Trustee appointment (two applicants?)

     According to the District website, interviews of applicants for filling the vacancy in trustee area 6 (Lake Forest)—created by Tom Fuentes' passing—“will be held the week of June 18, 2012.”
     A reader has commented that “Two people applied for the position. Jim Wright of Saddleback and Tom's widow [i.e., Jolene Fuentes]."
     That may well be true. Those were the two names that came up—in the district rumor mill—almost immediately after the trustees’ curious decision, during a special meeting, to pursue a replacement of Tom Fuentes was announced. (See May meeting.) (A reader commented that this information was announced during the docket meeting this week.)
     Jim Wright is the Dean of Math, Science & Engineering of the Division of Math, Science, and Engineering, Saddleback College.
     I do believe that Wright, who was honored with an "Admin of the Year" prize in 2009, has retired.
    At the special meeting held immediately after the last board meeting, Board President Nancy Padberg indicated that one of Tom Fuentes’ “relatives” expressed interest in pursuing the area 6 trusteeship. It would seem that the only relative who could apply is Tom's widow, Jolene.

What does Fuentes’ tutelage under, esteem of, and four years with, Ronald "shakedown" Caspers tell us about him?

SPECIAL REPORT

  Fuentes credits former Supervisor Ronald Caspers for much of his political rearing. 

–LA Times, 1985

     THE IMPORTANCE OF CALLING A SPADE A "SPADE." The philosopher* in me needs to say that falsehoods in general, and courtesy distortions—for instance, whitewashing the lurid facts of a newly-deceased cad’s record—in particular, are enemies of morality.
     And that is why I am eager to counter the absurd notion that Tom Fuentes was, in his extra-familial roles, a good and even a great man.
     I do not adopt this stance because I reject his “politics”—“Neanderthal” is the adjective I have used for that. I am able, more so than some others I think, to respect people across the political spectrum with whom I disagree. —Even cave people.
     The problem with Tom Fuentes, in my opinion, isn’t his philosophical positions about, say, the role of religion in politics, the value of freedom in the marketplace, or the importance and proper role of private property, etc. —Whatever, man. No, the problem is how he pursues his values, such as they are—er, were.

     (Note: I'm leaving aside Fuentes' role in the horrific scandal afflicting the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. I shall leave that matter in the able hands of Gustavo Arellano.)

* * *

     To this day, Nixon's spirit seems to animate Fuentes. Close your eyes and listen to Fuentes, and you will hear precisely enunciated cadences of R.N.
     "He models himself after Richard Nixon," said Peer Swan, a Newport Beach businessman who has clashed with Fuentes. "He acts and talks like him, and has those big sweeping gestures like Richard Nixon."

–LA Times, 1996

Spades

     Tom was born in 1948, in the Los Angeles area. His family later moved to Orange County.
     When he was twelve years old, Fuentes was already a supporter of the man who would become his idol—Richard Nixon. During that campaign, which pitted Nixon against Catholic John Kennedy, Fuentes proudly wore his "Nixon" button to his Catholic school.
     Tom’s curious youthful enthusiasm for local and national politics did not wane. In college—first at Santa Ana, then at Chapman—Fuentes presided over the Young Republicans. By 1968, at about age twenty, he came to the attention of Ronald Caspers, a businessman/banker who sought political office, namely, a seat on the county board for the 5th Supervisorial district.
     Caspers, of course, was a Republican.
     Fuentes became his chief assistant, famously managing Caspers' successful campaign against respected Republican incumbent, Alton Allen. (More about that below.)
     Later, of course, Fuentes would noisily declare the imperative to support Republican incumbents and denounce and "discourage" Republican challengers. Here we have one of The Fuentean Contradictions—a large and bewildering class. He seems to have participated, most foully, in precisely the dastardly deed he piously condemned.
     Though he was the manager of Caspers' 1970 victory, Tom’s role in Caspers’ seriously hinky efforts to defeat incumbent Alton Allen (including an attempted recall) and seat himself on the OC Board of Supes is unclear to me; I can find no detailed accounts of the campaign. In any event, it appears that, at least in the opinion of then-OC GOP chairman, Tom Rogers, the endeavor was a no-holds-barred descent into unscrupulousness, a rip-roaring, Karl Rovian** mud-chuck. (Explained below.)
     Further, the people behind Caspers—landowner Richard O’Neill and doctor Louis Cella—were profoundly corrupt; they were the originators, really, of the style of corruption that has come to define OC politics. For a time, they were successful: according to Cecil Hicks, the OC DA who finally addressed this corruption, O’Neill and Cella actually ran a “shadow government."
     And one of the men O'Neill and Cella controlled was Ron Caspers, who, as events would reveal, was key to the O'Neill/Caspers coalition's continued flourishing.

* * *

     On Democratic voters [Fuentes] says are unaware of the "evils" their party has perpetrated: "It's a little like good Germans denying the existence of the Holocaust."

—LA Times, 1996

Louis Cella ("Doc")

     DICK AND DOC. Louis Cella died only recently. His death inspired the Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters (see) to recall the scandal at which Cella was the center. Dr. Cella, he wrote, was “a physician who virtually controlled Orange County politics in the 1970s….” According to Walters,

     Cella and a very wealthy Orange County rancher and developer, Richard O'Neill, formed a political and business alliance known as "Dick and Doc," that was, in effect, a shadow government. It placed four sycophants [Ralph Diedrich, Caspers, Robert Battin, & Ralph Clark] on the five-member Board of Supervisors [three Democrats plus Republican Ronald Caspers], and Cella's Santa Ana medical clinic [he owned two hospitals] had a wing devoted to political operations.

     Writes Walters, back in 1975, he and his reporting partner, Al Donner, worked laboriously on a story about the “Cella-O’Neill machine”:

     While I concentrated on Orange County, [my partner] delved into [State Controller Ken] Cory's appointments of campaign donors and their relatives as "inheritance tax referees" – some of whom were tied to the Orange County machine.
     The deeper we dug, the more tangled the story became, such as the murder of one tax referee*** as he desperately sought reappointment by Cory, and the never-solved mystery of a yacht that vanished off Baja California. There were 10 people aboard, including the machine's chief political operative, Fred Harber, and Ronald Caspers, an Orange County supervisor and banker who had financed the hospitals.
     We uncovered indications of Mafia involvement, including an obscure company partially owned by a known Mafia figure from Las Vegas who was involved in one Orange County land deal.
     Donner and I wrote thousands of words, but we always suspected that we had barely scratched the surface.

     Back in 1976, Walters and Donner suggested that the death of Caspers and Harber was a major blow to the Dick and Doc operation—perhaps the beginning of the end for the "shadow government":

     With Harber’s passing, Cella was forced to move into the open, and investigators began taking an interest in his complex of business affairs. Orange County District Attorney Cecil Hicks, perhaps the only major Orange County official openly hostile to Cella and O’Neill, has called Cella the man behind “a shadow government”.

     THE EL TORO LAND DEAL. Also back in 76, Walters and Donner reported:

     The influence of Cella and O’Neill in county government is apparent in many ways. A prime example is the El Toro case. El Toro Land Company was formed as a partnership in 1970 to develop a 39-acre parcel along the San Diego Freeway in Orange County. One of the original partners, with a $25,000 investment, was Albert Parvin, one-time Las Vegas casino-owner and head of the Parvin-Dohrmann Company and the Parvin Foundation. Meyer Lansky, reputed Mafia financial brain, was one of Parvin’s partners in the Flamingo Hotel and the Parvin Foundation had former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas on its payroll for $12,000 per year – a revelation that sparked an impeachment effort against Douglas several years ago. Cella, O’Neill and Harber bought into El Toro Land in 1971 and remain as major partners, along with Parvin, according to corporate records. Shortly after they bought in, the Orange County Board of Supervisors took emergency action to establish a freeway interchange adjacent to that property and the land increased in value by 600 percent, county records show. (See Unscrambling Dick and Doc’s financial and political empire, California Journal; January 1976)

      TAKING OUT ALTON ALLEN. To get a sense of the ethics of Cella/O’Neill's boy Caspers, consider this account, written by the chair of the OC GOP during this period, Tom Rogers:

Republican Alton Allen: taken out
by Caspers and crew 

     The incumbent in the 5th [OC Supervisorial] district was [Republican] Alton Allen [born: 1897], a retired banker, who lived in … Laguna Beach….
     Allen was widely respected for his representation of the 5th District, which included the beach communities of Newport, Balboa, Laguna, and San Clemente, plus the vast inland areas held by the Irvine Ranch and the Rancho Mission Viejo, with thousands of acres devoted to agricultural production.
     It came as a rude shock when, in 1969, a tabloid-type mailer was received by residents of the 5th District alleging wrongdoing on the part of Allen and his staff. Allen’s reputation for honesty and integrity had been undoubted.... Campaign finance reporting requirements were almost nonexistent in those days, so it was impossible to determine who was behind this puzzling attack, which was to develop into a recall movement. Anthony Tarantino, one of the nominal sponsors of the mailer, … was a man of modest means and it was obvious that there was someone else, unidentified, who was engaged in the expensive campaign to destroy Alton Allen’s character.
. . .
     The mysterious anti-Allen forces opened a headquarters in Laguna Hills from which to launch a formal recall campaign. The mailers kept arriving with insinuations of Allen’s “wrongdoing.” Staff at the recall headquarters refused any information to the press that had become interested in the plot. The Alton Allen recall petition failed to obtain sufficient signatures and it is doubtful that the exercise was anything other than to prepare the way for the upcoming supervisorial election in the 5th District. Alton Allen’s campaign for reelection was close at hand.
. . .

Supervisor Robert Battin

     It would be revealed later that Tarantino had ties to Lou Cella, Fred Harber, and others identified by [Supervisor] Robert Battin as “the Coalition.” Battin, in an attempt to depict his own conviction as discriminatory, revealed the existence of the group, which also included [OC land baron] R.J. O’Neill.
. . .
     The original plan to recall Allen was scrubbed when it was decided that if Allen were recalled, Governor Reagan would probably appoint his assistant John Killifer, who was in no way connected to the scheme….
. . .
     Robert Battin was to use his position on the Board of Supervisors to make Allen look inept in dealing with certain issues. [Local politician] Paul Carpenter also admitted to being part of the recall effort much later, but denied knowledge of the other Coalition members being involved. Carpenter claimed that the clandestine effort was confined to himself and a Republican who aspired to be a supervisor.
     Emerging out of the shadows was Ron Caspers, a Republican who was the owner of Keystone Savings and Loan in Westminster. In the beginning there were suspicions expressed that he was the moving force behind Allen’s recall, a charge he denied but which was later confirmed in the course of several unrelated criminal prosecutions.
. . .
     Allen’s reelection campaign received no help from the GOP, and his campaign staff were amateurs, at best. Alton never recovered from the personal attacks and he went down to defeat.
. . .
     With Caspers’ election, Orange County politics were turned upside down. It was the dawning of a new era, and whether Caspers was a Republican or a Democrat, the special interests flocked to his office confident that they had a supervisor with whom they could do “business.”
     The fact he claimed to be a Republican had little to do with the support he received from the Coalition. That group supported other Republicans including Larry Schmit for supervisor. [Another politician in the Coalition's stable: Robert Citron.]
     Caspers is rumored to have indicated that important county appointments, such as the Planning Commission, would cost an applicant $15,000.

     At this point, Rogers turns briefly to Tom Fuentes:

     Caspers hired a young graduate of Chapman College who had helped in his campaign to serve on this staff. As Casper’s assistant, Tom Fuentes ... worked diligently to convince Republicans that Caspers was not what many party regulars feared, an unscrupulous opportunist who had no permanent loyalty to any political party. Fuentes was aided in his duties by the ubiquitous Frank Michelena. Michelena, a lobbyist with a checkered career, was notorious in the field of political influence. [See.]

Tom with mentor, Ron Caspers, c. 1973

     NASTY DEVELOPERS—AMONG OTHERS. The bogeymen of Rogers' book's**** saga of the OCGOP's descent from principle are developers—but, in this case, it was the politician who initiated the era of "government for sale":

     In this election [1970], it appears that the candidate preceded the special interests, and it was after his election that Caspers made the contacts and set the ground rules for developer participation in the grand scheme of patronage carried to an exponential degree.

     In Orange County, that's never stopped, says Rogers.
     Rogers bring up a weird wrinkle in the Caspers saga:

     In a later criminal case, a paid informant with reputed ties to organized crime would allege that Caspers had received a $600,000 loan from two banks, Coast and U.S. National. The informant, Gene Conrad, had been working with the district attorney’s office in an attempt to connect the Board of Supervisors to the syndicate. Conrad’s testimony did not bear out the suspicion of the D.A. that supervisors had been provided with interest-free loans from gambling interests. Conrad stated that his research had determined that the loan in question did carry interest. Whether it was ever paid back remains a mystery.

     Sheesh.

Fuentes meets his hero; he had met him before, at age 14, at the OC Fairgrounds

* * *

     “If [Ron] Caspers had lived, we would have had the votes to stop [DA Cecil] Hicks,” said Cella. “He was a very strong vote against Cecil and he disliked Cecil even more than Fred [Harber] did.”

—OC Magazine, 1984

     SHAKEDOWN. Then there was the period from Caspers’ election in 1970 until his peculiar death in June of 1974. During that time (or part of it), Fuentes was a “consultant” for Caspers’ S&L. (Caspers provided some of the financial backing for Doc's hospitals.) Further, Tom was Caspers’ right-hand man at the County. By the time of Caspers’ death in '74, Tom was Caspers’ “executive assistant,” and he was expected to be Caspers’ replacement on the board—indeed, then-Governor Reagan made an announcement to that effect, but the appointment was undone by Fuentes’ failure to meet a residency requirement.
     Some have suggested that, using his county office as a base, Caspers and his associate, Fred Harber, participated in a "shakedown" operation. According to former OC GOP chair Tom Rogers,

     ...[Caspers' associate Fred] Harber had been considered a prime mover in county politics…. Prior to his [1974] disappearance, he was alleged to have been involved in a shakedown of a developer in behalf of Supervisor Caspers. The builder Richard V. Jordan, in a sworn statement, declared that Harber had contacted him after his project in Casper’s 5th District had been turned down, and had told him what it would take to solve the problem. “$10,000 and $2,000 per month” Harber is alleged to have demanded form Jordan….
     Jordan asserted in his deposition that the meeting with Harber was prior to meeting with Caspers in a rubber raft off Cabo San Lucas. Jordan was represented by attorney R.S. “Sam” Barnes and his client contacted District Attorney [and Cella foe] Cecil Hicks and arranged for a payoff with marked bills. Before the plan was put into motion, Caspers won reelection and, with Harber, boarded the Shooting Star and headed once again for the Cape…. [From there, the ship headed north and disappeared during rough weather.]
     In the end the county paid off $700,000 to Jordan’s company…, as a result of losses caused by the extortion scheme. [For excerpts of Rogers' book, see here.]

     In his excellent 1984 article, "The Sinking of a Political Machine" (which suggested that the demise of Caspers/Harber was also the beginning of the end of Dick and Doc), journalist Larry Peterson wondered if Harber and Caspers attempted this "shakedown" with others—others who, unlike Jordan, were disposed to respond with violence rather than litigation:

     ...[E]vidence that Harber and Caspers were up to potentially dangerous mischief at the time surfaced four years [after the sinking of "Shooting Star"]. In 1978, developer Richard V. Jordan alleged in a suit against the county that the two were trying to shake him down for a $10,000 payoff plus $2000 a month for approval of a project he wanted to build near El Toro, in Caspers’ supervisorial district.
     The county settled out of court on Jordan’s claim that the county illegally revoked his building permit, paying him $700,000. The matter was investigated by the district attorney’s office to determine whether persons still alive might be criminally liable, but that probe ended inconclusively.
     As it turns out, preliminary discussion concerning the alleged deal took place in Mexican waters aboard the Shooting Star, Jordan said in papers filed with his lawsuit.
     Before the arrangement could be consummated, however, Caspers, Harber and the others departed on the fateful trip. Ironically, Jordan said, he was invited along, but declined because he didn’t think the Shooting Star was seaworthy. But the Coast Guard cited reports that deficiencies on the boat had been corrected prior to the trip.
     Jordan, the record shows, knew how to seek and obtain remedies for his grievance in a court of law. But one is tempted to ask: Were Harber and/or Caspers using the same routine on anyone else, perhaps someone prone to resort to different—and more violent—remedies?....

* * *

     In speeches, Fuentes rails against the "Westside liberals" and the "San Francisco Democrats" as if they were a disease. 

—LA Times, 1996

Ronald Caspers

    SINS OF THE FATHER. It seems highly unlikely that an honest assessment of Mr. Caspers today could yield anything but a highly negative outcome. The tragic nature and timing of his death in 1974, occurring as it did before the Cella shite hit the fan, prevented any clear assessment of the man, and that fact, I think, has made Tom Fuentes' career as a Republican leader possible.
     I have asked reporters who worked in Orange County during the relevant period whether it is conceivable that Tom Fuentes, a very bright guy who was intimately involved in Ron Caspers' business and political affairs, could have been uninvolved in Caspers’ hinky ways and means, as described above.
     Did he participate in any of that? “I don’t know about that,” one reporter who covered OC politics at the time told me. “But it is very hard to imagine,” he said, “that Fuentes was unaware of it.”

     THE "BAGMAN" MOMENT. A dozen years after Caspers’ death, Fuentes had become the Chair of the OC GOP. When one impressive and ambitious young man, Nathan Rosenberg, who had been a leader in the local Young Republicans, dared to run for local office against a GOP incumbent, he encountered considerable push-back from Chairman Fuentes. During a TV debate, he was reminded of one of Fuentes’ criticisms. Rosenberg shot back with, “Coming from Ron Caspers' bagman, I don't feel bad about Mr. Fuentes' comment” (see).

* * *

     "[Fuentes] said my business would be ruined, and that my husband's business would be ruined," said [former Superior Court Judge Judith] Ryan, a [Republican] challenger to U.S. Rep. Robert K. Dornan for his seat in 1992. "I was taken aback." 

–LA Times, 1996

     I've spoken with some Orange County reporters who take seriously, or are at least intrigued by, the "rumor" that Fuentes, who was supposed to be on the Shooting Star's ill-fated trip, may have had something to do with the ship's sinking.
     The evidence for that is pretty shaky, I think. But reporter Peterson, for one, seemed to think the "murder" hypothesis (not necessarily by Fuentes) was worth exploring.
     More on that in future installments....

SEE ALSO: What sank "Shooting Star"?

* I teach philosophy at Irvine Valley College. My training (at UCI) emphasized ethics (and political philosophy).
** Ever the cheerleader, Mr. Fuentes established the Republican Party of Orange County Lee Atwater Award. Not sure if he also established a Roy Cohn prize.
*** Note to self: Arlene Hoffman's murder. Her husband.
**** The excellent Agents' Orange (2000), by Tom Rogers; no longer in print. I approached three libraries that supposedly possessed the book. Curiously, in each case, it was missing from library shelves. I finally found a copy at IVC of all places!

Just who’s "underhanded" and "manipulative"? —Courtesy distortions re Fuentes vs. ubiquitous factoidal residue

     IMMEDIATELY after a guy dies, people typically adopt a kind of correctness such that a spade isn’t called a spade, if the spade’s a knave.
     But it depends on the guy, the degree and amount of knavitude. In the case of particularly industrious knaves, you just can't maintain those courtesy distortions; the truth is just gonna show up again and again, 'cause it's woven ubiquitous into the fabric of reality.
     Recently, OC Reg political reporter Martin Wisckol reported about County GOP Chief Scott Baugh’s success in “ousting” certain troublesome members of the Central Committee from positions of leadership—members who weren’t part of his “team.” Chief among these renegades was Villa Park’s Deborah Pauly, a Neanderthal among Neanderthals (and a dolt among dolts).
     This yielded the spraying of much venom at Baugh about his alleged dictatorial and undemocratic ways.
     Some Pauly fans—i.e., hard-core Tea People—even asserted that such unseemly tactics were never employed in the days of the late Tom Fuentes! (His chairmanship: 1985-2004)
     Golly, that's ridiculous. At this point, Wisckol seems to feel the need to set people straight, and so he posted the following:

Did O.C. GOP chief Baugh do something wrong? (OC Reg)

     Writes Wisckol,

     Several critics have voiced outrage over Scott Baugh‘s success in ousting foes from the county Republican Party’s governing Central Committee, but the allegations are straying far enough from reality that a fact check is in order.
     Among other things, I’d like to address the mis-impression of some that county GOP Chairman Baugh is underhanded and manipulative while his predecessor, the late Tom Fuentes, was transparent and let events take their own course.

Fuentes and Baugh

     Wiskol goes on to explain the openness with which Baugh encouraged the “slate mailer” people to favor his friends on the Committee.
     Yeah, but

     “Isn’t that what most dictators seek to do?” wrote outgoing committee members Marilyn Davenport in response to my article last week….

     Wisckol states that Baugh did not hide or lie about what he was doing, even to Wisckol. Maybe he's a creep, but he's an open creep.
     Then the Wisk Man brings up the record of former Chair Tom Fuentes:

     Let’s compare Baugh to his predecessor, Fuentes, who served as chairman from 1985 to 2004. ... Tributes and my own coverage of his death and funeral didn’t get too deeply into the hard-knuckle politics he could engage in. It seems almost inevitable that a strong leader will engage in that as a matter of course, and I intend no disrespect to the deceased by saying so.
. . .
…[S]ome apparently think Fuentes’ control of the county party came without friction or backroom arm twisting.
     “I have never heard of a party chairman using his position of authority and trust, to orchestrate a Central Committee election, to ensure he has only those on the board that support his polices 100%,” wrote Irvine Councilwoman Christina Shea in response to my article last week. “Mr Fuentes never did this and I ran with him four terms.”

"Pure unadulterated evil!"

     Oh yeah? As a reporter, Wisckol covered both Fuentes and Baugh and he “heard far more complaints about Fuentes being exclusive and domineering than” about Baugh.
     Me too.
     Wisckol notes Fuentes’ long-time reputation for discouraging certain Republicans from running for office while supporting others (especially incumbents).
     On that score, he recently heard from long-time Republican volunteer Kenneth Fisher:

     In the wake of my article last week, I got a lengthy phone message from longtime conservative activist Kenneth Fisher, who said that after he declined to vow his unqualified backing for Fuentes that he found it impossible to gain even modest leadership posts in the county party.
     “He said, ‘Are you going to be a team player?’” Fisher recounted after being elected to the Central Committee. “I said, ‘I’ll be with you when you’re right and I won’t when you’re wrong.’”
     That, according to Fisher, resulted him being turned away at each effort to advance within the party.

     Wisckol also refers to Fuentes’ “often imperious attitude” which he himself encountered “on numerous occasions.” (Me too.)
     Wisckol goes on to describe just how unsavory Pauly and her crowd is.
     But then he says:

     When pressed about Baugh’s alleged corruption, Pauly commonly cites the committee’s decision five years ago to hold a second endorsement vote for then-Sheriff Mike Carona, a month after he’d fallen one vote shy of getting the nod. She said the controversial second vote was the result of insider Carona cronies pulling strings.

Shea

     And there the story ends. Huh?
     Pauly’s right about that accusation, isn’t she? Think so.

     P.S.: The allegations that Fuentes discouraged, even bullied, certain Republicans from running for office (during primaries)—and maybe favored serious right-wingers such as himself—are quite old. The accusation comes up in a fine article about Fuentes, by Times reporter Dexter Filkins, published in 1996. Check it out:

Guiding With an Iron Hand (LA Times; July 11, 1996)

     See also

• Bagman? (DtB)
• County Chairman [Fuentes] Out of Sync With Governor-Elect The Republican leader is distrusted by the Bush team, the state party and now the Schwarzenegger camp. Dare he run again? (LA Times; October 27, 2003)

CSU, UC pushed to cut programs with low graduation rates
(OC Reg)

     The upshot of the above article is that a non-profit group “that seeks to boost academic standards” (namely, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni*, which was co-founded by Lynne Cheney!) has issued a new report, which “zeroes in on wasteful spending at California public universities, pointing to hundreds of degree programs from which only a handful of students graduate each year”:

     The California State University system had 512 degree programs where fewer than 10 students graduated with bachelor, master or doctoral degrees in 2010-11, according to a report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. “Physics, General” graduated fewer than 10 students at 14 campuses; the undergraduate philosophy program also had low enrollment system-wide, graduating 10 students at eight campuses in 2011….
     The University of California had 792 programs with fewer than 10 graduates per year, the group found. There were 14 graduates from five campuses in the geophysics and seismology programs in 2011….

     The group thinks CA public higher ed should move toward more online courses.
     Do online courses work? Can they replace traditional courses?
     In some disciplines, for some students--the answer is likely "yes."
     And the rest?
     Nobody really knows.

Socrates vs. the Republicans

*See first comment below

SEE ALSO Shared Governance Endangered?

The many monikers of the SOCCCD

1. South Coast Junior College District 

(during planning; district founded February 14, 1967)

Problems, real or imagined: "Um, what about inland? Ever hear of El Toro, Tustin, places like that?"

2. Saddleback Junior College District 

(renamed during board meeting, March 13, 1967)

Problems, real or imagined: "They're not called 'junior' colleges anymore, cuz they do more than that."

3. Saddleback Community College District 

(1970)

Problems, real or imagined: in 1979, the "north campus" is built in Irvine. By 1985 it becomes an independent college: Irvine Valley, and it's denizens take themselves awfully seriously. SCCD is now a two-college district.
So: "How come the district's named 'Saddleback' when only one college has that name?"

4. South Orange County Community College District 

(1997)

Problems, real or imagined: "SOCCCD? Really? Maybe we should add some more Cs."
"Looks like this half-county ain't big enough for the both of us."

5. South Orange County Community College District
and 
South Orange County Community College District North
(2020)

Problems, real or imagined: "El Toro Rd. is, and always has been, the borderline. Nowadays, students who wander across it are either eaten alive or their heads explode."

Charter trustees: the curious Mr. Alyn Brannon

 

     The district’s charter board of 1967 included “Alyn M. Brannon and Hans W. Vogel of Tustin; Louis J. Zitnick of Laguna Beach; Patrick J. Backus of Dana Point; and Michael T. Collins of Laguna Niguel.”
     Gosh, what were these people like? Inquiring minds wanna know (but they shudder to think).
     As we reported previously, Hans Vogel, who often presided over the board during his tenure (68-72), was an early supporter of notorious arch-conservative loon (and Bircher, until even they wouldn't have him) John Schmitz.
     He was also an early appreciator of Ronald Reagan, having invited the fellow, in 1965, to sleepy Tustin to speak with local Neanderthals. (Who knows; maybe Jimmy Utt showed up with his tin foil hat.) Reagan, you'll recall, first ran for public office—Governor—in 1966. Owing to his relationship with Reagan, Vogel later managed to secure the participation of the Governor for Saddleback's dedication (1968). Surely that makes Vogel the cat's meow, among Republicans, for whom Reagan is second only to Jesus in their affections.
     OK, so what about the other four? Well, I’ve done some quick 'n' dirty research—mostly on two of them: Louis Zitnik and Alyn M. Brannon. Turns out Zitnik became a small-time Laguna Beach politician. Brannon, however, is more interesting.

Louis J. Zitnik

     It appears that Mr. Zitnik was (and still is?) a resident of Laguna Beach. Obviously, he was a member of the SOCCCD charter board in the late 60s. By 1981, he was an incumbent on the Laguna Beach County Water District. A 1993 OC Register article quotes Zitnik, still a member of the LBCWD, as a fierce proponent of a 3-million-gallon reservoir, approval of which had long been delayed, possibly contributing to the enormity of the Laguna Beach wildfire.
     Laguna Beach now boasts a 5-million-gallon reservoir that is named after Zitnik. (Louis J. Zitnik Reservoir and Pump Station, Laguna Beach, CA) It is touted as crucial to fighting wildfires in the area.
     It was designed and built by RBF Consulting, Tom Fuentes’ employer from 1975 through 1994.

Alyn M. Brannon

     1. I Googled "Alyn M. Brannon" and found a recent federal court case record the upshot of which is that someone by that very name pleaded guilty to failing to file his taxes (ten years ago), received probation, and requested a shortening of his probation. Evidently, that person has a prior criminal history ("the Defendant in this case has a prior criminal history and violated the conditions of his pretrial release while awaiting sentencing in this case"). For some reason, the feds took this case very seriously.
     But is this our “Alyn M. Brannon”?
     Incidentally, this tax-evading Brannon often finds/found it necessary to travel to Mexico, which, he argued, made his continuing probation burdensome. The court was unmoved.
     This Brannon (age 77 in 2008, hence about age 37 in 1968) had lived in Oklahoma—remember that—but had moved to Arizona by the time of sentencing/appeal.
     2. One Alyn M. Brannon, with apparent ties to a business in Tustin (recall that "our" Brannon lived in Tustin), was the operator of a Cessna that crashed in Louisiana, having departed from Oklahoma, in 2002 (See):

     On June 15, 2002, approximately 2150 central daylight time, a Cessna P210N airplane, N4720P, was substantially damaged after the right main landing gear collapsed during landing roll at the Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN), Shreveport, Louisiana. The private pilot and his passenger were not injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by Tower Systems Inc., of Tustin, California. [Tower Systems is a computer software firm that sells a very widely used “methadone clinic” software.] Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and a flight plan was not filed for the 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The flight departed the Shawnee Municipal Airport, Shawnee, Oklahoma, approximately 2030, and was destined for Shreveport.
     According to the pilot, while on approach to DTN, he lowered the landing gear, and the landing gear extended. However, the landing gear annunciator light (green), confirming the landing gear had extended and locked into position, failed to illuminate. By a visual check, the pilot confirmed the left main landing gear was extended, and the passenger confirmed the right main landing gear was extended. During a low approach over the runway, the tower controller performed a visual check of the nose landing gear, and the controller stated he was 90 percent positive the nose gear was extended. While landing on runway 32, the right main landing gear collapsed, the airplane veered to the right and came to rest upright off the right side of the runway.

     I found another record that indicates that there were no injuries in this incident and that the operator (Brannon) was not also the owner of the aircraft. The operator’s (i.e., Brannon’s) street address was 13422 Wheeler, Santa Ana.
     Again, the departure city was Shawnee, Oklahoma. —So this is likely the tax evader above (how many Alyn M. Brannon's could Oklahoma have?)
     Now get this: there’s a record of an Alyn M. Brannon, a resident of Stateline, NV, owning a 1967 Piper. According to a FindTheData record of a report, in February of 1994, while operating that plane in the Lake Tahoe area, Mr. Brannon crashed, totaling the plane.
     There was one fatality. [Note: more recent research indicates that the pilot of the plane, who was alone, was Alyn's son, Donald, who died on the scene.]
     I have found another FindTheData report according to which one Alyn M. Brannon owns/owned a 1974 Grumman aircraft. Evidently, that Brannon lives/lived in Phoenix, AZ. I have also found a record of an Alyn M. Brannon, owning a Grumman, living in Zephyr Cover, NV.
     3. Other records indicate that there is an 80-year-old Alyn M. Brannon (hence, 36 in 1968) who is possibly associated with addresses in Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Tustin, and Arizona.
     You do the math. I think it is likely that these records concern one Alyn M. Brannon, and he's our Alyn M. Brannon.
     Gosh, such a guy.

     I have found little information on Patrick J. Backus. There appears to be an 80-year-old Patrick John Backus living in Dana Point. (He’d be about 36 years old in 1968.) I found a 1996 newpaper article that quotes a Patrick J. Backus, who was then principle of Orangethorpe Elementary School in Fullerton. He would have retired soon thereafter.
     I can find virtually nothing about Michael T. Collins of Laguna Niguel.

UPDATE 1/14: Collins seems to have done very well as an attorney. For at least twenty years, he's headed the Collins Firm in Virginia and environs.

A glimpse at Saddleback College, 1970: HAIR

     I came across an October 20, 1970, “New University” piece by one Mark Northcross of “Saddleback College” entitled, “I almost cut my hair…” – a paraphrase of a well-known song by the Byrds.
     The New University, of course, is UCI’s student newspaper. It's still around.
     Northcross’s article discusses the inception of Saddleback College and the decision by its board to institute a dress code that restricted hair length.
     Northcross’s piece is youthful, self-indulgent, odd, poorly edited. It seems to mix “poetry” with quotations, mostly. I'll skip the first paragraph, which is incoherent.
     Then we get this relatively lucid verbiage:

     The citizens of Tustin, Mission Viejo, Laguna Beach, San Clemente, and other settlements in that region agreed in some democratic fashion that a community college was needed. A Board of Trustees was elected and other accessories for a college were collected. It was felt a dress standard was required for a college, and one was made up by a committee composed of students and members of the Board of Trustees. The Board insisted among other things that hair be a respectable length. In Saddleback's first year of operation, violators of this code were prevented from registering. Other violators spotted by various administrators during the year were given a choice of suspension or shorter hair. Some intrepid students refused to cut their hair and were suspended. They first appealed to the Board and were turned down. Two students, Lyndall King, and Mark Karlson; then brought the affair to the attention of a Federal District Court where the students were told their rights had been infringed upon and they deserved to go to Saddleback. The Board of Trustees then appealed the matter into the Federal District Court of Appeals where it is undecided as of this date. While the dress code is in limbo, it is not being enforced.

     Then it's back to word salad.

     At one point, Northcross seems to quote one “John Swartzbaugh,” evidently Saddleback’s "Dean of Students."

Of Students:
     "Liberal students show a lack of responsibility; they aren't taking part in the bombings, this doesn't mean the radical form of liberalism represents the majority but by allowing it to go on they are turning off the people of this country."

[On February 4, 1970, there was a riot in Isla Vista, Calif., protesting developments in the Chicago 8 trial. Then, on the 25th, also in Isla Vista, a Bank of America branch was bombed.]

Of Saddleback as a Community College:
     "We closer to the taxpayers ...responsive to the community... people built them, we're mainly consumers."

     Then, someone, not sure who, is quoted concerning various topics:

Of Dress Standards:
     "If the school should win...the operation of the school would be disrupted. Men on the board cannot accept today's change in hair styles ... they feel they are losing control of the schools ... they are really frightened people."

Of Politics, Revolution, The Future, etc.:
     "I am a conservative ... the trouble is these people don't practice what they say ... their interpretation of the constitution is more like communism ... but supposed say this, read this.
     Thought control. I think what's happening is a return to individualism ...if we can survive this revolution we'll have a better country. We're getting away from industry, big government... bigness has destroyed individualism."

Alyn Brannon

Of the Purposes of Education:
     "This school or community is trying to create a new generation of the silent majority... they don't know it but this is probably the most politically run campus in the state—I couldn't verify it, that's my opinion... The whole experiment will fail."
     A new vision in a youngest hand to attack all clear afternoons of preceding hope. Clothes abandoned for another itch of hand, its energy is in the blood of all births. And masses. Not to be a lawn for each stretch to power, but a singleness to absorb all suns, even as fives bones of sense will always hold each face to a brutal diversity of earth.
     An untouchable electrocution of voice. Through a telephone, Alyn M. Brannon, member of the Board of Trustees.

Of Determining the Dress Code (with students):
     "We got our way.”

     The article continues on "page 8." But the file ends there, sans page 8.
     Why did this article appear in UCI's student paper? Probably, Saddleback's "hair" struggle was of interest to UCI students. It likely made the news wires.
     Why is this article so badly/weirdly written? Dunno. Maybe everybody was high.

See also
• 1969: Saddleback's war on hair (Dissent the Blog)
• A weird windowless library, alleged marauding flag-swiping Hippies, the protean name, and other district mysteries (Dissent the Blog)

"The College welcomed its first students on September 23, 1968 at an interim site at 
26522 Crown Valley Parkway in Mission Viejo." --From District website. See red dot
above.  The current Saddleback College dominates the lower half of this photo
(to the right of Marguerite, which is in yellow/green).

26522 Crown Valley Parkway today