The November board meeting

The board announced that, during its closed session, it appointed Randy Peebles to Provost of the Advanced Technology and Education Park (ATEP). Oddly, the vote was 5-2, with Trustees Jay and Milchiker voting no.

OC Treasurer Chriss Street dropped by to announce Chancellor Mathur’s appointment to the Treasurer’s Oversight Committee, which has five members. For some reason, Street did not use the speaker’s podium; he sat about where Gary Poertner usually sits.


During public comments, Saddleback College Academic Senate President Bob Cosgrove noted the ongoing problem of inadequate support for faculty working on SLOs and other accreditation-related tasks. Evidently, many local districts provide much more LHE than does SOCCCD. (The agenda item concerning reassigned time and stipends had been pulled. I’m told that the committee responsible for reviewing board policies is developing a new policy regarding RT and stipends that would conflict with Mathur’s likely lowball recommendation.)


Karla Westphal was on hand to object to the board’s evident intention to hire a law firm to defend its practice of giving prayerful invocations. (Item 6.3) She declared that spending taxpayer money to pursue trustees’ personal agendas is “irresponsible.”

A student who attended last Spring’s notorious Scholarship event--in which board President Don Wagner made some singularly unpopular remarks--explained that she was deeply offended by Wagner’s conduct. She believes that the board should replace prayer with a moment of silence.

There were about 25 Saddleback College students in attendance—all wearing red shirts—and they applauded vigorously.

During board reports, trustee Tom Fuentes noted that Chancellor Raghu Mathur will be hosting “ethics training” soon. Most of the room was weirded out by that one.

Mathur opined that the victory of all four trustee incumbents is an indication that the district is “well run.” He thanked Tom Fuentes for his efforts to rename the board room the “Ronald Reagan Room.”

Item 6.1—presentation of the Saddleback College 2008-9 Associated Students Budget—was moved to the front. The students were excited. Their leaders obviously take the whole thing pretty seriously. The 25 kids applauded at every opportunity, so proud were they of themselves and their leaders.

Trustees were unimpressed by the students’ budget. Student trustee Hannah Lee noted how little money in the budget was dedicated to student scholarships. How come IVC’s much smaller budget funds many more scholarships?


Board President Don Wagner said that he did not see that the budget gives much to the students. He noted it provides money for forensics, surfing, and whatnot, but “that’s not where the rubber meets the road for the students.”

Chancellor Mathur, with wet finger still in air, piled on. He noted that the students had budgeted $12K for the scholarship ceremony where a mere $35K in scholarships would be doled out. 

That didn’t sound good.

Trustee Fuentes noted that the students were engaging in “deficit spending.” He was unimpressed that the students had decided to spend all of their large beginning balance ($208,000). I think he favored returning it to the students.

In the end, students were urged to go back to the drawing board. They all got up and wandered back to the malt shop.


Chancellor Mathur offered a grim report on budget matters. At the state level, it’s a “mess,” he said. He noted (as we did here in Dissent) that our own county is considering layoffs. There is, he said, “some envy” of the three community college districts (including ours) that receive “basic aid,” and, as a consequence, our basic aid funding is now under “threat.” Further, county residents are beginning to ask for reassessments of their homes, and this will “impact” the money available to us (via basic aid, which comes from local property taxes). There’s talk, he said, of community college fee increases, etc. Tuition will likely go up to $26, then to $30.

It appears that $332.2 million will be carved out of the state’s community college budget. (It looks very bad for the faculty contract.)

There’s talk of a sales tax increase.

“Well, that’s cheery. Thank you,” said board president Wagner.

Fuentes noted that a new tax on serving drinks will likely be instituted. He observed that, when the “fellas” in Sacramento talk about taxing their drinking, we’ve got real trouble.


Trustee Fuentes carped about the high cost of the proposed study abroad program to Peru ($3,500, including travel, for one week). Trustees decided to get some answers to their questions before approving the trip.

Item 5.9 was supposed to be a report on trustee travel expenses—plus identification of trustees requesting such expenses. Exhibit A for this item listed three locations, without identifying the requesting trustees. Padberg again wanted to know who requested these travel expenses. Williams acknowledged that he asked for the $2,200 to travel to Orlando in January.

Williams has a brother in Orlando. He often goes there, on the district's dime.

Check out our graphics, which provide further details re travel expenses (especially Williams’)--and cellphone expenses. (Click on graphics to make them larger.)

Item 6.3 proposed hiring a lawyer regarding trustee invocations. Lang said it would be “wasteful spending.” Trustees should replace the prayers with a “thought for the day” or moment of “silent reflection,” he said.


Padberg seemed to say that the prayers can continue and there is no need to hire an expensive lawyer. Trustee Bill Jay said that prayers are just swell. The vote was 3/3, with Fuentes abstaining (a conflict of interest). Wagner declared that abstentions count as a “yes.”

That was about it.