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.
