.
.
.
Hinky!
The following is from our occasional Coastline Community College District Deepthroat, regarding Trustee Dave Grant (who defeated our friend Lynne Riddle last November.) This whole thing about laughing off the modest fines you get for breaking election rules and other laws regarding the behavior of public officials reminds me of Dave Ellis’ crack that “It was less than the cost of a red light ticket.” The cost of doing business, for many of our hinky pols. Here goes…
*
CORRUPTION CONTINUES ON DAIS AT COAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
Running on a mantra of “How does this decision benefit students” newly elected Trustee David A. Grant was elected to the Board of Trustees in November 2010. Since that time, it has been learned that Trustee Grant has been fined for failing to disclose properly the contributions that he has received as a candidate.
How could this be? Trustee Grant is a retired college president, someone who is supposed to be a pillar of his community and one that holds the highest ethical standards? Why then, can’t Trustee Grant properly list his contributions with the Fair Political Practices Commission? Does he have something to hide? Is he afraid to show that many of his contributors are vendors of the District, some of whom like the law firm Rutan and Tucker, are enraged that Trustees have shunned their services for other attorneys?
Since joining the Board of Trustees, Mr. Grant has chastised anyone on the dais that has raised questions of the district’s executives, probed, or tried to find the truth in governance matters. He has repeatedly criticized his peers for “micromanaging” and for “outrageous” behavior. He has made veiled threats, and acted in a hostile manner toward his fellow Trustees in public. He has desperately tried in vain, through his connections with the Coast Report (a student newspaper at Orange Coast College) to show a conflict of interest between one trustee and a district lawyer.
Mr. Grant’s ethical breach continues this sad legacy. And, with this breach, the question has to be asked of Mr. Grant: “How does this benefit students”? How can one credibly govern when one cannot even follow the basic laws and requirements of the office he holds?
Since 2007, reformist Trustees Lorraine Prinsky, Jim Moreno, and Jerry Patterson have brought many badly needed changes to the dais at Coast: they have brought forward a code of ethics, reduced bloated executive salaries, sharply reduced executive and trustee travel, reinforced Brown Act compliance and directed a complete review of all district policies to ensure compliance with accreditation and regulatory standards. For all of their hard work and dedication to the students of the district, they have been wrongly accused by the likes of Mr. Grant and the corrupt district bureaucrats that support him as “micromanagers” when in fact, these three trustees have set policy direction that protected the interests of taxpayers and students.
If Mr. Grant has his way, the hard work of these individuals will be undone, and the Coast District will return to a culture of “if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” – a culture that promotes croynism, nepotism, corruption, and a flagrant disregard for the needs of students. Mr. Grant’s sanction by the Fair Political Practices Commission is a reminder of the corrupt ways of the past, and a wake-up call that he must be stopped!
April 11, 2011 | 3:16 p.m.
Coast Community College District Trustee David Grant was fined $200 for not disclosing money spent by the deadline during the November elections.
The Committee to Elect David Grant Trustee 2010, of which he was the treasurer, failed to disclose monies spent in a timely manner in a pre-election statement for the period ending Oct. 16, 2010, the Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, decided Monday.
Grant could not be immediately reached for comment.
Candidates are required to keep detailed lists of campaign contributions received and monies spent that must be submitted periodically throughout the election period.
A complaint was made to the FPPC that Grant had run several color ads in local newspapers, including the Daily Pilot, and sent out glossy mailers without reporting the costs on his pre-election statement for that period, according to the official complaint.
The Newport Beach resident served as Orange Coast College president from 1989 to 1995 and was elected to the Coast Community College District board in November with 44 % of the votes.
— Britney Barnes
This is a joke, right?! REFORMISTS? I am a former CCCD employee and this article is absolutely laughable to anyone with any knowledge of the BOT. The lawyer that you speak of is a friend of Jerry Patterson and the district has paid him a LOT of money to act as their attorney, forget the fact that the district employs a very capable risk manager who is himself a lawyer. Jerry, Lorraine, and Jim have continually used intimidation tactics to squash issues and get rid of those who do not follow their lead. In the past few years two chancellors, a college president, several top-level administrators have left the district. Coincidence? Not a chance. I am not saying David is perfect, but to classify him as attacking the power three, who are themselves power-hungry elitists, is straight up laughable.
LOL, you say that these three trustees are “power-hungry elitists.” Please explain. In particular, what is the basis of the “elitist” charge?
Do you deny that Grant got campaign money from any CCCD vendors? If not, what do you offer by way of defense?
That top administrators have left the district/colleges certainly is interesting, but why are we to interpret this factoid as shedding a negative light on any trustees? Please explain.
LOL,
I’m LAUGHING AT YOU! The Trustees that you belittle and disrespect are three of the finest public servants in community colleges today. They care about students, pursue volunteer opportunities in the community, and have ably served the public in all of their endeavors! You criticize them, LOL, because they refused to be rubber stamps, because they asked questions of administrators, because they held administrators accountable to do their jobs for the students.
Departed administrators? Let’s see: one was put on administrative leave after it was revealed that they illegally adjusted district records to inflate their pay. Another “retired” in disgust after the Trustees refused to give them a sweet-heart retirement deal that violated District policies. And, thanks to the savvy business acumen of Armando Ruiz and Walter Howald, the salaries of these folks all amounted to more than $200,000 per year, setting them up to bolt out of the District into fat and undeserved pension levels if the structure of the board of trustees shifted in a new direction. Their departures were not a possibility—they were all but assured!. It was only a matter of time!
District Lawyer? There’s no conflict of interest. Trustees would never hire a “friend” to do a job and Mr. Patterson did not know the attorney that you reference before engaging him to work for the District. If you want to know about a real “friend” why don’t you ask former Trustee Walt Howald how he arranged to have his law school classmate, Milford Dahl, become the board’s counsel, resulting millions of dollars of taxpayer monies going to Dahl’ls firm, Rutan and Tucker? And if you If you want to talk more about hiring a friend, LOL, ask Armando Ruiz and former Chancellor Yglesias why they arranged at Ruiz’s famed chile relleno party in 2007 to have a convicted felon and dear friend of theirs approved for a $50,000 no-bid contract in a non-transparent, sneaky way?
If anybody looked at these transgressions in an objective way, it would be clear that reform was needed, and it is exactly what has taken place! There are no more pension double dippers on the board, no more private closed door meetings that violate the Brown act, no more travel hogs galavanting relentlessly around the country on the taxpayer dime, and instead, openness, transparency, and a commitment to students, service and the rule of law are what prevails today! What a breath of fresh air this is!
It’s hard to believe that Garfield is 30 years old this year. As a long time appreciator of the cat who has come to exemplify the phrase “Couch Cat”, such retrospectives are must reads and must haves.
30 Years of Laugh and Lasagna is just that, without the bib and messy food. Davis and company break the strip down decade by decade and give prime examples why Garfield is so popular. I still laugh at the Bad potato strip even though it is so darn silly! Simple, and obvious, but that is comic strip humor at its’ best. Inbetween the humor, Davis writes short descriptions of the decades and his history. I never knew that he was Tom Ryans’ assistant on Tumbleweeds, another strip I enjoy.
The icing on the cake, the chocolate on the cookie, the peanut butter on the jam, is the 30 faves that Davis includes on the end. Davis is no one dimensional cartoonist, clearly, he even includes a dentist joke (feed the teeth!).
You’ll laugh until your lasagnas cooked.
Tim Lasiuta