Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Good news! Looks like Williams will be opposed!

Williams faces opponents in college district race (Totalbuzz; OC Reg)

Jemal
     Good news! The OC Reg reports that “At least two more candidates said they filed papers Wednesday before the 5 p.m. deadline to run against former Orange County Public Administrator John S. Williams for a seat on the South Orange County Community College District board of trustees.”
     We were already aware of one of these guys: Tim Jemal. According to knowledgeable friends, Jemal is a great guy who’d make a great trustee.
     The other candidate (apparently) is Michael Moodian.
     As the Reg points out, “if no new candidates had come forward Wednesday, Williams would have claimed the seat unopposed.” So disaster has been averted, for now (when this story is confirmed).
     Turns out that Jemal is supported by OC Supervisor-elect Todd Spitzer:
Moodian
     Jemal has the backing of County Supervisor-elect Todd Spitzer, who said he’s “unequivocally committed to making sure John Williams never serves in public life again.” ¶ After reading Tuesday’s Total Buzz post about Williams’ unopposed candidacy, Spitzer said he phoned Jemal, who had pulled papers for trustee area 7 but hadn’t filed them yet. After being assured by Jemal that he intended to enter the race, Spitzer — who said he’s known Jemal for about 10 years — worked the phones Wednesday to line up additional endorsements for Jemal.
     Sounds good.
     So, who’s Moodian? According to the Reg,
     Moodian, 36, of Rancho Santa Margarita, said he’d thought about running for the college district’s board and decided to act after reading Tuesday’s Total Buzz post. ¶ Moodian said he has a doctorate in education from Pepperdine University, as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cal State Fullerton and an associate’s degree from Saddleback College. He teaches at Chapman and Brandman universities, he said.
     Naturally, none of these candidates, including Williams, will have the notorious "incumbent advantage." Williams will, however, have the "known rat bastard" disadvantage.
     Plus anyone who sees his standard "used-car salesman" headshot will certainly vote for any available alternative. (See at left.)
     So we might get out of this mess yet!
     Faculty, be sure to contact your Faculty Association rep and tell him/her to voice your opposition to Williams' candidacy (at the September FA meeting).

P.S.: For what it’s worth, I checked the OC Registrar of Voters website (at 9:35 p.m.) and, for trustee area 7, five candidates are listed (Williams, Jemal, Meldau, Moodian, and Jan Serrantino Cox), but the number “qualified” listed is “2.”
     It’s not entirely clear (to me) which two are qualified, but it is clear that there is a date listed under “candidate statement filed” only for Jemal and Williams. My guess, then, is that, as far as this data is concerned, only Jemal and Williams have actually filed.

P.P.S.: Last night, the Reg offered this update:
Update at 10 p.m.: A fourth candidate, Jan Serrantino Cox of Rancho Santa Margarita, also qualified for the ballot Wednesday with a designation of “university administrator.”
     A Jan Serrantino is the director of disability services at UC Irvine.

     Following are the candidate's statements currently available at the OC Registrar of Voters website:


18 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Brandman" University?

Anonymous said...

Whew.

Anonymous said...

How can he say his occupation is "public administrator"?

Anonymous said...

Good news? Now we get to choose between John Williams and someone endorsed in his candidate statement by Don Wagner. Good lord!

Anonymous said...

Oops....I noticed Williams made a mistake. He forgot to include the words "Ousted as" before listing his occupation as Public Administrator. Let's face it....this guy is a liar and will say anything to get in a position where he can spend other peoples money.

Anonymous said...

I noticed the Wagner endorsement too - creepy! But i like Spitzer. Why did Wagner choose this guy over Williams?

Anonymous said...

Williams takes a lot of credit for things in his candidate starement. HE built the new health sciences building, really? REALLY?

Shouldn't be be forced to take away his misstatement of his occupation?

Roy Bauer said...

I believe that there is a protocol for challenging false statements on "candidate statements." Perhaps someone will pursue challenging Williams' claim concerning his occupation. On the other hand, it might not be necessary to do that.
Remember that none of these candidates, including Williams, will have the incumbent's advantage. As things stand, Mr. Jemal has Republican heavy hitters endorsing him--and that is in his statement, which is available to voters. Meanwhile, Williams will likely get no endorsements, unless they come from his dog or wife. So Williams is not the threat he once appeared to be.
I don't think we should be very concerned that Jemal is endorsed by Wagner. Jemal is, after all, endorsed by Spitzer, who represents the moderate wing of local Republicans, the wing associated with reform. Further, I think there's bad blood between Wagner and Williams, which might account for Wagner's endorsement.
I still think it's important that Williams NOT get the endorsement of the Faculty Association.

Anonymous said...

what Roy said.

Anonymous said...

Bunch of lying liars who lie!

Anonymous said...

I believe Jan Cox is the wife of IVC Director of Financial Aid Darryl Cox. Might we have someone who actually understands south Orange County, community colleges, and Higher Ed? The mind reels.

I fear no fish said...

I've known Jemal for years. Don't worry about the Wagner endorsement: Jemal believes that quality in education comes exclusively from quality of teachers. He won't be a puppet, but he'll stand with teachers.

Jemal deserves your support.

Anonymous said...

how can anybody say spitzer is a moderate, he is an idiot and his support has nothing to do with the quality of education in the district and everything to do with petty politics and vendettas

Roy Bauer said...

I wasn't endorsing Spitzer or suggesting that he is wonderful; I said that he is, relative to OC GOP politics, a moderate and he is associated with reform (e.g., reform of the DA's office, reform relative to the BOS).
In any case, I've heard only good things about Jemal. Some of you need to get clear about the issues. Ultimately, it matters not who does or does not endorse Jemal; it matters a great deal whether he is liable to be a strong trustee who will eschew the sort of right-wing BS that we've had to deal with in recent decades (pushing prayer, weakening the faculty's voice, screwing up our accreditation, creating fear and despair, etc.). Williams has been on the wrong side of most of those issues since his arrival in 1992.

Anonymous said...

but can't the same be said about padberg and jay. they have not always been there on the correct side of the issue. are you going to look at challenging either of them

Roy Bauer said...

Padberg's not up for reelection.
Jay has been pretty consistently on the faculty's side of things. I do wish he were less, um, sleepy.
Right now, Dave Lang is a solitary voice for Fuentianism (I don't know how it is that Fuentes still has any pull on him, but such seems to be the case). If Williams rejoins the board, Lang will have a partner. That's not good, given how fragmented the rest of the board is. Sometimes, two can be an effective majority (among seven).
Perhaps Wright will cobble together a more meaningful "majority" to go up against Lang (and Williams, if it comes to that). Hope so. There's a leadership gap. In recent years, Milchiker, Jay, Prendergast (and Padberg and Meldau) have been a ship without a rudder, though they've generally drifted in the right direction. Prendergast seems hesitant to lead; not sure if that will change. His closeness to "faculty" has not been much in evidence in recent years.
Possibly, Poertner will step up and lead the BOT more, now that he's pretty much embraced by all and considered a success. Sure hope so. I'd like to see some of his common sense applied to top leadership at IVC. There's a real problem there. Can you hear us, Gary? How long to we have to keep shouting?

Anonymous said...

anything positive about the two women running against jay. one seems to be a kid from dana point and the other a housewife from newport beach

Roy Bauer said...

It really doesn't matter who Jay's opponents are; he's the incumbent, and he's a virtual shoo-in

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...