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!"
