Our nine community colleges serve over 120,000 students, and cover over 800 square miles of area, making this college district the largest in the nation with an annual budget of $640,000,000.00.
The current board and the cronyism that has controlled it, has failed its solemn basic fiduciary duties towards the tax payers of our district, the faculty, the students, and the administrators. I believe that with my background and experience, I can bring accountability and humility to this board. I want to include you the voters, the teachers, the students, and the administrators in sharing in the decision making process of the district without owing anything to the special interests. If you are tired of business as usual, then you have the chance to send a message of positive change and to vote out the current incumbents and I pledge to you that I will be “a Trustee for All of Us”.
Taxpayers and voters:
My opponent’s deeds have proven over and over again that she has no regard to the taxpayer protections guaranteed by Proposition 13. She has been a vocal supporter of tax and waste policies at the expense of LA taxpayers. Her position on adding red tape to building projects has cost taxpayers millions of dollars in contractors late fees and penalties. Yet she still brags about it.
With such a view on Prop.13, it is only natural to see the current board’s hunger for tax increases. According to Daily News, The Board of Trustees passed Proposition AA without giving the property tax payers of the district a chance to read the pros and cons of that $980 million dollars “Stealth Tax”. Without any regards for truth in campaigning they were successful in misleading the voters to approve $3,500,000,000 billion dollars by portraying it as “no new taxes” proposition. This is not true. My opponent was even pushing for $5, 000, 000, 0000 billion dollars of property tax increases, insisting that the voters will agree to whatever the board puts up for approval.
The Board of Trustees missed a great lesson in democratic governance when one of its own, the former LACCD President, resigned in February of 2007. Since the board is elected by the voters of the district, a special election could have been made part of the election (without any additional costs to the taxpayers) if the timing of resignation had been sensitive to the March 6th, Election of 2007. The board used every trick in the books to justify its filling by appointment rather than letting voters decide the fate of the vacancy. This is another blatant example on how this board sees itself above what it pretends to be teaching. This board takes us for fools. Who are they fooling?
This is coming from a board that routinely goes into closed sessions and routinely approves hundreds of millions of dollars by lumping dozens of projects in two different votes. Yet, the same board is seen to be instrumental in having caused delays in the bond A and AA construction money and having wasted millions on bad planning, fees and late penalties paid to contractors and developers. This is our hard earned tax dollars at work. Delays in construction have just spiraled out of control but this board maintains that 18 months delays are normal for such great projects. Red tape, out of control bureaucracy, special interests, and future political aspirations of some serving on the board have added to the fiasco. They ran out of money so they printed some more in the form of Proposition J, yet another nightmare property tax increase of $3.5 billion dollars. When is waste no longer acceptable?
As a trustee,
1. I will ask for a thorough review of the finances of the district and stop midnight property tax increase schemes that are politically driven. Transparency and accountability need to be reintroduced in LACCD. I will not betray Prop 13.
2. Taking politics out and introducing common sense reforms will break the hold of bureaucrats and special interests while increasing the input of taxpayers, teachers, students, and administrators directly.
3. Open the committee structure and the decision making to the public and rotate trustee meetings between all of the nine campuses. (oops, they have already adopted this idea)
4. I will also work hard to elevate Van de Kamps satellite site to a stand alone campus.
5. I will not be a rubberstamp for any special interest group rather my allegiance will be to the voters who sent me.
6. I will oppose salary increases for the LACCD Board of Trustees. I believe $1000.00 per meeting is more than generous.
7. I will support letting the voters decide on the issue of term limits for the trustees.
Dear Students:
While the rate of enrollment has been increasing, many students drop out because of lack of funds. Expensive textbooks and $20.00 per unit in addition to parking fees and other related costs of attendance make education a luxurious endeavor for many of our students. Lack of availability of classes and their unsuitable times, prolong the two year education with no skills to fall back on. We have to improve our academic student counseling departments in order to insure timely graduation and transfer of students and highest quality of advise given. Retraining the counseling staff with the latest transfer options and vocational curriculum will be one of my top priorities.
As a trustee:
Students are the primary focus of our colleges and as such we have to treat them that way.
1. Reducing the tuition fees.
2. Expanding private/public partnerships to provide cheaper books and more scholarships to afford them.
3. Increasing and expanding vocational and on the job training programs to meet the needs of the 21st, Century educational realities.
4. Include student advice in important district wide decision making. The Board of Trustees has done next to nothing in this regards. Student voices must be heard.
5. Re-establish student newspapers on all nine campuses. Student voices must be heard.
6. Expand the duties and effectiveness of the LACCD Student Trustee.
7. Expand and improve transfer rates for students interested in 4 year colleges.
8. Re-establish banished sports programs on all campuses and restore the inner cities sports access and scholarship programs so that underprivileged students have a better shot at success just as the Ivy leaguers.
Faculty and teachers:
The current board has forgotten its true responsibility and that is the power sharing agreement that has suffered and lost its original meaning. Tenured professors are under the impression that they well represented but I want to address power sharing agreements directly with them rather than with those who claim to represent them. The part time faculty has been shuttling between campus to campus to make a living while the true focus on students has suffered greatly. Slow pace in campus remodeling and expansions have simply left teachers helpless and ignored on important campus decisions and the slow pace of construction has added to chaos on the campuses.
As a trustee:
1. I will introduce tenure for all qualified part time teachers and once and for all end the back and forth shuttling teachers and turn the full focus on students rather than beating the traffic.
2. I will reestablish fair and full shared governance with the Faculty Senate of different campuses and open my doors to hear teachers and their concerns and suggestions directly. Take into account their experiences and needs when renegotiating contracts.
3. Help reduce class overcrowding by cutting from bureaucracy and relocating funds to the classrooms and more teachers.
4. Fight for our fair share of funds from Sacramento and make sure that we do not mix up the well being of students, teachers and administrators for that of special interests.
Administrators:
It is unlikely that this board will change its micro-managing style even though it claims to be a part time board. Most of the decisions in regards to plucking away popular East LA College President and placing him at Mission College and many other incidents are never dealt with publicly since the PR firm does not want bad publicity for its client LACCD. Meddling into day to day operations of each campus has become the norm with the current board.
As a trustee:
1. I will introduce motions to limit the power of LACCD Chancellor in making unilateral decisions which affects negatively the students, teachers, and administrators’ morale at the campuses.
2. I Will give independence to all nine campuses to formulate their own local plans of success and will elevate the status of Van De Kemps site to a regular campus making it our tenth LACCD campus.
3. I will also introduce bonus funds to any college that increases its vocational graduates as well as transferring graduates.
4. Will expand nursing, law enforcement, fire fighting, and other programs to meet the needs of our local hospitals and medical care providers and first responders.
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