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THE BUSY YET GRIM BOARD OF TRUSTEES. As you know, the SOCCCD Board of Trustees (BOT) had two special meetings recently: one concerning ATEP—the SOCCCD’s new high-tech facility in Tustin—the other concerning Saddleback College's accreditation (the BOT met with the Accreds [ACCJC] during their site visit in the never-ending Saddleback College accreditation saga).
Everybody’s been pretty tight-lipped about the ATEP meeting, but there are numerous indications that it was
way stormy and/or unhappy (if facial expressions & grumpitude are any indication). Could it be that things are not going well re Mathur’s grand plan to place his mug on Mt. Goomore via the "Camelot" deal? I keep hearing that there exist big tensions among the three concerned parties: (1) the City of Tustin, (2) the Camelot people, and (3) the District.
If the city is unhappy enough, they'll pull the plug on any BIG ATEP DEAL.
(NOTE: In my report for the September board meeting (
see), I wrote
David Hunt (of gkkworks) presented the “short-range plan” for ATEP.... Our continued use of those 68 acres depends on the city’s confidence that we are making progress in its development. The “long-range plan” is the as-yet-undefined partnership now being negotiated with such entities as Camelot. The “short-range plan” is what we’ll be doing with the property in the interim, which, I gather, will be a period of years. ¶ The short plan’s chief element appears to be demolition of buildings, the projected cost of which is about $7 million. The projected cost of the entire plan, not including some as-yet-to-be-determined elements (e.g., maintenance), is $9,231,610. ¶ Hunt opined that this plan should be enough to satisfy the City of Tustin.
At the time, I wondered: where's all this money gonna come from?)
We’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything definite.
I haven’t heard word one about the Accred confab. Evidently, no faculty showed up to the meeting, which was public.
Way to go, faculty. I just love the way you're all over this stuff.
Let me be more direct. Faculty:
get with the goddam program.
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COMEDY OF ERRORS or SUBTERFUGE OF MATHUR’S? Meanwhile, trustee
Marcia Milchiker seems to be mad as hell and disinclined to take it any more re Chancellor Mathur and his efforts on her behalf to serve on ACCJC visiting teams. You’ll recall that, a few months ago, Marcia expressed interest in such service, but, during a public BOT meeting, Mathur “informed” her that trustees are no longer eligible. His info, evidently, was based on his alleged correspondence with the Big Beno (aka Babs Beno of ACCJC) concerning this matter.
It turns out that Mathur’s information is false, and so Marcia’s hopping mad. But Mathur may be guilty of nothing more than his usual stupidity and poor communications skills.
On the other hand....
Recently, there was considerable interest in the mysterious disappearance and hilarious/disturbing morphing of the faculty hiring policy (4011.1) on the district website. (This at a time when numerous hiring committees are beginning their work!) These phenomena turned out to be nothing more than the cyber-residue of a mere comedy of errors.
Aincha proud?
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NIELSEN CHILD MOLESTATION TRIAL, AGAIN. Speaking of PRIDE, things have not been going well in the FUENTESPHERE, what with increasingly disturbing revelations of Treasurer
Chriss Street’s corruption (past and present), the indictment of Sheriff Mike "Hometown Hero" Carona, and so on.
You’ll recall that one of Fuentes’ protégés is (or was) attractive young up-and-GOPer
Jeffrey Nielsen, the son of a local bigwig Republican. In the late 90s, Fuentes invited hot young Jeff to the Balboa Bay Club and took ‘im to South Coast Plaza to buy him suits. Gosh! (See
Jeff Nielsen is a conservative guy.)
Well, years later, the
OC Weekly commenced reporting allegations (and seemingly powerful evidence—check it out) that young Jeff engaged in child molestation with a kid in Virginia. Then, a year or so ago, the OC DA filed charges against Nielsen with regard to a Westminster teenager. The latter led to a trial and a hung jury.
On Thursday, the
OC Register reported that:
The often-delayed second child molestation trial for Jeffrey Nielsen—lawyer, former congressional staffer, a former clerk in the Orange County District Attorney's Office and a former member of the Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corp. board of directors—was delayed again, to Dec. 5.
Nielsen, 33, is charged with molesting a 14-year-old male high school student whom he met in an Internet chat, and a Virginia teenager he met in the 1990s when he worked for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) in Washington D.C. Both victims were allegedly molested in Orange County.
The trial—if it goes—could last as long as 25 days, says Deputy District Attorney Colleen Crommett.
Or it could end in less than the 11 days it took for the first trial, when Nielsen was charged only with molesting the 14-year-old student, says defense attorney Paul S. Meyer.
That first trial ended with a hung jury. The second trial was delayed again for two weeks because Meyer is involved in another trial. Nielsen is also represented by prominent defense attorney John Barnett.
It’s amazing what being rich and/or connected will do for a guy. Just amazing. I doubt that the Jeffster will ever be convicted of anything.
As Red likes to say, "It’s Orange County, Jake."
THE MUD is made of dirt and ash and water and rocks, some the size of a human head, most the size of fists. The texture is viscous. The shovels hit the rocks, scrape, almost sing as they slide, sounding like pickaxes, the sound of the old local mines of Modjeska, Silverado.
We fill the sandbags with the rocky mud that has filled the house, a dark even tide of two feet in every room. Then we haul the bags up the hillside to secure against another slide.
