The December board meeting: wall-to-wall Republicans

It’s been a busy day. After my morning class and lunch with a friend, I headed down to the district for the December meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees—scheduled bizarrely for Friday afternoon. As usual, the meeting was held in the "Ronald Reagan board of trustees room." The open session finally got started at about 1:45, with clerk Tom Fuentes reporting the non-renewal of a dean’s contract, effective June of 2009. (Rearranging of the deck chairs on the SS ATEP?) Trustee Dave Lang gave the invocation, which included a reference to our nation, which, he said is “the greatest country in the world.” The “Honorable” Bill Campbell, one of the county supes, was on hand to swear in the recently reelected Tom Fuentes, Dave Lang, Bill Jay, and John Williams. As soon as he finished with that, Campbell booked. He's a Republican, you know.

  IVC’s Frank Pangborn, accompanied by tinny recorded music, sang Neil Diamond’s “America.” The less said about that, the better. Next, the board launched into its yearly “organizational meeting,” and, luckily, that produced no changes. Whew! The vote for Wagner and Williams to continue as Prez/Vice Prez was 6 to 1, with Nancy Padberg casting the sole dissenting vote. “Thank you all, or most all,” said Don Wagner. Mathur gave Wagner some dumb paperweight in honor of his leadership over the last year. Wagner didn’t seem to want the damned thing. When they got to setting the calendar for the year, Fuentes noted that “three of us” on the board are on the OC Republican Central Committee, and that could cause some conflicts. I looked around the room and wondered what it would be like coming to board meetings and not having to endure wall-to-wall Republicans. During public comments, three speakers objected to the rejection of Saddleback College’s student government budget at the last board meeting. Trustees wanted students to spend more on scholarships, etc.

  Bob Cosgrove, Prez of the Saddleback College Academic Senate, declared that, by tabling approval of the “study abroad” trip to Peru at the last board meeting—Fuentes carped that the trip was too expensive and demanded more information—the board had in effect “stopped the trip.” He said that the deadline for something or other concerning the trip was “today,” and so there you are. Bob objected to the trustees' grilling of student government leaders and hoped that trustees would at some point offer an apology to them. Plus Bob also went on record as approving the recommendation to increase trustee stipends (per meeting) to from $400 to $750, although I think he was being crafty. The recommendation was triggered by a rise in FTES. Well, yeah, so there's more work for faculty, too. During board reports, trustee John Williams described his stay at yet another conference—this one in Anaheim two weeks ago. Milchiker expressed her discomfort with the “excoriation” of student government leaders at the last meeting. Surely this kind of grilling, she said, should occur away from TV cameras. Lang seemed to refer to some poor recent fiscal decisions, but I don’t know what he was referring to. (I’ll have to look into this.) For his report, Chancellor Raghu Mathur lost his composure, fuming over Bob Cosgrove's remarks about trustee questioning of student leadership. Mathur defended the trustees, noting that the latter have consistently asked the questions they asked. “We need to take the trustee comments seriously!” he exclaimed. At one point, he looked directly at Bob and fumed that the board does not need to be “lectured” by—well, Bob, I guess. “It’s insane,” he said. Well, no, it's not. “You never talk to me,” said Goo, looking accusingly at Bob. He then turned to the Peru trip, and, once again, looking at Bob, he declared that the trustees don’t need to be lectured to about the importance of these issues to taxpayers! Then, abruptly, Raghu added, “Happy Holidays.” That got a smile out of Wagner, who sensed that, for once, he wasn’t the rudest asshole in the room. "Thanks, Raghu," he seemed to say. The Institutional Effectiveness report went well. Upon its completion, Trustee Fuentes noted that the number of managers and administrators hasn’t increased in recent years, which, he said, is a testament to the fine leadership of the district. Well, no, it isn't. I guess Tom forgot that, for years, Mathur ignored the 50% Law (which requires that instructional spending exceed non-instructional [including administrative] spending], placing the district in legal jeopardy and precipitating a rush to hire 38 instructors all at once. And yet, at IVC, deans are spread much too thin. That's some leadership. As per usual, the board voted unanimously to grant pay to trustees who had missed recent board meetings. Item 6.1—the study abroad trip to Peru—was pulled from the agenda. It was unclear what this meant for the fate of the program. Bob had said that, now, the trip is off; but others were singing a different tune. Dunno. Item 6.6—the recommendation to up trustee compensation per board meeting from $400 to $750—was pulled by the Chancellor so that the matter could be “researched” further. Being a trustee is supposed to be a public service, right? Well, these meetings last about 5 hours, including the closed session. So, at $750, that's $150 per hour. Plus they get paid even when they don't show up. Then there's their $16K benefits package. Gee willikers! That's some public service! Item 7.3 was the “monthly financial status report,” which Mathur took as an opportunity to wag his finger at—well, not sure who—about how, fiscally, things really suck and will get way worse. He sure hoped, he said, that everyone was on top of this and not living in “la-la land.” Whoever Raghu’s intended audience was, he sure does hate‘em. He was oozing contempt. That's leadership. Mathur made a point of mentioning the appearance of the head of the United Auto Workers at the recent hearings concerning the auto industry. He noted that union’s willingness to make “concessions.” Fuentes purred. He licked his chest hairs. “Even Barney Frank, a liberal,” was talking about the need for restructuring, said a particularly ugly Mr. Goo.

The audience winced. Eventually, we got to item 7.4, the notorious “trustee expenditure report.” Padberg, who had requested the report, said that she had not had enough time to go over this information with the staff who had assembled it, and so she advised bringing the matter back in January. That was about it. Send all cards and letters to Raghu P. Mathur.