Fishy Foundation Factoids

     [See UPDATE below.]
     Recently, we’ve raised questions concerning the IVC Foundation’s finances. Two board meetings back (November), the colleges’ two foundations provided their annual reports (see). (For video, go here.) The IVC Foundation reps included the following graphic:

click on graphic

     According to this chart, 38% of "income" (for 2011-12)—i.e., $395,000—was "district support." Wow. The amount of money given that year in scholarships was only about $173K—less than half of district support. Meanwhile, "expenses to college" amounted to $754K. 
     I don't understand these figures. They seem out of wack to me.
     But I rarely understand fiscal issues. (I should acknowledge that an apparently knowledgeable friend has offered to explain some of these data to me, but I've been too busy to contact him. I hope to do so eventually.)
     For what it's worth, at the time, none of the trustees had any questions for the Foundation folks. "Really?" I thought. "This makes sense to you?" Well, guess so.
     During the subsequent (December) meeting (video here), "audit reports" per foundation were presented (item 6.1), and, confronted with all the facts, Trustee Dave Lang (Irvine) was inspired to raise Baueresque questions about the large proportion of Foundation assets support coming from the district [no, actually the colleges: see below]. As I reported at the time, 

In the case of Saddleback [they said], it was something like 54%. In the case of IVC, it was actually more than 93%! What's that all about? Lang wanted more information about those factoids. 

(UPDATE: I went back to the video [available here] and I got Lang's exact words:

44:40 Lang: “I do have a request … I understand that there will be a separate report on the foundations in January. ... The one thing that strikes me when I review the financial information, particular this statement of activities for both of the foundations, is the level of support that the colleges provide to each of the foundations in the form of donated services and donated professional fees. For Saddleback it was like 53.4% of the unrestricted total support. For Irvine Valley College it was 92.76% of that figure. And I’m hopeful that in the reports that you’ll come back with, there may be some information that gives us a way to benchmark that against perhaps some of our other peers and community college foundations that are also out there. So I’m gonna be interested to understand that a little bit better.")

R. Morley

     How these factoids square with the aforementioned chart, I dunno. Like I said, I'm no good with fiscal stuff. But Lang's query seems to comport with mine. It'll be interesting to see where his query leads. An Orwellian episode, perhaps.

     SKEPTICISM. Many of us in the IVC community remain skeptical about our Foundation. For a while there, the IVC Foundation seemed more like an branch of the OC GOP Central Committee. The director—a Republican activist who was, shall we say, "not a good fit" as Foundation Director—was in fact a crony of then-Trustee Tom Fuentes, former chair of the latter organization.
     In recent years, scandals have broken out regarding our foundation's (or at least our scholarship program's) failure to adhere to regulations/standards and the seemingly slipshod manner in which scholarship recipients are identified. Some of us have made inquiries, e.g., regarding the absurd deficiencies of scholarship application forms, only to be assured that better forms are on their way. But then the old forms remain. 

     And it ain't rocket science. Nope.
     A year or so ago, a new foundation director was hired (R. Morley), but, fairly or not, I've heard many complaints about him. At one point, he came before my school (the School of Humanities & Languages), essentially asking us to do lots of the work of properly identifying scholarship recipients for him. Contrary to the available evidence (coming out of his mouth and revealed in his missives), he assured us that he was once "an English professor," like many in the room. Some of us were put off by this approach. 
     These tasks—following regulations, producing application forms, developing criteria for scholarship recipient selection—should not be difficult. Why do the people hired by our college have so much difficulty doing them? It's not as if they aren't paid well. (And when they prove to be incompetent, why do they keep their jobs for so long? Eh, Glenn?)

A new wrinkle:
     Recently, a letter was forwarded to me. It concerned a very large endowment to the Saddleback College Foundation. According to the information in the letter (which I have good reasons to suppose is reliable), "new procedures" have been instituted at the foundation according to which very substantial sums of money are being deducted from endowments as one-time administration fees. 
     That's not all. There's also an annual fee, and it is not insubstantial.
     It all looks pretty, ahem, excessive to me.
     More to come.

     For a trip down Bad Memory Lane—regarding scholarship and foundation snafus & curious episodes—check out the following:

• Scholarship program woes: a complete overhaul - IVC scholarship program out of compliance? General shambles
• Schol*ar*ship (the form, the process, etc.) - Ridiculous application forms, serious confidentiality irregularities, etc. Snafu.
• Mystery Solved! - the fubar explaining why the scholarship process dispensed with letters of rec this year; communication breakdown; etc.
• Take a Letter, Maria - Letters of Rec no longer required in scholarship app process? Surely you kid?!
• Wagner at the scholarship ceremony - Wagner uses the occasion to opine about prayer. Some in attendance are furious!
• Breaking news! - the Patrick Healy debacle (foundation event)
• The Foundation’s Adam Probolsky, Superhero - one Foundation dude is a local GOP operative. One of Mike Carona's "deputies"

"Mickey" Tello

• Our hero! - IVC Foundation names a manifestly corrupt bastard "hometown hero." Y'know, these days, Mike's in federal prison. Thank you, Tom. May I have another!?

• He's Tom's kind of guy - creeps
• Al Tello's wife? - the IVC Foundation director's wife and the Tan Nguyen political scandal. It's the OC GOP effect!
• Hey kids! Let's put on a book burning! - IVC's Foundation director has a curious campus event idea: a book burning. Me'n the Reb  seek to dissuade him

Irvine council OKs Great Park audit, ends contracts, cuts board (OC Reg)

The famous "Great Park" balloon

     On a night when there was little if any consensus among two factions of Irvine's City Council, the last vote at 1:34 a.m. Wednesday was unanimous –all five council members voted in favor of seeking proposals from auditors to take a closer look at the Great Park's books since 2005, a motion made by returning Councilwoman Christina Shea.
     A proposal from Mayor Steven Choi to cut the nine-person Great Park Corp.'s board of directors to five by eliminating all of the appointed positions, and another by Councilman Jeff Lalloway to immediately terminate the park's contracts with public relations firm Forde & Mollrich and lobbying firm Townsend Public Affairs Inc. also won approval but with 3-2 votes. Council members Beth Krom and Larry Agran opposed the measures.

Larry Agran (OC Reg)

     Lalloway, in introducing his motion, revealed that Newport-based Forde & Mollrich - which has worked for the city for about 14 years beginning with its fight to defeat the proposal to build a commercial airport at El Toro – has been paid $19.8 million over that time, with $12.4 million of that earned after the city in March 2002 won Measure W, which called for the Great Park plan.
     "We need to stop talking about building a Great Park and actually start building a Great Park," he said…. continued

A cool Voice of OC video:

IRS Says Colleges Must Be 'Reasonable' When Calculating Adjuncts' Work Hours (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the new law designed to expand health insurance to more Americans, has put adjuncts and their workload in the spotlight.
     The Internal Revenue Service this month issued proposed rules for employers that acknowledge the special work circumstances of adjuncts—among them, the way adjuncts rack up work hours outside of the classroom—that need to be considered when evaluating whether their employers must provide them with health benefits.
     Under the new law, which takes effect in January 2014, employees who work at least a 30-hour work week must receive health benefits from their employers. Some colleges are concerned about how to tally up the hours adjuncts spend on the job to determine if they have reached that full-time status. Most adjuncts don't receive health benefits, and the legislation appeared to pave the way for them to finally get access….

Huell Howser, RIP

     • This just in from the OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano:

Remembering Huell Howser, Fan of OC Weekly, Lover of OC, Antagonist of OC Republicans

… All the pundits of the Golden State will weigh in on who Huell was, what Huell meant, blah blah blah. All I can offer are personal anecdotes that just shows what a generous, wonderful man the Tennessee native truly was, anecdotes involving two of my favorite things: the OC Weekly, and pissing off OC Republicans….

     • Back in April of 2006 (Huell Howser at Joe's Garage), we noted with amazement that Howser was the guest speaker at an IVC Foundation fundraiser:

Huell Howser at Joe's Garage

     The IVC Foundation is doin' up a fundraiser Tuesday night at "Joe's Garage" in Tustin. The Foundation comprises more than its share of conservative Republicans (Fuentes' crowd). So it's at least a little odd to discover that the inimitable Huell Howser (of California Gold fame) is the guest speaker. Golly!
     I wonder if those right-wingers know that Huell hosts another show, the environmentalist-friendly "California Green," or that Huell's "California Gold" is endorsed by the California Teachers Association(!), the California Federation of Teachers(!!), the California State Library Foundation (!!!), and the California Library Association(!!!!).
     D'oh!
     I'd go to this shindig, but I don't wanna miss Tuesday night's California Gold, which has Huell visiting a Cheeze Whiz factory at the absolute geographical center of the state.

A Day of Reckoning for Critics of Great Park PR Contract (Voice of OC)

     Critics of Irvine’s Great Park have long pointed to the agency’s lucrative public relations contract with Forde & Mollrich – which charged millions of dollars over the past decade to publicize a park that didn’t yet exist – as symbolic of what they allege is a culture of waste and corruption that plagues the multi-billion dollar project.

     For those critics, Tuesday will be a day of reckoning.
     A new Republican Irvine City Council-majority is poised to terminate the Forde & Mollrich and Townsend Public Affairs government lobbying contracts. The council will also consider a forensic audit of the park’s contracts.
     Those challenging the park’s leadership often ask – what exactly was Forde & Mollrich accomplishing as it collected $100,000 per month?
     A complete answer to that question is tough to find….

Ralph M. Brown,
Democrat

The Making of a Landmark Law for Open Government (Voice of OC)

     Sixty years ago Assemblyman Ralph M. Brown of Modesto, acting in part on his own experiences with the secrecy of local government officials, authored California’s landmark open-meeting law to ensure bodies like boards of supervisors and city councils conducted their business in public….

Judge Awards $98,000 Attorney Fees to Irvine Valley Teacher (1998, LA Times)

     Months after ruling that the trustees of South Orange County Community College District acted illegally by making decisions in secret, an Orange County judge awarded $98,000 in attorney fees this week to a professor who filed a lawsuit against the district.
     Roy Bauer, a philosophy professor at Irvine Valley College, has sued the district twice for violating the state's Brown Act, which requires that public meeting be open. The suits stemmed from a series of decisions the trustees made in 1997, including the reorganization of the district's governance structure and the selection of Raghu P. Mathur as president of Irvine Valley College. The campus is one of two that make up the South Orange County Community College District; the other is Saddleback College.

Bugsy's wild hair/hare

Dropped by my folks' place today and got a chance to play with Bugsy, the SuperKitten. He's now well-established as the "baby" of the family; both of my folks dote on him all day long, especially my mom, who babies him pretty good. She holds him and sings at 'im. He doesn't know any better, so he gobbles it all up.

I noticed that the young fellow was carrying a tiny cloth mouse in his mouth. "What's with that dang mouse?", I asked.

Mom told me that the mouse was one of the baubles that was hangin' from the Xmas tree (see action shot above). You know the stuff: all those little Santas, and birds, and snowballs, and guitars, and elves, and whatnot—that people hang on the tree along with bulbs and tinsel and sh*t. Well, as it turns out, out of the fifty or so doodads on my mom's tree, doodad, like, #36 was a mouse.
As you know, one of Bugsy's first toys was a goshdarned mouse. I guess he wanted a new one. So he got it. The boy shows initiative.

The only camera I had was the one on my mom's Mac laptop, which is pretty low-res. Here's a detail of a photo of Bugsy's new cloth mouse. Trust me, it's a mouse all right. It amazes me that the Bugster chose this one thing out of all that junk on that tree. He's smart, he is. One of these days, he'll be doin' my folks' taxes.

Here he is, sneakin' up on the varmint. You know cats. It's all about the obstacles and angles.

Here's my mom, trying to get her boy to give a damn about that duster thingy. Nobody expresses indifference like a cat expresses indifference. It's a feline specialty.

Here's some more "mouse" action. That posy at left is actually just the design of the rug.

Another action shot. That Bugsy moves around like an electron. You think he's over here, but then, a second later, he's way over there. Zip zip zip. Bing!

My mom really isn't up on cats—she and my dad or mostly "dog" people—so I've given her the benefit of my experience, catwise. I told her about how cats can get all revved up and crazy. It's the old "wild hair," I say*. "Once that gets started, they're liable to zip around like lunatics and maybe pull on your pants or bite your ankles. Watch out," I say.
"It's just a cat thing."
Don't get me wrong; Bugsy is about as sweet a cat as I've ever encountered, and that's saying a lot. But he's a boy and he's a kitten. So, well, something's gotta give.

Here's my mom trying to join in the cat fun.
Bugsy and I have become serious play buddies. Nowadays, when I show up, the Bug comes right up to me expecting FUN and MAYHEM (or a bit of butter at the end of a knife). He gets the wild hair every time. My mom doesn't really know what she's getting into here. She's trying to hang that dang mouse on the side of that chair. She figures he'll go nuts about it. Nope. That's all wrong.

Bugsy the indifferent. You gotta toss the dang thing against a wall or crush it in your mouth, stuff like that. Just hanging it up on a chair means nothing. Less than nothing.
Get it right!

My mom always provides lots of balloons for the kids during the holidays. I recall visiting last week and finding all these "dead" balloons everywhere. Evidently, the Bugster had popped 'em all. I was impressed. If I were a little kid—like the Bugster—and I saw some new kind of object suddenly disappear with a bang, I'd think twice about getting near its kind again.
Not the Bugster, it seems.
What a guy!

Mom really loves her little boy. My dad tells me that she'll freak out when Bug sleeps in that deep way that cats do. "He's not dead, is he?" she'll ask, virtually trembling. Many reassurances are issued by dad. "No, the goddam cat is just sleeping!" Then he'll pound his foot on the ground or something and Bugsy'll shoot straight up in the air and tear off in some direction, just like some Warner Bros critter.
My folks are pretty clueless about cats.

Like Kathie, mom doesn't know how to say "no" to a cat. Arguably, it's important for a cat to know that word. When mom (or Kathie) say "no," they're about as stern as Shirley Goddam Temple. Truth is, all of mom's "nos" are virtual "yeses." So I told mom about how to say no and mean it; to be very quick and efficient about it: no lingering or yapping. Works wonders. And you don't have to yell or nothing.
Today, my mom tried out her first stern "no." The Bugster got one of those wild hairs and, when he hopped up on mom's lap, he started biting her (the way kittens do). He got a little carried away, getting those rear legs going. Ouch! That's when my mom tried out her new "no."
Suddenly, she belted out a thundering "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"—a No that could kill a guy.
I suggested that the utterance need not be ear-splitting or gut-wrenching. "Oh," she said.
(I don't think my mom has a "medium" switch. It's strictly off or HELLFIRE with her.)

Bugsy in the kitchen with Mr. Balloon, Mr. Mouse, and his beloved mom.

     *Some say the expression is "wild hare," not "wild hair." Yeah, whatever.