FOF

For the latest on FOF (i.e., Friend of Fuentes) Tan Nguyen, check out Martin Wisckol’s Nov. 3 post on Total Buzz.

Wisckol presents a letter by Attorney General spokesman Nathan Barankin. It's well worth reading.

Previous TAN coverage on DtB:

● ”Stand By Our Tan”—Babe pics!
● Tom’s kind of guy
● Rest of the story
● Al Tello’s wife?
● Lost in TANslation
● Tan’s senior campaign advisor: Tom Fuentes

Prayer and being "out of the picture" at the South Orange County Community College District

In this morning’s OC Register, we find an article concerning the 25th anniversary of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) regional office: Fighting for fairness. The article includes a brief interview with Joyce Greenspan, the office’s recently-retired director.

I got to know Joyce back in 1997. Here's how: on the morning of the August 1997 SOCCCD board meeting, I read the meeting’s agenda. It revealed then-Trustee Steven Frogue’s intention of holding a “forum on the JFK Assassination.” He planned to invite four speakers to Saddleback College. I recognized one of the speakers' names: "Michael Collins Piper."

So I called the local ADL. Joyce answered the phone.

Joyce attended the board meeting. (See The Excrement Hits the Fan). In her public remarks, she noted that at least two of Frogue’s guest speakers were associated with the Spotlight, the foremost anti-Semitic newspaper in the U.S. Mr. Piper was the Spotlight’s chief reporter. The other speakers were way-out-there conspiracy mongers. Joyce urged the board not to approve Mr. Frogue's request for his speakers' travel expenses.

The board just blew her off. (John Williams supported his pal Frogue. As always, he looked very staunch.)

The rest, as they say, is districtular history.

PRAYER

As a trustee, Mr. Frogue was heavily into prayer and being openly Christian. He held "prayer breakfasts" at the colleges, where his devotion and appetite were fully on display. Among Frogue's defenders—he was dogged by charges of anti-Semitism going back to 1994—was the local Christian Coalition. (See Ambushing a young critic.) They prayed for 'im. It didn't take.

In the interview in today’s Register, Joyce is asked what conditions were like in OC back in 1981, when the regional office opened. The topic of "prayer" comes up:

In 1981 there was just a hint, a beginning of diversity in Orange County. But it was not a very diverse community, and looking at church-state issues, there wasn't a lot of tolerance for understanding that everybody was not looking at religion the same way. There were a great many issues having to do with local government, having to do with schools, having to do with any public area in which people were speaking as government representatives—teachers, principals, elected officials—and felt that they were speaking to people just like them….

For instance, if you look at a number of city council meetings of those days, there would always be a prayer before a council meeting. Those meetings would begin with a very Christian prayer. It's a discomfort that people feel if you aren't Christian and a meeting is beginning with the invocation of a Christian prayer, it kind of leaves you out of the picture.

Now, people are very careful. If they do a prayer, it's nonsectarian—not just nonsectarian Christian but nonsectarian.

Well, people are careful—except at the South Orange County Community College District, where, routinely, Christian or Christianesque prayers are offered by the very theatrical Mr. Tom Fuentes. If you've ever heard one of his invocations, you know what I mean.


Whenever Mr. Fuentes speaks, and especially when he prays, it is as though his mouth were slowly extruding a string of divine sausage. He's a man who always knows that his words are heavenly words.

That Fuentes is so promiscuous an issuer of prayer should not surprise us, considering what he says he's proud of. When he stepped down as Chair of the local GOP in 2004, he offered these "farewell remarks”:

Now, some have asked me what is it that gives me most joy in twenty years as Chairman of this County Party. It is a little thing. It is the fact that anywhere in this county, whenever Republicans gather, we begin our time together with prayer. You may pray in your way, and I may pray in mine, but, my friends, Republicans in this county always acknowledge a power higher than ourselves as did our Founding Fathers. And, the values, principles, and ideals that flow from the acknowledgement of the divinity, guides our conservative social agenda. It gives us pause to reflect on what is really important in life and society. It motivates us to defend causes that are so critical in the cultural war that today engulfs our nation and its society. (My emphasis.)

Despite his guff about praying “in your way,” Fuentes’ prayers—not just before his Republican pals, but before those assembled for SOCCCD board meetings and events—are plainly Christian, or at least Judeo-Christian: “Let us pray…You, the Creator…please enlighten our minds...we...acknowledge You…Amen.”

Of course, other Trustees pray, too. For instance, we’ve heard plenty of Our heavenly Fathers coming out of Williams’ big mouth. But Mr. Fuentes lays it on pretty thick, Amen-wise. The language and ritual—and especially the eye-rolling—of his prayers are Christian—not Jewish, not Muslim, not Buddist. (Any Roman Catholics out there? Are F's prayers distinctly Catholic? Inquiring minds wanna know.)

FOR YEARS NOW, Saddleback Math instructor Karla Westphal has asked the board to cease engaging in prayer (including nonsectarian prayer—agnostics and atheists can suffer alienation too!) during district and college events. Below is a brief clip of Karla’s most recent request, at May's board meeting:

As I recall, the board didn't respond. They blew her off.


AS YOU MAY KNOW, recently, the Saddleback College Academic Senate passed a resolution urging the board to stop the praying, at least qua "invocations." IVC's Academic Senate joined them. The resolution was then moved up to the State Academic Senate. (There, it was well-received, but the State Senate is notoriously slow-moving, so don't hold your breath.) Expect some noise about this at some point.

As far as I know, trustees break no law when they pray as they do. I believe that, according to the courts, officials may not pray before youngsters at public schools, since the latter are impressionable. But college students are more mature, and so prayers by officials at events in public colleges are allowed.

If so, then the issue here is: what is the best practice? Undeniably, our community, especially at Irvine Valley College, is religiously diverse. At IVC, non-Christian traditions are represented by very large minorities:

Go to the district's Student demographics. (Also this)

● Evidently, in the Fall of ’05 (the most recent data), IVC enrolled about 12,500 students.
● About 3,300—over 26%—were “Asian." (Presumably, most Asian students are non-Judeo-Christian, although I don't really know.)

This means that, at public events that include prayer—especially Mr. Fuentes’ prayer—there is, or there could be, a lot of that “discomfort” and being left “out of the picture” that Greenspan talks about. (Entire district: over 14% of students identified themselves as Asian.)


We’ll try to keep you posted on this issue. (See also Fuentes' good pal Howard Ahmanson: condemning the separation of church and state.)

RELEVANT FACTOIDS:

● According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of Orange Countians who are Asian is 15.5%. (2004)

● According to the City of Irvine, Asian & Pacific Islanders made up 29% of the city’s population. (Based on 2000 census.)

Vote As If It Mattered, Part II—or You Be the Judge

"Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." —JK

That late October-early November Surprise I predicted a few weeks back may have arrived from John Kerry. Ironies abound, of course, so that an assessment of the ex-Democratic candidate for president’s (but not so you’d notice) remarks about, basically, the crude hierarchy of class and education offers one a Lazy Susan of possible critiques. The remark about ending up in Iraq, despite being, well, true, is a delicious metaphor, whoever grabs it as the tray of entrees, circles on the table.

Poor Kerry. He has to avoid an honest critique because he is a confused wealthy scion of confusion and wealth and privilege and still can’t say that the U.S. war against the people of Southeast Asia was, no, not a “mistake” or misstep or tragic error, but (if you repeat this I will deny it) imperialism by a country which has been doing this since it invaded the Phillipines and Hormel sold the military a lot of bad canned ham, making it only the easiest exemplary precursor to invading Iraq and Halliburton/KBR selling, well, everything.

Today’s Rosa Brooks column, “Was Kerry Right?”, is articulate and smart and nuanced. It suggests that the political affiliations of the warrior class (they are mostly Republicans) has as least as much to do with the fatalism and weird self-destruction they seem to embrace. I sent Rosa a grateful email. (Still waiting, by the way, to hear from Mr. Rodriguez.)

Anyway, I promised you local judge recommendations. I am a registered Green, against the war, vote labor and choice (No, goddamn it, on Prop 85! No! No! No!) and just sent my contribution to Planned Parenthood and NARAL.

Most judges are okay. One exception there. And one real contest, at the bottom of the ballot.

Joyce Kennard - Yes
Carol Corrigan - Yes
Judith McConnell - Yes
Patricia Benke - Yes
Richard Huffman - No (he has made a number of anti-first amendment decisions)
Judith Haller - Yes
Cynthia Aaron - Yes
Joan Irion - Yes
Art McKinster - Yes
Betty Richli - Yes
Jeffrey King - Yes
Douglas Miller - Yes
Kathleen O'Leary - Yes
Raymond Ikola – Yes

Office No. 4—Sheila Hanson!

—Red Emma

Vote as if it mattered

Sarah & Adam drop by for ice cream

Three-year-old Sarah's phobia du jour: fans. The electric kind.
"How come you're afraid of fans?"
"Because they're snoopy."
"Oh."
Meanwhile, two-year-old Adam has invented his own language. He's even loquacious.
And Sunny's on the prowl.

Guerra-Payan

In this morning’s OC Register: obituary for Saddleback College's only female police officer, Cynthia Guerra-Payan, who died over the weekend:

Motorcyclist died doing what she loved

Get ready for "smiley face" buttons!

JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT THE FIRST TIME:

● A great moment in Orange County's rich history of weirdness and wonderfulness!

All photos: stills from above video of babe crooning "Stand by Our Tan" at last Saturday's Tan Nguyen rally.

● ALSO, don't forget to read our account of Monday's amazing BOARD MEETING.

It's like an assignment, OK?

● [State] Chancellor Thanks Governor for $5 Million...for...Professional Development

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger budgeted $5 million to fund the development of community college faculty, staff and administrators, announced Chancellor Marshall (Mark) Drummond….

[Among the] activities determined to be related to educational and professional development[:] ...programs designed to develop self-esteem.

● 18-24 YEAR OLDS POISED TO CHALLENGE MIDTERM ELECTION TURNOUT RECORDS, HARVARD POLL FINDS

● RateMyProfessors: Hidden Camera Edition

● Read Gustavo Arellano's THEIR MAN TAN: Nguyen addresses his true believers.


● The IVC/Nguyen connection(s): Al Tello's wife?

Got any Saddleback College news? Send it our way! -CW

Monday's board meeting: blow by blow

● Surveillance system?
● RAGHU'S stealth agenda item!
● WAGNER on Spain again
● FORTUNE'S legacy?
● A first-rate stadium complex for Saddleback College?
● MATHUR/ADMINISTRATORS caught in a sh*t storm


As promised, here is my “full report” on Monday night’s meeting of the South Orange County Community College District’s Board of Trustees. (See also Tracy's board meeting highlights.)

LARIAT. The board loves Resolutions. Monday night, it “resolved” in various directions, including the direction of honoring Saddleback’s student newspaper, the Lariat, which, evidently, is a finalist for the National Pacemaker Award.

During public comments, the Lariat’s editor carped indecorously that the “division” will no longer be providing the paper its usual $14,000. The powers that be, he suggested, have decided to “punish [those who produce the newspaper] for being successful.”

Someone close to Liberal Arts Division leadership told me today that the student editor is mistaken. We’ll look into it.

SAFE CITIES. During his public remarks, Trustee Fuentes “saluted” the elected leadership and the police of Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, and Irvine. Evidently, earlier in the day, the FBI had declared those cities—especially Mission Viejo—to be among the very safest in the nation. Of course, if the Feds say it, it must be true.

BUT DO THEY EVEN KNOW WHAT "PROFLIGATE" MEANS? During the Saddleback College Associated Student Government’s giggly presentation of their budget, Trustee Wagner grumbled about the ASG’s “criteria and priorities,” suggesting that those standards “will encourage profligate spending.”

SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS:


The Honeywell Corporation then came up to present a semi-slick sales pitch for their super-duper digital “video surveillance” system. I do believe that the name of the man from Honeywell was “Ted Nugent.” He did not have a guitar.

Mr. Nugent explained that he used to sell AC units, but, increasingly, he found it necessary to concentrate on video surveillance equipment, which is hot hot hot. Nugent showed charts and graphs and diagrams. The best thing about the new system, he said, is…“risk mitigation.” Sounds impressive!

At first, I wondered if our benighted board had finally decided to monitor the movements, thoughts, and conversations of every employee and student in the district. But no. It appears that the reason for the Honeywell presentation had more to do with cops’ love of new gadgets to hang on their black leather utility belts than the trustees’ love of control.

Trustee Williams, a former bailiff wearing a hideous tie made from a large American flag that hung down near his knees, indicated that it was he who invited Ted Nugent and the Honeywells.

Trustee Fuentes expressed Libertarian “Big Brother” concerns.

Trustee Padberg seemed to ask: if Mission Viejo is the third safest city in the whole dang country, why the heck do we need all this surveillance equipment?

Williams reminded everybody that, once, in the 90s, an itinerant serial killer murdered a student in the parking lot. Plus, in the 70s, some guy ran amok at Cal State Fullerton.

Williams saved his best argument for last: “we live in an era of surveillance cameras,” he declared.

Trustee Jay yelped that “this is a terribly scary place at night.”

Trustee Lang and Chancellor Mathur reminded everyone that this stuff costs money.


MATHUR CAUGHT RED-HANDED:

Eventually, the board got to item 38: “Academic personnel actions.”


A half hour earlier, some of us detected something strange about the agenda. At the Docket meeting back on Oct. 19—when, supposedly, the Chancellor lists upcoming board agenda items—there was no mention of a recommendation to grant the Chancellor a retroactive (to 7/1/06) COLA. And yet the version of the full agenda available at the district website as of Oct. 30 included the following item:


Trustee Jay moved that item J1 be separated from the rest of item 38. That was approved. Eventually, the board returned to item J1.

Trustee Padberg “objected” to the item. For one thing, she said, why is the granting of a COLA to the district’s chief administrator listed under the heading: “Academic Personnel Actions”? Why does this newly added item refer to a “Raghubansh Mathur”—an unfamiliar name?

Padberg declared that these tactics are an “attempt to hide the item.” We’re paying the fellow “$300,000 a year,” she said, and “he does not need a COLA.”

Trustee Milchiker noted that the proposal to grant Mathur a COLA had come up a few months ago and was rejected by the board. (No, actually, the matter was essentially tabled.)

Trustee Lang, that notorious quisling, argued that, not long ago, every other administrator in the district received a COLA. Fairness, he said, demands that the Chancellor receive one too, even though, of course, the Chancellor makes more money than God. (Leave it to a bean-counter to offer so soulless an argument.)

Irvine Valley College Academic Senate President Wendy G was allowed to speak. She noted the curious circumstance that, at Docket, item J1 was not revealed or included. Between Oct. 19 and Oct. 30, she said, J1 was slipped into the agenda.

Chancellor Mathur commenced looking homicidal. His nose pulsated.


Wendy continued: there’s a “Brown Act” issue here. According to the Brown Act, posted agenda items should inform the public just what the board plans to discuss. How is the public supposed to learn that the board intends to discuss granting the Chancellor a COLA when all that they’ve got to go on is the cryptic phrase “additional compensation” appearing under the heading “Academic Personnel Actions”? (See graphic.)

Mathur’s boy Bob King, who wrote the item, was asked to respond. He seemed to say that the agenda says “additional compensation,” and, sure enough, that’s what is supposed to be discussed: additional compensation—for the Chancellor. So there's no prob.

Williams then argued that Mathur is a “professor”—one who happens to be the Chancellor. And so it is right and proper that his compensation is listed under the heading “Academic Personnel Actions.”

Earlier, Trustee Padberg noted that spelling out Raghu’s first name was unusual and served to further obscure the item. This inspired Williams to now argue that Padberg was making fun of Raghu’s name. “You owe him an apology,” he declared.


Milchiker then suggested that "Raghubansh" “is certainly a wonderful name,” but it has never appeared on an agenda before. Besides, she said, the board discussed this COLA idea before, and it failed. Item 38 “is suspicious to me,” she said.

Trustee Fuentes then suggested that perhaps Trustee Padberg has “difficulty with gentlemen whose names have a foreign origin.” (Fuentes is of Spanish origin, via Mexico. "Fuentes" means "fount of appalling evil" in Spanish. Or not.)

Trustee Wagner turned to Bob King, pressing him on the adequacy of the agenda verbiaage relative to the Brown Act and its requirements. (As you know, the SOCCCD board has a history of egregious Brown Act violation.) Wagner seemed to say that he was turning to King for guidance and that he was not getting any. He noted that the agenda refers to “additional compensation,” and yet section J1 refers, not to additional compensation, but to “compensation revision.”

Wagner seemed genuinely peeved.

In the end, King agreed to rethink the item and make sure that, next time, it is properly agendized.

SPAIN AGAIN:


Items 42 and 43 concerned Saddleback College’s “Spanish language studies” trips to Salamanca, Spain (one in spring; the other in summer). Once again, Wagner (and Fuentes?) were unhappy. The spring trip, said Wagner, is an “extraordinarily expensive program.” He wondered whether the department had considered more than one program provider.

Saddleback President McCullough explained that the division and departments did look at various programs, but the others were found wanting.

Wagner sought information from Dean Kevin O’Connor (Liberal Arts). O’Connor again stated that the department considered several vendors. Evidently, the board’s “$50 million liability coverage” requirement scared off many vendors. (You’ll recall that the board embraced that requirement after addressing the dangers of terrorists and marauding Flamenco dancers in connection with the Santander, Spain program.)

Wagner peevishly bemoaned the $50 million requirement. Apparently, no policy covers acts of war or terrorism. Hence, raising the liability amount failed to accomplish what trustees sought to accomplish.

During this discussion, it became clear that most vendors would not go along with this unusual liability requirement.

If his mouth did not say that the requirement was stupid, Mr. Wagner's face surely did.

Fuentes revived the idea that students should go to Mexico instead of Spain. Trips to Mexico are relatively inexpensive.

O’Connor said that the department hadn’t looked at Mexico. He said he could ask them to do that.


Milchiker explained that Salamanca is a city with an Ancient (Roman and Medieval) past. A visit to a city like Salamanca is nothing like a visit to Mexico. It's a case of apples and oranges.

Saddleback Academic Senate President Bob C reminded everyone that a delay in approving these programs would set them back.

Wagner declared that he was “extremely distressed” by Dean O’Connor’s “screw the board” attitude, as he put it. When the matter of cost was discussed previously, said Wagner, O’Connor said he would look into other options, but he clearly didn’t do that. “This is no way to treat recommendations of the board,” he fumed.

Padberg then suggested that the sort of influence Wagner, as an individual trustee, seemed to want over administrators amounted to “micromanagement.”

Eventually, the trips were put to a vote, and they were approved. But Trustee Wagner then pursued a “reconsideration” of the item.

Wagner seemed to say that he and Trustee Fuentes have concerns, and those concerns have been ignored. They’ve had to endure “silly arguments,” he said, about the inexpensiveness of trips when considered relative to “per day” cost.

In the end, the Salamanca trips were approved.


INDECOROUSNESS, REASSIGNED TIME, ETC.:

Vice Chancellor Serban was supposed to make a computer-assisted presentation of her work in pursuit of “institutional effectiveness,” a matter of great importance, according to the Chancellor. But it was getting late, and this yielded an indelicate effort by some trustees to skip Serban’s presentation as unnecessary. In the end, owing to the importance of the topic (re accreditation, etc.), Serban was allowed to make her brief presentation.

The episode seemed to go down badly with many people in the audience.

Item 49 concerned stipends and reassigned time. You’ll recall that, back in 1996-7, then-Trustee Dorothy Fortune led an effort essentially to do away with reassigned time, the practice of relieving instructors of teaching duties so that they can perform other duties (e.g., chairing departments, writing accreditation reports, etc.). Discussion of 49 seemed to revive this old issue.

Trustee Fuentes reminded everyone that Fortune left two “great legacies,” including “this building” and severe limitations on reassigned time for instructors. He seemed to warn against reversing Fortune’s “great” reassigned time-busting reform.

Wendy noted that the prevailing “reassigned time” policy—which restricts RT to 2% (of?)—was set about ten years ago. But in the last decade, the state has greatly increased demands of accountability, and this has multiplied duties that normally fall to faculty. Sticking with this old 2% rule is not fair to faculty, she said.

Item 51 was a report on “intercollegiate soccer at Saddleback College,” the contents of which Mr. Wagner found wanting. The discussion brought out more Wagnerian peevitude, which seemed to be dumped on Dean L.

Discussion of item 51 led to a discussion of the desirability of a “first rate stadium facility,” something strongly advocated by Trustee Williams and Trustee Jay. Trustee Lang threw cold fiscal waters on that discussion.

In truth, the trustees got pretty snippy, and everybody, I think, was glad when the meeting came to an end.