Board president Tom Fuentes?

Well, we're rapidly approaching the BOARD's December organizational meeting, when the trustees elect their officers.

Who will be elected board president? That's an important question. The president is powerful, in part owing to his influence on the agenda.

If memory serves, each board member--except Bill Jay and Tom Fuentes--has served as president. I have no idea if either man is interested in the job.

But if Fuentes wants it, it is difficult to see how he could fail to get it. He has more seniority than Jay, and it is doubtful that even relatively enlightened trustees would maneuver to block his ascension.

A Fuentes board presidency could be a big problem. Fuentes, you'll recall, is the fellow who once asserted, on TV, that faculty have a 36-hour work week and that, on average, they make $100K per year. (TV interview.) Clearly, he views the CTA (of which our own Faculty Association is a chapter) as the Great Satan of California politics and of everything that is right and good. (See Fuentes World.)

Plus he's flat evil. He's the kind of guy who'll give you the stink eye--or, worse, the stink smile. He'll have one of his pals take and monitor one of your classes. He'll leave burning sacks of sh*t on your doorstep and place guards on all your polls.

He'll even call you a "whore." (See Kill it & grill it.)

Plus he's got lots of connections with Howard Ahmanson and the folks who seek to give us "intelligent design" in the classroom and worse--Christian Reconstruction. ("My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives," said Howie. See Ahmanson.)

And remember how and why he targeted the "study abroad" program in Santander, Spain! (Some suspected that that was payback for CH's public criticisms of the F-man.)

So hang on to your hats. If Tom wants it, he's got it.

A disappointing revelation

1. FIFTEEN GRAND. On today's Total Buzz, Martin Wisckol (of the OC Register) explains that, when, recently, he went through Tan Nguyen's campaign accounting, up popped the name (Trustee) "Tom Fuentes."

Jeez, Martin. That's old news. Get a clue. (Tom Fuentes, campaign advisor)

According to these records, says Wisckol, Fuentes received $15,000 from Nguyen's campaign from December to May. Writes Wisckol,

I talked to Fuentes about it last week and he said he did consulting work on the campaign for the primary and ... the two parties went their separate ways afterward. "Nothing unfriendly about" the parting, he said. "I have not spoken with Tan in months, so I'm not sure what direction the campaign has taken."

Tom reportedly added:

"As for the letter itself, it is a sad and disappointing revelation."

I wonder how disappointed Tom would have been had it been revealed that the Tan Man hired guards to stand outside polling places?


2. MORE RETALIATION? Today, Facilities and Maintenance workers told me that they feel that Director (of F&M), Wayne Ward, continues to retaliate against custodians who, one month ago, filed an Incident Report re Wayne’s conduct. (See "It's a condom".)

The workers tell me that, this morning, Wayne met with custodians, informing them that he is “here to stay” and that he has no intention of altering his behavior or practices.

Also, they report, Wayne announced that there would be work schedule changes.

After the meeting, the worker who, last week, found himself pulled from his usual task in order to scrape gum off the sidewalk, was informed by Wayne that he would now be switched from the day shift to the swing shift. Simultaneously, a swing shift worker would be switched to day shift.

Apparently, this change will entail a serious hardship for the worker, who has a second job, one he has held for seven years, which conflicts with the swing shift. The worker explained that his family depends on that second income.

Reportedly, Wayne was unmoved. According to my sources, Wayne then told the worker that he (the worker) was too easily influenced by his day coworkers and, that, as a result, his attitude has suffered.

Again, according to my sources, this worker has never been told that there is a problem with his attitude. Further, he is known to be a hard worker who is friendly and courteous to all. He has received appreciative emails from school deans regarding his hard work.

One custodian told me that, in his judgment, the schedule change is clearly an act of retaliation.

He added: “Wayne is trying to keep those who stand and speak up out of the day shift.”


3. BABRAHAM LINCOLN. From Wayne's World:

GARTH: What are you thinking about?

WAYNE: Cassandra. She's a fox. In France, she would be called La Renarde, and she would be hunted, with only her cunning to protect her.

GARTH: She's a babe.

WAYNE: She's a robo-babe! In Latin, she would be called Babia Majora.

GARTH: If she were a president, she'd be Babraham Lincoln.

Lost in Tanslation

Rebel Girl Grades Tan Nguyen's Letter

"Es verdad. Washington bullets again."

—The Clash, "Sandinista!"

Rebel Girl has been following the brouhaha over candidate Tan Nguyen's letter to prospective voters. Let's be more specific: his intimidating and fraudulent letter to 14,000 prospective voters with Spanish surnames. Let's be specific, and accurate, too: brouhaha without much ha-ha, and shock —shock! —to discover that gambling (voter fraud) is going on in Casablanca County.

Rebel Girl feels left out. Though she boasts a terrific Spanish surname, one of the most popular and easy to pronounce, she herself did not receive one of the letters because she dwells outside the 47th Congressional District. Most of her political mail celebrates the governor posing with charismatic (hot, hot, hot!) Latino leaders and declaring his devotion to education. Yeah, right.

No, like many of you, she had to track the epistle/evidence down on the internet. Then, pocha as she is, she had to find an English translation. Sigh. Life is rough for a second generation Mexican-American. And they say we don't assimilate. Sheesh.

Mild-mannered professor of English that she is, Rebel Girl has spent the weekend pondering the text.

Granted, there was much to ponder beginning with, what was Tan Nguyen thinking? And what did Rebel Girl's favorite college trustee and Nguyen's advisor, Tom "My family swam over from Spain— I'm no Mexican" Fuentes know and when did he know it?

But really, she looked at it with the eyes of a person who has graded college student writing for the last 15 years. And what did she see?

Rebel Girl reviewed her grading standards. She considered in terms of what we like to call the rubric. The letter was a C, at best, C minus maybe. A C grade meant satisfactory, sometime marginally so. It showed an understanding of the basic ideas and information involved in the assignment but it may also have had some factual, interpretive or conceptual errors. Clearly the writer's intent was clear, even though his execution was ineffective. In a C-level paper, the writer's argument is sometimes only partially developed, with little analysis, with limited use of textual evidence. With its five scant paragraphs, the Nguyen letter was certainly that. The arrangement of a C-level paper may not appear entirely natural or smooth, with some awkward transitions, a few weakly unified or undeveloped paragraphs. This was most definitely true of Nguyen's work, especially the last two paragraphs. While there was an attempt to create a sense of transition between the paragraphs, the grand leaps each one made, coupled with a complete lack of sources to verify their outstanding (sic) claims, made this work marginal at best. In fact, the more Rebel Girl thought about it, and got herself worked up, the more she thought this work was not at college level after all, not a marginally passing paper. And that even without considering the occasional wordy sentences structure and awkward word choices she felt the need to wince.

So, finally, it failed.

Okay, granted, the letter was a translation. For all she knew it might, in the original Spanish have been a work comparable to Carlos Fuentes' The Death of Artemio Cruz or perhaps something by Borges: you know, prismatic and labyrinthine, what those folks call magical realism. Okay, so perhaps it was unfair to grade the translation. She planned to offer the Spanish department faculty time to weigh in on this project.

Then, today, late news, from the You Can't Make This Up Department, which is down the hall from the Spanish department. At his press conference, Tan Nguyen blamed the "hysteria" over the letter on, yes (Si), wait, here it comes…a bad translation! In the original English draft of the letter, he said, the word "immigrant" (translated to emigrado or immigrante—the jury is still out) wasn't used—instead the phrase "just a resident with a green card" was. So, it was the translator's fault—not his. And no, he wouldn't be dropping out of the race. Why should he?

Why indeed? (Any teacher can tell you—K-12, college or university, that is one lame excuse.)

But, let's do a closer read, shall we?

Mr. Tan neglected the more problematic part of the letter, which threatened the recipients with this Borgesian fabrication:

At the same time, you are advised that the government of the United States is installing a new computer system to verify the names of all new registered voters that vote in the October and November elections. Anti-immigration organizations can ask for information from this new computer system.

And what about that "October" election reference? Is that just sloppiness or what? Tee hee. How much did he pay his ghostwriter? His translator?

There were two more items, though a person could go on and on. Reb won't. For instance, that bevy of anti-immigrant group names that decorates the margins and letterhead. Hmmm.

Here's the crema on the flan. The letter is signed: Sincerely, Sergio Ramirez.

Rebel Girl was certain that she was one of the few Orange Countians who recognized this hearty effort at evoking an Everyhombre, using a nom de plume for a helpful if stern Mexican quasi-official, a name with authority and lots of hot vowels.

It was kind of shocking. Could it be, she wondered, THE Sergio Ramirez, a stalwart Sandinista revolutionary in Nicaragua back in the day, Vice President of the little country that roared at the US and then was undermined by the Reagan-Bush-Elliot Abrams even as the CIA mined its harbors? And wasn't my, our, Sergio Ramirez himself, ironically, a writer, in fact a novelist of some renown? Could this Ramirez have undergone the same kind of transformation as, say, Christopher Hitchens, turned from socialist land reform and education and national self-defense advocate (No pasaran!) into a nutty right-wing national chauvinist, all the while living here in Garden Grove or Santa Ana or Newport Beach and doing the cha-cha-cha with La Nutjob Suprema Senora Barbara Coe?

She knew the revolution had fallen on hard times but figured that Sergio, like his compadre Daniel Ortega, was busy retooling his image to fight another day. La lucha continua and all that.

So what could have brought Sergio Ramirez, the former vice president of revolutionary Nicaragua to the heart of OC?

Imagination is a lovely way to travel. And, of course, only the imagination of Tan Nguyen and his campaign advisors could have flown the former Second in Command of the revolutionary people's state to John Wayne Airport. Imagine how that brainstorming session might have gone:

All right guys, we need a Latino name. One that rings a bell, but not too many bells.

Jennifer Lopez? Nah. Eddie Olmos? No. Ricky Ricardo? Dead. Tomas Fuentes? Nope. Too fucking obvious.

A hand waves in the back of the room. I know, I know. How about Sergio Ramirez, the former Vice President of Nicaragua? That'll show those commies.

But my very favorite part of this letter is the closing paragraph, which reads so well, so true, so fine, now that the truth is out. Take another look and see for yourself:

Do not listen to any politician that tells you the opposite. They are only looking out for their own interests. They only want to win elections without any regard to what happens to you.

That's right. You tell 'em Tan.

Sergio Ramirez' Website

Civilitude vs. rudeitude

Professors (that's what the board is calling us these days), you might want to read an article in today’s Los Angeles Daily News. It’s called “Missing manners a rude awakening in college classes.”

They arrive late, talk on cell phones in class, throw temper tantrums, send ill-mannered e-mails and make threats.

…[A]cross the nation, professors … are watching students in their classrooms sink into this abyss of rude behavior, prompting discussions on how to encourage civility….

...Stephanie Badali, 19, and her friend Dorine Farsad, 18, said students who bring laptops to class are often surfing the Internet—and there's little professors can do.

"It's like high school all over again," Farsad said. "As much as a teacher will say please don't do it, they are just going to do it anyway."….

I’ve noticed that, in almost every one of my classes, some students—often, several students—concentrate on their laptops rather than on me or the discussion. That's new.

Plus there’s more droolage. I don’t wanna generalize though.

And then there’s cursing—and I don’t mean the fluffy & friendly kind—I'm talkin' the "B" word and the dreaded "C" word. And spitting—though that happens outside, mostly. And sneering. And sleeping. And talking on the phone.

And even rank air biscuitry. OK, what do you say or do when they do that? (Last Friday, in my honors class, flatulencia happened, evidently. It was ghastly. I moved the lectern ever southward, until I almost leaned out the doorway.)

—Tell us your “rude and crude” stories. We’d love to hear ‘em! Or tell us what you do about outbreaks of rudity and crudity in class. Inquiring minds wanna know.

(I hear that Saddleback students are way worse than IVC students. Is that true?)

P.S.: ONE OF OUR more clever readers sent us pictures of his favorite female icons to post on the blog (Audrey Hepburn, et al.), but I can't seem to open his attachment. In the meantime, here's one of my all-time BABEraham Lincolns:

She's just the BEST. Check out "Rid of Me."

Sunday evening with Sarah & Adam

Sarah insisted on climbing atop "Gilligan's Peak" so she could get a good look at "Vulture Crag" (in the middle, in the distance).

I call her "Uncle Sarah." She always corrects me.

Sarah & Adam's parents brought 'em to a pumpkin patch today. Hence the pumpkin-colored shirts. They've really got a thing about pumpkins. Can't get enough of 'em.

These are happy kids, boy. They're always making me give them "monkey rides." At the end of each ride, I'll put them down and then they'll say, "Again." They can't get enough of those monkey rides.

Sarah will break into song at the drop of a hat. She makes up her own words, too--just like her Uncle Chunk.

The OC Register reports on IVC's top cops

1. OC REGISTER. In this morning’s OC Register, Marla Jo Fisher reports on recent events regarding Irvine Valley College’s top cops (Top college police placed on leave):

Both of the top police officers at Irvine Valley College have been sent home on paid leave and their computers seized, pending an investigation into unspecified allegations, officials confirmed Friday.

The reason for the probe was not disclosed. College President Glenn Roquemore said he could not discuss the case.

…Reached at their homes, Police Chief Owen Kreza and his deputy police chief, Dennis W. Duncan, both said they did not know why they were placed on leave.

…[D]eputy chief, Duncan, who retired from a long career as a sheriff's deputy before coming to work at IVC, said he had not been contacted by any investigator since he was sent home a week ago Monday.

"I was told not to say anything," Duncan, 52, said. "Anyone, at any time, can make an allegation. My conscience is clear."

…The matter is administrative, not criminal, and outside law enforcement has not been contacted, said Tracy Daly, spokeswoman for the South Orange County Community College District….

…Kreza told the Irvine World News in 2001 that he had provided security to country music stars, business moguls and the family of the Sultan of Brunei.

…In September 1993, the Los Angeles Times reported that Kreza was among five Irvine Police Department officers facing internal discipline.

City officials would not specify the reason for the discipline, except to say it stemmed from a internal investigation into a lawsuit by female officers alleging that some Irvine cops belonged to a "Code Four Club" into which male officers were inducted after having sex in the back of a patrol car while on duty.

After the investigation, city officials said they found no evidence of such a club, but announced they would discipline five officers for unspecified offenses discovered during the probe, none of which were criminal.

On Friday, Kreza said vehemently that he'd "had nothing to do with that Code Four Club" and that it was not related to his 1993 suspension by the city police department.

"My suspension was related to secondary employment," Kreza said. "I had applied for secondary employment. It was a mess."

Kreza is on the board of directors of the Exchange Club of Irvine, which has as its credo, in part, that members should "consecrate my best energies to the uplifting of Social, Religious, Political and Business ideals… (and to) honor and respect the law."

There’s nothing much new here, aside from Kreza’s acknowledging that he was indeed suspended in 1993 by the Irvine Police Department. This suggests, of couse, they he did engage in some form of misconduct.

Nevertheless, nine years later, Kreza was hired as IVC Police Chief by then-College President Raghu Mathur.

WAIT A MINUTE: the Reg reports that "Kreza said vehemently that he'd 'had nothing to do with that Code Four Club.'"

Aha! So there WAS a Code Four Club after all! (In 1993, after an investigation, the Irvine PD ultimately declared that there was no such club. See Kreza/Irvine PD.)

I suppose Owen could say that, in the above remark, he was referring only to the group who wore those Code Four pins that were being sold out of Officer Boggs' garage. But if that's all the club amounted to, why get all hot and bothered about being associated with it?

2. FATE OF IPD LAWSUITS DETERMINED. Yesterday, I presented various reports from 1993 concerning the Irvine Police Department's sexual harassment and discrimination scandals. At the time, I had not yet determined the fate of the sex harrassment/discrimination lawsuit (filed by four IPD women) that led to the uncovering of IPD's dark side.

Yesterday, I found an abstract of a 1995 OC Register article that fills in some details:

Irvine police harassment suits settled for $140,000

CITIES: Three former women employees were paid so the city wouldn't have to go to court, the city attorney says.
March 29, 1995

Byline: LORI HAYCOX; MICHAEL COPELAND

The Orange County Register

The city paid $140,000 to settle sexual-harassment lawsuits filed by three female employees who alleged they were treated unfairly when they worked at the Police Department, city officials confirmed Tuesday.

The last settlement was reached Oct. 25, when the city agreed to pay $83,000 to narcotics investigator Abbe Taylor. In previous settlements earlier in the year, the city paid $55,000 to senior officer Shari Lohman and $2,750 to dispatcher Elaine Jones. "We recommended [abstract ends here].

You'll recall that other women were involved in the initial lawsuit, e.g., a woman named Pamela Fuehrer. How come she's not mentioned?

Perhaps she is, in the full article (I only pulled up the abstract). Inquiring minds can buy the article and pursue the matter further, I suppose.

3. HOW BAD WAS THE ALLEGED HARASSMENT? In case I haven't mentioned it, the stories of harassment and discrimination that the initial four women told were very bad, surprisingly bad. Those interested might look up such articles as "4 Female Irvine PD Employees File Sex Harassment Suit" (Times, 2/24/93). Naturally, they are allegations. (Please note that these allegations are independent of the allegation, incidental to the suit, that there existed a "Code Four Club.")

Here's an excerpt from the above article:

[Plaintiff] Shari Lohman said she was pressured to attend off-duty police parties where she was exposed to derogatory comments and sexual gestures and forced to listen to sexually explicit recordings by the late comedian Sam Kinison...At one party, she said, she pointed to the necktie of a supervisor who didn't normally wear one and said, "What's this? How come you're dressed up?" The supervisor responded, she asserted in the suit, by placing his hand on her breast and saying, "What's this?"

According to the Times article, one plaintiff said she joined in filing an EEOC complaint and the lawsuit because "she has 'feared for her safety as a police officer' because of threats from her male counterparts in the field."

I am not suggesting, of course, that Owen Kreza had any part in these alleged patterns of sexual harassment/discrimination at the IPD.

Owen definitely has a reputation at IVC for making inappropriate remarks. Reliable persons have told me that they have heard such remarks by Kreza.

Naturally, such conduct, though objectionable (perhaps this is the wrong word), is a far cry from the conduct alleged by the IPD women of '92-'93. For all that I know, Owen's suspension in '93 concerned, as he is reported to have said, "secondary employment," not sex-related misconduct.

4. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...? I went to the Irvine Police Department website, and, in its directory, I found that

☆ HENRY BOGGS (one of the "IPD Six"; he was initially threatened with suspension, evidently for running some sort of "Code Four" pin business without the IPD's permission; ultimately, IPD decided not to pursue discipline in his case) is now an administrator with the IPD. He is the department's "Administrative Sergeant."

☆ The IPD serves three areas, comprising 37 officers (assuming the directory lists all officers).

Judging by their names, of those 37, about 11 appear to be female.

☆ Given the IPD's history, one is disappointed to discover that neither the department's "vision" nor its "values" refers (even indirectly) to the importance of avoiding sexual discrimination or harassment:

Vision Statement

We aspire to be a world-class leader in policing, a model for character, innovation, and service. We strive to protect our diverse and dynamic community with fairness, integrity, and respect for the rights of the individual. We resolve to develop a creative, forward-thinking workforce, dedicated to raising our level of excellence to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

One of the department's "values" is "respect":

Respect--Valuing human life, having considerate and courteous regard for all persons. We follow, honor and defend the constitution of this country.

May I offer a suggestion? The IPD should list it's "vices." Among them:

CLUELESSNESS

A lovely day out at the college

Some of the folks over at Facilities & Maintenance put on a college-wide BBQ lunch today, and that was very nice of 'em. The event was a success.

At noon, Karima and I headed in the general direction of BBQ aroma waftage, which, plan-wise, wasn't too sharp. But then we ran into Darryl, who put on quite a show being the official TAXI MAN, taxiing people to the big event, which turned out to be way out there in the new F&M yard.

That Darryl, he's a real natural. I'm glad he's got something to fall back on, if'n his administrative gig doesn't pan out.

Here are Bea and Karima, getting the full-on Mr. D taxi service. In the middle of all that, for some reason Darryl told me I'd better spell his name right.

"OK," I said.

The weather was perfect, and people were obviously having a good time. Me too.

Wayne was kind enough to give me a tour of the new F&M facilities. He's pretty proud of 'em, and no wonder. It all looks first rate to me, but whadoo I know?

The new buildings looked very sharp, inside and out.


Tony did a great job at the BBQ. But that's a little like a deaf man saying, "Darling, your voice is lovely," since I'm a vegetarian, and I didn't touch the BBQed stuff.

Tony's voice is lovely, though.

On my way out, I ran into these two guys intensely working out some BIG MOVE on the violin. Now that's pretty exotic, at least here in Irvine, where you're more likely to see guys intensely working...--well, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen anybody intensely working on anything here in Irvine, so this was a real first.

The notorious (celebrated?) Mr. Mark M may be a Republican, but he sure has some great kids. [CORRECTION: I'm told that Mark is a Libertarian, not a Republican. I'll take the high road and not mention who he voted for in 2004, though.] I found one of 'em hangin' around near my office, eating chocolate. I asked him, "What're you doin'?" He said: "Just eatin' chocolate."

Here's yet another son 'o' Mark. I almost quizzed him on Adam Smith, but then I thought better of it.

Seems like, around here, we've just got the best looking kids on the planet. I ain't lyin'.

At the BBQ, Donna commented on how beautiful my niece and nephew are (I guess she looks at the blog sometimes). And do you think I contradicted her? I did not. Nor am I likely to. But those two weren't at school today, so I guess I should just drop it.

Here's another shot of Mark's chocoholic kid. His teeth are cleaner this time.

Do have a nice weekend.