Former trustee John Williams

Orange County District Attorney Absorbs Once-Shamed Public Administrator's Office (NavelGazing)

     Remember all that holler from a few years back about John Williams screwing things up so badly as Orange County's public administrator/public guardian that the Board of Supervisors drove him out of office?
     This week, the board finalized a plan to shift the public administrator half of the job to the Orange County District Attorney's office, which is ironic because Williams' former No. 2 was the then-fiancé of DA Tony Rackauckas….

Tod Burnett, Lee Baca, et al.

     Back in December (see) we noted the curious circumstance that Saddleback College President, and prayer enthusiast, Tod Burnett is the “Education Editor” of a semi-conservative and New Agey (specifically martial artsy) magazine called Legends & Legacies.
     As I reported, the editors of L&L tell us that they follow a strategy that “can be found in the book, The Five Principles of Everything,” which is exactly as flaky as it sounds. Its author, Gordon Richiusa, happens to be one of L&L’s editors. He’s also a part-time English instructor at Saddleback College. Richiusa’s first novel was called SHIDOSHI: The Four Ways of The Corpse.

     Richiusa is heavily into New Agey martial arts malarkey, as is another of L&L’s editors, Frank Dux, Editor At Large. Dux is a pretty iffy character, a typical self-promoter guru type. (I.e., he's a lying sack of shit.)
     Today, I noticed that yet another L&L editor is the one and only Lee Baca, controversial Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California.
     You know about him. He defends shark finning. He’s been criticized for “placing friends on the payroll, taking … gifts,” and worse (see). Swell guy.
     L&Ls Managing Editor is one Dana Stamos. She maintains a right wing blog that busies itself with defending the homophobic Duck Dynasty knucklehead, attacking Obamacare, and generally praising the Lord. Great.
     I wonder how Saddlebackians feel about their leader associating with such a rag?

Wendy's bid for the 73rd AD (update)

Re Wendy Gabriella’s Crashing and Burning Republican opponent (update of Wendy Gabriella's 73rd AD opponent, Jesse Petrilla, has an arrest record [DtB; Jan 29]):

● AD73 Update: Jesse Petrilla’s 15 year Pattern of Anger and Violence (OC Politics Blog; January 31)
● AD-73 Update: The Jesse Petrilla Felony Conviction Scandal Expands (OC Politics Blog; Feb 5)

Sh*t hits fan, part II (recent developments!)

     At present, the college is abuzz over a remarkable fubar concerning the Library that erupted last week.
     As we reported on Friday (see IVC: the sh*t hits the fan):

     A week and a half ago, out of the blue, construction workers entered the Library and walled over a door to Room 107 (behind the circulation desk), evidently part of a plan to hand the room over to DSPS, which is in desperate need of a space for testing. No one connected with the Library was consulted about this action—certainly not the dean, not even the VPI. No warning was given.
     Naturally, Library faculty, among others, were consternated and outraged. They arranged for a discussion of the situation on the floor of the Academic Senate (last Thursday). Senators decided to have the Academic Senate Prez confront the college President with the facts—an apparent gross violation of both defined processes and his much-ballyhooed alleged "spirit of collaboration" and "civility" at IVC—and to demand that the parties responsible for this outrage be held accountable. 

Library: door becomes wall.
No process

     Last week, I asked a Library insider—someone with a reputation for honesty and integrity—to provide an account of this affair from the Librarians' perspective. Earlier today, he/she provided the following (only slightly edited for clarity), which ends with a surprise:

     Sometime in December 2013, Administrators (I forget who exactly) and Facilities started to examine Library Room 107 as possible testing space for DSPS. We were told that Library 107 should not be used as a “storage room.” But, in fact, Library 107 was not a storage room, for our part-time cataloger’s office was in the room as was our adjunct librarian workstation. The rest of the space was used for book processing and, quite honestly, we still had storage issues even when we had the use of 107.
     Dean Feldhus and the Librarians were told to come up with a “shared-use” space plan for Library 107. Consequently, the Library submitted a plan where roughly 3/4 of the space for 107 would be used for student testing and ¼ would be used for our processing area. There would be a wall separating the two areas.
     At the time, we were told that the use of Library 107 for DSPS testing was temporary and that we would get the room back for Spring 2014.
     That was the status quo, but then facilities people showed up and moved everything out of Room 107 and into Room 201 and other locations on campus. Owing to the suddenness of this action, the Librarians had no time to decide where to move the items originally stored in Room 107, and so ad hoc measures were taken.

Mea culpa posy

     A short while later, desks and chairs were moved into Library 107.
     Then, on Friday, January 24th, Facilities workers [suddenly showed up and] eliminated the access door from the library staff area to Room 107; they drywalled over the door. Needless to say, all of us in the library were shocked and in a state of disbelief. At that point, we realized that the “temporary” situation was in fact permanent, and nobody was considering our shared-use suggestions.
     Owing to unhappiness with the situation, Library faculty decided to submit an agenda item to the Academic Senate. During the Academic Senate meeting last week, discussion of this item was spirited (and very sympathetic to Librarians' perspective).
     After the Senate meeting, the Senate President met with the College President to discuss the situation.
     Then, on February 3, 2014 [i.e., four days later], the College President offered an apparently sincere apology [in what form?] for the situation and took responsibility for everything that happened. He assured the Library that a minor renovation project would begin soon to relieve the space issue and input from Library staff will be taken into account for this project. [END]

     It seems to me that an apology ain't worth much if nobody knows about it. This is the first I've heard about Glenn's alleged mea culpa. Was there a memo I missed?
     It's no secret that VP of SS Linda Fontanilla was very involved in this snafu. Will we (or the Librarians) be hearing from her as well? Perhaps the Librarians will each be sent a mystery apology posy and that will be that.
     I remind readers that, as explained on Friday, the Library snafu is only one in a series of events and circumstances that reflect the fraudulence—or at least emptiness—of administration's noisy embrace of collaboration, openness, and civility.

Philosophy of Sexism? (Inside Higher Ed)
   The University of Colorado at Boulder on Friday announced that it was changing the leadership of its philosophy department and requiring mandatory training for all faculty in an effort to change a culture that is hostile to women….

Harvard B-School Dean Apologizes to Women (Inside Higher Ed)
   Women in Harvard University's business school have been treated inappropriately for decades, Dean Nitin Nohria told an alumni gathering last week, according to Business Insider….

"You need to get beyond that; things are different now!"

     Administrators at IVC love to respond to any signs of suspicion and skepticism directed at seemingly hinky administrative doings by saying, “You need to get beyond that; things are different now; we have openness and trust and collaboration and transparency and civility; it’s a new day!”

     SEE IVC: the sh*t hits the fan

My mom drops by to visit her little boy Teddy

My mom and Young Theodore are pretty close

Teddy puts up with lots of goofy shite to play with mom.
Here's mom dressing the boy up in a ribbon and towel.