I received the email below, regarding Trustee Armando Ruiz over at the Coast Community College District’s Board of Education, from an anonymous emailer – it is very interesting and pertinent, and as such I am reproducing it here.
Dear Members of the Coast District Community:
If you did not know, the Coast Community College District board has three seats up for election this Fall. I live in the Coast District community, but am writing anonymously to protect my privacy.
I am writing to you specifically about Area 3 of the District, the seat held by trustee Armando Ruiz. If you did not know, Mr. Ruiz, with the full complicity and knowledge of the Coast District adminstration, took advantage of a state loophole in 2004 to double the size of his pension, which so far has cost taxpayers over $250,000, and will cost over $1,000,000 throughout the remainder of Ruiz’s natural life. Many people in the community expressed outrage at Ruiz’s actions – there was a recall attempt in the community, and local political leaders rebuked Mr. Ruiz for his conduct. Since that time, Ruiz has continued to collect his six figure pension and his salary as a trustee. In addition, he drives around the District in a Mercedes Benz coupe, and uses District resources for his personal use.
This year, Mr. Ruiz is being challenged by Lorraine Prinsky, a professor at Cal State Fullerton. Ms. Prinsky is running on a platform of ethics and pledges to the stop pension abuse like Mr. Ruiz’s that takes place on community college governing boards. In addition, it is Ms. Prinsky, not Armando Ruiz, that secured the endorsement of the Orange County Democratic Party last month. Whatever your political affiliation, the Democratic Party should be commended for endorsing a candidate that is running on a platform of ethics and integrity in public service, and who will stop pension abuse by college trustees that work both as a trustee and a government employee at the same time. (www.lorraineprinsky.com). There is a third person in the race, Don Apodaca, but little is known about him.
But, more importantly, Ms. Prinsky will support openness and transparency in the management of the Coast District board. If you did not know already, Mr. Ruiz has served on a land development committee for the board. This committee is the one that brought the CVS Pharmacy, which will be selling alcoholic beverages on the campus, to Golden West College , and also, which secretly supported the proposal to build a Costco on the Golden West College campus. How could administrators like the Golden West College president tell people that the Costco deal was “approved” without the support of some higher authority? He has no power whatsover. The proposal may have came from the City of Huntington Beach, but Ruiz and others on the board were looking at Golden West College “surplus land” for development as far back as 2005. At a very recent meeting of the board, Mr. Ruiz rebuffed and delayed the request of some of his board colleagues to make the board’s land development activities more open. Why wouldn’t Mr. Ruiz support a more open and transparent land development process at the Coast District? Wouldn’t an open and public land development process best protect the interests of the community, the students, and the District? Hasn’t Ruiz learned anything after the community’s reaction to the Costco proposal?
And, as president of the board, Mr. Ruiz delayed sharing a letter from State accreditors, with his fellow trustees. This letter placed Orange Coast College on a Warning status. And, at this time, Mr. Ruiz is doing nothing in his current leadership capacity on the board to oversee or correct, the deficiencies that prevail at Orange Coast , the flagship campus of the Coast Community College District. This is yet another reason why new leadership is needed on the board.
Each of you are all intelligent, informed people. You have to make your own decisions about the elected officials that you want representing you on the Coast District board, but I hope you will take some of these comments into serious consideration this Fall on election day when you vote for your trustees.
Mr. Pedroza,
I am very surprised that you would print unsubstantiated allegations by an anonymous source. This is not credible information.
Hugh,
Actually, what Ruiz did with regard to his pension is very public and very true. Just search on Google and you will find plenty of news stories about this. He ripped off the taxpayers. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. Was it legal? Yes. Was it right? No way! I hope the voters give him the boot in November. He has had that coming for a long time.
Hugh, most of the comments on blogs are unsubstantiated and from anonymous sources. We don’t have a problem with that. Usually someone like Art or Carl or SCR will post a link or direction to credible sources for verification.
There is a need to protect yourself and your family from retaliation and a need to share information that pertinent to others. Your schoolyard rules are being broken down. We ‘squeal’ on politicians, we send anonymous complaints, and we fight with each other. Its all good. Join the 21st century.
” … most of the comments on blogs are unsubstantiated and from anonymous sources.”
So we should take the information provided in this manner for what it is worth – NOTHING !
Hugh,
Anonymous posts are the most prudent way to get information out on misdeeds, initially. Little hints and links can make the story come more alive. It is like an unpeeling of an onion. It may just stay at the unsubstantiated level, or there may be additional chunks of relevant information that help peel away, further.
We all have the heads up on this Ruiz guy. Maybe someone is misrepresenting him or maybe, as Art has said, the guy’s behavior is in public record. You know a blog has hit paydirt when the story finally breaks on the local news level and above.
The piggies at the trough at the fair started as a ground roots awareness and then movement. It blossomed into a good sized story and subsequent set of reforms for those board members of the fair. I am sure that initially the piggies would have loved for the story to have just gone away. But no! The whispered information grew legs and a life, and there was some justice done for the community.
As anonyms says, there are a new set of rules to address bullies and other abusive piggies.
Do a quick ‘google’ search on Mr. Ruiz and there are articles dating back to June 2005 on the pension issue…so I think it’s probably safe to say that a fair amount the alleged misdead(s) are probably founded.
Gee…I would love to know if this alleged email made it’s way to the OC Register….
If anonymous sources can bring down the President of the United States, than they can certainly bring down a corrupt and unethical community college trustee like Armando Ruiz. It’s time for change on that board! It is true that Mr. Ruiz unethically doubled the value of his pension and was not honest about his “retirement” from the board and Irvine Valley College; it is true that Mr. Ruiz drives around in a Mercedes; it is true that Mr. Ruiz uses district property for his own use; it is true that Mr. Ruiz is actively involved in land development and supported the projects that are referenced at Golden West College; and it is true that Mr. Ruiz is doing nothing to help the district deal with its accreditation issues at Orange Coast College, and is allowing the Robert Dees, the DUI Felon college president, to sit comfortably while nothing happens on that campus to fix its many, many problems. Art Pedroza’s source is right: it’s time for new leadership on that board!
Check your facts. You’ve gotten a lot of them wrong. If Mr. Ruiz can single-handedly be so corrupt, then why hasn’t the rest of the board stepped to join this anti-Ruiz campaign?
The truth is that Ruiz does drive a Mercedes. It’s well over 10 years old. And, more importantly, who cares? The chancellor drives a Lincoln, other board members drive BMWs, VW vans, PT cruisers and an old police car. Once again, who cares?
The CVS deal was done prior to the Costco proposal and all of the board members were fully aware of and voted on the deal. The Costco proposal was just that, a proposal from Costco. It was presented to GWC, not the board. It never even got off the ground and Ruiz was not the only board member on the land development committee. Once again, check your facts.
And, really – do you think that Ruiz would purposefully cause OCC to get a warning from the accreditation board? That’s simply ridiculous. It’s OCC that caused the warning for themselves. Ruiz is the ONLY board member that knows about the accreditation process as he is the only educator on the board.
As for the trip to NYC – once again, check your facts. There were several other board members scheduled to go to New York that backed out recently in order to help use the trip against Ruiz in this campaign. Why don’t you check to see how much this little political stunt is costing taxpayers in cancellation fees? Ruiz is going to NYC to give presentations and chair the ACCT Trust Fund meeting – which raises funding for student and faculty scholarships for Coast students. He is scheduled to leave immediately following the conference and his hotel room costs a little over $200/night – not $600 as reported in this blog.
Voters – check your facts! Ruiz is not the devil portrayed in these libelous postings. He actually cares about students and employees and does not cater to unions – which is why they hate him so much.
Natalie,
You left out a few things in your post about Armando Ruiz:
First, you don’t refute any of the claims surrounding Mr. Ruiz’s ill-gotten pension. Why didn’t you speak about this? Perhaps, because you have no argument to make. His pension is the essence of the entire problem and is why so many elected officials and community members no longer have faith in Mr. Ruiz. The pension double dip and his “retirement” tactics in 2004 alone destroy his credibility with the voting public. I’ve not heard one positive thing about the pension issue, even from those who support Mr. Ruiz.
Thanks for providing comments on Mr. Ruiz’s trip to New York. Perhaps when you talk to Mr. Ruiz about this post, and I know you will Natalie, you can tell him that it’s plausible that the other trustees who elected not to attend have realized that the state is in a financial crisis. They probably figured that a cancellation fee was a better option for taxpayers as opposed to couple of thousand more dollars of travel expenses on the taxpayer tab. If the budget was not an issue, I don’t think those trips would have been canceled. And besides, how can a trustee authorize his colleges to cut classes that negatively impact students and still go on cross country trips? Who cares about the room rates and the length of Mr. Ruiz’s stay? That’s not the point.
Why didn’t you address anything about Mr. Ruiz’s use of district resources for his personal use? Perhaps you did not mention it because the other posts were not specific – perhaps it is an unfounded rumour that is lacking in truth, but has Mr. Ruiz used district resources for personal use? If Mr. Ruiz has, isn’t that illegal? Why didn’t you refute that allegation? If Mr. Ruiz has used district resources for his personal use, perhaps he can be specific about this and apologize to the community for abusing his power as a trustee.
Shame on you, Natalie, for your condescending statement that Mr. Ruiz is the only “educator” on that board. Looking at the district website and using Google, it’s clear that Ruiz’s colleagues have had professorships at Long Beach State, ran a preschool, and held positions at other community colleges. Don’t these qualify as “educational” credentials? What makes Mr. Ruiz more qualified to critically assess educational issues? If anything, his years of experience have helped him become complacent – forgetting to whom he’s really accountable.
I think you have missed the point on the accreditation issues at the district. If Mr. Ruiz was providing effective leadership, he would have immediately notified his board about the warning that Orange Coast College received. He’s not responsible for the warning, but he failed to let his board know. That’s the key. When did Mr. Ruiz notify the board that Orange Coast College was on warning status? He didn’t. That’s why people, even his own colleagues, are upset and questioning his leadership. Checking the facts, I reviewed minutes recently placed on the district website that confirmed the full board had not been aware of the warning status and that any further information about the issue that came to the district was to be put in a special file for all the board to see. This is public record!!!!
Costco was a blight to the community. Ruiz was working on Land Development issues at that time. Was he not? If he knew about the Costco proposal, shouldn’t he have shared the information with the board? Numerous sources from Golden West College reported at the time that the president of the college was telling staff that Costco was “approved.” I don’t believe that this would happen without the blessing from a higher authority. What’s worse is that all of the district’s major land development deals are done in secret, not in public as they should be —- scouring the district’s website for board meeting agendas, I have not seen one meeting publicly posted for land development issues. And while I was not at the board meeting where land was recently discussed, I heard that Mr. Ruiz did not support a colleague’s proposal to make the committee more open to the public. Why not?
The Coast district needs a change on its board. Go Lorraine Prinsky! (www.lorraineprinsky.com)
Anonymous,
You wrote,
“(Armando Ruiz’s) pension is the essence of the entire problem.”
Well, fortunately, Mr. Ruiz is gone, except for depositions etc.
Yet the essence of the entire problem, INSTITUTIONAL corruption has not yet been defeated.
Why hasn’t more been written about the actual scandals?
What on earth is this idiocy about Bob Dees? I knew him many years ago and know that he was not a drinker. Perhaps this has all been sorted out in the years past, but that is truly a ridiculous assertion. I checked, and this seems to refer to a totally different person in Florida, of all places. People, if you want to make a point, be sure you know your facts are correct!