James Van Praagh is an asshole

There, there. (Deceive, deceive.)

More unsightly Fuentean residue: Carona loses appeal

     As you know, disgraced former OC Sheriff Mike Carona is a close associate of our own Tom Fuentes (SOCCCD trustee, Lake Forest), a circumstance that yielded numerous appearances by Carona at Irvine Valley College, which once named the fellow its “Hometown Hero, “ or some such nonsense.
     Carona is now cooling his heels in federal prison. Predictably, he’s been appealing his conviction. But that hasn’t gone well:

Former sheriff loses appeal (OC Reg)

     A federal appeals court Tuesday reaffirmed its earlier ruling upholding former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona's conviction of witness tampering and denied his petition for rehearing.
     The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled that Carona, who is serving a 5½-year prison term, may not file further petition for rehearing before it.
     The disgraced former sheriff's downward spiral from the peak of power in Orange County law enforcement landed him in a federal prison in Colorado, where he surrendered in January.
     Carona was Orange County's top law enforcement officer for nine years before he was indicted, tried and convicted of trying to persuade a former top aide to lie for him during a spreading federal investigation of corruption in the Sheriff's Department.
     U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Guilford sentenced Carona to federal prison in April 2009, telling the ex-sheriff he had brought shame to Orange County and had victimized the people he was sworn to serve.
     The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January Guilford did not abuse his discretion when he declined to grant a defense motion to suppress evidence based on what Carona's attorneys said was prosecutorial misconduct.
     The three-judge panel Tuesday affirmed that ruling – amending some of the language in its earlier opinion – and denied a rehearing. There will be no hearing by a larger panel of 9th circuit judges.
     "Since there was no violation of (an ethical rule), we do not need to reach the question of whether the district court abused its discretion by not excluding evidence it had found was obtained in violation of that rule, not giving a jury instruction concerning the conduct, nor imposing other sanctions on the government," the jurists wrote.
     Carona can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The October meeting of the SOCCCD BOT—live and direct! (Extraordinary miasmic tedium)

A drool-inducing meeting

     (Tere's Board Meeting Highlights are here.)

Summary:

• The faculty contract passes; Lang votes no • Cosgrove urges more full-time hires • Curious roll-call vote on Fuentes’ no-show payment • Expand permissibility of alcohol? Hits snag • Confusion over IVC classified changes

     Hello again. It's time for the monthly meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees in beauteous Mission Viejo, CA. I just arrived here in the Ronald Reagan meeting room. The audience is small.
     The meeting is supposed to open at 6:00 p.m. It's 6:10, and it does appear that the board will start the meeting within a few minutes. As usual, the ailing Tom Fuentes is absent.
     When board Prez Nancy Padberg opens the meeting, she'll ask Clerk Marcia Milchiker to read out any actions taken in the closed session, between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. I'll let you know if anything interesting is announced.
     6:12 - it starts. Marcia: (1) 6/0 vote, approved two-day suspension of police officer. (2) 6/0 vote, approved two-day suspension of classified employee.
     Sheesh. What's that about?
     Frank Meldau: invocation: non-religious moment of silence for victims of Turkish earthquake

Public comments:

Bob Cosgrove: new faculty hires are urgently needed. Only about 50% of faculty are full-time at this point, a decline of a high of about two-thirds, many years ago. A great deal must be done by full-timers—on committees, etc. We shouldn't sell our students short. Classified support is also important. Many exceptionally talented faculty are on the market now.

Presentation:

Will Glen

Stephanie Scofield of The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) presents awards to IVC Police Chief Will Glen. She says Glen, et al., have committed to the "POST" program. Two plaques. Photo op. "Executive level certificate" granted to Glen. Another photo op. Nancy encourages Glenn to speak. He says: been in policing for forty years. He thanks the men and women who work for the department.

Board reports:

Bill Jay: discusses accreditation reports. Wants to compliment everyone involved. Long, hard, lonely work. Outstanding, quality work. I appreciate it, he says.
Frank Meldau: met with Prez Roquemore at IVC. Saw programs, labs, new construction. Spoke with veteran students. Mentions an upcoming Town Hall meeting on student success at Saddleback College.
Marcia Milchiker: echoes what others have said. Congrats to Chief Glen. We really do have fabulous employees, says Marcia. Our police wear guns and talk with students. We want to hire the best and the brightest. We have an opportunity to do that right now. We're the only CC district in OC that's hiring right now. And, yes, trustees need to visit the colleges.
T.J. Prendergast: agrees with what's been said. Attended golf tournament. Walked away with "day at the beach" package, whatever that is. Will attend college-wide forum. Was at OC School Board Association. Says funny things about that. Yuk, yuk.
Nancy Padberg: I won a raffle prize at the golf thing, she says. Went to IVC/Saddleback girls' soccer game. Also football game.
Dave Lang: want to echo trustee Jay's comments about accreditation work. Chief Glen's awards, well deserved. Mentions retirement of Harry Parmer. A tremendous asset for us, deserves recognition.
Student Trustee Jordan Larson: wants to recognize student government per college. Went to some sort of "Birmingham" civil rights event, here in this room.

Chancellor's report:

Gary Poertner: bust of Ronald Reagan now situated just outside the room in its permanent installation. Tonight, we'll be hearing a report about educational quality. Next month: student success. Thanks faculty for all the work they've done on accreditation.

6:36 p.m. — Discussion item:
Educational Quality, Academic Programs, Program Review, SLO’s:

Don Busche: draws attention to a Saddleback College publication, shows all of the degrees offered. Over 300 certificates, degrees, and awards. The board has ultimate responsibility for this. Shows Title 5 and Cal. Ed Code -- responsibilities of board, chancellor, senates, presidents, etc. Board Policies.

Lisa Davis Allen: explains delegation of authority to Academic Senate. Goes through 11 areas. Emphasizes role in accreditation reports.

Kris Leppien-Christensen: faculty co-chair, Saddleback. Discusses accreditation "standards" (categories).
Explains 1-year curriculum cycle. Yadda yadda.

Dan Walsh: explains professional development. We do these things because it's part of being a college professor....

This is all very snoozular.

Provides examples of activities during Flex week. Lisa DA comes up to mention other professional development activities. "New tools, new technologies...." Explains "Distinguished Academic Lecture Series."

Claire C-S: Assessment of Programs and Learning. We've been doing this for a long time....

I feel that my life is ticking away.

Kathy Werle of IVC: organizational relationships and partnerships.

Thank you. Questions? Prendergast and Milchiker ask questions. Milchiker declares that the presentation was "very interesting."

Everyone does a good job, but still, it seems that time has stopped here in the Ronny Reagan Room. It's the quality of the air in the room: still, empty, meaningless. A kind of odd miasma. Lang asks about grants. Busche yammers about grant money. Werle jumps up to discuss grant money. Werle says something funny, strangely punctuating the miasmic moment. Meldau says sweet and appreciative things about all of this developmental work. The guy seems genuinely impressed. Padberg says the presentation is now over and it was excellent.

Consent calendar (stuff that will be passed in one fell swoop). Lang pulls three items from the impending swoopulosity. Padberg pulls a couple more. Also 5.11 and 5.12 pulled because they contain resolutions. They approve the rest, unanimously. Trustees seem amazed at the number of things pulled.

5.2: a grant for IVC. Marcia thinks its just swell is all. She just wanted to say that, I guess.
5.3: Kaplan International Programs lease of buildings at IVC. Lang: why does this come to us after the effective date of the start of the agreement? Evidently, the question is answered satisfactorily.
5.6 Saddleback Child Development Training agreement. A question, answered. Approved.
5.9 Lang asks a question concerning Basic Aid expenditure. Tabled.
5.10 approved
5.11 authorizing payment to Trustee Fuentes (Sept. meeting), who was absent. Roll call. (In fact, he's been absent since March or April.) Unanimous.
Lang notes that we've approved this item in the past without a roll call vote. Why a roll call this time? Gosh, this is unusual, says Marcia. I didn't understand the explanation. (I think it's CYA, cuz this looks, or might look, hinky.)
5.12 approved. Roll call vote. Unanimous.

ACTION ITEMS:

6.1 Faculty hiring. Poertner: lots of recent faculty retirements. This list (of new hires) comprises mostly replacement faculty.
Lang asks: it seems that no one has signed off on this.
Not sure how this issue is resolved. The item is approved unanimously.
6.2 Utt Library construction. Approved.
6.3 ATEP. Change would decrease costs, demolition, etc. Approved.
6.4 Board Policy Revision. Approved unanimously.
6.5 — board policy re alcoholic beverages for review and study. Slight changes in the policy, which does and has allowed the serving of alcohol on defined occasions. Poertner: minor revision. Eliminating ATEP from the policy.
T.J. Prendergast: we may have violated board policy at a certain event recently. But shouldn't presence of alcohol be allowed on such occasions? Marcia: agrees with TJ. Let's make the policy a little more broad. And why take ATEP out? Poertner: yes, TJ wants to broaden the policy. Do the rest of the board agree? Lang says he recalls that adoption of this policy was controversial. He asks: have there been any problems with it? Poertner: I have not heard of any problems associated with this policy. Both colleges have had fundraisers involving alcohol. Nobody died. So maybe we should expand the list of occasions where alcohol is permitted.
It appears that some trustees wanted to push for "expansion" of alcohol use, but Padberg seemed to resist that. Marcia explains that, after AB 1725, there was some effort to align community colleges with other colleges/universities. The chief advantage: Can raise more money with booze. Lubricated people have an easier time opening their wallets.
Lang: do we have adequate insurance coverage? Are there special considerations at ATEP?
Meldau: we seem to be going against the stream. Lately, alcohol availability at sporting events has been shrinking. So this thing goes forward for review and study. Lord knows what will come back. Poertner seemed unclear, judging by the expression on his face.
6.6 Academic personel actions. Approved.
6.7 Classified personal actions. They pull one item from 6.7. CSEA policy 6-10 is somehow involved. They approve the rest. Lang asks Bugay to have someone speak to reorganization of IVC positions in B and C (whatever that is). Bugay identifies Craig Justice and Gwen Plano as those who could answer questions.
Craig: reorganizations in Admissions and Records triggered by a retirement and some other changes. Gwen: Pam K retired a month ago. An opportunity arose to reorganize slightly. The position as it stood is eliminated. A part-timer is becoming full-time. So a retirement permitted these changes, with no cost.
Bugay: because there's no over-all net change in personel, no need for "going out" with search, etc. There was some apprehension about this. Lang: was this change recommended by some agency? Or was it an internal decision? Gwen: it was internal. No external involvement. Marcia: could you make sure about the legality of this, not advertising the position? Bugay: this is a well-known exception. Jay: confused about what is eliminated, what is added. B & C. B1. Position eliminated. B2, B3 eliminated. Brought back 2. Adding C1, C2. Reworded job description.
Padberg corrects TJ on some detail. Milchiker: many positions are being changed here. 4 pages of explanation. "Enormous" changes. Bugay to Lang: would it help to pull these elements and come back with organizational chart? Gwen: no hardship. Can do, but some staff will be disappointed, but they'll understand. Gwen: it does seem confusing, the way it's written here. "I even know what happened, and I'm confused," she says.
--Maybe we should pull the whole item. B 1,2,3, C 1,2 --just pull these. Lang: C 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 16. And corresponding B. B 1,2,3,.5,6,7,8,10,11. Jay alters his motion according to Dave's changes.
One no vote from Prendergast. Otherwise passes.
Now voting on the rest: Unanimous.

6.8 CONTRACT MASTER AGREEMENT (Faculty union and district.) Bugay: we've discussed this. Let's vote. Padberg asks for faculty vote results. They vote: unanimous, except for one no vote: Lang.

7.1---7.3 bang, bang, bang
7:55 p.m.
7.4: Lang: we a had tough third quarter. What are the implications of this (re our obligation to this trust fund)? Poertner: the audit coming soon will have comments about this. The fiscal lady (forgot her name--Fitzsimmons?) explains things. She's always pretty clear. We're in it for the long haul. Lang: yep, understand that.
7.5 Retiree trust fund. No questions.

8.0 Reports from constituent groups

Blah, blah, blah....
Lewis Long: we're thrilled that contract negotiations are over. Thanks everyone involved: Bugay, et al. We're pleased.
Craig Justice: sitting in for Glenn Roquemore, Prez of IVC. Nothing to report beyond written report.
Tod Burnett: Saddleback College awarded $1 million grant from Dept. of Labor.... Engineering. Will have press release. Training future engineers. Student Success Task Force will meet in this room.
David Bugay: thanks for ratifying contract agreement. Had professional dialogue during negotiations. Says: "Lewis Long is one of the finest" individuals ever worked with in negotiations. Honorable person to deal with. Praises Saddleback College orchestra performance of Beethoven. Seems to know what he's talking about.
Fitzsimmons: we seem to be doing fine with 50% law, based on preliminary data.
Etc.

Adjourned in memory of Saddleback College student who recently died. (Taylor Samm?)

Scummy Fuentean residue

     You remember fraudster and ex-OC Treasurer Chriss Street. During his Treasurer days, he’d visit SOCCCD BOT meetings often, offering forecasts of tax collections and such.
     No two-minute limit for him, boy. He was OC GOP royalty/organized crime.
     He was one of Tom Fuentes’ pals, like Mike Carona and Phil Greer:

Chriss Street appeals big judgment to Ninth Circuit (OC Reg)

     Former Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street has appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a bid to stave off a $7 million judgment.
     Street filed the appeal last week after U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Richard Neiter declined to reconsider hisMarch 2010 ruling that Street breached his fiduciary duty. Last May, a federal Judge Dean D. Pregerson affirmed Neiter’s ruling.
     Before becoming county treasurer Street was trustee for the bankrupt Fruehauf truck trailer manufacturing company. He was forced out in mid-2005 by the company’s creditors and subsequently sued by his successor as trustee, Los Angeles money manager Dan Harrow.
     By the time the suit came to trial in early 2010, Street was Orange County’s elected treasurer and was seeking re-election. Neiter’s ruling that Street had breached his fiduciary duty to the trust effectively ended Street’s campaign and his political career.
     In his most recent appeal to Neiter, Street accused Harrow of misconduct as trustee. Harrow denied the allegation. Neiter ruled that Street had had time to raise the allegation during the trial but failed to do so, making the allegation irrelevant.
     In addition, Street argued to Neiter that his attorney at the trial, Phillip Greer, was ineffective. Neiter responded that Street could have fired Greer before the trial if he so wished.
     Now both of those issues will go to the Ninth Circuit.

On The Agenda (Voice of OC)

     The Orange County Board of Supervisors is set to allocate $50,000 to enhance the Orange County Tourism Council's website, with options to renew the one-year contract for two more years.
     The contract raised the eyebrows of OC Weekly's R. Scott Moxley. The tourism council includes politically connected officials from Disneyland, corporate lobbying firms and resort hotels, according to Moxley….

It's like watching Glenn Beck

Accreditation reports are wack

     Here’s how accreditation works. Your college labors to compose a self-study that’s dutifully written according to the Clueless Educationist Style Sheet, which is guaranteed to produce prose that impresses Paranormal Fans and fifth graders but that sends all literate people into paroxysms of laughter or dismay. Then the Accreds show up, go off to dark corners, and talk to everybody, including every crank and jackass within miles; next, after shaking their heads and making glum academic faces, the Accreds go home and get bitch slapped awhile by Babs Beno. That process ultimately yields a report that slams the college for not having enough “student learning outcomes” imbedded in its “mission statement” or in the seats of the new Performing Arts/Soccer Center—or for a failure to pursue digital delivery rubrics and co-curricular, asynaptic assessments. –Something like that.
     Yeah, then the college gnashes its teeth and wails for like six months, spiraling into an institutional depression; next, it labors mightily (and earnestly) to compose a follow-up report, which ‘splains how the college is taking all the accreds’ semi-confused criticisms super-seriously and running “at least” fifteen new committees to ensure that everybody’s on board with the “process,” which yields “do tasks,” which, naturally, are ugly and unrecognizable as anything any sensible person would ever do. College leaders sign it with their own blood and collapse into another corner. More tears. Everybody frets, muttering, “remember Compton.”

     So, anyway, accreditation self-study and follow-up reports often end up being perverse and artificial monstrosities, full of Orwellian creepoid verbulosity plus profound self-deception—and a dollop of flat dishonesty. I mean, if the Accreds show up and say that you’ve got yourself a nasty “plague of despair,” then you don’t do something sensible, like fire the source of said despair—usually a Chancellor or President or Vice President (or Board, but you can’t fire those people). No. Not in Accred World. Instead, you set up a committee to concoct “rules of civility,” such as, “smile and say ‘howdy do’!” or “respect all others and honor their feelings, even if they’re psychotic, and then draw a hand and tape it to your back.” (Patting yourself on the back. Get it?) –Stuff like that.
     Yeah, and when the Accreds tag you for the hideously unhealthy relationship between groups A and B, but then things change and so A and B are now, like, dating or something—and, in the meantime, C grows to fear and loathe B, threatening districtular collapse.... –Well, in that case, you make up some crap about how you’re “taking vigorous steps” to get A and B together. But, natch, you just let the C and B vexation fester beyond all recognition, cuz it's not relevant to the present accredular demands.
     Yeah, that’s the ol’ accreditation do-si-do. It’s very processular. It’s, um, measurable and, uh, based on factoidal and empirical data (probably pulled out of somebody’s a**).
     With that in mind,

If it were MY NEIGHBOR'S COOL BOXSTER, a college’s accreditation report would probably look something like this:

If it were KEN KESEY'S BUS, a college’s accreditation report would probably look something like this:

If it were MY BRO'S ULTRA-UTILITARIAN COROLLA, a college’s accreditation report would probably look something like this:

If it were an old silver DUNE BUGGY, a college’s accreditation report would probably look something like this:

If it were a SEXY RED FERRARI, a college’s accreditation report would probably  look something like this:

If it were a SLEEK AND AGILE TEN-SPEED BIKE, a college’s accreditation report would probably look something like this:

If it were SOME PUNK KID HANGIN' IN THE LIBRARY, a college’s accreditation report would probably look something like this:

If it were A PAIR OF SENNHEISER HD 800 HEADPHONES, a college’s accreditation report would probably look something like this:

ETC.

OK, IT'S TIME FOR SOME TOTALLY COOL BLUES (1964)

Heads up: Monday’s BOT meeting (contract approval, etc.)

     The agenda for the October meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees is available here. (See bottom right of screen to download the large pdf file.)

     The discussion item for Monday’s meeting (4.1) is curiously broad and inclusive, like a bucket of everything:

     Looks like possible educational programs for ATEP will be presented, among other things. That should be scintillating. As you know, development of programs at ATEP has become a bit of a turf war between the colleges. The Hatfields versus the McCoys, but without the banjos. (I heard that one on a TV show, I think.)

     Item 5.3 is extension of Kaplan International Programs’ lease for three years at IVC. KI is a division of Kaplan, Inc., the infamous "for-profit."
     I don’t get it. Aren’t these for-profits the enemy?
     I know. Let's rent space to the Libertarian Party. We'll help 'em get their message out there. We'll smile like idiots.

     Item 5.4 is approval of honoraria (money) for speakers for events or classes.
     Interestingly, one instructor is requesting sixteen $100 honoraria (i.e., $1600) for her “Modern World Culture” course. One guest speaker per week, I guess. Ambitious.
     Among her guest speakers are Richard McCullough—perhaps you remember him—and Virginia Trimble. The latter was my astronomy instructor (at UCI), circa 1974. She's funny and smart. I loved her take on the Bermuda Triangle. It was something like: "when planes crash into the ocean, they sink to the bottom, never to be seen again. D'uh."

     Once again, Trustee Tom Fuentes will be paid (for last board meeting), despite his absence. How many months has it been now? (The last regular meeting Fuentes attended was in March.) He could have resigned but chose not to. He chose instead to accept payment and benefits—for six months thus far.
     As you know, he's a fiscal conservative who's into accountability and such. He's exceedingly staunch. He appreciates "beautiful ladies," evidently.
     I do miss him at meetings, though. He'd occasionally kill somebody with a look or a snarl.

     6.4 is discussion/approval of board policy revisions, including BP-2100, “Delegation of Authority to the Chancellor.” Here’s some language to be added:

     6.5 concerns changes to the district’s booze policy. Expect Nancy Padberg to restart the Prohibition movement.

     6.8 is a big one: "Faculty Association Academic Employee Master Agreement: Approve tentative Agreement between District and the SOCCCDFA for the period July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014."

ALSO:

Top 1% see income grow 224% (OC Reg)