Sunday, May 23, 2010

$2 million to defend an arrogant board?

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.....IT APPEARS THAT THE SOCCCD board of trustees is planning to set aside $2 million of basic aid money for the purpose of funding further litigation re “Westphal v. Wagner”—aka the “prayer” lawsuit brought by Karla Westphal and a group of Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College faculty, students, and members of the community. (I am among the plaintiffs.)
.....As you know, the suit was filed not long after some remarkable events in the district, including Chancellor Raghu Mathur’s curious showing of a patriotic video including a message about Jesus’ saving our souls—and Trustee John Williams’ “joke” about non-believers going to hell, which prefaced an invocation. (Both occurred during the Chancellor’s “opening session” in August of 2009.) Prior to those events, Trustee Don Wagner had offered some curious and offensive (to some) remarks defending prayer during his invocation for a scholarship event at Saddleback College.
.....Despite Mr. Wagner’s recent pronouncements to the contrary, the suit is going forward and the district’s defense is liable to be expensive.
.....Evidently, it has been proposed to reserve $2 million for that defense. I base this claim on something I came across this morning while reading the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees. Item 6.2 is “Allocation of 2009-2010 District Basic Aid Funds for Priority Projects.” (The May meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees will be held tomorrow night. The agenda is available online here. Go to the blue box on the right side of the page.)
.....According to the agenda (p. 203),
Currently, there is an uncommitted amount of $13,491,970 in basic aid funds for fiscal year 2009-10. Money is needed for facility projects, legal defense, and technology needs. Recommendations are now being made for projects listed in Exhibit A to allocate these funds.

RECOMMENDATION

The Chancellor recommends that the Board of Trustees approve the allocation of 2009- 2010 district basic aid funds for the projects as listed in Exhibit A.

Here’s Exhibit A:


.....(Click on the graphic to make it larger. The item in yellow says "Legal Defense for Invocation Complaint.") 

.....I do wonder how Mr. Wagner will vote on this item. He appears to have made his defense of “prayer in the public square” a centerpiece of his campaign for Assembly.* Naturally, therefore, he hopes that the district’s defense against the suit will continue.
.....One might suppose that $2 million dollars of taxpayer money intended for a community college district should be spent on educating students rather than defending another arrogant act by right-wing trustees who have often used their elected positions for extraneous political purposes.
.....You'll recall that, a few years ago, Trustee Tom Fuentes decided to sacrifice Saddleback College's Study Abroad trip to Santander, Spain, in order to score points with his right-wing constituency who perhaps approved of this gesture against Spain (which had earlier removed troops from Iraq). (Owing to fierce public pressure, the action was later reversed.)
.....On another occasion, Trustee Wagner successfully proposed ceasing the two colleges' memberships in the American Library Association on the  grounds that the organization was a bunch of meddling "liberal busybodies."
.....Virtually all college libraries are members of the ALA and rely on the organization in various ways. To this day, however, the libraries of Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College are not members.

*Wagner’s official candidate statement includes the following: “‘The Family Action PAC endorses Wagner. He is a social conservative with a proven record defending faith, family, and freedom. Don is pro-life and supports free enterprise, traditional marriage, second amendment rights, and the freedom to pray in public.’ Larry Smith, FAPAC.” Note: contrary to this kind of rhetoric, "Westphal" does not seek to prohibit "prayer in public." Rather, it seeks to prohibit such prayer as governmental action. As far as the "Westphal" complaint is concerned, Don, as a private citizen, can pray in public all he wants.

Board meeting: big ATEP powwow based on a report (reflecting everyone's input?)

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.....The May meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees (BOT) will be held tomorrow night. The agenda is available online here. (Go to the blue box on the right side of the page.)
.....The “discussion item” for tomorrow night’s meeting is

4.1
Policy Level Implications of Continued Development of the Advanced Technology & Education Park (ATEP)

.....It appears that major decisions about the future of ATEP will soon be made. As you know, issues have arisen regarding ATEP, including funding issues and the nature of the relationship of ATEP to the district’s two colleges/Presidents. (See below.)
.....Based on input (allegedly) from all constituency groups, a large report has been produced; evidently, it will be the basis of tomorrow’s discussion.
.....I’ve provided some excerpts from the agenda (and the report) below.
.....My issue: Did I miss something? I don’t recall discussing ATEP last Fall or Spring at the IVC Academic Senate.

From the agenda:

BACKGROUND:
.....During the 2010 accreditation self study processes at Saddleback College and lrvine Valley College, questions and concerns arose relating to ATEP.
.....The Tustin campus was the subject of two joint meetings with representation of SC and IVC accreditation committees. Board President Wagner and Trustee Lang were present and acknowledged that the Board would need further discussion and to provide policy-level direction.
.....ATEP and related concerns are discussed in the text of both colleges' accreditation self-study reports. The SC Academic Senate is conducting a comprehensive discussion about the future of ATEP and its continued validity.
.....It is expected that they will make formal recommendations to the President, Chancellor and Board of Trustees.
.....Specifically, concerns have been raised about: 
.....reporting relationships (who the Provost and ATEP operation should report to),
.....• substantive change requests submitted to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (AACJC),
.....whether ATEP should be directly affiliated with one college or the other or both to comply with accreditation standards,
.....funding a new campus given unmet needs for renovation, construction and scheduled maintenance at our two comprehensive colleges, and
.....basic aid funding of ATEP….
. . .
STATUS:

.....The Chancellor initiated an effort, with broad input from the colleges and district staff, to clarify information and review potential issues regarding the current operation and ongoing planning processes for the development of ATEP. Many leadership groups and constituencies thoughtfully contributed to the development of the document for board review entitled ATEP Planning and Progress Report (Exhibit A)….
[From the report:]

ATEP Advanced Technology & Education Park
Planning and progress report
May 2010
. . .

Input from Constituencies

.....Over the past six months, a substantial effort was made to prepare the ATEP Planning and Progress Report with input from all constituencies. The Chancellor's Executive Team and District Leadership Team provided the initial structure of the report and its sections which were shared with governance groups through the Chancellor's Cabinet. The college presidents had weekly access to the evolving report and were charged to seek and provide feedback from college constituencies.
.....Following circulation of the report with a survey to all employees in March 2010, the Provost attended shared governance meetings at both colleges to discuss the report and seek additional input. That input and survey responses were carefully considered and appropriate adaptations and changes made in the final document....

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...