Board Meeting Highlights: Jemal is Prez

     Please see Tere’s Board Meeting Highlights
     Here are two interesting factoids therein:

     The board of trustees conducted their annual organizational meeting and facilities corporation meeting. The new board leadership positions are Tim Jemal, President; Jim Wright, Vice President; and Dave Lang, Clerk.
. . .
     Employment contract for Gary L. Poertner as Chancellor, SOCCCD, effective July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2019.

     Jemal as President: that's likely a good thing.

It can be fixed, some say
(the "CEO perspective")

     The extension of Poertner's contract, insiders tell me, does not reflect a desire to extend Poertner's service into the future. Rather, the new contract is, I'm told, an inducement for him to retire asap.
     I'm also told that, when Gary P steps down, which will be soon, "big changes" will occur throughout the district, leadershipwise.
     Let's hope the BOT gets an outsider for Chance (and for other roles). We need to get away from this sorry crowd.
     Am I right?
     Re upcoming trustee races: near as I can figure, these four seats are up (for 2016): Jemal, Wright, Lang, Jay. As I recall, Jay promised not to run for office next time around. Yeah.
     Prendergast, Whitt, and Milchiker are up in 2018, I believe. Did Whitt make a promise similar to Jay's?
     Promises, promises.

P.S.: [12/23] A wanted to watch the streaming video of Burnett/Roquemore's report on the accreditor's (ACCJC) recent troubles, but I couldn't get the streaming video page (at the district website) to open (it's mostly blank). So I emailed Tere, who said she was off to a vacation or something, and she dropped the matter in someone else's lap. But I still can't get the "streaming video" page to open.
     What's up with that?

Fall of the house of Beno

California Accreditor Under Fire (Inside Higher Ed)
Education Department staff recommends sanctions for the accreditor of the state’s two-year colleges. - December 10, 2015

By Michael Stratford

Beno

     The embattled accrediting organization that oversees California’s community colleges should lose some of its existing authority and not be allowed to expand its jurisdiction, the U.S. Department of Education’s accreditation unit has recommended.
     In a report published Wednesday, department staff recommended that the department revoke the accreditor’s existing federal authority to approve some four-year degree programs at California’s community colleges.
     The staff also recommended that the accreditor -- the WASC Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, known as the ACCJC -- have its request for broader authority to approve bachelor’s degree programs denied....

Lost Someone

Interesting districtular factoids: murder, NPR, propositions

Did you know that, thirty years ago, a Saddleback College administrator murdered someone in the nursing department?

     Yep. On Sept 16, 1984, the Times reported that a "Saddleback College Dean [has been] Held in [the] Shooting Death of His Wife [Dona Dawson of the nursing department at Saddleback College]."
     Then, on the 19th, the Times reported that "Saddleback Community College Assistant Dean Donald E. Dawson told his ex-wife's boyfriend that he 'killed Dona' minutes after he allegedly used two handguns to shoot her six times, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James Enright said Tuesday."
     On November 22, 1986, the Times reported that "A former assistant dean at Saddleback College, Donald E. Dawson, convicted of first-degree murder in the 1984 shooting of his ex-wife, told a Superior Court judge on Friday that he wanted to proceed with the sanity phase of his trial. Dawson had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but a jury returned a guilty verdict Wednesday. Dawson was arrested immediately after shooting Dona Mae Dawson, 46, five times on the sidewalk near her El Toro home on Sept. 15, 1984." (See additional articles below.)

Did you know that Saddleback College’s radio station was once an NPR affiliate?

     According to the Times' "Saddleback trustees vote to drop NPR affiliation" (May 31, 1984), "Orange County lost its only National Public Radio station Tuesday when the Saddleback Community College District's Board of Trustees voted to change Saddleback College-based KSBR (88.5 FM) into…."

--Into what? Well, into a student-run station, I guess. I didn't pay for the whole article.

Did you know that the construction of IVC was delayed because of Prop 13?

     Well, according to the Times' "Saddleback's 2nd Campus Faces the Ax" (Jun 17, 1978), "The Saddleback Community College District, nearing the halfway point in building its planned second campus in Irvine, may not be able to complete it because of Proposition 13."
     Groundbreaking had occurred in November of 1977. At the time (Nov 12, 1977), the Times reported that the campus was "due to open next fall," i.e., the fall of 1978. In fact, however, the campus, then called "Saddleback College North Campus," did not open until January (spring) of 1979 (see Times, Jan 15, 1979). 

More about Donald Dawson:

Ex-Dean Found Guilty of 1st-Degree Murder in Shooting of Former Wife, LA Times, November 20, 1986

     Former Saddleback College Assistant Dean Donald E. Dawson was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his ex-wife, but jurors rejected a prosecution claim that he was "lying in wait," which could have meant a sentence of life without parole.
     Despite the partial victory, Dawson was bitter about the jury's verdict, said his attorney, Ronald G. Brower.
     "He believes the jurors should have recognized the shooting occurred when he was in something like a psychotic state, a rage, and that legally it was a heat-of-passion shooting," Brower said.
     Killings that occur in the heat of passion are considered voluntary manslaughter in California, which was the verdict Brower sought from jurors. Dawson had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.…
     Dawson killed his former wife, Dona Mae Dawson, as she ran away from him down the sidewalk in front of her El Toro home at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1984. 

Resigned After Arrest
     According to evidence presented by both sides, Dawson had been trying to persuade his ex-wife to take him back and was upset to learn that she was seriously dating someone else.
     Dona Dawson, 46, at the time was director of the nursing department at Saddleback College. Dawson was assistant dean for Saddleback's division of technology and applied science. He resigned soon after his arrest the day of the shooting.
     About 2:30 that morning, while his ex-wife was spending the night with a boyfriend, Dawson had entered her house with a key she kept hidden. Evidence showed that he had waited part of that time in an upstairs bedroom with two guns, several boxes of ammunition, several pieces of rope and a pair of handcuffs.
     Dawson fired six shots at her with a .38-caliber handgun when she came through the door. All of them missed. But he felled her with a single shot fired as she ran down the sidewalk outside the house. Then, according to witnesses, he stood above her and fired four more shots into her. He stayed at the scene until police arrived and told them what had happened.
     At his trial, Dawson chose not to testify.
     Prosecutors filed the "special circumstances" allegation that he was lying in wait for her, claiming that he shot her after springing from a hidden position. Brower devoted many of his trial arguments to efforts to disprove that claim.
     Jurors on Wednesday rejected the special circumstances allegation.
     Normally, had the jury found that the special circumstances did apply, the trial would have gone into a separate penalty phase for jurors to choose between death or life without parole. But in Dawson's case, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty because of his lack of a criminal background. A sentence of life without parole can only be reduced by the governor.
     The first-degree murder verdict carries a sentence of 27 years to life, including two years for use of a firearm. Dawson would be eligible for parole in 13 1/2 years.
     But if Dawson were found insane, he would automatically be sent to a state hospital.
     Brower said after court Wednesday that before he decides whether to proceed with a sanity phase, he will have to do research to determine how long Dawson would probably have to remain committed to a hospital.
     "I think state mental hospitals are probably just as bad as prison," Brower said. "If a hospital commitment would be longer (than 13 1/2 years) it might not be worth going ahead." 

'Background of Depression'
     Dawson has been interviewed by half a dozen psychologists and psychiatrists, all of whom testified at his trial that he killed his ex-wife in a rage and that he was mentally unstable at the time. But they have not touched on the sanity issue yet.
     Brower said it was not out of character for Dawson to be bitter about the jury verdict.
"All the doctors have told us that he has a history of rejecting responsibility," Brower said. "He has a background of severe depression, very exaggerated mood swings."
     Dawson's parents and his brother, Robert, left the courtroom quickly after the verdict was read. An angry Robert Dawson told reporters, "Just leave us alone."
     Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright, who prosecuted the case, said afterward that he could not discuss the verdict in detail because of the possibility of a penalty phase. But he did say he was pleased with the first-degree murder verdict and not too surprised at the jury's rejection of the "lying in wait" claim.
     "That one was a close call; without any witnesses, we knew that one would be tough," Enright said.
     Dona Dawson's two sisters, who attended most of the trial, were not able to get to court Wednesday in time to hear the jury's verdict. But a close friend of the victim, Dorothy Williams, wept and whispered, "Thank you," as jurors left the courtroom. Lee Arth, a former professor at Rio Hondo College who had known both the Dawsons for about 15 years, was in court for the verdict too.
     "It was a fair verdict, considering what Don did," Arth said.

Parole denied for killer of ex-wife, OC Register, Aug 1, 2001

     The confrontation exploded in front of the house, where Dawson pumped five bullets into her back.
     Then the scholar poured himself a glass of wine.
     In rejecting Dawson's first bid for freedom, the parole board agreed with prosecutors that he remains, in essence, a serial philanderer whose lust for control drove him to kill.
     Dawson, who was convicted of first-degree murder, is serving a sentence of 27 years to life at a medium-security prison in San Luis Obispo.
. . .
     Dawson, who has a master's in criminal justice, is a quiet inmate who has caused no problems during his 13 years at the California Men's Colony….
...
     Dona Mae Dawson was 46 and about to become assistant director of the nursing program at Saddleback College when she was murdered.
. . .
     Donald E. Dawson swears he's a new man…
     He swears he's no longer the person who 17 years ago gunned down his former wife in front of her Lake Forest home in a crime that stunned colleagues, friends and family members.
     On Tuesday, a parole board didn't buy his story and told the former college administrator he will have to wait four years to make his case again.
     He will be 67 then.
     The board still thinks he poses a danger to society, '' said Denise Schmidt, spokeswoman for the Board of Prison Terms in Sacramento.
     Dawson became obsessed with his former wife after their divorce in 1982, prosecutors say.
     One night, the former police officer, Navy intelligence investigator and assistant dean at Saddleback College broke into her home and waited.
     Several hours later, Dawson – incensed that Dona Mae Dawson was seeing another man – fired his .45-caliber pistol when she walked in the door, hitting her thigh.
...
     Dixie Bullock, president of the college in Mission Viejo, said Donald Dawson doesn't deserve freedom.
...
     In 1996, a Santa Maria woman married Dawson.
...

     According to [Prosecutor] Middleton, Donald Dawson has kept his reason for being in prison a secret from Marianne's children.

     They think he works for the California Department of Corrections on undercover assignments, ' Middleton said.
     In papers submitted to the parole board, Dawson stated, I did not love my previous wives, but I love my current one.''
     That statement chills Middleton
     It shows his contradictory nature, '' the prosecutor said. To me, it shows that he now has another obsession.''

All Things Must Pass

E.g., this passed.

Aerial view of IVC, c. 1991

A friend in Facilities and Maintenance dropped by with this cool aerial photo of IVC, c. 1991
CLICK on it for detail

Contemporary Google Earth image

College map

The Faculty Association Old Guard's sleazy tactics: 1985

 

Saddleback College's Sharon MacMillan

     Originally, the stuff below was a continuation of my recent post re the controversial selection of the site for our district's second, and northern, campus. In fact, however, the subject changed to the involvement of the district's faculty union (the Faculty Association) and its involvement in local politics. So I've fashioned a new post about that.
     As it turns out, some of the same unionists who dragged the district through the mud in 1996 were employing similar tactics as early as 1985, when faculty's big issue had been getting rid of a detested chancellor, Larry Stevens. (See 1982: The district hires Larry Stevens and learns to regret it.)

     1985. OK, so let’s jump now to the end of Eugene McKnight’s tenure as trustee of the Saddleback Community College District (1985). Today, I came across this old LA Times article. Some interesting names came up:

Mailer in Saddleback Campaign Is Assailed : Newsletter by 'Republican' Taxpayer Group Not Sent Out by GOP, County Chairman Says

November 01, 1985 BILL BILLITER  Times Staff Writer

Then-Chancellor Stevens

     Thomas A. Fuentes, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County [and future trustee for the SOCCCD BOT], Thursday denounced a campaign mailer that was sent to some voters in the Saddleback Community College District and that said it was "distributed by Orange County Republican Taxpayer Federation." [Spoiler: the Old Guard’s Sharon Macmillan and her ilk were behind this mailer.]

     Fuentes said such a group "is not affiliated in any way with the official Republican Party of Orange County, nor is it affiliated with the California Republican Party." 

Unethical Behavior Claimed 

     The mailer attacks two incumbent trustees on the Saddleback Community College Board, Bill Watts and Robert Price [you’ll recall that, a decade earlier, Price was “a member of the select citizen's advisory committee to determine the need for a northern campus”], and also Mike Eggers, a candidate for the board. The mailer says that the "Price, Watts, Eggers Triad Seeks Control of College Tax Money."

     The mailer also accuses Eggers of unethical behavior and connection to admitted political corruption figure Patrick Moriatry [sic], an Anaheim fireworks company executive. [Re Moriarty, see Moriarty freed from prison.]

     Eggers, who is an aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) and runs Packard's office in Mission Viejo, formerly handled a public relations newsletter for 3,000 charitable organizations that sell fireworks. Eggers said Thursday that he has never had direct relations with Moriarty and that the mailer was "a smear."

     Eggers is one of four candidates in Tuesday's election seeking the Saddleback Community College District seat being vacated by incumbent Eugene McKnight, who is retiring.

'Very Inflammatory' 

Carraway

     Fuentes said the mailer was "trying to utilize the good reputation of the Republican Party to lend credibility to . . . very inflammatory charges."

     Fuentes noted that the "Orange County Republican Taxpayer Federation" listed a Placentia address but no officers of the alleged group.

     "This kind of tactic demonstrates a blatant disrespect for the voters and for the Republican Party," he said.

     Eggers said the mailer was part of the teachers' union's campaign to win control of the Saddleback Community College District board in Tuesday's election.

     The mailer was in the form of a newsletter of the "Consumer Action Council," which listed Earl H. Carraway as its chairman. Carraway is the husband of Saddleback College faculty member Sharon MacMillan, immediate past president of the Saddleback Faculty Assn., the teachers' union.

Properly Registered 

     Carraway could not be reached for comment, but in a press release that he sent to news media Thursday he said the "Orange County Republican Taxpayer Federation" is a political action committee that is properly registered both with the state and the Orange County registrar of voters.

     Carraway's press release added: "I and other Republicans who paid to distribute the Consumer Action Council newsletter are concerned about protecting the good image of the Republican Party in Orange County; we feel that Mike Eggers is bad for that image."

     Eggers said the mailer, by linking him to Moriarty, "is probably costing me a thousand votes." He said he has received questioning calls from voters, "but after they hear the facts, they're angry about the mailer and are promising to work for me."

Eggers, 2006

'Do Not Know' Moriarty

     Eggers, 37, said that from 1982 to mid-1983 his private public relations firm, Mica and Associates, wrote the newsletter for Organizations for Safe and Sane Fireworks. He said that group consisted of 3,000 charities from 345 communities in the state, all of which sell fireworks around the Fourth of July.

     "I do not know, nor do I have any relationship with, Pat Moriarty," Eggers said. "I've seen him twice, both at social occasions. He was never directly involved in the organization that hired me to write its newsletter."

     In addition to Eggers, three other candidates are seeking McKnight's trustee seat. They are Iris Swanson, a retired college executive assistant who has been endorsed by the teachers' union; Cal State Fullerton sociology professor Perry E. Jacobsen, who has been endorsed by McKnight, and Ian Doyer, who is retired.

     Ain’t that rich?

     How rich? Well, when the faculty union's favorite trustee, Steve “Holocaust denyin’” Frogue, resigned from the board in the summer of 2000, the Faculty Association Old Guard (which then included Sharon M) showed up at a special board meeting to urge the selection of Tom Fuentes as Frogue’s replacement.

     I kid you not.

P.S.: Re Mr. Earl H. Carraway, Sharon MacMillan's husband: He ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress against Schmitz and Hinshaw in the early 70s. He's a Republican and some sort of anti-tax nut. (See LA Times.) He has been an elected member of school boards. He is the author of Shake Off The Dust 1936: A Memoir and resides (or once resided) in Nellie Gail Ranch. In recent years, he has been a realtor (in Lake Forest).

     As a Republican, a proponent of "back to basics" education reform, a member of Rick Warren's church (see below), and a foe of taxes, he would seem to be very conservative. He once pursued an amendment to the CA Constitution re elimination of construction bans in agricultural preserves. Perhaps he has Libertarian leanings.

     Carraway’s SVUSD Candidate Statement from 2012:

Candidate: Earl Carraway

OCCUPATION: Educator/Realtor/Publisher 

     I, Earl H. Carraway, pledge not to vote for any new taxes. I’ve served as a teacher, public school administrator, elected trustee for the Tustin Union High School District (which included high schools in Mission Viejo, Irvine and Tustin) and United States Marine Corps, receiving one battle star.

     Awarded Bachelor and Master’s degrees from California State University Long Beach. Graduate work: Chapman, Whittier and Fullerton State Universities.

     Successful small business owner: Raised funds for charities such as Children’s Hospital OC (CHOC). Member: Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Our family atttends Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church.

     Thirty year Saddleback Valley resident. I believe in open government, small class sizes for our children, support for our teachers, back to basics education, balanced school budgets, parental participation in the education process and not raising taxes.

     I authored/published with Amazon.com: “Shake Off The Dust 1936", 48 short stories of a teenager’s great depression era memories. Book described by critics as: “What you would get if Mark Twain had written ‘The Catcher In The Rye’.”

     Live in Laguna Hills with daughter and wife: Sharon MacMillan Carraway, Ph.D. I promise, you won’t regret your vote for me. Thank you.

     If Mr Caraway is still among the living, he is 84 years old.