“The chancellor of the Coast Community College District, Ken Yglesias, has been sent home on administrative leave and investigators hired to look at unnamed allegations against him,” according to the O.C. Register. But of course there is far more to this story. What we don’t know is why the CCCD moved against Yglesias.
We do know however that they hired a company called Data Triage Technologies, to investigate the allegations against Yglesias. According to Data Triage Technologies’ website, they have experts who “identify, preserve and analyze potentially discoverable electronic evidence, while maintaining a cost effective approach throughout the process to support ongoing investigation. Our digital interrogation techniques ensure that computers “talk” for discovery purposes. Computers don’t lie, but it takes an expert to uncover the truth.”
That sounds ominous for Yglesias. “The board also hired an investigative firm, Barboza & Associates of Los Angeles, for $295 an hour.”
Officially, we have no idea why Yglesias is being investigated, but the Register’s readers posted a few interesting comments:
- Finally! After numerous years of nepotism, corruption, preferential/no-bid awarding of service contracts, mismanagement/missing management (only at work a couple hours a day), the Coast Board of Trustees finally decided to look behind the fairly transparent curtains. As taxpayers, we can only hope that the BOTs continue to move forward with a full audit at all levels of management within the Coast District to eliminate this on-going corruption, favoritism, incompetence, and waste. If Coast were a business, they would have filed for bankruptcy years ago! Don’t stop now: investigate, audit, and purge the corruption at all levels!!!
- Thank God for the new board members! A fresh perspective is almost always a good thing in politics, and the atmosphere at the Coast Community College District was getting pretty stale. It is the duty of the Board to manage the district for us, the taxpayers, and I see nothing wrong with them exercising their rights and duties.Perhaps we will finally have real oversight of the CCCD, specifically in the area of employment practices. As and employee of the District, I have witnessed time and time again the hiring of incompetent, unqualified employees at every level, by a human resource system that is clearly not concerned with real-world abilities, and which lacks professional guidance or methodologies. So many in power at the CCCD are hired for WHO they know, and not WHAT they know, or to maintain a pyramid of managers that form a mutual admiration society, with any form dissent quickly extinguished. Qualified individuals with valuable skills are locked out of this closed ‘club’ and the entire District suffers for it. It’s time for this unprofessional practice to stop. It’s time to audit and reexamination of the hiring policies of the District, and the adoption of a more effective method of terminating bad or incompetent managers, faculty or staff.
- I agree that the chancellor let his administrators, managers, etc. do their jobs without trying to micromanage them. Unfortunately, that was the problem. Some of them may now have to actually work (not just be there) eight hours per day, which may also negatively affect their golf games and real estate jobs. I am surprised that no one has mentioned the GodFather connection at LBCC which still seems to be pulling the puppet strings in Coast District personnel decisions, trying to keep the “good old boy and girl” club going (as well as for friends and relatives of the club members).
“Coast Community College District trustees have named an acting chancellor to fill in for Chancellor Ken Yglesias, who has been on paid leave since Jan. 7. The acting chancellor will be Ding-Jo Currie, who is president of Coastline Community College,” according to the Daily Pilot.
So what really happened at the CCCD? We won’t know until the CCCD administrators and/or board members start talking. At least the voters got rid of former CCCD Trustee Armando Ruiz last year. I am confident that his replacement, Lorraine Prinsky, will do a great job as a Trustee. I am sure she is leading the effort to get rid of corruption at the district. Good luck to her and the rest of the Trustees…
In spite of the imminent departure of Ken Yglesias at the Coast District, his legacy, as well as the former Chancellor, William Vega, lives on!
The Coast Community College District Foundation has appointed one of Yglesias’ proteges, Martha Parham, to the position of Executive Director. Parham has no experience in running a foundation but was put into the position by some of Yglesias’ cronies who still sit on the Board of the Foundation-which is not connected to the District’s governing board.
Parham, working as the the District’s Manager of Public Affairs, was hired into her six figure salaried position without a formal recruitment and was a strong supporter of former Trustee Armando Ruiz, who was voted out of office after voters discovered abuses on his pension.
To provide an example of the kind of manager that Parham is, she currently employs the son of the District’s Vice Chancellor of Human Resources, and the sister of her executive assistant, all within her own department!
What were the directors of the Foundation thinking when they made this appointment? Wasn’t there another person in the community that could represent the District, who has experience running a foundation? Has Parham ever worked at another Foundation? This is yet just another example of cronyism and favoritism that has prevailed at Coast for many years. Where is the transparency, the openness, and professionalism? This appointment is most unfortunate and should be reversed. People should be hired and appointed into positions because of their performance and qualifications, not solely because they are liked or favored! These practices undermine the entire organization.
After a year of Parham’s oversight of the Coast Community College District Foundation, it is time for an investigation into the Foundation’s expenses. Who is approving Foundation expenses? Are Martha Parham’s favorite Coast Community College District Trustees receiving, or allocating District Foundation monies for their pet projects and their travel expenses? If this is happening, is Parham approving the payments? Or, is she asleep at the wheel and not paying attention to what is happening? It’s time that this issue be looked into more fully. Favors that Parham may have done for outgoing Trustee Walter G. Howald should also be scrutinized.
Is Ms. Parham going to use Foundation monies to obtain a lifetime membership for Mr. Howald for the Association of Community College Trustees as was done for former Trustee Armando Ruiz after he was voted out of office? We certainly hope not!
Rewards for corrupt and unethical behavior continue to abound at the Coast District, this time with outgoing Vice Chancellor C.M. Brahmbhatt who is begging the the Board of Trustees to give him “EMERITUS” status, as noticed on this week’s meeting agenda.
While highly competent in his work, Brahmbhatt hardly deserves to be an EMERITUS employee of the Coast District. This would be more appropriate for a person such as former Trustee George Brown, Orange Coast College professor Tom Garisson or Jim Carnett, the “voice” of Orange Coast College for many years, or even a posthumous designation for Trustee Paul Berger who was loved and respected by so many ….
Brahmbhatt has such disrespect to the current Board of Trustees the very same body which he now asks for this designation : he has flagrantly disregarded requests of the Board, bad-mouthed Trustees in staff meetings, interrupted and challenged Trustees during their public meetings, and been verbally abusive and hostile to staff members who he feels does not see things in the “way” of the old, corrupt methods of doing business at Coast. And, to make matters worse, Mr. Brahmbhatt over the years has abused his power by forcing District staff to place many of his relatives on the District payroll. How many relatives does Mr. Brahmbhatt have on the District payroll? This would be a great question for his boss to answer when presenting her recommendation to the board this week. Brahmbhatt has also shown questionable judgment by being overly sympathetic and failing to be objective in his dealings with a district employee who is accused of murder.
These facts are truly not of a person worthy of EMERITUS status. Perhaps the Board will go along with management’s recommendation for Mr. Brahmbhatt, but the recommendation itself is done in bad faith and overlooks Mr. Brahmbhatt’s many shortcomings.