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| Rat Bastard |
In a report provocatively titled “Irresponsible Governance: How Orange County’s Community College Trustees are Ripping Us Off,” candidate Mike Moodian found that health and other benefits cost as much as:
$24,666 per trustee, per year, at the Rancho Santiago Community College District,
$17,990 per trustee, per year, at the South Orange County Community College District,
and $4,785 per trustee, per year, at the North Orange County Community College District.
. . .
Many trustees enjoy exceptional health benefits though they are only part-time officials — and though many also have full-time jobs in addition to their public duties, Moodian wrote.
His recommendation: Abolish all health benefits for community college trustees.
. . .
Regular stipends also ranged quite a bit from one district to another:
The low was in the South Orange County Community College District, which pays each trustee $4,800 per year;
Rancho Santiago paid each trustee $8,100 per year;
North Orange County paid $9,450 per year;
and the high was at Coast, which paid each trustee$12,327 per year.
For his part, Moodian doesn’t think more than $400 per month is justified.
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| Trustee candidate Moodian |
Moodian is an assistant professor of social science at Brandman University (part of the Chapman system). And, taking a page from the playbook of Laguna Hills’ Councilmember Barbara “Stir-the-Pot” Kogerman, Moodian employed the California Public Records Act to gather these juicy tidbits about the compensation of community college board members.
Why is a private university professor gunning for a seat on a community college board?
“I’m a graduate of Saddleback, 12 years ago,” said Moodian (right), who got his doctorate from Pepperdine University. “I owe a lot to Saddleback. And I’m very concerned about John Williams winning this race based on name recognition alone.”
Williams, you may recall, faced accusations that he had mismanaged his department and the estates of some deceased people. He agreed to retire, then refused to go, and was finally locked out of his office by county officials intent on keeping him at bay.
When it appeared Williams might run unopposed for his seat on the South Orange County Community College District – which runs Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Irvine Valley College in Irvine and the Advanced Technology & Education Parkin Tustin, serving 42,000 students each semester — three challengers jumped into the race.
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The official consensus is that trustees are not collecting money for sitting around nibbling bonbons.
“The public deserves to know that our board members put in many hours every month beyond board meetings,” said Tere Fluegeman, spokesperson for the South Orange County Community College District, by email.
“Trustees attend nearly every college event as well as educational forums on a wide variety of subjects and issues that affect the community, students and staff. They involve themselves in community, business and governmental organizations and routinely conduct speaking engagements and interviews. They actively assist the college foundations with fundraising for student scholarships. All of these efforts provide opportunities to stay highly connected with both internal and external constituencies.”….
