James X. Kennedy, a Frogue supporter, told the board. "And the Mossad did kill Kennedy!"
Four speakers with Muslim names praised Frogue and attacked the ADL "I am deeply disturbed by threats by Jewish organizations, the ADL and the JDL, to 'take him out,'" one of them said.
ADL volunteer Phil Brustein replied that "there is no civil right to spend tax money or student fees on an ideologically motivated project."
The neo-nazi group loudly cheered one another’s speeches and interrupted those who disagreed with them. Board president Frogue, in charge of maintaining order, did not attempt to quiet his supporters. One of his supporters installed a video camera in a section reserved for the press and taped the comments of Frogue opponents.
A Frogue supporter, board member John Williams, a Republican, called the objections of Frogue's opponents irrelevant to his job of board president. One speaker, Saddleback College Prof. Glenn Roevenmore [sic, but I like it], suggested that support and opposition for Frogue had nothing to do with his nazi ties but from his backing of one side in an internal, nonpartisan administrative struggle.
The single item on the agenda, a motion to remove Frogue as president, failed by an expected three-to-four vote with Frogue himself casting the deciding vote.
Following the meeting, Frogue closeted himself at the end of a hallway with five members of the neo-nazi group, causing one opponent to comment that "now we know how they got all the seats....”
When a reporter pointed to the neo-nazis surrounding the board president, Dorothy Fortune, a member of the Orange County Democratic Central Committee as well as a Frogue supporter, appeared startled. She recovered and said that Frogue's personal politics were irrelevant to the job of running the college district.
The following is the text of the petition being circulated urging that a recall election be held to remove Steven Frogue from his position on the South Orange County Community College District board:
To the Honorable Board of the South Orange County Community College District:
Pursuant to the California Constitution and Californian election laws, we the undersigned registered and qualified electors of the South Orange County Community College District of Orange County respectfully state that we seek the recall and removal of STEVEN J.FROGUE holding office of Trustee of the Governing Board of the South Orange County Community College District of Orange County California.
We demand an election of a successor to that office....
The grounds for the recall are as follows:
• found guilty on two counts of violating the California Open Meeting Law by Judge William McDonald of the Orange County Superior Court....• openly opposed, in writing, shared governance, a governance structure mandated by state laws....• disgraced nationally the District and its colleges by proposing and approving his own course, a JFK assassination course "giving legitimacy to bigoted ravings with no balance from opposing points of view."• attacked, insulted and ignored—in pub1ic meetings of the Board of Trustees--students faculty, staff and members of the community....• deliberately circumvented—in the IVC Presidential hiring—the Board of Trustees’ published hiring policy....• received a no-confidence vote of 72.5 per cent of the Irvine Valley College faculty....
In his reply, Frogue did not address the issues raised by the supporters of the recall, but concluded: “Petition is a waste of taxpayer money. Please don't sign it!"
* * *
No comments:
Post a Comment