the frogue affair

     Perhaps you've heard that the South Orange County Community College District BOARD OF TRUSTEES once included a Holocaust denier.

     Yep, it's true.

     How did that happen? What's the story?

     Steve Frogue was a high school history teacher in Tustin (strictly speaking, in Santa Ana). He was one of those teachers who routinely said distinctly "incorrect" things—racist things—in the classroom, which occasionally got him into hot water with administrators. He sought the protection of his teachers union, which was affiliated with the CTA (the California Teachers Association).

     As a unionist, Frogue gained the acquaintance of other local unionists, including some of the leaders of the teachers union—the "Faculty Association"—of what became the South Orange County Community College District (then called the Saddleback Community College District), also a chapter of CTA. (I seem to recall that it was union insider Raghu Mathur in particular who tapped Frogue for political office.) 

     By the 90s, the Faculty Association was feelin' pretty good about itself, owing to its success in ousting the despised Chancellor Larry Steven in the 80s. In the course of that long campaign, union leaders stooped to realpolitik, hardball tactics. (See our "page" on the Larry Stevens years on this blog.) So, when, in the early 90s, tensions over the faculty contract grew, FA leaders immediately started acting like, well, a corrupt and duplicitous union, one willing to embrace stunning hardball tactics.

     The Association leadership, a very insular and secretive group, seized on the goal of controlling the district by controlling the district's board of trustees—by controlling four of its seven members. As per this scheme, they enlisted the likes of John Williams—a dumb but ambitious cop—and Steve Frogue—a right-wing conspiracy nut and deluded pseudo-intellectual—to build a majority on the district's 7-member board. That's how and why those two were elected to the board in 1992. When, subsequently, a union-backed trustee (Iris Swanson) died (June 1993), the Association was quick to recommend as her replacement a part-time Saddleback instructor that they thought they could control: the half-witted but ambitious Teddy Lorch. At that point, as the 1996 election approached, the Association had its goal almost within its grasp: it needed to secure one more union-friendly trustee to achieve board control. That person would be Democrat-in-name-only Dorothy Fortune, who ran for a board seat, along with Frogue and Williams (and a fellow named Davis, who lost), in 1996. Frogue, Williams, and Fortune won. (Lorch would not be up for reelection until 1998.) So, starting in December of 1996, the notorious "Board Majority" commenced its disastrous rule, pursuing "fiscal conservatism" while doing the union leadership's bidding—i.e., increasing faculty salaries, hurting FA enemies, etc.

     Frogue's tenure on the board had not been particularly controversial until, in an article for IVC's student newspaper, the Voice in early 1995, he commenced revealing his opposition to the Jewish civil right organization ADL—a popular target among right-wing conspiracy nuts, especially those at Liberty Lobby, the Washington publishing group controlled by notorious anti-Semite Willis Carto. Carto had established the Holocaust Denial organization "Institute for Historical Review" (IHR) in Orange County in the late 70s, and, by the 90s, Frogue had attended some IHR events and read some of its publications. In the Voice interview, Frogue revealed his interest in IHR theses and his concerns about a "Holocaust" course being taught at IVC, for it included the involvement of an ADL official. 

     Frogue's concerns were discussed in district board meetings, where they were poorly received by some  (Milchiker, Hueter). The local press started to take notice.

     Eventually, the OC Register did a piece on Frogue in early April:

....[F]or the past two months, Frogue has been using another pulpit—his position on the board of Saddleback Community College District—to make controversial comments about the Anti- Defamation League, a Jewish organization that fights anti-Semitism and chronicles the Holocaust.

And the furor exploded last week when Frogue told the Irvine Valley College student newspaper that he believes the Institute for Historical Review has "raised questions" about the Holocaust that should perhaps "enter the debate."

The institute, based in Costa Mesa, is the nation's foremost center of holocaust denial. (Froomkin)

     Such revelations made lots of people uncomfortable; still, the "Frogue" issue seemed minor. After all, no action was ever taken against the Holocaust course.

     In November of 1996, just weeks after the election had yielded what would soon become the "Board Majority," the LA Times decided finally to look into this Frogue business (Studying the Lessons of Steven J. Frogue, LA Times; Michael Granberry; November 25, 1996). In the Times article, Frogue made some remarkable statements, including this one: 

"I believe Lee Harvey Oswald worked for the ADL."

     I seem to recall that Frogue later denied having said that, which is his MO. Several of his students said he denied the Holocaust in class; Frogue said they lied; the reporter said Frogue blamed the ADL for the JFK assassination; Frogue said he lied. Etc.

     The Times article got a lot of play. Many members of the Faculty Association demanded an explanation: why had union leadership paid for the campaign of a "nut" like Frogue? Some faculty had put up a slate of candidates of their own ("Partners in Education") to oppose the Association's right-wing slate (Frogue, Williams, Fortune, Davis). That group had made much of Frogue's apparent Holocaust denial; but the message didn't seem to get out there; in the end, the union's slate, supported by expensive fliers, prevailed. 

The cover of the 4-page flier

     Fliers? Following the advice of hard-ball political advisor Pam Zanelli, in the '96 campaign, the union paid for lurid red fliers that accused the PIE candidates of planning to provide benefits to employees in same-sex relationships—something they had pulled out of thin air. This was the infamous "same-sex flier" that was sent to Republican households throughout the district. The disapproving OC Weekly reported the discreditable fact that a supposedly liberal teachers union had successfully pandered to conservative homophobia in order to elect "fiscally conservative" candidates (Frogue, Williams, and Fortune) to the district board—all for the sake of a favorable faculty contract. Many faculty were outraged.

     In December (of 1996), Sherry Miller-White, the Association President, put out a newsletter to union members in which she wrote:

The good news is that the election is over. The very good news is that we won. The bad news is that we have a group of irresponsible malcontents trying to keep divisive elements alive. The voters have spoken. If the P.I.E. ["Partners in Education"] groups or the hand full of misinformed faculty want to call over 123,000 voters in the Saddleback Community College District stupid, liars, ignorant, irrelevant or ill-informed they can do so, but the outcome remains the same. It is because the voters were informed on issues that the turn out was so favorable for the candidates that the Faculty Association supported….

Sharon MacMillan

     Some faculty set about, in earnest, reforming their corrupt union and replacing its officers. Nevertheless, owing to spectacularly corrupt tactics—e.g., declaring “null and void” an election whose results would have eliminated the existing leadership; steadfastly refusing to provide a copy of the union's bylaws to new members—it took years to unseat the "old guard" and truly reform the local. (CTA was of very little help; they were engaged in legal CYA.) Indeed, owing to that leadership, union money was used, in 1998, to elect Don Wagner and Nancy Padberg—two explicitly anti-union Republicans (they were members of the Christian anti-union organization “Education Alliance”). That union leadership (e.g., MacMillan, Miller-White, Mathur, Chandos, et al.) also participated in the successful effort to replace resigned trustee Frogue with notoriously anti-teachers union OC GOP chief Tom Fuentes in 2000. More on that in a minute.]

     

     Let's get back to Frogue. Despite the Times article, public interest in the Frogue issue faded. The "board majority"—Williams, Frogue, Lorch, and Fortune—proceeded to enact big changes, including placing Faculty Association leaders (Runyan, Woodward, et al.) in key administrative positions. When IVC's President resigned, the board's choice for interim President was IVC Chemistry instructor—and union crony—Raghu Mathur, despite his having no experience as a full-time administrator. A few months later, Mathur was hired as permanent President. Both actions violated California's open meetings law, the Brown Act. (The district appealed and lost.)

     In the summer of 1997, again violating the Brown Act, the Board Majority eliminated the existing administrative structure at IVC—which involved faculty chairs rather than non-faculty administrators.

     Meanwhile, some faculty (especially me 'n' Rebel Girl!) had been working with local journalists and keeping them apprised of the Board Majority's hijinks....

     In August of '97, Trustee Frogue was set to propose a "forum," to be held at Saddleback College, concerning the JFK Assassination, a Liberty Lobby preoccupation. He planned to invite guest "experts." Agenda item 13 for the August board meeting was payment ($5,000) for “Warren Commission [forum] guests” including "Sherman Skolnick, Dave Emory, John Judge, [and] Michael Collins Piper.” 

     The morning of that board meeting, I read the board agenda and saw Frogue's list of invited experts. Some of the names seemed familiar, especially one: Michael Collins Piper. Piper, I knew, was the chief reporter for Willis Carto's anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby publications. He was a very unsavory character.

     So I called the head of the local ADL chapter (in Long Beach). I explained to her what Frogue was planning. She thanked me. She took the ball and ran with it.

     Later that night, during discussion of Frogue's "Forum guests" item, the ADL's Joyce Greenspan spoke; she calmly explained that several of Frogue's "guests" were crackpots, that they were associated with the notorious Liberty Lobby. An institution of higher learning, she said, should have nothing to do with these people. She urged the board not to approve Frogue's item.

     The board majority ignored her. The item passed, 4-3.
     I immediately got on the phone with my friends at the LA Times. Three days later, this article appeared:

• College Course Claims JFK Conspiracy by ADL, LA Times, August 21, 1997

     The South Orange County Community College District has approved a course that claims a conspiracy was behind the assassination of President Kennedy and has committed $5,000 for flying in four guest speakers, one of whom says the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, masterminded the killing.
. . .
     "All of this is out-and-out anti-Semitism," said Cheryl Altman, chairwoman of the department of reading at Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo, which, along with Irvine Valley Community College, is run by the district.
. . .
     Chip Berlet, who has studied the assassination extensively and is a senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a nonprofit think tank in Massachusetts that examines authoritarian thinking, laughed upon hearing the names of the panelists. ¶ "Oh, get out of here!" Berlet said. "You couldn't find . . . more embarrassing conspiracists in America. Even among conspiracy theorists, these people represent the outer limits." ¶ Some faculty members fear that the course will harm the reputation of the district. ¶ "I am profoundly embarrassed that the president of our board of trustees is a man who takes seriously crackpots such as these," said Roy Bauer, a philosophy instructor at Irvine Valley Community College….

Dorothy Fortune

     With the Times article, the shite really hit the fan. The story was picked up all over the country and even had a brief life on national TV. For a couple of days, the SOCCCD was that stupid college district in California with holocaust deniers. 

     Facing public pressure, after a few days, the Chancellor cancelled the forum. [I no longer believe that that was the right thing to do; I've discussed the issue elsewhere. —But I digress.]
     In the aftermath of this second Times article, a recall effort was launched against Frogue. As it turns out, recalls, as they were then configured, are almost impossible to achieve. Nevertheless, in the end, the recall group came very close to collecting the requisite signatures. 

     Close, but no cigar.

     So Frogue survived. But, by then, he was damaged goods. And the episode seemed to take the starch out of him. Frogue is a blowhard, a gasbag. He wanted to be the big man. But no one was listening to him.

     By that time, former unionist (now IVC President) Raghu Mathur had been building connections among Republican office holders and political leaders in the county, and he knew Tom Fuentes, the long-time chair of the county GOP. Fuentes was very well known in the county (and beyond the county) as a sharp—indeed, ruthless—political operator. He now wanted to secure elected office, but there was a problem: he had lots of enemies and lots of skeletons in his closet. A campaign would likely be a brutal experience for him.

     So the idea was hatched to have Frogue resign and then have Fuentes appointed by the board as Frogue's replacement. That way, in a few months, Fuentes could run for office as an incumbent—someone with a huge advantage over any challenger.

     And that's what happened. In July of 2000, just four months prior to the election, Frogue announced his resignation. Tom Fuentes replaced him. The clever bastards among the union leadership were in on the whole thing. A few months later, Fuentes was elected in the general. He was home free.

     And so that is how it came to be that one of the most ardent anti-unionists in Orange County, the chair of the notoriously conservative OC Republican Party, became a member of the SOCCCD board of trustees—all thanks to the corrupt leadership of its faculty union.

     Now, the board majority would be unstoppable.

     There's more, but I'll leave it at that. Here are some relevant articles.

SEE ALSO: Is Trustee Frogue a Holocaust denier? (Dissent the Blog, Thursday, March 23, 1995)

* * *

• "Are you now, or have you ever been a member?" — IVC Voice (Ked Francis), February 23, 1995

An Irvine Valley College class on the Holocaust has been called into question by a college district trustee due to the professor’s involvement in a Holocaust project...Trustee Steven Frogue has publicly questioned the role of the ADL in Professor Richard Prystowsky’s class and the Holocaust Oral History Project, saying he is “distressed” that Prystowsky “is a Holocaust scholar and heavily involved in the Anti-Defamation League of Orange County’s Holocaust Project”....

Frogue spoke out against the ADL at the Jan. 23, 1995 meeting of the Board of Trustees, alleging that the ADL has conducted a “massive espionage apparatus against thousands of law abiding American citizens.”

According to Frogue, the conspiracy is widespread. The ADL has been “violating the rights of Americans, working in conjunction illegally with various police departments and police agencies, federal, state, and local.” [ See also Lecture Series to Explore Holocaust, LA Times, January, 23, 1999]

• “What's your point, Steve?” — Irvine World News editorial, March 2, 1995

Summary: The Saddleback Community College board is being led down too many side roads by board member Steven Frogue.

It's unclear what Saddleback Community College board member Steven Frogue is attempting to accomplish. ¶ At recent board meetings, Mr. Frogue has been indulging in repetitious, lengthy, and at times antagonistic monologues about such disparate things as the Anti-defamation League of B'nai B'rith and faculty senate elections at Irvine Valley College….

• “College Senate asks board to put a clamp on Frogue,” Irvine World News, March 2, 1995(?)

The Irvine Valley College Academic Senate asked the Saddleback Community College District board of trustees Monday night to prohibit district Trustee Steven Frogue from interfering in the senate's business. ¶ The senate also asked the board of trustees to apologize for disparaging remarks Frogue made about the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith at a January meeting….

• “Trustee calls IVC senate 'intellectual spur posse',” IVC Voice (K. Francis), March 23, 1995

Trustee Steven Frogue continued his month-long attack on the Irvine Valley College Academic Senate and the Anti-Defamation League [ADL] at a Feb. 27 Board of Trustees' meeting, despite attempts by fellow trustees to reign him in. ¶ Frogue labeled the reading of IVC Senate resolutions condemning his conduct as an "intellectual drive-by shooting," and referred to the Senate itself as an "intellectual spur posse," an apparent reference to the infamous Lakewood, California gang of young men who kept a tally of their sexual conquests….

• "A conversation with Steven Frogue," IVC Voice, March 23, 1995


• Teacher’s view of Holocaust stirs furor, D. Froomkin, OC Register, April 4, 1995
[The link works.]

• “History and the Holocaust” [Letters re Froomkin’s “Teacher's view of Holocaust stirs furor”], OC Register, April 16, 1995


• “Trustee denies holocaust, according to former students,” K. Francis, IVC Voice, April 20, 1995

Despite repeated denials by Trustee Steven Frogue, former students of the trustee claim in an April 4 Orange County Register report that he teaches a revisionist version of the Holocaust and claims the killing of 6 million Jews did not occur….
. . .
In a March 23 follow-up interview with The Voice, Frogue suggested that a notorious Holocaust denial group, the Institute for Historical Review, should be allowed to "enter the debate" regarding the Holocaust, while labeling claims he denied the Holocaust as "an obscenity."….

 

• “Trustee Steven Frogue and the Institute for Historical Review,” R. Bauer, IVC Voice, May 11, 1995


• [Interview of Trustee Frogue], IVC Voice, October 24, 1996


• Letters to the editor [of Lariat] re Nov. 7 “advertisement” paid for by Faculty Association [union], Saddleback College Lariat, November 14(?), 1996(?)


• Adventures in Advertising, OC Weekly, November 21, 1996

Democrat, nuts use anti-gay hysteria to win college board seats

Local political observers are calling it the "most scurrilous and vile" campaign ad of the season, and it wasn't the deft handiwork of U.S. Congressman Bob Dornan, Orange County's most infamous negative campaigner. No, the ad—which critics say was designed to tap anti-gay sentiment—was sent by a college-faculty association on behalf of a slate of three conservative candidates and one Democrat vying for seats on the governing board of the Saddleback Community College District. Three of the candidates supported by the controversial ad—including the Democrat—won….

• Letters re "Adventures in advertising," Nov. 15, OC Weekly, November 22, 1996

I agree with R. Scott Moxley's characterization of one particular piece of campaign literature produced during the recent Saddleback Community College District board elections ("Adventures in advertising," Nov. 15). Moxley called the "Taxpayer Alert" scurrilous and vile, a description that also fits the role played by the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association in the election. As Moxley notes, one slate of candidates ran a high-profile campaign infused with homophobic rhetoric. That the association supports candidates who strengthen and capitalize on such prejudices is indefensible. [L. Alvarez]

• Studying the Lessons of Steven J. Frogue, LA Times (Michael Granberry), November 25, 1996

Profile: The teacher and Saddleback trustee does not retreat from controversy that his views generate.

 

His supporters call him a friend of the teacher, a benevolent caretaker of local schools, a loving father and family man. His opponents call him a demagogue, an eccentric, a flake. Too often, they say, he articulates the marginal and irrelevant. ¶ His most vocal detractors accuse him of being an anti-Semite who often takes aim at Jewish organizations and who questions the severity of the Holocaust-charges he denies and labels as "scurrilous."….
. . .
Roy Bauer, chairman of the department of humanities at Irvine Valley College--one of two that the Saddleback board oversees, Saddleback College being the other--calls Frogue "an odd, Neanderthal presence on the board who's expressed an interest in Holocaust denial. He's made, and continues to make, a nuisance of himself."
. . .
"I believe Lee Harvey Oswald worked for the ADL," Frogue said in a half-whisper during a recent interview on the Foothill High campus. ¶ Asked to repeat his assertion, Frogue said, "That's right. . . . I believe the ADL was behind it."….

• “Faculty association campaign unethical,” Saddleback College Lariat editorial, December 5, 1996

Coming off a very successful campaign for seats on the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees, the Faculty Association is facing a backlash not only from its opponents, but from within its own ranks. ¶ The campaign, which has been described as "win at all cost," saw the mailing of a controversial flier accusing the association's opponents of supporting domestic partner benefits and advocating same-sex marriages….

• “Instructor feels betrayed by the Faculty Association,” Letters, Saddleback College Lariat, December 5, 1996


• “Faculty association divided: Election mailer draws charges of gay-baiting,” Saddleback College Lariat, December 5, 1996

Political fallout continues from a heated campaign in November long after voters filled four board of trustee seats for the Saddleback Community College District….

• “The Election One Last time,” from The Faculty Association December Newsletter, December 12?, 1996

[Trustee Harriett] Walther said the main issue dividing Partners in Education [a slate of candidates opposed to the union’s actions and practices and their support of such trustees as Frogue and Williams] and the Association is faculty salaries. She said the Association is more interested in protecting faculty salaries than in managing the budget responsibly. (Lariat 10-2-96)

It is the primary responsibility of the Faculty Association to protect the contract. Quality education is enhanced by a congenial work environment.

The Faculty Association was forced to compete in the past campaign because life as we know it was under threat. We fail to understand why a small group of faculty chose to support Walther's attempt to destroy our district. A few faculty agreed with Walther that faculty salaries are too high and took it upon themselves to destroy conditions for the rest of us…. [Evidently authored by FA President Sherry Miller-White]

• “Message from the President [i.e., Sherry Miller-White],” from The Faculty Association December Newsletter, December 12?, 1996

Good News Bad News

The good news is that the election is over. The very good news is that we won. The bad news is that we have a group of irresponsible malcontents trying to keep divisive elements alive. The voters have spoken. If the P.I.E. groups or the hand full of misinformed faculty want to call over 123,000 voters in the Saddleback Community College District stupid, liars, ignorant, irrelevant or ill -informed they can do so, but the outcome remains the same. It is because the voters were informed on issues that the turn out was so favorable for the candidates that the Faculty Association supported….

• “Association Critics Should Start Pitching for us,” from The Faculty Association December Newsletter, December 12?, 1996

A recent letter circulated for faculty signatures at IVC and Saddleback alleges a "crisis situation in our District" precipitated by unethical rogues in the Faculty Association. The anonymous author concludes the 4-page harangue against the Association by urging CCA President Kathy Sproles to provide copies of the bylaws and "facilitate our enrollment as dues-paying members." In the November 25 Los Angeles Times, an IVC faculty member called the Association "shameless and corrupt." Another has likened it to "an unprincipled and loathsome bully" in the November 21 Lariat. [Note: despite the letter, it was many months before critics saw a copy of the union’s bylaws. In the end, it was not clear that any legitimate bylaws existed, since substantially differing copies were offered as “the cleaned-up bylaws.”]

As IVC's membership and grievance chair, I would like to address some of my non-member colleagues who may sincerely believe these charges, even though I do not: stop whining and start participating!

Month after month and year after year, Lee Walker and I have "facilitated your enrollment as dues-paying members," but you've refused to join, apparently preferring to leave me nasty voice mail messages when displeased with the Association….

Taking potshots at the Association from the sidelines accomplishes no more than moving to Canada because you're displeased with the U.S. Congress. "Potential members" cannot vote…. -Ray Chandos

[Many faculty, this writer included, did precisely what Chandos suggests and joined the union. Nevertheless, owing to spectacularly corrupt actions—e.g., declaring “null and void” an election whose results would have eliminated the existing leadership—it took years to unseat them and truly reform the local. (CTA was of very little help; obviously, they were engaged in legal CYA.) Indeed, owing to that leadership, union money was used, in 1998, to elect Don Wagner and Nancy Padberg—two explicitly anti-union candidates (members of “Education Alliance”). That leadership (e.g., MacMillan, Chandos, et al.) also participated in the successful effort to replace resigned trustee Frogue with notoriously anti-teachers union OC GOP chief Tom Fuentes in 2000.]

• “Frogue, Williams and Fortune to lead college board,” Irvine World News, December 12, 1996


• “Trustee Reelection Reveals Flaws [Letters to the LA Times],” LA Times, December 12, 1996


• Letter sent by Faculty Association to FA membership, December 20, 1996

Dear Faculty:

We hope that you are having a restful and peaceful vacation. We feel that it is necessary to contact you because the California Teacher's Association has informed us [?] that a group led by Harriet Walther is continuing in its attempt to destroy the Faculty Association by making at-home calls.

There are several lies that are being spread. The most ludicrous one is that the Faculty Association is anti-faculty and anti-sabbatical….

As to the reassigned time issue, the Faculty Association does not negotiate college reassigned time. It is given at the discretion of administrators. Yesterday we checked with the CTA about the issue, CTA said that many state funded districts are experiencing problems with reassigned time in tight budgetary situations. It is a divisive issue for faculty. Faculty members who have reassigned time naturally want to protect it. Faculty who teach full-time and do not get reassigned time for non-teaching projects often object to what they perceive to be inequities and favoritism….

[In fact, the union successfully negotiated away reassigned time. Obviously, “reassigned time” is utterly routine throughout academia; it reduces an instructor’s teaching load in order that he or she can serve as a dean or chair, etc. The elimination of RT effectively greatly reduced faculty’s ability to participate in governance.]

VICTORY of the long-suffering and disgruntled and "oppressed"
The "Board Majority" era commences

[The meagerly educated Steve Frogue and John Williams, first elected in 1992, were conservative Republicans. But both had histories as unionists (teacher, cop); hence, they were open to Faculty Association desiderata regarding salaries and the like, whatever else they sought.

For many years, the conservative Teddy Lorch was a disgruntled part-timer who had associated with some FA leaders; upon the death of a trustee, she was brought in as a pro-union replacement. Dorothy Fortune, formerly a Democrat, joined the Frogue-Williams-Davis "fiscally conservative/anti-gay" slate, knocking former union-backed Buckner Coe out of his (Laguna Beach) seat.

Hence, starting in December 1996, "union" trustees were a majority, and, from the start, they unapologetically rammed their agendas through, uninterested in swaying or even noticing the "minority":  Lang, Milchiker, and Hueter. Soon, various "Old Guard" unionists became administrators and, against best practices and all reason, chronically disgruntled and conniving union schemer Raghu Mathur became interim President of IVC. The Old Guard's imagined foes, both administrators and faculty, were harassed and demoted. Meanwhile, the Board Four did as they wished, and even the law ceased to restrain them.]

• “Trustees allegedly violate Brown Act,” Saddleback College Lariat, January 30, 1997

In a battle waging between the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees and the academic senates of Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges, the senates have accused the trustees of violating multiple laws and codes during the closed session of their Dec. 16, 1996 meeting….

[California's "open meetings" law is called the Brown Act. It requires that the deliberations and decisions of "legislative bodies--boards, etc.--be done openly and be properly agendized.]

• “Union's leadership embarrassing,” Letters (Roy Bauer’s letter), Saddleback College Lariat, January 30, 1997

By any reasonable standard, the conduct of the Faculty Association—or at least its leadership-during the recent election campaign was shameful and embarrassing. Among the FA's more sordid tactics was its use of the now-notorious "same-sex marriage" mailer. The mailer, which targeted South County Republicans, was a transparent effort to exploit ignorance and homophobia.

FA leaders seem willing to concede this. During an FA-sponsored event January 10, FA President Sherry Miller-White, who approved the mailer, acknowledged it was "homophobic." ("It was too homophobic for me," she said.) On other occasions, Miller-White and her colleagues have seemed to say that the FA did indeed resort to distasteful tactics, though only out of "desperation." (See, for instance, the FA's December newsletter.)

One might therefore suppose that apologies-and even resignations-are in order. But none are forthcoming. Indeed, on Jan. 10, a defiant Miller-White defended the "same-sex" mailer on the grounds that "life as we know it" (a phrase that seemed to refer to the relatively high-salaried life enjoyed by faculty of this district) was threatened. It was threatened, evidently, by a slate of trustee candidates who-Good Lord!-seemed unwilling to put faculty salaries above all other concerns….

• “Harriett Walther's so-called legacy,” Letters (Anthony Garcia’s letter), Saddleback College Lariat, January 30, 1997 [Garcia was an ally of the then-current union leadership.]

…While on the board, Walther built her political base around those bearing a grudge against the establishment or around those lobbying for special (but not popular) interests. For her own political ambitions, she supported Women's Studies despite its academic anemia; lent a Machiavellian ear to the issue of same-sex domestic benefits (while denying well-deserved benefits to part-time faculty) despite their insidious potential costs and potential for abuse; championed the North Campus over Saddleback despite its penchant to usurp an inordinate and grossly unfair portion of the district's budget; pandered to consultants with whom she had an association; and supported those teachers who "escaped" their share of teaching duties by immersing themselves in questionable tasks referred euphemistically as "release time."….

• “Trustees table China abroad,” Saddleback College Lariat, February 13, 1997

International program up for reconsideration postponed again

In a strong show of support, approximately 20 students and community members spoke on behalf of the study abroad programs offered through Saddleback College.

In its Feb. 10 meeting, the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees tabled the reconsideration of approval of Saddleback's China History and Culture Abroad Program.

The board had approved the study-abroad program Nov. 18 and contracts were signed by the district Nov. 20. However, issues with the program first arose after the new board members took their seats Dec. 16.
. . .
[Some trustees] said they feel the written curriculum and actual hours spent in lecture, known as contact hours, do not correlate.

"It just doesn't add up," said board President Steven Frogue.
. . .
Board members David Lang and Marcia Milchiker voiced their displeasure with the reconsideration of the program's approval….

[Study abroad programs was among Dot Fortune's bugaboos. In December, to the horror of faculty present, she likened the proposed Costa Rica program to a "surf party."]


• “Shared financial sacrifices required in budget crisis,” Saddleback College Lariat “Open Forum,” February 13(23?), 1997 (Trustee Frogue’s contribution)

As this Board of Trustees begins a new year, all of the Trustees intend giving the community the best service possible with the available resources. However, our vice chancellor of Fiscal Services reports: "The financial condition of the district at year end is still projected as very tenuous indeed."

These times require shared sacrifices by everyone. The district's financial status demands the board's close supervision. At this moment we must lead and ignore critics' objections, and we must reject a "hands off" policy which may take us down a disastrous path.
. . .
In response to this crisis, the president of Saddleback College recently announced the cancellation of over $150,000 of salary for "reassigned" or release time awarded to faculty for non-teaching assignments, and this board agreed with the president. Budget demands made that necessary.
. . .
(Steven J. Frogue delivered this State of the District address at the Saddleback Community College District board meeting Jan. 27, 1997.)

• “SCCD trustees lack culture,” Saddleback College Lariat Editorial, February 13, 1997

On Feb. 10, the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees met to, among other things, decide the fate of international study programs. Their decision? Postpone the decision.

More than a dozen students and teachers spoke on behalf of the programs. Among them were individuals who had been students for more than a decade and said they learned more on the international rips than in the rest of their schooling.

Since no one who spoke said anything negative, the Lariat asks what the justification is for cutting such a popular program….

• “Board may alter administration,” Saddleback College Lariat, March 6, 1997

Because of the current financial budget crisis plaguing the district, the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees voted Feb. 10 to l approve notifying deans and vice presidents of possible structural changes in administration.

In the past, their contracts have been automatically renewed to the next period, since notification must be made so far in advance for a change to occur.

"They're like sweetheart contracts," said trustee Dorothy Fortune. "In order to let someone go you have to do it from the very beginning or it goes on and on.

"You can never get rid of them," she said. "The current structure has been growing for 25 years. It's like a big tree that just kept growing and duplicating services."
. . .
A consultant expert on administrative organization at educational institutions has been hired to make recommendations to the board.

The process is expected to take approximately six months.

"I hope everyone is involved and that different perspectives are heard," said Dan Rivas, dean of Liberal Arts for 12 years….

[In July of ’97, acting in violation of the state’s “Open Meeting” Law, the board unilaterally reorganized the district, eliminating several Saddleback College deans, some of whom were sent to Irvine Valley College to replace School Chairs, all of whom were eliminated. Court documents reveal that, despite assuring faculty that no changes would occur during the summer, in the Spring of ‘97, IVC President Raghu Mathur directed his VPI to draw up a plan for reorganizing the district. It was that plan that was put into effect in July. Ultimately, the courts determined that the July action had violated the Ralph M. Brown Act. It was an instance of illegally secret action.]

• Chancellor Takes On Interim President Job, LA Times, March 19, 1997

Robert A. Lombardi, chancellor of Saddleback Community College District, did not have to look far for somebody to serve as interim president of Irvine Valley College: He'll do the job himself.
. . .
The district's board of trustees approved the move Monday night on a 5-1 vote, with David B. Lang objecting and Joan J. Hueter abstaining. They could not be reached for comment, and Riopka said she did not know their reasons.

[Normally, the VPI would temporarily replace an exiting President, but IVC VPI Terry Burgess was high on the "oppressed" Raghu Mathur's list of oppressors and "cabalists." Lombardi was chosen as a compromise. A month later, Frogue showed up with a petition: a handful of IVC faculty who allegedly favored selection of Raghu Mathur.for the interim position. Oddly, the signatories remained "anonymous." Since the action of appointing Mathur was unagendized, it was plainly illegal.]

• “Board renames college district,” Saddleback College Lariat, April 10, 1997

[But some] Trustees show concern about possible costs

Saddleback Community College District trustees voted to change the district name to "South Orange County Community College District" March 31 in a 4-3 vote. ¶ The board of trustees proposed the name change Jan. 27 to distinguish between the district and Saddleback College, and to recognize Irvine Valley College as an equal part of the district.

All trustees were not in agreement, however.

"I don't believe there was overwhelming support among the constituency groups in the college or the community at large to justify the board unilaterally making a decision like that," said trustee Dave Lang, who voted against the change….

• “Fortune named in flier flap,” Saddleback College Lariat, April 24, 1997

Librarian steps forward to identify trustee who tore down club's fliers

The unnamed trustee who was publicly accused of tearing down fliers posted by a student club is Dorothy Fortune, according to librarian Ana Maria Cobos.

Rick Travis, president of Associated Student Government, made the accusation during the March 31 meeting of the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees. He did not name the trustee, however….
. . .
According to Jaime Placek, an ASG senator and member of Student Alliance for Awareness, there has been an ongoing problem with the club's posters being removed.
. . .
Some of [the fliers or posters] promote attendance at the April 28 board meeting. Others target certain trustees, with statements such as: "Hey Fortune, Frogue and Williams: Do you represent the students or the Faculty Association?"

Another flier reads: "Board members or any of your associates: Stop tearing down our fliers, we refuse to go away or keep quiet!....

The CTA investigates the Faculty Association (1997)


• “Meeting With CTA,” from the Faculty Association's April Newsletter, April, 1997

CTA will be meeting at the Holiday Inn located at La Paz and Freeway 5 on May 13 and 14 to take any questions and give information on the organization. ¶ Watch for your letter in the mail from CTA detailing the meeting arrangements.

[NOTE: in fact, the CTA "meetings" were a visit by the CTA's investigative "leadership team." CTA was at long last responding to complaints about the local from over 100 full-time district faculty.]

• Saddleback College District Is Renamed (LA Times, May 01, 1997)

     To let the community know that is represents two campuses, Saddleback Community College District has changed its name.
     The board of trustees voted to rename the governing body South Orange County Community College District....

• “Irvine Valley faculty vote on trustees under way,” Irvine World News (P. Goetz), May 8, 1997

A polling of the Irvine Valley College faculty for a vote of no confidence in the college district board of trustees is under way. ¶ Ballots became available Monday and voting at special polling points will continue through noon Friday, May 9.

On May 1 the Irvine Valley Academic Senate Council called for the faculty-wide polling for a "vote of no confidence in the S.O.C.C.C.D. (South Orange County Community College District, formerly Saddleback Community College District) Board of Trustees for repeated action indicating unwillingness to participate in the spirit and intent of shared governance."
. . .
During the May 1 meeting, Senate Council members said that the board's action on April 28 to appoint teacher Raghu Mathur as interim president of the college was done without consultation with the Academic Senate and in opposition to recommendations from administrators.

According to the trustees' own policy on shared decision-making, the board must consult with the faculty before making an appointment.
. . .
Former Irvine Valley President Dan Larios, speaking from his new office as president of Fresno City College, gave full support to the Academic Senate.

He said that in his dealings with the Irvine Valley Academic Senate, the members were always willing to sit down and discuss issues through to an acceptable decision.

"They are reasonable, fair-minded, and smart and just want to be involved in decisions," he said….

• Results of vote of “no confidence”: Remarks by IVC Academic Senate President Kate Clark at May 19, 1997 meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees:

It is not a pleasant circumstance that brings me to this podium this evening—to report that the entire Irvine Valley College faculty has, by a vote of 63 to 24, declared "no confidence" in this Board of Trustees because of "repeated actions taken which indicate its unwillingness to participate in the spirit and intent of shared governance." Contrary to claims made by [Faculty Association President] Ms. Miller-White, for those of you with political understanding, this represents a disapproval rating of 72.5 percent of the faculty. ... A vote of no confidence is understood to be a most grave action not undertaken lightly. ... It is to be considered by all an overwhelming signal to the college, to the district, and to the community we serve that severe problems persist and cry for remedy. The Academic Senate is the duly constituted voice of the faculty, recognized as such by law, by Title V, by your own board policies. As the IVC Academic [Senate] President, I am the individual designed to speak on behalf of the faculty as a whole.... If I must be a cautious speaker, then I ask you as board members to be cautious listeners and to distinguish between decisions reached and delivered by the authentic voice of the faculty--the Academic Senates--and the whispered rumors or innuendoes of those who approach you outside the process. They do not speak for faculty as a whole. They cannot, and their appeals or their petitions must be weighed accordingly. The Academic Senate by law is more than just an advisor body. Your failure to understand that principle and our partnership reflects the very depth of your lack of understanding about AB 1725. We have brought our entreaties before this body as requests for meetings and orientations. We have been stifled in our attempts to bring such requests before you as a docket item. Our requests to you for legal remedies have also gone unanswered, and we tire of asking. The plebiscite just taken at our college is no longer request; it is a public demand that you work with us to rectify the ills that plague this district and to restore both the obligations and responsibilities delegated to us by law and your own adopted board policies 2100.1.

Obey the law, OK? (The Brown Act)

• Written "demand for cure and correct [re violations of the Brown Act]," read (and handed) to SOCCCD Board of trustees during board meeting: May 19, 1997

The SOCCCD Board of Trustees has repeatedly disregarded provisions of the Brown Act, Government Code 54950, et seq. For instance, on April 28, 1997, during closed session, the Board of Trustees appointed Raghu Mathur as Interim President of Irvine Valley College. As you are aware, this appointment was a violation of Government Code Section 54954.2, which requires that

54954.2. (a) At least 72 hours before a regular meeting, the legislative body of a local agency or its designee, shall post an agenda containing a brief general description of each item of business to be transacted or discussed at the meeting, including items to be discussed in closed session...No action or discussion shall be undertaken on any item not appearing on the posted agenda...For purposes of describing closed session items pursuant to Section 54954.2, the agenda may describe closed sessions as provided below. No legislative body or elected official shall be in violation of Section 54954.2 or 54956 if the closed session items were described in substantial compliance with this section. Substantial compliance is satisfied by including the information provided below, irrespective of its format....

54956.7...PUBLIC EMPLOYEE APPOINTMENT...

54954.3 (a) Every agenda for regular meetings shall provide an opportunity for members of the public to directly address the legislative body on any item of interest to the public, before or during the legislative body's consideration of the item, that is, within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body, provided that no action shall be taken on any item not appearing on the agenda unless the action is otherwise authorized by subdivision (b) of Section 54954.2.

We hereby demand that the board substantially comply with the aforementioned provisions. More specifically, we demand that the board rescind the appointment of Raghu Mathur as Interim President of IVC and provide proper notice and solicit public input insofar as board appointments are contemplated.

Respectfully submitted,

Roy Bauer
Mark McNeil

[The board ignored us. We filed a lawsuit and prevailed. This occurred more than once. Eventually, ruling against the board, the judge referred to its “persistent and defiant disregard” of the law.]


• “Saddleback College cans newspaper adviser,” Saddleback College Lariat(?), June 5, 1997

Student paper has been critical of district board

Kathleen Dorantes received word May 20, without warning that she would no longer be the adviser to the Saddleback Valley College newspaper, The Lariat.
. . .
Some sources at the Mission Viejo college , governed by the same board as Irvine Valley College, say the move was politically motivated. The student paper has been critical of the majority of the college district's board of trustees since the election in the fall.

The faculty member appointed to take Dorantes' place as adviser, Lee Walker, is an outspoken supporter of the board majority.
. . .
Walker could not be reached for comment.
. . .
When asked about reasons for the change or reasons that the college president, rather than an immediate supervisor, would make a decision about a faculty teaching assignment, Doffoney said, "I think this conversation has gone about as far as it can," and indicated he did pot want to comment further.

• “CTA State Board Exonerates Faculty Association” –Faculty Association Press Release, June?, 1997

In a report issued June 23, 1997, a team from the California Teachers Association (CTA), Board of Directors, issued a report that clears the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association (SCCDFA) of the changes [sic] of wrongdoing that a small, but vociferous group of Irvine Valley and Saddleback college [sic] administrators and faculty had forwarded to CTA headquarters in January and March….

[NOTE: The report was based on a site visit by a CTA “leadership team.” In their report, the team noted this accomplishment of the local: that "Approximately twenty-three Irvine College [sic] faculty became new members during the period from January to March 1997." It failed to mention, however, that most of these faculty joined the FA in order to reform it. 

The team observed that the "concerned faculty" who had requested CTA’s assistance were troubled by the FA's conduct concerning its bylaws. For instance, according to many faculty, the FA failed to provide bylaws to members who requested them. Though CTA's own rules require that chapter bylaws be revised at least once every five years, the only copies of FA bylaws that were available to members dated from 1983 and existed in two distinct forms. FA leadership was very unclear concerning the status of these old bylaws. 

Eventually, FA President Miller-White explained that "the bylaws" were being "cleaned up" of misspellings and grammatical errors. But when, after several months, the "cleaned up" version finally appeared, it contained substantial changes relative to the previously available versions. These changes (conveniently, for FA leadership) increased the power of the President and permitted a greater degree of campaign spending. The FA was unable or unwilling to explain how these changes had come about.

In truth, the report asserted:

“The team believes that the Faculty Association must take immediate action to bring the current bylaws into compliance with CTA and NEA policies and standards as quickly as possible...Copies of bylaws should be made readily available upon member request and provided to members upon joining or after a vote of revision. In the future, all changes to bylaws should be referenced by date at the end of each paragraph.”

Elsewhere, the report stated that the FA "should adopt election procedures in standing rules with specifics about timeline and the balloting process." It also reported that "even some long-term members expressed little knowledge of the election procedures and regular balloting for Faculty Association officers over the years." At no point did the report refute or even question that very disturbing observation. It did, however, recommend that the Faculty Association "avail itself of training provided CTA about election procedures....”

The CTA report noted:

“The Faculty Association does appear to take and approve minutes, but not always on a regular basis. The Faculty Association does not archive minutes of regular representative council meetings...The Faculty Association regards the PAC meetings as strategic discussions that do not require minutes.

“The chapter should establish a secure repository for archives of minutes and financial records...Minutes should be kept of all meetings. Matters of strategic concern can be discussed in executive session. Financial reports should be made monthly and published.”

The FA’s press release neglected to mention that the authors of the CTA report were clearly concerned about the FA's finances and dues collection, for the latter recommended that the chapter "receive training from CTA" and that it "work directly with CTA" in order to insure conformity with the law. (It also implied that the FA had failed to "follow its own bylaws" concerning contract proposals.) 

With regard to the union’s decision to use a homophobic flier to campaign for its trustee candidates, the report lamely asserted:

“Because Faculty Association leadership believed losing the trustee election would have dire consequences for the Faculty Association, the PAC used a paid political consultant to help them win the November 1996 trustee election. [After the election, that consultant, Pam Zanelli, was hired by the district as it’s chief public information officer.] The consultant identified several "hot button issues" for south Orange County voters. The Faculty Association was convinced by the consultant that the domestic partners benefits issue could be effectively used to defeat the opposition candidates and would win what was viewed as a critical election for the Faculty Association. 

“...CTA reaffirms its belief that discrimination is not acceptable in any form or forum. Therefore, in the future, the chapter must work to make sure that campaign strategy decisions do not cause more problems than the election victory intends to solve.”

• “Irvine Valley College is fast leaving democratic process in the dust,” Irvine World News Editorial, July 3, 1997

By all appearances, we're witnessing an interim college president replacing a democracy with an autocracy. It all smacks of intimidation and these methods often lead to disastrous results….

• [Article], from the Weekender (a south county insert of the LA Times), July 5, 1997

Two Irvine Valley College faculty members filed a complaint Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court alleging violations of the state's open meeting law by the college board of trustees when they appointed Raghu Mathur as interim president of Irvine Valley.

Roy Bauer, chair of the humanities and languages, and Mark McNeil, of the social and behavioral sciences, filed a writ of mandate with fellow faculty member Wendy Phillips acting as counsel. Phillips said the filing was equivalent to suing the seven members of the board as well as Chancellor Robert Lombardi.

The complaint alleges that the state's open meeting law, the Brown Act, was violated when four members of the board conferred beforehand and went into an April 28 closed meeting knowing they would appoint Raghu Mathur as interim president of Irvine Valley College. A violation would be a misdemeanor….

• “Irvine Valley's Mathur takes heat at open forum,” Irvine World News, July 10, 1997

Complaints about Irvine Valley College's interim president, Raghu Mathur, dominated an open forum conducted Tuesday by trustees of the South Orange County Community College District….

• “Irvine representative on college board issues 'wake-up call' to his colleagues,” Irvine World News, July 17, 1997

Community college trustee Dave Lang delivered a blistering statement critical of the board majority's position on management of Irvine Valley College at Monday night's board meeting.

"President Frogue, I will tell you that the good people of Irvine will not stand for what many see as the systematic subjugation of an outstanding institution," Lang said. Lang represents Irvine on the seven-member board.

Lang said Tuesday that he meant the message as a "wake-up call" to his fellow board members.
. . .
"Outstanding administrators at the highest levels have left or are considering leaving or retiring. Morale, among other employees, is extremely low, because they feel their voices are not being heard and that all vestiges of academic freedom and established processes are gone," Lang told his fellow board members.

He added that he is asked at trustee conferences "what in the world is going on in our district to cause the kind of chaos that is rumored to exist."

Lang said Irvine Valley College is in jeopardy of losing its accreditation if the pattern continues and people continue to lose faith in the college because of a lack of shared governance.

The infamous (and illegal) "reorg"


• College Job Changes Stir Controversy, LA Times, July 18, 1997

In a closed-session action that prompted three trustees to walk out in protest, trustees at the Saddleback Community college district voted 4 to 0 Wednesday night to revamp campus management at Irvine Valley College.

The dissenting trustees—David Lang, Marcia Milchiker, and Joan Hueter—walked out of the closed session before the vote on the restructuring plan was taken. The three disagreed with the plan and also accused the other trustees of violating the Brown Act by conducting the vote in closed session.

Under the new plan, which takes effect in the fall semester, all 10 IVC department heads will halt their administrative duties and return to the classroom full time. Also as part of the restructuring plan, five of 14 deans at Saddleback College will transfer to IVC to assume managerial tasks.

Meanwhile, the remaining Saddleback College deans will be responsible for more academic departments as part of an accompanying consolidation plan. For instance, liberal arts and social behavioral sciences departments will now be combined….
. . .
"We are in the grips of a Neanderthal board," Bauer said. "This is another chapter in that story.

"I think it's clear this board distrusts academics," he added. "They see themselves as the authority who issues orders, and our job is to simply follow them."….

[Ultimately, the courts decided that, indeed, the board had violated the Ralph M. Brown Act.]

The beginning of the end of Mr. FROGUE's wild ride


• “Warren Report on the JFK Assassination: The Test of History” –ad for “Special Forum” appearing in the Saddleback College Community Education schedule of courses for Fall 1997 (published in late Spring or early Summer 1997):

After 33 years, the Warren Report on the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, has suffered considerable criticism. Recent polls indicate that as many as 7 out of 8 Americans reject the Commission's conclusion that a single person (unaided) accomplished the assassination; and then, was himself, murdered by a singled [sic] unaided person. The reasons for this overwhelming rejection of the government's official findings, and the resulting lack of confidence in the government in general will be examined.

FRI, SEP 26, 7:00 - 10:00 PM
SAT, SEP 27, 9:00 AM -12:00 PM & 1:00 - 5:00 PM
SUN, SEP 28, 9:00 AM -12:00 PM & 1:00 - 6:00 PM
Saddleback College, SSC 225

The ADL's Joyce Greenspan

• “Why we don't support changes made at Irvine Valley College,” guest editorial, Irvine World News, August 8, 1997

By David Lang and Joan Hueter

We strongly oppose the vote of the majority of the board of trustees of the South Orange County Community College District in its action to remove nine Irvine Valley College school chairs and replace them with five deans from Saddleback College.
. . .
Although 10 school chairs and their support staffs may "cost over $1 million," this expenditure will not be eliminated by reassigning them to the classroom. The actual cost to the college for its school chairs is the salaries (approximately $200,000) of the part-time faculty that teaches the classed the chairs do not. The college will still be required to pay their salaries as classroom teachers, and at salaries identical to their former salaries as school chairs.

Ironically, it was the economy of the school chair model that was a significant factor in the college's move to adopt it in 1986. Coupled with the benefits of a "flat" organization and the involvement of the college faculty in important decision-making processes, IVCs administrative model has been a resounding success in fostering the growth and development of the college. 

Trustee Fortune declares that the money "saved" by the board's action will be used to add classes. However, she fails to state that both IVC and Saddleback College have already scheduled classes for the next academic year to accommodate a far greater number of students than will be funded by the state.

To offer additional classes in such a situation is to assure that the district will incur enormous expense without a penny of off-set income.
. . .
Our last point is the most disturbing. Veiled as a "personnel action," the latest authoritarian move by the board majority was made without any consultation with or participation by the college employees it most directly affects. Indeed, top district leadership has spoken passionately against it. What disturbs us most is our firm belief that the real motive for such a precipitous action is political payoff to those who oppose certain Saddleback College deans and the silencing of the IVC school chairs who have been vocal critics of the board majority….

[Note: several years later, Lang betrayed his faculty supporters, suddenly becoming Mathur's chief apologist. Some speculated that Lang had sold his soul for political advantage—for it did seem that, subsequently, Lang was promised support by Fuentes in his efforts to become OC Treasurer. In fact, Lang's campaign was a failure and Fuentes did little to help him.]

• “College district tosses aside procedure manual in choosing new Irvine Valley College president,” Irvine World News, August 14, 1997

Chancellor Robert A. Lombardi said Tuesday he has decided that community college trustees should choose the new president for Irvine Valley College directly from the pool of 20 to 30 candidates rather than letting a representative search committee eliminate candidates first.

He said he made the decision not to use the established hiring procedure after communicating with members of the board of trustees.

He said the South Orange County Community College District trustees will choose the new president based on their own interviews and the written comments on each candidate from each member of the 12-member search committee.
. . .
Under the established method of hiring administrators, a search committee of representatives from all segments of the college reviews applications for basic qualifications, interviews qualified applicants and ranks them in order of who they think is the best person for the job. The top three to five then go to the chancellor who makes a recommendation to the board for their approval. This hiring procedure was adopted by the board in 1988 and is similar to hiring procedures at other community colleges.
. . .
Lombardi acknowledged Tuesday afternoon that this [new] method is not the one specified in the district's Employment Procedures Manual.

"It wouldn't be my choice, if another model would get the support of the board majority," he commented.

He stressed that he is trying to "be realistic" with this board and chose this method of selecting a president so that someone will be chosen to fill the position.
. . .
In May, 72 percent the Irvine Valley full-time faculty voted "no confidence" in the board for making the interim appointment.
. . .
When asked if this is a way to make sure that Interim President Raghu Mathur is included as a finalist for the permanent position, Lombardi replied: "let's put it this way—this is to make sure he is not eliminated unfairly. That's what the board would say."
. . .
Lombardi said that to his knowledge all members of the search committee agreed to the new procedure.

However, at least one member of the search committee contradicted the chancellor, saying all members of the committee definitely didn't agree on the new procedure and that a number of them have made their dissenting opinions known both verbally and in writing.

Dave Lang, a college trustee who represents Irvine, said Wednesday he strongly objects to the new method of choosing the president.

He said there is not enough faculty input and that he believes the search committee should narrow the field of candidates before the board is involved in the choice.

 

• “Selection process for the new president of Irvine Valley College is a sham,” editorial, Irvine World News, August 14, 1997

Clearly, the board majority of South Orange County Community College District is manipulating the selection process by bypassing the district's Employment Procedures Manual and emasculating the screening committee.

• Editorial re SOCCCD board of trustees, Irvine World News, August 14, 1997

It's clear the four-member majority of...trustees is now manipulating the selection of a new president for Irvine Valley College. The process they've come up with is a sham...[This micromanagement and politicizing has] got to stop before those four individuals wreck the district and its two find colleges"

• Old Guard unionists sing Raghu Mathur’s praises, August 18, 1997 meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees

Tony Garcia: …[Raghu is] a courageous moralist who has confronted many of the ills of the north campus despite the vitriolic invectives and hollow protestations that he has encountered to condemn the obscene and immoral practice of release time…Release time has become one of the great scandals of academia…which is the root of the majority of our evils…I’d like to thank Dr. Mathur for his fortitude in confronting this specific problem. The community should erect a statue to him for his courage. The people that you see at Board meetings and read about in the Times condemning his actions you would find on the Who’s Who list of release time usurpers [Sherry Miller-White interjects: “Amen!”], if you were privy to it. Now you see the picture. 

Bill Heffernan: …Reassigned time is really a euphemism for faculty welfare and has turned our college into a playground for spoiled children—not our students, but a few faculty who want to teach courses—two courses, not five courses as they were hired to do. Some of us—and that includes Raghu—say this scandalous system for the favored few is over. If you were hired to teach, it is time to teach. 

Jan Horn [responds]: My name is Jan Horn…Raghu Mathur is being hailed as a hero for his tough stance against reassigned time and his tough decisions to cut [it]. 

His position is new and surprising to those of us who have worked with him for many years prior to his [recent appointment as president of IVC]. Raghu received 60%-80% reassigned time as School Chair for [10] years. In addition, for at least the past three years—possibly four—he received a stipend, equivalent to 6 LHE reassigned time, for his role as Tech Prep Coordinator. So he has had 100%—or close to it—reassigned time for a number of years, and now he and his followers are talking about the disgraces and abuses [of reassigned time]...

Does President Mathur think he did nothing during that job?...

I’d like you to take a look at his load...and then see what he actually did about reassigned time, not what he is saying about it now. 

• “Warren Commission [forum] guests,” Agenda Item #13, SOCCCD Board Meeting, August 18, 1997

“$5,000 for honoraria, travel, or accommodations for Sherman Skolnick, Dave Emory, John Judge, Michael Collins Piper.”

[The item passes 4-3, despite a plea from the head of the local ADL, who described the nature of some of these guests. Earlier in the day, I had read the agenda and recognized a name: Michael Collins Piper. So I called Joyce Greenspan of the Long Beach/OC ADL and gave her a heads up.]

• “Applause, hissing at college board meeting,” Irvine World News, August 21, 1997

Monday night's meeting of the college district board was marked by bursts of applause as well as hissing and booing from an overflow audience.

At issue was the reorganization of the administrative structure of Irvine Valley College in Irvine and Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

The board voted 4-3 to ratify its decision made in private on July 16 to reorganize the academic administrative structure at the two colleges. Chancellor Robert A. Lombardi said that he thought at the July meeting—and still thinks—that the action taken was a personnel issue and could be done in a closed session.

Three board members, David Lang, Joan Hueter and Marcia Milchiker, walked out of the July 16 private meeting because they thought the issue was a policy matter and not a personnel matter, thus making the action a violation of the Brown Act, the state's open meeting law.

At the July 16 meeting, trustees Steven Frogue, John Williams, Dorothy Fortune and Teddi Lorch, voted 4-0 to reassign Irvine Valley College school chairs to full-time teaching, and at the same time cut the number of deans at Saddleback College in half. Deans were reassigned to Irvine Valley College. One resigned and was reassigned to teaching duties at Saddleback.
. . .
The action is widely viewed on campus as "political payback" for support or opposition to board candidates, according to one faculty member at the meeting….

• College Course Claims JFK Conspiracy by ADL, LA Times, August 21, 1997

The South Orange County Community College District has approved a course that claims a conspiracy was behind the assassination of President Kennedy and has committed $5,000 for flying in four guest speakers, one of whom says the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, masterminded the killing.
. . .
"All of this is out-and-out anti-Semitism," said Cheryl Altman, chairwoman of the department of reading at Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo, which, along with Irvine Valley Community College, is run by the district.
. . .
Chip Berlet, who has studied the assassination extensively and is a senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a nonprofit think tank in Massachusetts that examines authoritarian thinking, laughed upon hearing the names of the panelists. ¶ "Oh, get out of here!" Berlet said. "You couldn't find . . . more embarrassing conspiracists in America. Even among conspiracy theorists, these people represent the outer limits." ¶ Some faculty members fear that the course will harm the reputation of the district. ¶ "I am profoundly embarrassed that the president of our board of trustees is a man who takes seriously crackpots such as these," said Roy Bauer, a philosophy instructor at Irvine Valley Community College….

[The story was picked up all over the country and even had a brief life on national TV. For a couple of days, the SOCCCD was that stupid college district in California with holocaust deniers.]

• Colleges Should Stay Miles Away From Bigotry, LA Times editorial, August 22, 1997 

What could South Orange County Community College District trustees possibly have been thinking? They voted to allow a seminar that injects anti-Semitic overtones into conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Even Thursday’s announcement that the course will not be held on campus was unsatisfactory. The fact that the chairman of the college board, Steven J. Frogue, still plans to hold it at all is appalling….

• “College district cancels assassination seminar,” OC Register, August 22, 1997 

EDUCATION: Protests lead to the demise of a class on the John F. Kennedy shooting.

A college seminar exploring the conspiracy theories surrounding President Kennedy’s assassination — including one that Israeli intelligence was involved—was canceled Thursday after faculty and community protests….

• Saddleback’s JFK Conspiracy Seminar Spiked, LA Times (front page), August 22, 1997

After receiving more than 200 angry calls from the public, the South Orange County Community College District on Thursday canceled a controversial seminar that claims a conspiracy was behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy….

• “College trustee withdraws plan to present forum,” Irvine World News, August 28, 1997

The president of the South Orange county Community College District board dropped his plans for a forum on conspiracy theories behind the assassination of President John Kennedy after the district received nearly 200 calls from people upset about the proposal. 

• “Newspaper vicious toward college board,” letter, Irvine World News, August 28, 1997 (Ray Chandos)

Why does the Irvine World News, which serves a large area, concentrate its vicious attacks on South Orange County Community College district trustees and the interim president Raghu Mathur at Irvine Valley College, ignoring other news, governing bodies and institutions?....

• “Anti-Semitic JFK plot seminar shot down by college district,” OC Jewish Heritage, August 29, 1997

The South Orange County Community College District backed away last Thursday from a controversial decision to use $5,000 in compulsory student fees to finance a three-day seminar on Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories….

• “Why don't we raise hell about Steven Frogue?,” OC Jewish Heritage, August 29, 1997

My professor friend doesn't know what is wrong with the Orange County Jewish community: "Why don't you raise hell about Frogue and his gang?" he asks me, his tired voice weighed by years of accumulated frustration.

He has a point.

Why don't we do anything about Steven Frogue? Picket board meetings? Launch a recall election?

Good question….

• JFK Slaying Course Draws Fire, letters, LA Times, September 7, 1997


• “Trouble Continues at Former Saddleback District,” from Senate Rostrum, newsletter of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, September, 1997 (Kate Clark)


• Excerpts from September Faculty Association Newsletter, September 1997

…The SOCCCFA and CTA have consistently promoted unity among all faculty in this district; even if we may disagree on the fine points of issues, the entire organization suffers if any one of its members is in peril or overtly attacked...We now face a unique situation. There is a contingent of dues paying members (some of who [sic] began to ante up dues only within the past few months) who have made it clear that what they want is total control of the Association in order to gut its capability to bargain for fair contracts providing equitable salaries and to process grievances.

… The color photo appearing in the LA Times was not a student at our colleges or a member of our district community. He was imported from LA. How many of the open meeting comments were orchestrated for the Times reporter
. . .
We counted 55 faculty members who said nothing, but simply observed. About 51 students stood when a speaker asked them to stand….

Who were the other outside agitators?....
...
…A media attack from the Los Angles Times writer Michael Granberry which started following the November election in 1996--continued until last week, and an incendiary call to arms against the faculty from the Heritage newspaper writer, Stan Brin, have alerted our Association leaders to an organized offensive against the SOCCCD faculty...Last week, Granberry ordered a Saddleback College faculty member out of his San Juan Capistrano office, with a vicious vitriolic attack on the Union's motives. As reported his exact remarks were "The only thing the Union is interested in is its pocketbook."

This quote is also the standard IVC line from faculty who lost their reassigned time (9 hours each for department chairs; total 18 for two semesters and additional 9 more in the summer).

...In the meantime, the Association is keeping the peace. We are teaching our classes and keeping the controversies out of the classroom. We are teachers, not "insiders," not whining complainers. We actually enjoy teaching….

• Blame Politics for the Debacle in South O.C. Community College: Voters, teachers group gave control to officials bent on accruing power and advancing their personal agendas, “OC Voices,” Lisa Alvarez, LA Times, September 7, 1997

…In August, the board majority, in closed session, deviated from existing hiring practices in its Irvine Valley presidential search process, abandoning, in this case, uniform rules for selection of administrators in favor of a process that permits politics to prevail over merit. In a recent college forum, Lombardi acknowledged this deviation from district policy. Now, based on this bogus process, the board majority is poised to select its candidate, absent meaningful faculty and staff input….

• College District's Actions Provoke Debate and Dissent, LA Times, September 9, 1997

Education: Saddleback, Irvine Valley board majority says changes are needed though sometimes unpopular.

• College District Board President Is Recall Target, LA Times, September 10, 1997

Administration: Decisions made in closed sessions fervently opposed by faculty and students who announce campaign to oust Steven J. Frogue.

• “Students say they will call for college trustee to resign,” Irvine World News, September 11, 1997

The Student Senate at Irvine Valley College is drafting a resolution calling for Steven Frogue, president of the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees to leave the board….

• “Campus split over Mathur's appointment,” IVC Voice, September 11, 1997 (By Sanaz Mozafarian)

Former Interim President Raghu Mathur has been appointed the fifth president of Irvine Valley College by the South Orange County Community College Board of Trustees.

Mathur was appointed on a 4-3 vote during a closed session meeting Monday night, while dozens of students, faculty, staff and community members protested outside the room…..

• “Faculty and staff sport buttons to protest board decision,” IVC Voice, September 11, 1997 (By Tammy E. Livingstone)

Baggy jeans, neon notebooks, earrings pierced on body areas other than norm. Ah, and then there's those buttons?....

• “Trustee calls for outside intervention,” Irvine World News, September 11, 1997

College district 'incapable of responsible self-government'

Decrying the process, "or lack thereof" by which Raghu Mathur was selected as the new president of Irvine Valley College Monday, community college Trustee David Lang of Irvine said Tuesday he is seeking the intervention of statewide community college Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum in the affairs of the South Orange County Community College District….
. . .
Lang said he is asking for outside intervention because the south county college board and the district seem "incapable of responsible self-government."

Lang said he also sent a letter to Orange County District Attorney Michael Capizzi asking him to investigate alleged violations of California's open meeting law and other actions by the board majority-Steven Frogue, Dorothy Fortune, Teddi Lorch and John Williams.
. . .
Irvine Valley faculty members said Tuesday they fear retaliation–harassment or even dismissal—by the board and Mathur for their lack of support during the selection of a replacement for Dan Larios, who left Irvine Valley College last spring to head Fresno City College in his hometown.

Lang said he can understand their fears.

But in an interview following Monday night's meeting of the college board, Trustee John Williams of Mission Viejo said he fully supports the process that was used by the board and the appointment of Mathur to the position.

He said Mathur was "the top candidate for the job all the way through the hiring process."
. . .
"He was just the best person for the job," Williams said of Mathur.
. . .
Trustee Joan Hueter of Tustin said Wednesday that she is saddened by recent actions of the board.

"I have worked with boards before that could disagree and still get along and move forward. This (board) is just unbelievable," Hueter said….

• “Bizarre beat goes on at college district,” editorial, Irvine World News, September 11, 1997

Four members of the South Orange County Community College Board of Trustees have made a mockery of shared governance and continue on their campaign of political revenge

…Mathur is now Irvine Valley's president.

What's next? Look for reprisals against a select list of faculty members and administrators at Irvine Valley who have spoken out against the board majority.

Such an exercise in raw political power, of course, would be repressive and wrong. That doesn't seem to bother the board majority, however….

• Students Call for Resignation of Community College Official, LA Times, September 12, 1997

Education: Irvine Valley, Saddleback campus leaders say Trustee Steven Frogue's actions hurt schools' integrity.

The student governments of Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges Thursday called for the immediate resignation of South Orange County Community College District board President Steven J. Frogue….

• Cal. Community College Cancels Seminar on JFK Assassination, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 12, 1997

…The course was scheduled to feature Michael Collins Piper, who blames the Israelis for Kennedy's assassination; Dave Emory, who contends that Nazis killed the President; and Sherman Skolnick, a member of the advisory board of The Spotlight, a periodical that the Anti-Defamation League told the trustees is "the most anti-Semitic publication in America." Mr. Piper is a writer for the publication….

• “O.C. rights panel criticizes Frogue,” OC Register, September 12, 1997

The Orange County Human Relations Commission on Thursday night denounced the actions of a local community college board president they called "anti-Semitic" and "intolerant."

South Orange County Community College District President Steven Frogue planned to teach a seminar that raised the ire of faculty and outraged the Jewish community….

• Students Call for Resignation of Community College Official, LA Times, September 12, 1997


• South O.C. College District Salaries Are State's Highest, LA Times, September 15, 1997

Education: Trustee-faculty union relations criticized by some who link pay issue to recent controversies.

• The American Jewish Committee, Orange County Chapter, Policy Statement, September 15, 1997

The trustees of the South Orange County Community College district, just like the trustees of a corporation, owe a duty to protect the reputation of the institution. A corporation would not tolerate a president who promoted, on behalf of the corporation, speakers associated with the Liberty Lobby, arguably America's most significant anti-Semitic and racist organization. Neither should this school district.

Steven J. Frogue, president of this community college district, has disgraced this community college district (and this community) by offering a "seminar" under district auspices that would be a forum for speakers aligned with the Spotlight, the tabloid of the Liberty Lobby, which regularly exhibits anti-Semitism and racism in pseudo-academic garb, as well as advertisements for and promotions of Holocaust denial, white supremacist groups, and even groups that preach that minorities are not even human beings. According to the September 8, 1997 Spotlight, one assertion of Frogue's seminar was to be that "The CIA and the (Israeli) Mossad worked together to carry out the assassination of John F. Kennedy." Spotlight regularly promotes the classic anti-Semitic notion that Jews and Jewish organizations are parts of secret conspiracies attacking Americans.

Furthermore, students of Steven. J. Frogue at Foothill High School in 1995 accused him of denying the Holocaust, saying that it was more like 60 people than 6 million who were killed. When questioned about this, Frogue said his students misquoted him, yet asserted that the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) has "raised questions" about the Holocaust, and perhaps it should "enter the debate".

The IHR, an offshoot of the Liberty Lobby, is this country's key promoter of Holocaust denial, its theories roundly condemned by academics, history associations, and others as garbage, and many of its leaders and supporters as racists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
. . .
Based on the information that has come to light, we at The American Jewish Committee and leaders of this community call on the board to remove Steven J. Frogue as president. We support the efforts of the district's student and professional leadership to ensure the tolerance of pluralism in the educational environment and we offer our organization's expertise to further these objectives.

• College Official’s Recall Demanded, LA Times (By Michael Granberry), 
September 16, 1997


• “Students, parents call for ouster of trustee,” OC Register, September 16, 1997

EDUCATION: Detractors say the president of the South O.C. Community College District board is anti-Semitic.

Students, faculty and community members called on the president of South Orange County Community College District board to resign Monday night, drawing applause from an audience of 200….

• College Official's Recall Demanded, LA Times, September 16, 1997

Education: Steven Frogue, figure in dispute over course on JFK killing, is absent from O.C. meeting.

Wielding picket signs and leaflets, several hundred students, teachers and residents Monday at the monthly meeting of the South Orange County Community College District demanded the recall of board President Steven J. Frogue….

• College Official Denies He Is Anti-Semitic, LA Times (By Michael Granberry), September 17, 1997

Education: Calling the Holocaust 'one of the great human atrocities of all ages,' board President Steven Frogue, the target of a recall, issues response to critics and defends his right to free speech.

A day after failing to appear at a public meeting where hundreds of people demanded his resignation, college board President Steven J. Frogue lashed out at his critics Tuesday, saying he wants to "repudiate the lies" that he is anti-Semitic….

• Swing Vote Could Keep Frogue on as President, LA Times (By Michael Granberry), September 18, 1997


• Anti-Semitism Charge Leveled at Cal. Community-College Trustee, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 26, 1997

Steven J. Frogue, president of the Board of Trustees of Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College, has been accused of anti-Semitism because the seminar was to include a speaker who believes that Kennedy's murder was plotted by the Israeli intelligence agency.
. . .
[Frogue] was removed from his job as an instructor at a local high school in 1985 after students accused him of promoting the theory that the Holocaust never took place. He rejected those allegations and filed a grievance. He was ultimately reinstated.

• College Board Leader Survives Ouster Effort, LA Times (By Randal C. Archibold), October 21, 1997


• Saddleback College Chief Resigns - December 16, 1997

     …South Orange County Community College District Trustee David B. Lang and several faculty members expressed concern about Doffoney's decision to leave after only three years as president.
     "I wish I could say this is the last of the senior administrators to leave," Lang said. "I think there's certainly on my part a real concern about loss of key administrators in the district."
     Tony Carcamo, vice chancellor of fiscal services, is leaving March 1. Chancellor Robert A. Lombardi also will retire in March, and Irvine Valley College President Daniel L. Larios left in February to head Fresno City College….

• State Warns It Might Take Over S. County College District Finances, LA Times, December 28, 1997


• Study Fuels Frictions at Community Colleges LA Times, January 10, 1998

…Trustees of the 22,000-student South Orange County Community College District, citing the need for financial streamlining, asked for a department by department examination of Irvine Valley College in Irvine and Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

The study began over the holidays, and this week, trustees spoke publicly about overhauling departments in the spring. But the reorganization plan contains what many faculty members charge is a fatal deficiency: It fails to consult faculty, students and staff, as district policies require.

"It seems to effectively preclude representation by any of the groups affected the most--faculty, students and classified [staff]," said Kate Clark, an Irvine Valley English professor and president of the college's Academic Senate. "We're left trying to guess what they want."

• Anti-Semitism at College Board Meeting Decried, LA Times, February 07, 1998

Schools: Debate in South County district is growing contentious as controversial Trustee Steven J. Frogue faces recall.

• College District Won’t Allow Offensive Views at Meetings, LA Times, February 13, 1998

Education: New measures, including more security, come after anti-Semitic comments.

Under criticism from Jewish organizations, the South Orange County Community College District is taking steps to curb offensive and derogatory remarks by speakers at public meetings. … “Some people have said some hurtful things, and it’s gotten kind of ugly,” said board President John S. Williams. “If people are going to start making comments like ‘The Holocaust didn’t occur,’ I’m going to stop them. I’m certainly not trying to restrict free speech, but certainly people have to understand that there is decorum.”….

• Knife, Pepper Spray Are Found at Meeting, LA Times, February 20, 1998

Campus police confiscated a 9-inch folding knife and a small canister of pepper spray from a man attending a South Orange County Community College District board meeting this week.

The seizure came amid tighter security measures in response to controversy surrounding a seminar Trustee Steven J. Frogue proposed last year on the assassination of President Kennedy. The seminar, which involved speakers with uncommon viewpoints, ultimately was canceled.

• Recall Efforts Give Voters a Midterm Voice: Whether or not they succeed, the drives themselves are a vital part of the democratic process, “OC Voices,” Lisa Alvarez, LA Times, March 15, 1998

Lately, I've spent a lot of time asking people to sign petitions to recall South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) Trustee Steven J. Frogue. … You've perhaps seen volunteers outside supermarkets, post offices, coffeehouses or on the district's two campuses, Irvine Valley and Saddleback. We're enthusiastic, friendly. We smile but worry. The clock is ticking. Our deadline, March 24, was too close. Last Thursday, recall leaders decided to admit defeat. Unable to collect the 38,500 required by the county registrar of voters, but inspired by a sudden influx of money, leaders declared this effort dead and decided to begin a new one….

• Faculty at Saddleback, Irvine Valley OK Pact, LA Times, April 1, 1998


• The Old Guard’s Tony Garcia “clears his throat.” The Saddleback College Lariat, April 2, 1998

An article in the 4/2 Lariat reports that, according to Saddleback student Antonio Aguilar (the student who, months ago, challenged an explicit Holocaust denier during a board meeting), he was ‘spit at’ by English instructor Tony Garcia on March 30. 

Evidently, Garcia responded to the charge by saying that “I cleared my throat as [Aguilar] went by.”

The article ends with a masterpiece of understatement:

Richard McCullough, Saddleback College Interim President, said he would not condone this type of behavior from faculty if it did, indeed, occur.

“That’s not what they should be doing,” he said.

Cedric Sampson

• Sampson Named College District Chancellor, LA Times, August 4, 1998

After a four-month search, the board of the South Orange County Community College District has unanimously voted to appoint Cedric Sampson as chancellor.

Sampson, 56, is leaving his job at the Redwoods Community College District in Eureka, Calif., where he's served as president/superintendent for 10 years.

• The Evil of Froguenstein: the real monsters behind community college trustee Steven J. Frogue, Matt Coker, OC Weekly, April 10, 1998

IF YOU'RE LIKE MOST ORANGE Countians, this is probably how you imagine Steven J. Frogue: He's a big, fat, Nazi goose stepper. He stands in front of his bathroom mirror at night in his swastika jammies, holding a black comb under his nose, and pretends to be Adolf Hitler-foaming at the mouth and swatting imaginary flies before the masses. Frogue thinks the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith is filled with a bunch of Catholic-president-slaying juden who have nothing better to do these days than figure out ways to fuck with the Frogue. "Holocaust, schmolocaust," he'll tell you-without you asking. "So it was strongly suggested the Jews go on a little extended holiday. Is that so wrong? Well, is it?"….

• College District's Self-Evaluation Draft Draws Fire for Its Omissions, LA Times, April 22, 1998

Education: Critics say items critical of South Orange County trustees were omitted from the faculty-administration report being sent to accreditation agency.

…Critics of the majority of the Board of Trustees charge that a draft report of a "self-evaluation" prepared by faculty and administrators was altered to remove lengthy passages critical of trustees.

The editing—while not illegal—shows an attempt to cover up problems at Irvine Valley College, one of the campuses administered by the South Orange district, critics charged.
. . .
In the original draft Irvine Valley College report that dealt with administration and governance, faculty and administrators criticized the Board of Trustees' majority for violating open-meetings laws, micromanaging campus affairs and "losing sight of the district's educational mission."

But long sections of the critical remarks were removed from the self-study presented to trustees Monday night. Even a factual reference to district's financial status-on a state fiscal "watch" list- was cut out, critics said.

The report was edited by Irvine Valley College electronic technology instructor Ray Chandos, who was appointed chairman of the school's accreditation committee by college President Raghu Mathur over objections of many faculty members....

• College District Not at Risk, Trustees Say, LA Times, April 25, 1998

Education: Leaders offer assurances on quality and accreditation after the latest flap, over criticism edited from a report

Leaders of the South Orange County Community College District hastened to offer assurances Friday that educational quality is being maintained and that accreditation is not at risk as students threatened to leave the district to attend other colleges.

"I want to assure the public, students and faculty that we'll maintain the highest standards," John S. Williams, the board president, said at a news conference.

Criticism is intensifying over faculty contentions that a draft college accreditation report on the school system's administration was "sanitized" when criticism of trustees was removed. But administrators said the process has retained its integrity.

Not so, critics said. "Everybody is up in arms about this," said Irvine Valley College ethics professor Roy Bauer. "People are hopping mad."
. . .
But the process has been particularly contentious at Irvine Valley, where faculty members say criticism of the Board of Trustees in early versions of a report was removed by editors appointed by administrators.
. . .
In a series of student and faculty demonstrations on campus against controversial administrative changes, some students have carried picket signs vowing to transfer to other community colleges and have shouted chants that they are going to Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa….

• Controversies Taking a Toll on Colleges' Budgets, LA Times, May 3, 1998

Fund-raising: Foundations at both Irvine Valley and Saddleback are feeling the squeeze after series of disputes.

• "Alternative media allow south-O.C. professors and students to vent,” OC Register, May 6, 1998

When Saddleback College teachers' union leader Ken Woodward saw himself portrayed as a demon-complete with sprouting horns and a forked tail--he was angry and embarrassed. 

Other leaders in the South Orange County Community College District are regularly skewered and portrayed as monkeys and clowns by an underground faculty newsletter called Dissent which is quietly being disseminated by smirking professors.

The popularity of the publication—and two online alternatives written by students—is fed by frustrations that have gripped the two-campus district for two years. In that time, a district board member has been called anti-Semitic, top administrators fed up with board politics have quit en masse, and the state has questioned district finances.

Monthly trustees meetings have become shouting matches and fodder for newspaper stories.

"The underground stuff says what people want to say, rather than what's proper," said Irvine Valley College student Sam Stimson, who reads the publications. "It's a way to blow off stress about what's happening in this district."

Dissent's editor and chief writer, Irvine Valley Professor Roy Bauer, dots the 2-month-old weekly publication with obscenities. He has reprinted entire mainstream newspaper articles he is afraid his colleagues may have missed. One issue contained a five-page synopsis of a union meeting he attended, with rewritten dialogue to spice things up.

Board members' photos are distorted by computer. Some issues include rewritten passages from "Alice in Wonderland" that cast board members as Humpty Dumpty, the Queen of Hearts and Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

"The graphics are done in the tradition of political humor in the United States," Bauer said. "I do it to draw people in and get them to read it.

"We try to never cross the line into cruelty."

But board President John Williams-who routinely sees his likeness in Dissent warped, with abnormally sized teeth, eyes and hair-said the publications point to something disturbing.

"I've always been a proponent of free speech," Williams said. "But I think he's creating a hostile work environment, and frankly, when I've read his publications, it reminds me of the Unabomber manifesto.

"I think it's scary stuff."….

• “Abuse of power investigation stopped,” Irvine Valley College Voice, May 7, 1998 (Sanaz Mozafarian)

…On April 23, the Academic Senate Special Inquiry Committee, formed in January to investigate alleged abuses of power by [Raghu Mathur and his] administration, suspended its investigations.

"It's like bailing water out of the Titanic with a tea cup," said the committee's chair Lewis Long. "Every time we put an allegation to bed another one jumps up."
. . .
In a formal statement to the Academic Senate the committee, which consists of six full-time faculty members, stated that it could not prove or disprove the allegations because many have "legal ramifications" and require the authority of a "grand jury" and the "formal power of subpoena."

Furthermore, the committee was overwhelmed by the quantity of allegations and the time left to investigate them this academic year. It received a total of 44 separate reports alleging abuses of power by Mathur as well as the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees; only 18 specific incidents were deemed worthy of further investigation.

The committee accumulated data from faculty, staff and administration regarding the alleged abuses of power in the areas of reprimands and disciplinary actions, violations of hiring policy and intrusion into and violations of process. In the report the committee also included comments about the documentation, the legal ramifications and what further investigations would be necessary.

The allegations included incidents in which Mathur allegedly reprimanded and retaliated against individuals for their negative comments and criticisms of the administration. Others accused Mathur of selectively interfering with individuals' evaluations and their freedom of speech. Still others accused the president of practicing discriminatory hiring patterns, violating the board's hiring policies and lying to the Academic Senate about faculty hiring requests.
. . .
[In a statement rebutting some charges, Mathur stated:] "I will begin by apologizing for any mistakes I have made or any feelings I have hurt, albeit unintentionally. I am asking for you to develop a positive attitude and outlook within our college community," he stated….

• “The march goes on...,” IVC Voice, May 7, 1998 (J. Peralta)

If you happen to glance outside your classroom or pass by the A quad at about noon on Thursdays, you can see students and faculty continue their quest to alleviate the problems that they feel are plaguing Irvine Valley College. Students and teachers remain steadfast in their protest, despite facing what could be interpreted as drawbacks.

One such drawback is the dwindling number of participants and onlookers.
. . .
"I think people are apprehensive of going out to join us, because they don't know all the facts or they think they'll get in trouble," said protest co-coordinator Delilah Snell in an interview after the April 30 protest.
. . .
Debie Burbridge, the second coordinator, added that students will not get in trouble because it is within their rights.

Despite the smaller crowd, students can still visit an information table and at today's, May 7 protest, there was expected to be an open forum in front of Student Services for an hour, in which anyone could speak. In addition, at the April 30 protest, there was a guest speaker.

Wendy Phillips … spoke from approximately 12:15 to 12:30 p.m., after a shorter march.

"It's very difficult to give the complexity of the issues justice in, you know, 15 minutes," Phillips said after her speech.

She discussed the various issues the students have been protesting such as IVC's accreditation process, the newly approved faculty union contract, reassign time, and the appointment of President Raghu Mathur.

In an interview before the protest began, Phillips stated her purpose for speaking.

"To continue to raise the consciousness and awareness of the students and as to the severity of the problems at Irvine Valley College," Phillips said.

Another drawback for the protesters is an April 2 memo addressed to all faculty from the office of Mathur, which advised instructors not to allow student speaking during classroom hours about non-curriculum related issues.

"I issued the memo about students speaking about political matters in the classroom as some professional advice to faculty. While I respect a faculty member's academic freedom in the classroom, there should be some sense of integrity in the instructional program. If teachers stay with the course outline and approved curriculum, they give students what they are paying for—a quality education," said Mathur in a written statement sent to The Voice.

"Students are welcome to express their views about campus issues, but there are other venues to do so," further stated Mathur.

Despite the memo, Burbridge said that instructors haven't changed their minds about letting them speak and she said they continue to speak.

"The memo wasn't addressed to Delilah and I. The memo was addressed to instructors. So as long as we get permission (from the instructor), we will continue to speak to students," said Burbridge.

Burbridge continued, "The memo doesn't explicitly say that instructors cannot allow politics to be discussed in the classroom, it was just a caution."

"Many instructors give students the opportunities to speak before or after class to make a variety of announcements—club recruitments, speech tournament results, student elections, the Blood Drive, announcements about plays and concerts," said Academic Senate President Kate Clark.

"I can't recall another time when such a prohibition has been issued," Clark said in relation to the memo.

According to Interim Vice President of Instruction Glenn Roquemore, he is not aware of any policy on classroom speaking.

"In fairness to all students, political issues are not always interesting to everyone, particularly in a non-political class," Roquemore said in reference to the memo. "Campus politics could find its way to political science classrooms and it would probably be appropriate in that context."
. . .
Related to this issue, Board of Trustees President John Williams said, "It is being reported that faculty members are taking up lecture time to discuss campus politics."

"The students are being shortchanged on their education," Williams said.

In addition to speaking in classrooms, Snell and Burbridge have also been posting fliers around campus. They noticed, though, before the April 23 protest and again after putting up more fliers on April 27, that most of them were gone.

"Personally, I put up fliers all around the school for one hour and a half and today they were all gone," Snell said in an interview after the April 23 protest. "We're doing everything by the book and they're tearing them down."
. . .
In addition to coordinating the protect, Snell and Burbridge spoke at the April 20 board of trustees meeting in regards to accreditation.

"It gave our movement more strength because we were able to present ourselves in a context other than the campus grounds," Snell said.
. . .
"It is unfortunate that a small group of disgruntled faculty members who have had their reassign time cut are misleading students," said Williams about the protest.
. . .
Mathur … commented, "I'm a positive person, and I like to see that all faculty, staff, administration and students stay focused on how we can better serve the students. If anyone has any suggestions on how to better serve the college end students, I will be happy to listen and take their suggestions into consideration. As professionals we can do no less.

• State Republicans Add Backing in the Drive to Oust Trustee Frogue, LA Times, May 14, 1998

Embarrassed by controversy rippling monthly from the South Orange County Community College District's Board of Trustees, state Republicans on Wednesday said they will support the recall of Trustee Steven J. Frogue, himself a Republican and two-term trustee at odds with students, professors and Jewish groups.

Though Frogue has repeatedly denied he is anti-Semitic, Michael Schroeder, state Republican chairman, said the party has thrown its support behind a recall drive to oust Frogue, who has been accused of making ethnic slurs as a teacher and supporting groups considered offensive to Jews.

• “Frogue accuser feels 'set-up' by college trustee, colleagues,” Irvine World News, May 14, 1998

A former student of college district trustee Steven Frogue who has been at the forefront of accusations that Frogue taught that the holocaust did not happen as recorded in history, said he tried to convince her she is wrong during a meeting she described as a "surreal" experience.

Pam Bustamante, 26, said she thought she was meeting with a representative of the Christian Coalition at a restaurant on March 25 to discuss Frogue and was surprised to find Frogue waiting to join the meeting. The surprise grew, she said, when college board president John Williams and public relations consultant Pam Zanelli arrived a short while later.

Bustamante said the meeting had been set up by a co-worker who told her Scott Voight of the Christian Coalition wanted to discuss the allegations she has made about Frogue's teachings when she was his student at Foothill High School. She had been told the Christian Coalition had supported Frogue in the past and was concerned about the allegations.

"I thought I was going to be meeting with a couple of people from the Christian Coalition," Bustamante said. "I get out of my car, we walk over to the restaurant and I see Mr. Frogue sitting there on a bench. I just thought, 'Oh my gosh."'

Voight said that he was under the impression that Bustamante knew Frogue would be there, and that her business associate knew. He said that was the idea of the meeting….

• College Group Condemns Hate Speech (LA Times) - May 19, 1998

Racism: State association acts in response to anti-Semitic remarks at South Orange County Community College District meetings.
     A state association of community college professors and instructors has passed a resolution condemning what it terms ethnically offensive remarks and vitriolic language at South Orange County Community College District's board meetings.
     Bill Scroggins, president of the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges, presented the resolution to the South County board Monday night.
     "When something happens locally that has statewide implications for public policy, we discuss it, take action and communicate our positions to the college boards or college presidents," said Scroggins, whose professional association represents 16,000 full-time faculty members at 106 community colleges.
     John S. Williams, president of the college district's board, called the criticism a moot point, saying the trustees in February enacted policies to restrict so-called hate speech. "We were caught by surprise at the time, and we responded," he said….

• IVC President Raghu Mathur, responding to a resounding faculty vote of confidence*, accuses some faculty of “crimes” and “mail threats,” at the May, 1998, meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees.

This vote of no confidence was politically motivated. …

I want to share with you something about the people who are at the very core…of this vote of no confidence. They want a weak president that they can control like they have done before a few times...The people of the core have already disliked me whenever I have stood up for fair and equitable distribution of financial resources, be it for supplies or equipment, staffing resources all across the board, for various educational programs and services….

This is an un American way to treat anyone—not to give people a chance. This is an un American way to treat anyone, leave alone the first generation American immigrant like myself, and now a US citizen. And I’m proud to be so.

…[F]irst they stand in the way and then they say “He’s ineffective.” Well, I’d like to ask, respectfully, Where is their sense of responsibility? Where is their sense of integrity before they cast stones at others?

We should not condone anyone who embraces hate and bigotry. People have come here to speak against hate and bigotry at this board meeting many a times. None of these people have spoke against hate and bigotry implied in someone holding a bottle of [Ragu] Spaghetti sauce with my Indian name misspelled. Or hate in crimes explicitly evident in publications of professor Roy Bauer, who claims to be a professor of logic and ethics.

…People in this core in the past have sent me mail threats saying, “Go back to your country.” These threats have come from some of these people, I am confident of it….

I’m a first generation immigrant who came to American shores some 31 years ago with eight dollars in my pocket with a dream with a strong belief in the American dream that you work hard and you will, you can achieve anything. But some people want to take that away. I have dedicated my life to service for the students, and I will continue to do so till the last breath in my body….

[When Mathur was deposed months later, he was asked if he had kept any of the dozen or so “hate threats” he then claimed to have received (voicemail, email, letters, etc.). He answered that he had kept none of it. He had nothing. Plainly, he simply invented these “hate threats.”

[I asked Mathur for evidence of the charges he made against me (and others) in the above statement, but he offered nothing.

In fact, I had nothing whatsoever to do with students having or holding spaghetti sauce jars, and Mathur had no reason to suppose that I did.

[*87% of eligible faculty participated in the vote. 74% of voters voted “no confidence” in Mathur.]

• [Article], Orange County Register, June 13, 1998

South Orange County Community College trustees attempted to intimidate school employees and investigators during a routine look at the district’s shaky finances, according to letters and interviews with district officials. State auditors said they left with a firsthand glimpse of what critics say is an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment that has dominated the two-campus district for the past 18 months. Letters…show that two of the district’s seven trustees [Williams and Fortune] took what the state chancellor’s office calls an “unprecedented” series of actions to impede its investigation…“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Patrick Lenz, the state’s vice chancellor of fiscal services, of the April 6 visit. “We were faced with all sorts of intimidation tactics throughout the day”… Throughout the eight-hour audit, Fortune paced outside the glass door. Sometimes she peered through the glass…. 

• South County College District Board Put on Notice by Accrediting Agency, LA Times, July 1, 1998

Education: 'Don't mess up,' trustees warned. Panel says it needs to see progress on budget and administrative problems

In the midst of a crucial accreditation review, the South Orange County Community College District has been gently slapped by the accreditation agency, which said it is tightening its oversight until the district resolves financial uncertainty and administrative strife.

Warning that the district may be failing to provide "good stewardship" of its colleges, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges said in a June 19 special progress report that administrative changes have left the district in "some disarray," with officials working in conditions that are "uncertain and politically charged."

…[O]fficials of the agency said they intended the June 19 report as a warning to district trustees, who have been racked by controversy on several fronts for more than a year.
"Because the colleges are being reviewed, in effect, we're really trying to speak to the board to say 'Don't mess up your colleges,' " said Judith Watkins….

David B. Wolf, executive director of the commission, said in a letter to Kathleen O'Connell Hodge, acting chancellor of the 33,000-student district, that financial conditions have begun improving. But he said problems from last July's administrative reorganization haven't been worked out.

Wolf said two key issues of concern were last summer's administrative shake-up and a new administrative hiring policy, which concentrates decision-making in the hands of trustees.

Both issues are at the center of shouting matches between trustees and disgruntled faculty and administrators. Trustees accuse some professors of trying to preserve outdated perks, while students, faculty and administrators have accused trustees of hoarding power….

• Fund-Raiser for Frogue Recall Gets Backing of Democrats, GOP, J. Pasco, LA Times, September 9, 1998

Politics: The parties hope to raise $40,000 at event in support of ousting the South County college trustee, who has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.

• Foes join forces in calling for ouster of allegedly racist college trustee, AP, September 22, 1998

Political foes joined forces to fund the recall of a college trustee accused by former students of being racist.

Some 100 Republicans and Democrats attended a Saturday fund-raiser to back the recall of Steven J. Frogue from the South Orange County Community College District board.

• “Irvine Valley Spokeswoman quits,” OC Register, September 25, 1998 (Kimberly Kindy)

“I was told that there were some things I was not to focus on. From my own research, old files and press clippings I got a picture of an administration that was doing some things that I don’t think I could represent without violating my own ethics…People are walking on eggshells around there. He [Mathur] said he has an open-door policy and that he believes in communication, but I didn’t see it.”

[Bevin Zandvliet, who briefly served as Mathur’s spinmeister]

• “What do students want?”, The Nation, Sanaz Mozafarian, October 5, 1998

…In a rare show of Orange County activism, students Delilah Snell and Diep Burbridge gathered nearly 100 of their colleagues for a series of campus demonstrations, the first in the college’s near-twenty-year history. They denounced the hiring of [Raghu] Mathur, demanded the recall of [Trustee Steven] Frogue and called attention to the possible loss of the college’s accreditation. The rallies attracted major media coverage. In response, the board, Mathur, and their cronies claimed the students were “misled” by a handful of “disgruntled employees” and “leftist” faculty. Even freedom of speech took a nosedive. Snell and Burbridge were initially told to give twenty-four-hour notice before each demonstration and to submit to college officials for review everything they would be passing out. After meetings with the president in which they were accused of “misleading” others and hostile encounters with board supporters, the students were at first permitted one hour a week to hold their demonstrations. Soon it was reduced to thirty minutes.

Now the students, represented by the ACLU, are suing Mathur and the board for violating their First Amendment rights. According to the lawsuit, filed this past summer, the demonstrations were relocated from the center of campus to an isolated area where students were told to keep their noise level down. When the limits were questioned, students were told it was not in the “best interest of the college” to hold a longer protest in a more visible part of campus, given the “political climate.” 

• OC Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour, indicating which way he was leaning in the 2nd Brown Act lawsuit, in court, October 23, 1998

“It didn’t appear to [me] that a reorganization plan was a personnel item to begin with. It appeared that the board had acted on this in a closed executive session, and then, when challenged on it, came back and, in effect, reaffirmed its prior action without any real opportunity for the public to have any input….”

“There seems to be some substantial merit [to the petitioner’s case] and, to me, this is a very important kind of public policy type of case and, therefore, I am willing to devote whatever time is necessary, maybe even give it more time than I would a run-of-the-mill writ case….”

“I think what you are saying [SOCCCD attorney] Mr. Covert is that the statute contemplates that if you take an action that is illegal that you can then simply agendize it as, ‘We are going to ratify what we did in secret.’ I guess I find that a little bit offensive.”

[Back in July of ’97, the Board Majority deceptively agendized a district-wide reorganization as a “personnel” item. The Brown Act permits closed meetings for personnel items, but not for reorganizations.]

• #5 in OC Weekly’s election “Hall of Shame”: Padberg and Wagner, October, 1998

“Slime-ball campaign tactics. In 1996, the despicable trio of Steven Frogue, Dorothy Fortune and John Williams appealed to anti-gay hysteria to win seats on the SOCCCD Board. This time, Wagner and Padberg—who are backed by the same nasty crowd (a faculty association) that funded Frogue, Fortune, and Williams—are trying to capitalize on another hot-button issue. College trustees have zero say in the fight over a proposed airport at El Toro, but the main theme of Wagner and Padberg’s joint, misleading mailer is that they are the only candidates openly fighting the El Toro International Airport.”

• Remark by OC Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour, in court, October 29, 1998.

“It would seem to the court that, at least on the face of it, that any time the board has a person coming in to address the board, that normally that should be on the agenda…I don’t think that then bringing the gentleman out in the public session and saying, ‘Now, tell us what you told us in the private session,’ and then the public can comment on it—I don’t think that is what the Brown Act in its case law contemplates…I would say that [these facts] would indicate that this board apparently doesn’t understand the Brown Act and its responsibilities thereunder. Hopefully, at some point, they are going to learn and get appropriate advice and follow that advice.”

[Among other violations of the state’s anti-secrecy law, the board had invited state official Vishwas More to speak in closed session without agendizing his visit and address.] 

• College Trustees Take a Preelection Hit, LA Times, October 30, 1998

Accreditation teams issue harshly critical reports on South County district campuses.

In harsh terms, accreditation teams examining the controversy-ridden SOCCCD's two campuses warned Thursday of deep divisions and conflicts they said are eroding service to students.

The criticism, which lends credence to complaints from critics of the district's leaders, came in brief oral reports by separate accreditation teams who spent several days at Irvine Valley College in Irvine and Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

While in no immediate danger of losing their accreditation, the colleges could receive warnings or be placed under special conditions when final decisions on accreditation are made in January….
. . .
"As outsiders, frankly and candidly, we did not anticipate the deep and painful divisions that we witnessed," said Stephen M. Epler, president and superintendent of Yuba College north of Sacramento, who chaired the 12-member team examining Irvine Valley College.
"These are divisions between faculty and administration, divisions between . . . trustee factions, divisions between factions of faculty and divisions between trustees and staff.

"We were, frankly, stunned."….

• Board’s unlikely secret allies, Orange County Register, October 31, 1998

Conservative trustees who rail against teachers unions get crucial help from union-funded PACs

Donald Wagner is campaigning as a fiscal conservative for a seat on the South Orange County Community College board.

He is supported by the Education Alliance, a group that advocates “back-to-basics” education and frequently battles teachers unions for control over school boards. He fought for Proposition 226, a ballot measure that would have restricted unions’ ability to use members’ dues for political campaigns.

He also has an unusual—and largely unknown—ally: the local chapter of the California Teachers Association.

Political action committees funded by the union secretly paid for campaign fliers for Wagner and fellow candidate Nancy Padberg.

The same thing happened in 1996, when three candidates promoted in a campaign mailer paid for by the union won seats. 
. . .
Union leaders have not given a public explanation for their decisions. They have refused to discuss either campaign with their rank and file, even though members’ dues financed the fliers.
. . .
Administrators who had made enemies with the union say they have been removed, or forced out, by the board majority and replaced with union loyalists. Since 1996, eight administrators have left the district and five have returned to the classroom, with several saying they fled a hostile work environment that began after the election.

The union’s political consultant for the 1996 campaign flier that helped elect three members of the board majority [Pam Zanelli] now works as the district’s spokeswoman at roughly $5,000 a month.
. . .
Union President Sherry Miller White has refused comment to reporters and to her own members about either campaign.
. . .
The union chapter’s bylaws give all decision-making authority for campaigning to the current president and any past union presidents who wish to serve on the election committee. That group doesn’t have to tell members what it’s doing….
. . .

[According to CTA leader David Lebow,] “The group they didn’t endorse was interested in reducing their salaries. They really believed it was a threat to their very existence,” said Lebow about the 1996 campaign. “But the (same-sex marriage) flier was bad. ... It was really bad. They did it because they believed they had to win that election.”....

• Orange County’s Scariest People—#22: SOCCCD meetings, OC Weekly, November 5, 1998

Otherwise known as public meetings of the South Orange County Community College District. And we're not even talking about silent-but-deadly trustee Steven J. Frogue. We're talking about the people who come to see him, to defend or attack him. Like the guy who called an opponent in the audience "subhuman" and "a lower life form." Or the guy who singled out someone else as "a self-admitted Hitler-lover." Or these creative epithets we hesitate to publish in a family newspaper but will anyway since we don't work for one: "convicted child-molest offender," "pervert," "garbage-mouthed idiot," "piece of garbage," "nuts case," "sweathog," "toad," "fruitscake," "no, you're the fruitcake," "most unpleasant man" and "creep." MITIGATING FACTOR: When the Green Party finally takes power and destroys all televisions as a source of violence, greed and evil, we'll still have the South Orange County Community College District's board meetings.

• School Elections Show Incumbents' Power [Trustees races], LA Times, November 6, 1998

…The conservative Education Alliance can boast a net gain of two school board members it had supported. So can the group's big rival, the California Teachers Assn. And the winners in the South Orange County Community College District race, Don Wagner and Nancy Padberg, were endorsed by both special-interest groups….

[Education Alliance is strongly anti-teachers union. Against the wishes of members, the SOCCCD faculty union leadership used membership money to secure Wagner and Padberg's victory, using fliers/mailers that exploited anti-airport sentiment.]

• “Judge faults trustees on closed meetings,” OC Register, November, 11, 1998


• [Editorial], Irvine World News November 12, 1998

… The majority bloc of the board of trustees of the South Orange County Community College District ran afoul of the Brown Act more than a year ago by making some decisions in private that one judge already has said they shouldn’t have. ¶ The board, a year or more later, is still extricating itself from such acts of poor judgment. ¶ For example, just two days ago the board had to backtrack and act formally in public to reassign several administrators, including one who has long since left the district. ¶ The college board faces another court hearing Friday in connection with alleged Brown Act violations. ¶ All of this costs taxpayers time and money and erodes trust in the board….

• 'JEEEEEEZUZ CHRIST!': Democrats in '98: the agony, the ecstasy, the scabs, OC Weekly, November 12, 1998

...Other signs of the apocalypse: Donald P. Wagner and Nancy Padberg will join Steven Frogue on the South Orange County Community College District board of trustees. Wagner and Padberg were backed by the anti-union, Christian Right Education Alliance and by the district's anti-union teachers union (sadly, you read that right). No comment from the two on whether they'll make trustees meetings more accessible-ties optional, but anyone not wearing a brown shirt gets 30 days in ze coohlah! Schultz!....

• Teach Your Children Hell, OC Weekly, November 12, 1998

Among the endless accusations fired at Steven J. Frogue has been the notion that the embattled South Orange County Community College District trustee's words and actions have legitimized hatemongers….

So it should not surprise us that hate literature littered two South County public schools on Oct. 28-a week after anti-Semitic e-mails were sent to 400 faculty and staff members at Irvine Valley College (IVC). About 500 index-card-sized leaflets featuring a disparaging cartoon of a Jewish man were found on El Toro High School's tennis and basketball courts. Nearly 100 miniature posters ridiculing African-Americans were scattered across Rancho Santa Margarita Intermediate School's athletic field and parking lot. A sticker attached to the fliers directed students to the Fallbrook chapter of White Aryan Resistance, which recruits young skinhead activists. Meanwhile, IVC officials are still trying to determine who sent the electronic letters to employees on Oct. 22. Clockwork isn't suggesting Frogue had a role in these incidents, but his continued presence on the board isn't helping matters….

See also: Hate Central, OC Weekly, November 12, 1998

• “It’s time for break from Frogue ‘sideshow,’ college officials say,” OC Register, November(?) 13, 1998(?)


• [Article], Orange County Register, November 21, 1998

“I think what I’m seeing here is a consistent pattern that we are going to push this as far as we can,” said Seymour. “And the only thing that seems to work is for the courts to take action.”

[Seymour was discussing the 2nd Brown Act lawsuit—so called “Bauer II.”]

• College District Needs Reform, LA Times, November 22, 1998

…Recall or no recall, the entire Frogue episode remains an embarrassment for the district … Frogue may have dodged his day of reckoning, but he bears responsibility for his part in fueling the atmosphere of controversy that has prevailed at the district.

…Last summer, the district was warned by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges that it needed to straighten out administrative problems. … It said decisions were being made by trustees on an ad hoc basis, unsupported by a planning process.

Last month, examiners warned that Saddleback and Irvine Valley, the district's two campuses, could lose their accreditation if trustees did not change the way they operated. Meanwhile, the district has been engaged in a legal battle over the reassignments of department heads at Irvine Valley College.

…The Frogue bitterness is not likely to go away easily. The district needs to focus on reform, fence-mending and providing the best education in an environment free of contention and politics.

• Frogue Is Past Recall Effort but Not Controversy: Signature drive failed, but detractors remain leery of trustee as dissension plagues South County district's colleges, LA Times, November 29, 1998

Amid a burgeoning controversy over college Trustee Steven J. Frogue earlier this year, one of his ardent supporters stood during a meeting recess and loudly voiced a prediction even more chilling than the frosty air outside. ¶ “We’re headed for a bloody race war in this country,” said the supporter, a friend of people with ties to white supremacists, “and I can’t wait.” ….

• “Community-college politics makes for strange bedfellows,” Roy Bauer, OC Register Guest Column, November 29, 1998

[I don’t have an electronic copy of this piece, but it was pretty hard-hitting. Just weeks after it was published, I was told by Chancellor Sampson that my publications were violating district policies, etc. A letter was placed in my file: a precursor to termination. These people do not like to be criticized. I was compelled to go to federal court. I prevailed.]

 

• “Board’s closed meetings bring actions by judge,” OC Register, January 21, 1999

He wants them taped and is referring past Brown Act violations to the DA. 

A judge has ordered the South Orange County Community College District to tape-record its closed-door meetings for two years because of its “persistent and defiant misconduct” in violating state open-meeting laws.
. . .
…Wendy Phillips, lead attorney in the suit filed by Irvine Valley College Professor Roy Bauer, said the ruling was a clear victory. ¶ “The judge is saying the conduct is so corrupt that it needs to go the DA’s office,” said Phillips, herself a professor in the district. “I’ve been on cloud nine all day. We are vindicated.”….

• Professor Sues Community College After Being Told to Tone Down Rhetoric, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 5, 1999

A tenured professor has sued the [SOCCCD] in federal court, accusing the California district of violating his First Amendment rights by ordering him to tone down the rhetoric in the newsletters he publishes.

Roy Bauer, a professor of philosophy at Irvine Valley College, one of two campuses in the district, is chief editor of two newsletters….

In December, Cedric A. Sampson, chancellor of the district, ordered Mr. Bauer to stop including what was characterized as violent language in his newsletters. The chancellor also required him to get anger-management counseling.

In his newsletters, Mr. Bauer has lampooned college officials – for example, superimposing the head of Irvine Valley's president, Raghu Mathur, on a picture of Napoleon. Mr. Sampson said such satire was not why he had taken action. The chancellor declined to provide specifics, calling the dispute a personnel matter. But several examples have drawn the attention of district officials. He has written fictional accounts of the violent deaths of trustees, and of his desire to drop a chunk of granite on Mr. Mathur's head….
. . .
The professor said the chancellor was retaliating because Mr. Bauer had filed lawsuits accusing the Board of Trustees of violating California's open-meetings law.

• Unanimously passed resolution, Irvine Valley College Academic Senate, February, 1999

Included in the Senate’s response to the Accrediting Commission's report, it called "upon the Trustees to immediately reassign Raghu Mathur elsewhere within the South Orange County Community College District...."

• Article re the California Citizens Commission on Higher Education report, OC Register, April 6, 1999

The Commission recommended the elimination of locally elected community college boards. According to the Register, "Too often, the commission argues, college boards micromanage their campuses, undermining trained administrators and creating disharmony. Commissioners cited the three years of turmoil at South Orange County Community College District as an example of what could go wrong with locally elected trustees...."

• The Unabauer Manifesto, OC Weekly, April 15, 1999

Roy Bauer has let everyone in the South Orange County Community College District know he wants to drop "a 2-ton slate of polished granite" on the head of his boss, Irvine Valley College's president. He's proclaimed an "urge to go postal" during an election party for conservative Board of Trustees candidates. And his e-mail address is frighteningly similar to the handle of another college professor preoccupied with going postal: "Unabauer."
. . .
One might logically share Sampson's anxieties over Bauer-except that Sampson's evidence was excerpted from Bauer's underground, over-the-top newsletters: The 'Vine, which covers Irvine Valley College, and Dissent, which targets the district. The pesky, smart-ass, stream-of-consciousness-raising newsletters are clearly a cross between Mad Magazine and the OC Weekly-without the intrusive editing for clarity.
. . .
Many district observers don't believe it's Bauer's colorful rhetoric that distresses Sampson, but rather his penchant for finger-pointing-which finger depends on the occasion-at the surreal events on South County's Saddleback and Irvine Valley college campuses. Bauer asks officials loads of loaded questions at public functions and sticks his nose into the affairs of what he believes to be a corrupt college, district and faculty union.

Bauer first came to the public's attention when he sicced the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Frogue in the fall of 1996. The trustee had just proposed a John F. Kennedy assassination seminar at Saddleback that would include speakers some consider crackpots (one wrote a book tying Kennedy's killing to the Israeli government's secret police; he and another invited speaker contribute to The Spotlight, which the ADL has branded the most anti-Semitic paper in the country). The seminar was nixed after strong public reaction.

Sampson's letter was dated three days after the Register ran a guest column from Bauer critical of the board majority and the faculty union that brought that majority to power. Just days before receiving the letter, Bauer says colleagues warned him that top officials had begun building a case against him that would result in his termination. Bauer and others saw Sampson's letter as ammunition to bag Bauer….

• Trustee Wagner bothered by colleges’ fees to AAUW, which pals around with the dastardly JANE FONDA, meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees, July 26, 1999

TRUSTEE FORTUNE: Trustee Wagner?

TRUSTEE WAGNER: A couple of comments. I noticed here that both of our colleges are paying fees for the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce. I'm curious why there is some overlap there-not that I have anything against the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, of course. But it seems there's some overlap…

The one item that gave me the most trouble is the numerous payouts to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which recently gave an award to Jane Fonda. Now, our chancellor served in Viet Nam-I don't know if he was there the same time Miss Fonda was in North Viet Nam, but I have a very serious problem with that organization and with us spending the tax money of residents of South Orange County to support such an organization. So I would like to make a motion…since apparently there is no time pressure here…that all payments to that organization be stricken from this agenda item and brought back to us with a report on why we belong, what benefit we feel we're getting out of that organization, and [we] can address it in particular. It may very well make some sense ultimately to pay these fees, but, uh, I would like to so amend item 20. [Someone seconds the motion. Perhaps Williams.]

TRUSTEE FORTUNE: Would you repeat your motion?

TRUSTEE WAGNER: The motion is to amend item 20 to strike any payments to the AAUW and to bring that item back at a later date with a report as to that organization, the benefits that we believe we're getting from continued membership in that organization, and any other information regarding that organization that administration believe is appropriate for us to know.

TRUSTEE FORTUNE: I would like to comment on your motion. I'm a lapsed member of the AAUW, and, while you might not like their poster girl of the year, they have a wonderful magazine, they have wonderful activities, they're represented on all university campuses.

They're annual fee seems to be $100. On the other hand, the Orange County Forum is here for $1,000, which--I don't know about that one. I understand your concern, but at the same time I think we need to have a little bit of openness. We don't have to agree with everything that an organization does….

[Trustee Milchiker moved to table the entire item. It was tabled.]….

• Faculty Protests Ban on Door Signs, LA Times, August 6, 1999

On a campus already strained by tensions, professors at Irvine Valley College are in an uproar over a new policy that they say threatens the time-honored practice of decorating office doors and windows with the cartoons, clippings and fliers that reflect their humor and passions.

Faculty representatives are threatening legal action over a memo teachers received last week telling them to remove any posters or signs on their office windows or external doors.

The college president, Raghu P. Mathur, said he is seeking only to protect the school from unsightly clutter and denies the policy was meant to silence his critics.
. . .
Signs on professors' doors and windows range from cartoons, newspaper clippings and announcements about grades and scholarships to sharp blows at Mathur. In one window, which faces the campus and can be seen from a distance, large signs proclaim "Mathur Must Go" and "Raghu Must Resign."

Mathur has been the target of faculty dissent since he took the school's helm in 1997, chosen on a 4-3 vote by the South Orange County Community College District's board of directors.

• Orange County’s 31 Scariest People—#7: Raghu P. Mathur, OC Weekly, November, 4, 1999

"Disloyalty will not be tolerated." "I apologize for doing that, but I don't admit to doing it." "When you point your finger at someone, three fingers point right back at you!" Such are the curious pronouncements of Raghu P. Mathur, ruler of Irvine Valley College, the northern campus of the South Orange County Community College District. Recently, upon surveying his kingdom and detecting unsightly clutter, his Highness ordered his subjects to remove everything from their doors and windows. Although maybe it wasn't the clutter. Maybe it was those "Mathur must go!" posters. It all started in '96, when the board of trustees launched an assault on "shared governance," the state-mandated policy giving faculty and other groups a share in campus decision making. Soon, Mathur, a chemistry instructor, was made president, whereupon he embraced the board's agenda, especially the elimination of "reassigned time," a form of compensation for non-instructional duties such as senate office, upon which shared governance depended. But wait! As a teacher, Mathur enjoyed massive amounts of reassigned time! Oh well, l'Ètat c'est Mathur. Unilateral board rule has continued, and through it all, Mathur, the recipient (in 1998) of a 74 percent vote of no confidence, has remained unswerving in his devotion to governance unshared. MITIGATING FACTOR: When students flee the strife-ridden college, Mathur allegedly tells each one, "Thank you, loyal customer; please come again."

• Professor [Roy Bauer] Wins Lawsuit in Free-Speech Case, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 19, 1999

A federal judge has ruled in favor of a tenured professor who said his First Amendment rights were violated when the South Orange County Community College District ordered him to seek anger-management counseling and to tone down the language in two newsletters he publishes.

Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Feess granted a summary judgment in favor of Roy Bauer, a professor of philosophy at Irvine Valley College, one of two campuses in the California district.

Mr. Bauer is chief editor of two newsletters that often cast a critical eye on college administrators: The Dissent, which is about the community-college district, and The 'Vine, which focuses on Irvine Valley. In them, he has published fictional accounts of the violent deaths of trustees and of his desire to drop a chunk of granite on the head of the college's president. In the November 9, 1998, issue of Dissent, Mr. Bauer described a room full of administrators and trustees and then wrote: "In a room like that, no decent person could resist the urge to go postal."

Mr. Bauer insists that the writings were obvious satire. But after trustees and administrators expressed concerns for their safety, Cedric A. Sampson, the district chancellor, said he had no choice but to try to rein in the professor, who responded by suing the district in January.

In his ruling, the judge found that "the speech in question is core protected speech and there is no applicable First Amendment limitation that would permit the discipline to be imposed on Bauer." The judge added: "No reasonable person could have concluded that the written words of Bauer constituted a serious expression of an intent to harm or assault.

In an interview, Mr. Bauer said he knew he had a strong case, but added: "It's taken 10 months to get to this point. The judge simply recognized what was obvious from the beginning -- that the chancellor was attempting to stifle legitimate criticism and dissent."

Mr. Bauer said the district's actions were retaliation both for his criticism of college officials in the newsletters and for two other lawsuits he had filed, accusing the Board of Trustees of violating California's open-meetings laws. He has prevailed in both of those suits as well….

• “College district off watch list; trustees OK raises for presidents,” Irvine World News, November 24, 1999

Vice Chancellor Gary Poertner gave South Orange County trustees the news on Monday that the community college district is officially off the state financial watch list. The district was removed from the monitoring process by the state chancellor’s office when budget reserves exceeded the requirement of 5 percent. 
. . . 
The board approved salary increases for the two college presidents, Raghu Mathur of Irvine Valley and Dixie Bullock of Saddleback. The votes were taken separately at trustee David Lang’s suggestion, with five board members voting for a pay raise for Mathur, while Marcia Milchiker and Lang voted no.

The raise for Bullock was supported by all trustees, except Milchiker, who said she didn’t understand how the chancellor arrived at the figure of $111,000, the highest step in the executive salary schedule….
. . .
“The chancellor is very satisfied with the performance of our two presidents,” said Trustee John Williams.
. . .
Also in Mathur’s contract was an increment for mileage and a $200 per month home security stipend.

Even though a stipend for security is not a usual request, contracts are negotiated according to individual’s wishes and needs, and the cost of a security system seemed justified, said Sampson, and was supported by the board. 

• “College district relaxes requirements for deans,” LA Times, January 27, 2000

Trustees decide that new administrators will not need academic experience in the discipline they supervise. 

Deans at Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges no longer will need experience in the academic disciplines they oversee, a policy change opposed by nearly every staff, faculty and administrative group in the South Orange County Community College District….

• Battles Grow, but Experts Accredit District's Colleges, LA Times, February 1, 2000


• College Battle Won, but War Continues - LA Times, March 02, 2000

Education: Professor wins his fourth lawsuit involving South Orange County Community College District.
     The score: Philosophy professor Roy Bauer 4, South Orange County Community College District and administrators 0.
     But the acrimony continues.
     In this saga of squabbling educators, Bauer won his fourth court decision against his college district opponents when an Orange County Superior Court judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit brought by Irvine Valley College President Raghu Mathur. Mathur claimed the professor had violated his privacy by publishing documents from the president's personnel file in his newsletter....

• Community College District Dispute, letters, LA Times, March 12, 2000

Alvarez, Tonkovich, Bauer, and Rochford respond to comments by SOCCCD Chancellor Cedric Sampson

• LAW AND ODOR, OC Weekly, Coker, March 16, 2000

FULL-COURT PRESS. Irvine Valley College philosophy professor Roy Bauer won his fourth court decision against the South Orange County Community College District on Feb. 29, when a judge tossed out college president Raghu Mathur's invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Bauer. Mathur's suit alleged that Bauer's muckraking Dissent newsletter carried details from the overwhelmingly despised administrator's personnel file, but Judge Michael Brennan swatted the matter aside as if it were a cross-eyed, overweight gnat, citing state law that prohibits suits intended to suffocate free speech. Bauer has already won $126,000 in district funds to cover his attorney fees from a judge's ruling that district chancellor Cedric Sampson ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution when he reprimanded the professor for dinging the administration in his newsletters; he is entitled under state law to attorney fees in the Mathur matter as well. Bauer has also successfully sued the district twice over state open-meeting-law violations—one involving the board of trustees' appointment of Mathur as president. And get this: the Times OC couldn't get a comment from Mathur on his latest legal setback because he was in a different courtroom defending himself against allegations he unfairly denied tenure to another professor who has been critical of his presidency. Perhaps Mathur oughta move his office to the courthouse to save the district funds, so they can better afford to pay their attorneys—and Bauer's. Or he may have to consider paying out of his own pocket. Something called the Trustee Accountability Project of Laguna Beach informed the Weekly on March 7 that it has demanded Mathur, Sampson and certain board members personally reimburse the district for legal costs associated with their "repeated illegal conduct." A letter to Sampson from the project's lawyers estimated that $500,000 of taxpayers' money has been "squandered" in court because of district officials' "personal political agendas that trample the legal rights of employees, students and the public."

• Group Pressures College Officials to Pay Legal Fees, LA Times, March 25, 2000

A new citizens group has demanded that several South Orange County Community College District officials repay the district more than $500,000 in fees resulting from their pursuit of policies that have led to a series of costly lawsuits.
The group, calling itself the Trustee Accountability Project, cites the fact that not only has the district had to pay for its lawyers but the courts have awarded attorney fees to the other side in several suits.

• Not the guy who played Beaver, letter, OC Weekly, March 30, 2000

I appreciate Matt Coker's suggestion that Irvine Valley College president Raghu Mathur consider moving his office to the courthouse (A Clockwork Orange, March 10). It's true Mathur has spent much time there, witnessing one failed case after another, paying off his lawyers and his opponents' attorneys with taxpayer cash. But I like better the Taxpayer Accountability Project's suggestion that Mathur and the board of trustees personally reimburse the district for the thousands of dollars they've spent persecuting faculty and students. That's justice. November promises another opportunity for justice. Four trustees are up for re-election, including Steven Frogue. It's time to reform the board.

Thanks for your continuing, thoughtful coverage of our district's struggles. It heartens those of us who work and study on the district's two campuses.

Lisa Alvarez
Professor of English
Irvine Valley College

• Frogue to Resign From College Post, LA Times, June 27, 2000

Steven J. Frogue, who survived two recall attempts amid allegations that he was anti-Semitic, has resigned from the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees. In a four-sentence letter to board President Nancy Padberg dated Sunday, Frogue said his resignation would be effective Friday, five months before the end of his second term. "It is time for me to move on to new challenges and new opportunities to serve in other capacities," he wrote….

• Fuentes, 2 Others Seek O.C. College District Seat, LA Times, July 12, 2000

Head of the county GOP is a surprise candidate for the post also sought by William Wachal and Joe Greco. The winner will be named today. 

In a surprise move, Thomas A. Fuentes, the hard-line conservative head of the county Republican Party, is one of three candidates who have applied for the vacancy on board of the beleaguered South Orange County Community College District. The new board member will be announced today. The other candidates are relative unknowns: William P. Wachal of Mission Viejo, regional sales manager for Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Los Angeles, and Joe F….

• GOP Leader Appointed to College District Board, LA Times, July 13, 2000

Thomas A. Fuentes, head of the Orange County Republican Party for the past 15 years, was appointed Wednesday to fill the vacant trustee seat on the South Orange County Community College District. The board voted 4 to 0 to appoint Fuentes, with trustees David Lang and Marcia Milchiker abstaining. Student trustee Jason Wamhoff, who has an advisory vote, also supported the GOP chief….

• Fuentes Appointed to South O.C. Community College Board, LA Times, July 13, 2000

Conservative, controversial GOP chairman succeeds conservative, controversial Steven J. Frogue as trustee. 

Thomas A. Fuentes, chairman of the county Republican Party for the past 15 years, was appointed Wednesday to fill the vacant trustee seat on the South Orange County Community College District. 

The board voted 4 to 0 to appoint Fuentes, with Trustees David Lang and Marcia Milchiker abstaining. Student Trustee Jason Wamhoff, who has an advisory vote, also supported the GOP chief….

• “GOP leader joins college board,” OC Register, July 13, 2000

A career politician is appointed to the rancorous south Orange County panel, filling out the term of a controversial trustee. 

The longtime chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County on Wednesday became the newest member of the tumultuous South Orange County Community College District board, which oversees Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges.
. . .
“We’ve gotten rid of a crude Neanderthal but replaced him with a slick one,” said Irvine Valley College Professor Roy Bauer, who has successfully sued the district over free-speech issues….