Maybe you noticed that I haven’t actually given a report on Tuesday’s board meeting. I offered videos instead. [Tom Fuentes’ clueless soldiers
Faculty refute Tom Fuentes’ distortions
OC Treasurer opines for Fuentes]
But Dissent readers don’t seem to like those, so here’s my belated verbiage. (That means "words," Walter.)
I had high hopes for spectacular fireworks Tuesday night, but they were dashed by Lee Haggerty’s email reporting that the contract item had been pulled. Haggerty’s memo was odd, what with its reference to (I guess) hard economic times. Well, it’ll be hard times next month and the month after that too, so is this a permanent tabling of the item? Let’s hope not.
During the meeting, board Prez Don Wagner, too, alluded to the rotten economic turn in his explanation for pulling the item. One hopes the plan is to allow more lobbying of trustees and/or more negotiating. Something.
Tomfoolery!
We’ve certainly got a special board. It was fun looking up there at 'em, contemplating the tangled web of hatred. Nancy Padberg hates John Williams, ‘cause Williams fired her three years ago. But Williams now has gotta hate Tom Fuentes (if he didn’t hate him before) for dropping a demagogue bomb on ‘im over his dastardly support of the faculty contract proposal.
But Fuentes and his crew of spin-meisters slimed Padberg, too—why not?—and so, though she must still loathe Williams, at least she and Johnny now have a #1 Loathe Object in common. Meanwhile, Don Wagner’s gotta be pretty peeved about Fuentes’ maneuver, which makes anything resembling fair deliberation about the contract pretty much impossible. Thank you, Tom.
And Dave Lang’s gotta be steamed, too, ‘cause he had no problem with the 5% COLA part of the proposal, but he’s getting slammed along with Fuentes as being anti-faculty and totally Neanderthal. Dave wants to be loved. He's only a quisling, not a Karl Rovian Neanderthal, thinks Dave.
Meanwhile, Bill Jay still likes the contract proposal (and seems to love everybody), and Marcia Milchiker—well, she can be found on Neptune.
At one point during the meeting, she said something particularly daffy, whereupon Fuentes quipped, “Quit while you’re ahead, Marcia!” Then Wagner yelled: “But she’s not ahead!”
Tom leaks
As you know, in recent weeks, OC Register blogger Steve Greenhut has reported the initial vote taken by the board in closed session. It was 4-3, says Greenhut, with Wagner, Fuentes, and Lang opposing the proposed contract. I did not know that.
But how is it that Greenhut knew what went on in a closed session? One naturally supposes that Fuentes unburdened himself to Greenhut about these highly sensitive deliberations.
Classy guy, that Tom Fuentes.
Everybody on the board must be just as pleased as punch about the guy. I wonder what the Lord thinks of ‘em? My guess is that Tom thinks that God thinks that a guy gets to lie and cheat and mess around, as long as he does it for Lordly ends.
I’m an ethicist, and we call such people “assholes.”
Motley crew
Saddleback College’s Ozzie-‘n’-Harrietesque student government crowd came back from the malt shop with a new and improved proposed budget—one that pretty much satisfied the board’s complaints of two months ago. These kids, and Thorny too, have now opted to spend big money on scholarships, etc., which is great. So Fuentes and the others fell over themselves praising these young people. It was amazing bullshit. Those ASG kids seemed to sniff the air.
The always-dapper Mr. Arnold Bray, the district’s consultant/lobbyist (I think), provided a budget update. (He has the best shoes I've ever seen.) He reported that there are officials who seek to hand over our “basic aid” tax money to the K-12 districts. Right now, it’s just an idea, he said. But he’ll keep us up to speed on this thing so we'll be ready to pounce and squeal if necessary.
Did I mention that Marcia Milchiker’s “invocation” sounded like a press release about community colleges? It didn’t sound to me like she was summoning the Deity. It was more like she was reading from the college catalog.
So we all stood there in this prayerful posture, wondering what in hell Marcia thought she was doing. And then, at the end, Marcia said, “Amen.” It was like watching a GEICO commercial that ends with the Pope blessing that goddam lizard.
Bad news
Trustees fell over themselves expressing grief, etc., about the death of Saddleback College’s Howard Adams, obviously a swell guy. We also learned that Saddleback College’s Cal Nelson (more recently a rent-a-dean at IVC) had suffered a stroke. Everybody loves Cal.
Because the meeting started late, the board decided to postpone the update on the “basic skills initiative.” I think Rajen was disappointed.
During board reports, Don Wagner referred to some basketball game last Friday between Saddleback College and IVC. He said that the gym was filled with presidents: himself, Burnett, Roquemore, Gabriella, et al. “You couldn’t swing a stick without hitting a president,” he quipped. Something like that, anyway. We had a good laugh.
Peevitude displayed
When Lee Haggerty got up to defend the faculty contract proposal (see video below), he and Wagner got into a pissing contest, and it was very unpleasant and, well, highly entertaining. Wagner looked seriously pissed. But then Haggerty suggested that he didn’t like being lectured at neither, and Don didn't have a comeback for that one, and so I suspect that Don now spends his evenings poking needles into a little Lee Haggerty "Union" doll.
Oddly, for once, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur didn’t have much to say. Maybe Wagner muzzled him. Could be. He pretty much stuck to offering factoids about headcount and whatnot.
FTES (full time equivalent students) is up 9% at Saddleback College and (ahem) it’s up 15.4% at IVC. Sounds good. Later, Bob C added up those numbers and came up with 25%, but I suspect that he was just having a bout of goofiness, which happens to the elderly. (Just kidding Bob.)
I think mention was made of the “Ray Bradbury” event at IVC next Wednesday. That should be cool. I’ve already got my tickets, which were free. I’m taking TigerAnn.
She just loves The Martian Chronicles, that silly cat.
I had high hopes for spectacular fireworks Tuesday night, but they were dashed by Lee Haggerty’s email reporting that the contract item had been pulled. Haggerty’s memo was odd, what with its reference to (I guess) hard economic times. Well, it’ll be hard times next month and the month after that too, so is this a permanent tabling of the item? Let’s hope not.
During the meeting, board Prez Don Wagner, too, alluded to the rotten economic turn in his explanation for pulling the item. One hopes the plan is to allow more lobbying of trustees and/or more negotiating. Something.
Tomfoolery!
We’ve certainly got a special board. It was fun looking up there at 'em, contemplating the tangled web of hatred. Nancy Padberg hates John Williams, ‘cause Williams fired her three years ago. But Williams now has gotta hate Tom Fuentes (if he didn’t hate him before) for dropping a demagogue bomb on ‘im over his dastardly support of the faculty contract proposal.
But Fuentes and his crew of spin-meisters slimed Padberg, too—why not?—and so, though she must still loathe Williams, at least she and Johnny now have a #1 Loathe Object in common. Meanwhile, Don Wagner’s gotta be pretty peeved about Fuentes’ maneuver, which makes anything resembling fair deliberation about the contract pretty much impossible. Thank you, Tom.And Dave Lang’s gotta be steamed, too, ‘cause he had no problem with the 5% COLA part of the proposal, but he’s getting slammed along with Fuentes as being anti-faculty and totally Neanderthal. Dave wants to be loved. He's only a quisling, not a Karl Rovian Neanderthal, thinks Dave.
Meanwhile, Bill Jay still likes the contract proposal (and seems to love everybody), and Marcia Milchiker—well, she can be found on Neptune.
At one point during the meeting, she said something particularly daffy, whereupon Fuentes quipped, “Quit while you’re ahead, Marcia!” Then Wagner yelled: “But she’s not ahead!”
Tom leaks
As you know, in recent weeks, OC Register blogger Steve Greenhut has reported the initial vote taken by the board in closed session. It was 4-3, says Greenhut, with Wagner, Fuentes, and Lang opposing the proposed contract. I did not know that.
But how is it that Greenhut knew what went on in a closed session? One naturally supposes that Fuentes unburdened himself to Greenhut about these highly sensitive deliberations.
Classy guy, that Tom Fuentes.
Everybody on the board must be just as pleased as punch about the guy. I wonder what the Lord thinks of ‘em? My guess is that Tom thinks that God thinks that a guy gets to lie and cheat and mess around, as long as he does it for Lordly ends.
I’m an ethicist, and we call such people “assholes.”
Motley crew
Saddleback College’s Ozzie-‘n’-Harrietesque student government crowd came back from the malt shop with a new and improved proposed budget—one that pretty much satisfied the board’s complaints of two months ago. These kids, and Thorny too, have now opted to spend big money on scholarships, etc., which is great. So Fuentes and the others fell over themselves praising these young people. It was amazing bullshit. Those ASG kids seemed to sniff the air.
The always-dapper Mr. Arnold Bray, the district’s consultant/lobbyist (I think), provided a budget update. (He has the best shoes I've ever seen.) He reported that there are officials who seek to hand over our “basic aid” tax money to the K-12 districts. Right now, it’s just an idea, he said. But he’ll keep us up to speed on this thing so we'll be ready to pounce and squeal if necessary.
Did I mention that Marcia Milchiker’s “invocation” sounded like a press release about community colleges? It didn’t sound to me like she was summoning the Deity. It was more like she was reading from the college catalog.
So we all stood there in this prayerful posture, wondering what in hell Marcia thought she was doing. And then, at the end, Marcia said, “Amen.” It was like watching a GEICO commercial that ends with the Pope blessing that goddam lizard.Bad news
Trustees fell over themselves expressing grief, etc., about the death of Saddleback College’s Howard Adams, obviously a swell guy. We also learned that Saddleback College’s Cal Nelson (more recently a rent-a-dean at IVC) had suffered a stroke. Everybody loves Cal.
Because the meeting started late, the board decided to postpone the update on the “basic skills initiative.” I think Rajen was disappointed.
During board reports, Don Wagner referred to some basketball game last Friday between Saddleback College and IVC. He said that the gym was filled with presidents: himself, Burnett, Roquemore, Gabriella, et al. “You couldn’t swing a stick without hitting a president,” he quipped. Something like that, anyway. We had a good laugh.
Peevitude displayedWhen Lee Haggerty got up to defend the faculty contract proposal (see video below), he and Wagner got into a pissing contest, and it was very unpleasant and, well, highly entertaining. Wagner looked seriously pissed. But then Haggerty suggested that he didn’t like being lectured at neither, and Don didn't have a comeback for that one, and so I suspect that Don now spends his evenings poking needles into a little Lee Haggerty "Union" doll.
Oddly, for once, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur didn’t have much to say. Maybe Wagner muzzled him. Could be. He pretty much stuck to offering factoids about headcount and whatnot.
FTES (full time equivalent students) is up 9% at Saddleback College and (ahem) it’s up 15.4% at IVC. Sounds good. Later, Bob C added up those numbers and came up with 25%, but I suspect that he was just having a bout of goofiness, which happens to the elderly. (Just kidding Bob.)
I think mention was made of the “Ray Bradbury” event at IVC next Wednesday. That should be cool. I’ve already got my tickets, which were free. I’m taking TigerAnn.
She just loves The Martian Chronicles, that silly cat.
8 comments:
Actually, I liked the videos. Thanks for sharing all this info - I had been waiting to see what had happened at the meeting.
What's next Wednesday, and has to do with Bradbury?
Thanks for the report. What a soap opera. "As the District Churns."
In case anyone's interested, Oral arguments in Crosby v. SOCCCD are set for this coming monday at Fourth Appellate District, Division Three
925 N. Spurgeon Street
Santa Ana, Ca 92701
Docket (Register of Actions)
Crosby v. South Orange County Community College District Case Number G040033 Date Description
12/09/2008 Calendar notice sent. Calendar date: 1-26-09 at 1:00 p
Crosby filed the suit under Ed Code 66301 after he was suspended by VP Lise Telson for 5 weeks without a hearing, for looking at myspace profiles BEFORE the log on warning was in place, and for listening to Charles Ive's Fourth Symphony on library equipment with volume turned too loud, even though the library was basically empty. The lawfirm of Liebert Cassidy & Whitmore has made lots of money on this defending Telson flasely branding Crosby as "most previsions of the student handbook, the District's censorship/ no such thing as privacy when using district computers, and the District's refusal to comply with Ed Code Section 76230 which reads:
"Any currently enrolled or former student has a right to access to any and all student records relating to him maintained by community colleges. The editing or withholding of any such records,except as provided for in this chapter, is prohibited."
Since there is no way anymore of editing during preview, the above was meant to say:
Telson has falsely branded Crosby, in emails sent to library personnel and Crosby's professors, as "having violated most of the provisions of the student code of conduct." No specifics, of course. Telson said he did, and that should be "nuff said." This code deals mainly cheating on exams, and other serious offenses. Crosby maintains this is all a bunch of lies, but Telson and Liebert Cassidy & Whitmore refuse to retract, and the District refuses to give Crosby an opportunity to have a fair hearing. Crosby is asking the Court of Appeal to clear his record, and guarantee due process for all SOCCCD students. Currently, Lise Telson, taking authority under CEC 66300 (which Crosby is asking the Justices to declare unconstitutional), acts as proverbial prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.
Chunk, I love the photo of Annie as pensive wood-nymph--way cool.
Some people give a shit what you think, O' Chunkerton.
Ever noticed that Fuentes gets very uncomfortable when you have the camera on him?
I laughed when I was watching that. It's like he knows, so he tries to put on a thoughtful face.
O:Chunkerton here. Yes, ever since Fuentes: Spanish Adventure, he is annoyed by my camera, I think. Once in a while, these guys will stare right into it, looking pissed. But, hey, it:s a public meeting.
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