Creepological postings (in the past year)

     What with Tom Fuentes being named Dissent the Blog's “SOCCCD creep of the decade,” I thought it might be nice to gather together some of the factoids that explain his creepimorphic infamy.
     Below are posts concerning trustee Fuentes that appeared on DtB in the last year or so. They paint quite a picture. Of a Creep. (I might add earlier posts.)
     (Rebel Girl, it seems, is annoyed that Fuentes got the nod before our little poll (at right) was quite finished. I think she was figurin’ on Dave Lang as our SuperCreep. But C’mon! The people have spoken! Mostly.)

• Tom Fuentes at age 34: "consultant"
• Tom Fuentes: professional schmoozer, circumventer of open processes, and THUG
• Was Tom Fuentes a shill for LFC re the Coast Rabbit Island sale?
• Tom Fuentes: ubiquitous paid consultant
• Fuentes, Williams, & LFC: new documents
• Tom Fuentes and LFC/Lange
• LFC, Fuentes, and Williams: oh my!
• New charges filed against one of Tom Fuentes’ former advisees
• The long and lurid FUENTESization of the SOCCCD
• Tom discusses tomorrow's commencement
• Low in the Fuentesphere (where it's always low)
• History question: who argued that college Poli Sci professors should teach the Board’s political views? Guess!
• Old boys, young boys in the OC GOP
• A new board majority? Fuentes gets hopping mad

Tom's "poll guards." Remember?

OK, this isn't about Tom, but I just like it so much that I'm gonna show it again.

The Fair Political Practices Commission and Tom Fuentes

     Months ago, DtB noted the curious fact that Trustee Tom Fuentes did not list LFC (Lang Financial Corporation) on his economic disclosure forms. In fact, Fuentes has flatly stated that he has no financial interest in LFC. DtB, however, found seemingly clear indications that, at least until a few years ago, Fuentes was a Senior Vice President with the firm.
     Today, the OC Reg reports that, according to Fair Political Practices Commission officials, Fuentes seems to be violating the law:

Should public official have disclosed business relationship?

     Should a public official disclose his status as an officer of a company that does business with public agencies, even if he doesn’t get paid?
     The Fair Political Practices Commission says yes.
     Tom Fuentes, former chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, long-time trustee of a community college and senior vice president of a Newport Beach auction house called LFC, says no.
     Fuentes maintained an office at LFC for about three years beginning around 2004, he says. As recently as this week, he was still sending out emails on an LFC account.
     But as our colleagues over at Voice of OC have reported, Fuentes never mentioned LFC on any of the economic disclosure forms he was required to file from 2004 to 2010 as a trustee of the South Coast County Community College District.
     That’s a potential violation of state law, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 for each violation, the FPPC says.
     Fuentes’ relationship with the auction house and with Public Administrator/Public Guardian John S. Williams, who uses LFC for land sales, has drawn the interest of county officials.
     Williams’ office was criticized in two Orange County grand jury reports in 2009, and has come under renewed fire since August. That’s when former state Assemblyman and county supervisor Todd Spitzer was fired from his post at the Orange County District Attorney’s office after he started asking questions about a conservatorship being handled by Williams.
     Fuentes and Williams served together on the community college district together for years until Williams resigned last month.
     Williams also gave a testimonial for LFC on the company’s website, praising LFC’s Internet-based auction program and highlighting its work to help Orange County out of its bankruptcy in 1990s.
     County officials worry that this is all too cozy; the supervisors have ordered a review into the Public Administrator/Public Guardian’s Office along with its dealings with LFC.
     In an email obtained by The Watchdog through the California Public Records Act, Fuentes explained to Williams his relationship with LFC. Williams had asked him to write the explanation, Fuentes told The Watchdog.
     Fuentes acknowledged in the Sept. 28 email he had maintained the office space and had access to a company email account. But Fuentes maintained “I have no financial interest in LFC, nor do I receive any compensation from LFC.”
     Fuentes reiterated that claim in an interview with The Watchdog.
     “I’ve never been on their payroll,” Fuentes told us. “I have no fiduciary interest in LFC.”
     As for his Statements of Economic Interest, no disclosure was made of his relationship with LFC because no money was changing hands, he said. And the title of senior vice president was merely a courtesy title given by the owners of LFC, who are lifelong friends.
     The California Political Reform Act says that public officials who hold a title with a for-profit company are required to disclose the relationship on their Form 700 Statement of Economic Interest.
     Section 18703.1 of the Regulations of the Fair Political Practices Commission states that “a public official has an economic interest in a business entity if … The public official is a director, officer, partner, trustee, employee, or holds any position of management in the business entity.” A pamphlet published by the state explaining how to fill out an economic disclosure form states that officials are required to “(d)isclose the job title or business position, if any, that you held with the business entity, even if you did not receive income during the reporting period.”
     In other words, if you have a title with a company you have, by definition, a business interest in that company and are required to disclose it, said Roman Porter, executive director of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s political watchdog.
     Porter said disclosing such relationships are important, even if no money changes hands, because it “makes the official and the public aware of any potential conflicts of interest.”
     Porter, speaking generally about the law, said failing to disclose a business interest carries the same penalty as any violation of the Political Reform Act: a fine of up to $5,000. He noted, however, that determining whether a violation occurred requires some investigation. Sometimes the specifics of a case may mean there was no violation.
     The law firm hired by the county to investigate Williams and his agency is expected to make a report of its findings to the county CEO in mid-January.
     It is unclear how much of that report will be made public.

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "remembering mine"

In this morning's New York Times, Michiko Kakutani weighs in on the recent, uh, revision of Huck Finn which replaces the term "nigger" with the word "slave":

excerpt:

Haven’t we learned by now that removing books from the curriculum just deprives children of exposure to classic works of literature? Worse, it relieves teachers of the fundamental responsibility of putting such books in context — of helping students understand that “Huckleberry Finn” actually stands as a powerful indictment of slavery (with Nigger Jim its most noble character), of using its contested language as an opportunity to explore the painful complexities of race relations in this country. To censor or redact books on school reading lists is a form of denial: shutting the door on harsh historical realities — whitewashing them or pretending they do not exist.

Mr. Gribben’s effort to update “Huckleberry Finn” (published in an edition with “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by NewSouth Books), like Mr. Foley’s assertion that it’s an old book and “we’re ready for new,” ratifies the narcissistic contemporary belief that art should be inoffensive and accessible; that books, plays and poetry from other times and places should somehow be made to conform to today’s democratic ideals. It’s like the politically correct efforts in the ’80s to exile great authors like Conrad and Melville from the canon because their work does not feature enough women or projects colonialist attitudes.

Authors’ original texts should be sacrosanct intellectual property, whether a book is a classic or not. Tampering with a writer’s words underscores both editors’ extraordinary hubris and a cavalier attitude embraced by more and more people in this day of mash-ups, sampling and digital books — the attitude that all texts are fungible, that readers are entitled to alter as they please, that the very idea of authorship is old-fashioned.

Rebel Girl considered this in the context of yesterday's reading of the Constitution by members of the House of Representatives.

The version offered up was the amended version, not the full original text with its three-fifths clause, which deemed "slaves" as less than full-people for population counting purposes as well as other references.

This desire to shut the door to the past reminded her of a poem by the late poet Lucille Clifton:

why some people be mad at me sometimes

they ask me to remember


but they want me to remember


their memories


and I keep on remembering

mine

To read the rest of Kakutani's essay, click here.

(above: Thomas Hart Benton, A Social History of the State of Missouri: Huckleberry Finn (detail of north wall), 1936, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Missouri State Museum.)

*

Tom Fuentes: DtB's SOCCCD "CREEP OF THE DECADE"

Tom thinks he's Tom America. But he's really Freddie Beelzebub

Tom is well-known for building and maintaining his machine, though he was eventually compelled to hand over his wrench

A more pious man you'll never meet

Tom really likes to hang with the boys, especially at the BBC

Tom in his element: doin' somethin' mean to somebody

Here's Tom fully engaged in his pre-prayer warmup, which is quite involved. I don't think Nancy thinks much of it or him.

Part of our popular "King Kong" series

Occasionally, we illustrate Tom's wild years

No doubt Tom fantasizes about a return to his lapsed simian glory

I friend sent this video. Pretty good, I guess.

Irvine Valley College "Hometown Hero" Mike Carona heads to prison

So much promise, but then....

O.C. ex-Sheriff Carona headed to prison (OC Reg)

Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona is headed to prison, after a federal appeals court on Thursday upheld his witness-tampering conviction.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford did not abuse his discretion when he declined to grant a defense motion to suppress evidence based on alleged prosecutorial misconduct…..

     On the 4th of April, 2003, the Irvine Valley College Foundation issued this press release:

...The Board of Governors of the Irvine Valley College Foundation announced today that Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona will be the guest of honor at the annual IVC Foundation Awards Dinner, to be held at the Irvine Marriott Hotel … The theme of this year’s dinner will be “Securing the Future.” “We are proud to announce that Sheriff Carona will receive our Hometown Hero Award and will be acknowledged for his contribution to the community” ….

At IVC: treated like a rock star

     That Carona was corrupt was already evident in the late 90s: see. In the new millennium, the sense of corruption surrounding Carona only grew, though it was overwhelmed for a time when, in the course of the Samantha Runnion kidnapping case, Larry King dubbed the camera-friendly Carona "America's Sheriff." His (meretricious, engineered) celebrity was such that President Bush felt compelled to name Carona as a member of his Emergency Response Senior Advisory Committee on Homeland Security in 2003. We all felt much safer, I'm sure.
     You can thank TOM FUENTES for the "hometown hero" business and for so many other things that have tarnished the reputation of the SOCCCD and its colleges.
     That's why Tom is DtB's SOCCCD "creep of the decade"!
     I believe that Carona's last "heroic" (and pious and patriotic) appearance at IVC occurred three years ago, just six weeks before his federal indictment on charges of corruption. (See.)

At IVC, three years ago: 9-11? Sure. But also: a fine photo op. Behold the piety, the patriotism, the abject goodness on display. The Lord must have been pleased.
Pictured: John Williams, Raghu Mathur, Dave Lang, Mike Carona, Don Wagner, unidentified official, student trustee, Glenn Roquemore

"It's craziness, pure craziness...."

Which colleges restrict free speech? (Higher Ed Daily Report)

     A new report from a national free speech advocacy organization found most of the four-year universities it surveyed had speech codes that substantially limit students' freedom of speech, including dozens of colleges in California.
     In its annual report, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education surveyed speech code policies at the top 100 national universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges from U.S. News and World Report, along with 237 colleges the organization labeled as "major public universities."
     The "Spotlight on Speech Codes 2011" report gave colleges a red-, yellow- or green-light rating based on how much their policies restrict free speech.
     Of the 390 schools reviewed, 67 percent got a red light, 27 percent got a yellow light and 3 percent got a green light. Another 3 percent got no rating because they were private institutions that flatly stated they hold certain values above a commitment to free speech, such as Pepperdine University in Malibu.
     Of the 33 California universities the organization rated, 64 percent got a red light, including San Diego State University, UC Santa Cruz and Claremont McKenna College. About 36 percent got a yellow light, including UC Berkeley, Occidental College and San Jose State University. No California college received a green light.
     As defined by the report, a red light means the university's policy clearly and substantially limits freedom of speech or bars public access to speech policies on the web. Three colleges got the red light label for requiring a password to view speech-related policies – including Stanford University….

Journal’s Paper on ESP Expected to Prompt Outrage (New York Times)

Typical believer (Uri Geller)

     One of psychology’s most respected journals has agreed to publish a paper presenting what its author describes as strong evidence for extrasensory perception, the ability to sense future events.
     The decision may delight believers in so-called paranormal events, but it is already mortifying scientists. Advance copies of the paper, to be published this year in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, have circulated widely among psychological researchers in recent weeks and have generated a mixture of amusement and scorn.
     The paper describes nine unusual lab experiments performed over the past decade by its author, Daryl J. Bem, an emeritus professor at Cornell, testing the ability of college students to accurately sense random events, like whether a computer program will flash a photograph on the left or right side of its screen. The studies include more than 1,000 subjects.
     Some scientists say the report deserves to be published, in the name of open inquiry; others insist that its acceptance only accentuates fundamental flaws in the evaluation and peer review of research in the social sciences.
     “It’s craziness, pure craziness. I can’t believe a major journal is allowing this work in,” Ray Hyman, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University Oregon and longtime critic of ESP research, said. “I think it’s just an embarrassment for the entire field.”
. . .
     So far, at least three efforts to replicate the experiments have failed. But more are in the works, Dr. Bem said, adding, “I have received hundreds of requests for the materials” to conduct studies.

The Chancellor's Opening Session: chirpy, sans Elvis

Typical marmot

     [Update: be sure to check out Tere Fluegeman's official update of the Opening Session, which includes cool photos, especially the one with a fox jumpin' on Bob B's head!]
     I went to the Chancellor’s opening session this morning—foolishly, for I have a cold, and my perspective is both odd and unreliable, like that of drunken marmot. Everything I experience inspires slumber or abject irresponsible snarkitude.
     I showed up (at the Irvine Valley College Performing Arts Center) late and sat front and center. Nancy Padberg was saying something, girlishly. Don’t know what. I think I went to sleep.
     On my way in, a friend accosted me and informed me that Padberg, our new board president, had tried her best to emasculate the morning’s prayer, to move it to the merest of generic spiritual genuflakitudes.
     “Did she call anybody a ‘heathen’?”, I asked.
     Not this time. Dang!
     It was odd attending an opening session devoid of the usual lurid Mathurian, Wagnerian, or Fuentean elements. Cognitive dissonance, man. Nancy said something about new leadership in the district and how that was a good thing. (She was trying to be good, not bad.) Chancellor Gary Poertner got up and said wise and modest things. He said he’d probably been chosen for the job because he can work with people, all kinds of people. He heaped praise on his temp predecessor, Dixie Bullock, and described the positive change in climate between the time he left the district and the time he returned.
     It’s pretty clear that the district community is happy to have Gary as Chancellor. And Gary seems happy with his job, too. It’s all terribly positive. A chirpy situation.
     A student suddenly appeared to tap-dance in a performance that featured (beyond her face and feet and the lighting design) a red door, from which she hung upside down at one point. (I espied her navel.)
     It was about knockin’ down doors or something. Very symbolical.
     The Geek Twins—Bramucci and Gaston—briefly discussed new programs and coming technologies. They even offered a bit of their usual techno whiz-bangery and cornball visual humor. (At one point, the Brammster showed a photo of a woman and her pet raccoon. “Why?”, he asked.)
     Marcia Milchiker showed up, but I think that she was it, trusteewise, aside from Nancy. (When she was pointed out in the crowd during the subsequent FA meeting, Marcia gestured like Lucky Lindy in a ticker-tape parade.) Evidently, Prendergast was off doing his thing at his high school. Don’t know about the others.
     New administrative hires were presented or at least mentioned. People applauded. I fell asleep again.
     Some kid played Chopin on the piano. He was very good, I think. His performance didn’t seem to symbolize anything. Gary liked it.
     Gary offered some remarks about the dismal state budget and how at some point desperate politicians and officials might start eyein' the money our district gets via basic aid. So watch for that, but don't be frettin' about it. Gary ticked off a few more low-boil zingers, getting’ real quiet and real real—you could hear a pin drop—and that was about it.

* * *

If you have to ask why, you wouldn't understand

     This time around, it was decided that the Faculty Association (union) meeting would be held almost immediately after the opening session (normally, the meeting happens when folks are tyin’ on the feedbag in an echo chamber), so, there we were again, twenty minutes later, waiting for Lewis Long and the union gang to squawk their usual union squawk.
     That went pretty well, I guess. Lewis (or Bill Hewitt?) underscored the importance of the 2012 trustee race, which would involve four trustee seats: Williams’, Fuentes’, Lang’s, and Jay’s. By then, of course, Williams, who resigned as of a week ago, will have been replaced. Likely, that newbie will run for reelection (in 2012). However, said Lewis, two of the others might choose not to run. We all hoped that that was a reference to Fuentes and Lang. Dunno.
     Anyway, the union boys were quite right to emphasize the importance of the 2012 race. GET THAT? They noted the opportunity to sign up for automatic paycheck deductions, blah blah blah.
     Soon, evidently, candidates for Williams’ replacement will be making their case before the board. The final decision will likely be made at the next board meeting, which is two weeks away. (One assumes that the union is all over this. Sure hope so.)
     Lee Haggerty discussed contract negotiations. Dry stuff.
     The guest speaker was the President of the CCA, a fellow named Ron Reel, a half Cherokee, half-Irishman, evidently. Reel explained that, by virtue of membership in the CCA (the Community College Association), Faculty Association members are CTA members. And by virtue of the latter membership, they are members of NEA, the world’s largest union.
     Was he tryin’ to make us feel bad?
     Reel announced that likely CCA will merge with the CCC—the Community College Council, an affiliate of the Cal. Federation of Teachers—and that will mean that 94 (?) of the 112 California Community Colleges will have their faculty represented by one union.
     Reel seemed to think that that was epoch-shatteringly wonderful. I’m not so sure. You can read more about it here. (I think that voters will increasingly regard the CTA as the Great Satan of the war on educational incompetence. You wait.)
     The luncheon that followed seemed decent enough. Biscuits, lasagne, chicken, etc. I spoke briefly with our new Dean of Controversy. She seemed nice. I told her that IVC was a great place, and I meant it.
     Rebel Girl made me get drugs, and so I’ve taken ‘em. Hope they work.

TigerAnn says "hey"