Publisher’s Note: The following post was submitted to us by an anonymous commenter who is a faculty member at the Coast Community College District.
Just as Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to pack the Supreme Court with his preferred jurists in the 1930s, elements of the Orange Coast College Foundation are now trying to pack the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees with their ideal candidates.
Orange Coast College Foundation is one of four foundations in the District, whose purposes are to raise funds and to increase opportunity for students and student projects. The Coast District Board is currently conducting a review of all four foundations in the District, and has recently uncovered problems at Orange Coast and also with the District’s Foundation. It must be known that the Foundations all use District property, resources, phones, materials, etc, to perform their work, and salaries are paid by District General funds. In other words, the TAXPAYERS support these organizations.
As it is now widely understood that the some within the Orange Coast College Foundation may be involved in political activities, administrators and policy makers alike must give pause to consider the ethical, and legal implications, if this were to be proven true. There are some that feel that the emergence of two candidates for the Coast Board, David Grant and Shana Jenkins, both with proven ties to the Orange Coast College Foundation amounts to retaliation against the Coast Board, for its inquiries, questions, and search for the truth in its proper, legal oversight of all Foundations throughout the District, including that of Orange Coast.
In spite of the baseless claims by Grant and Jenkins concerning the “bloated District bureaucracy” and the “politics” of the Board, the current Board at Coast District has worked hard to establish transparency and openness in governance. It has set up new committees to protect the public and staff from abuses of power such as the 2007 Costco imbroglio, opened doors to the community, and fought to salvage opportunities for students.
The Board has sharply reduced salaries for District executives annually, forced travel hogs like Trustee Walter G. Howald to sharply reduce their travel expenses, and has not taken a pay raise in the last two years. And, members of the Board, in their drive for transparency, have questioned the judgment of the Orange Coast College Foundation on more than one occasion and its various tactics for fundraising, including its requests and demands of student organizations for large donations. The Board’s questionining of the Foundation’s activities led to hostility and invective from Foundation leaders. With this in the backgroup, Grant and Jenkins are now planning to run on a slate to take on the Coast Board, and word is out in the community that a mailer is being planned with the two running together.
Mr. Grant is a former president of Orange Coast College, a past president of the Orange Coast College Foundation, and a foundation Board member. It is widely known that Grant applied in 2009 to get his old job back as College President on an Interim basis, and after being rejected for this position, he took umbrage against the Board of Trustees. He claims of wishing to eliminate bureaucracy and serve students, but many in the community believe he is running because he has a chip on his shoulder due to being rejected for his old job at Orange Coast College.
Mr. Grant has reached out to numerous faculty at Orange Coast, only to be rebuffed because they have endorsed Mr. Grant’s opponent, Dr. Lynne Riddle, who is running a campaign of openness and transparency. Many in the Coast organization fear Mr. Grant, as he has developed a reputation for having a quick temper, and turning on anyone that challenges his authority. Mr. Grant has already begun questioning the practices of the Board, many of which have been correctly and appropriately modified to comply with the Brown Act, Education Code, and other legal areas, areas that were neglected by administrators and some Trustees on a regular basis.
Further, Mr. Grant also has ties to outgoing Trustee and pension double dipper Walter G. Howald. Mr. Howald recently secured a payment of $5,000 for the Newport Beach OASIS organization through the Coast District Foundation – a transaction that has raised eyebrows and begs serious questions of the stewardship of the Coast District Foundation’s Executive Director, Martha Parham. What is worse, why is a Foundation whose charge is to support student initatives, giving funds to a Newport Beach non-profit, squarely in Mr. Howald’s Trustee area?
Ms. Jenkins, a former student leader at Orange Coast College, is running against incumbent Trustee Jim Moreno. Ms. Jenkins, like Mr. Grant, expresses concern about a “bloated” District bureaucracy, but fails to acknowledge the austerity and reductions that have taken place in the organization, the millions of dollars of administrative costs that have been reduced, and a strict hiring freeze that has saved the District millions.
And, both candidates fail to acknowledge that the State of California, not the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees, has reduced the funding apportionments to the District. This has resulted in millions of dollars being lost. In spite of this, the District now offers courses to more people than it did five years ago. The Board of Trustees, has had no choice but to work with the reduced apportionment dollars – a stock contrast the the funding that was available to students during Ms Jenkins’ time as a student. Other Districts have cut further, eliminated summer school, etc, but the Coast Board has used its financial acumen to keep the doors open, to seek out new funding opportunities, and to ensure a smooth operation of the organization in spite of the budget cuts from Sacramento.
In addition to the largely empty allegations that these candidates have made, an Orange Coast College Foundation member, A. Patrick Munoz, has provided legal representation to Ms. Jenkins. How could this be? To make matters more challenging, Mr. Munoz is employed by Rutan & Tucker, a long time vendor to the Coast Board of Trustees, a firm that is currently representing the Board in litigation!
Ms. Jenkins has already ran into possible legal trouble, and was threatened with litigation for incorrectly listing her ballot designation as “public affairs instructor.” This was changed at the request of the Orange County Registrar of Voters, and it is not clear, or transparent, what Ms. Jenkins’ real occupation is, other than a candidate. The fact that a member of the Orange Coast College Foundation is helping another candidate who is working against the organization, and further, that his firm represents the Board in legal matters, is assisting an opposition candidate begs serious ethical questions. Again, how can this be? The breach of Ms. Jenkin’s incorrect ballot designation in itself also raises very serious concerns.
With the ties of Grant and Jenkins to the Orange Coast College Foundation now known, a number of questions must be raised: Are Foundation resources being used to assist the two candidates? This would mean Coast District computers, telephones, emails, networks, etc. being used. Are benefactors to the Orange Coast College Foundation being soliticited by Mr. Grant, Ms. Jenkins, or others for political purposes to help defeat Trustee Moreno and Dr. Riddle? What is the role of Doug Bennett, Executive Director of the Orange Coast College Foundation, in these two campaigns? Is Mr. Bennett soliciting Foundation benefactors on District time to help these candidates?
Seeing Mr. Grant and Mr. Bennett sit together at public meetings also begs serious ethical questions about Mr. Bennett’s objectivity and support for the Coast Board, which is responsible for overseeing his work, given the Foundation’s role as an auxiliary organization to the Coast Board of Trustees. Given these possibilities, a thorough, and possibly criminal investigation, is warranted.
Mr. Grant’s opponent, Dr. Lynne Riddle, and Ms. Jenkins’ opponent, incumbent Trustee Jim Moreno have both been endorsed by Art Pedroza, publisher of the Orange Juice Blog, largely due to their commitment to ethics, transparency and profesionalism in governance. Let us hope that this vain attempt to pack the Coast Board of Trustees with the candidates supported by elements of the Orange Coast College Foundation fails, and that the electorate sees through this effort to seize control of the Board, in hopes of returning to a past filled with corruption, back-room deals, pension double dipping, travel abuses, employee abuse, favoritism, cronyism, and many, many other unsavory attributes – in other words, an unethical way of doing business that hides the truth from the public, supporting a favored few.
Vote for Lynne Riddle! From my experience serving with her on the numerous OCC budget committees, she is probably the most honest and passionate person I have ever met who truly cares about the students rather than preserving a bureaucracy.
Once again we agree, my young Republican friend! I met Ms Riddle yesterday walking for Phu, she is great.
my comments keep glitching out but yeah thats sweet.
Where is your objectivity? This country is built on competition for public office. How can a foundation board upset your election. Isn’t this a free country. Why do you consider specific candidates aligned with the union the only candidates worthy of consideration. Get a grip! Your spin of college usage of resourses is ridicuous!
Any one who reads this blog needs to realize that there are two sides to every story.
Are you kidding – vote for Lynn Riddle? What credentials do you know about that the rest of the public is not aware. Please enlighten us. We would love to know.
I worked with Lynne every week last year at OCC on the fiscal affairs committee to represent the student’s interest best we could. It was her countless hours of labor scrutinizing documents and minutes and financials, demanding public records from defiant staff, and making herself heard even when no one wanted to listen. Finally at the end of the year an internal audit championed Lynne for her insistence on transparency and internal controls. I consider her a kindred spirit to myself and she has really set the example for my personal campaign for Irvine City Council. If I lived in the CCCD, voting for Lynne would be a no-brainer. -Chris
Irvine reporter is right. Lynne was a whistle-blower as a student at OCC saving the student government millions of dollars of student funds that the foundation wanted to get for its pet projects. Add that to her background as a Federal Judge and educator. She has the credentials for the job.
What is worse, why is a Foundation whose charge is to support student initatives, giving funds to a Newport Beach non-profit, squarely in Mr. Howald’s Trustee area?
WoW!
What an unbelievable insult to the students of OCC.
Dear Coast Community College District Faculty Member:
“Anonymity is the refuge of scoundrels and cowards.” — Andrew Keen
If you have questions about my role in this campaign and that of the Orange Coast College Foundation why don’t you just contact me?
I can be reached after hours at my home number at (714) 744-8240.
Doug Bennett
Executive Director
Orange Coast College Foundation
Bennett,
Ben Franklin used to write anonymous letters that were published in local newspapers. Was he a scoundrel and a coward?
It does appear that your foundation is up to some monkey business. Can you answer the charges in this post? Are you denying any of this?
Sorry Art, I think I’d have to go with “Bennett” on this one. (By the way, his first name is Doug.) Comparing “Anonymous” to Ben Franklin is laughable. Just because Ben Franklin wrote anonymous letters to newspapers doesn’t mean they were filled with baseless accusations. Anyone could also just as easily post that you appear to be up to some monkey business, and ask you to deny it. Let’s see more facts and less conjecture. Also, the personal attacks just spotlight your lack of a valid argument.
To anyone with a grade school education, this post looks like a smoke screen set up by someone in the opposing campaigns to cover up their own backgrounds. I’d like to know who is funding those, and what their motive is.
Proof that Franklin wrote anonymous letters please.
Of course he did, all those early Revolutionary writers did. Of course they had the excuse they could be hanged. But they did keep up the tradition after the Revolution. They loved Latin pseudonyms like Publius, Tacitus… that was guys like Madison, Hamilton. This is not obscure history.
In a case like this piece, we know who wrote it, but they are granted anonymity because their writing, honest and important as it is, could negatively affect their professional situation in the future if things go badly.
Anonymous sources are the key to bringing out wrongdoing and inappropriate behavior…they are key to our society in providing the truth. At Coast District, they have reported things anonymously because they see issues that are inappropriate, and risk retaliation from angry administrators and hostile trustees for exposing things that are unethical or illegal.
Instead of criticizing those who are raising concerns, pointing out basic facts, and asking some compelling questions, I think you should take the time to respond: why is one of your Foundation members representing a candidate for the Board? What is your Foundation doing to recuse itself from Mr. Grant’s efforts to raise funds for his campaign? Are your benefactors being solicited for donations to Mr. Grant’s campaign?
I know everything in this piece to be based on fact and wonder why a college foundation is running candidates to challenge a board that has brought honesty and transparency back to Coast. What is the foundation up to?
At a district campus screening committee, I witnessed an architect say his firm should be awarded a district contract because of his donations to a district Foundation. The current majority of the District Board of Trustees would not put up with that and I know Lynne Riddle would not either. She is an independent thinker, a former judge, a life-long student with great empathy for the community college student body which she has fought for often by attending almost every board meeting for the last five years, and requests no pension for being on the Board. Dave Grant is a great crew coach who made OCC’s sailing and crew program nationally respected but probably is too enmeshed in the good-ole-boy mentality that the current Board of Trustees, namely Jim Moreno, Jerry Patterson, and Lorraine Prinsky, have moved beyond. Lynne Riddle on the board would help finish off what was a dysfunctional board before Prinsky created a more healthy majority.
I met Judge Lynne Riddle recently. She visited with UMAVA (a military veterans organization) at the American Legion Post. She spent some considerable time talking to us.
I am a former Chief Audit Executive (head of internal audit) at four companies, with a strong interest in education (Jr. Achievement Volunteer for Orange County 2007-2008; volunteer speaker for Youth Motivation Task Force in OC; and Co-Chair of High School Inc. Global Academy of Finance program at Valley High School). I also helped set-up an ALPFA (Association of Latino of Professionals in Finance & Accounting) Student Chapter at UC-Irvine and Cal Poly Pomona in my past role of President of ALPFA-OC.
I and the group especially enjoyed Judge Lynne Ritter’s strong interest and advocacy for the education of our citizens, her transparency and integrity, and her intellect.
I know that her independent thinking and objective and analytical skills (she is a former judge) and her
passion for students will serve her and the Coast Community College district well.
Francisco J. Barragan
Commander
UMAVA (United Mexican-American Veterans Association)
http://umava.org/
As a Latina student (a minority at OCC) it is my hope that we support and encourage honest candidates like Lynne Riddle. She has shown her self to be an intelligent and classy individual – who has taken the time to become exposed to and informed of the truth in matters of great importance. Spread the word that INTEGRITY and INTELLIGENCE matters!
For those of you interested and I hope you are, however, also for the uninformed, like Jenna Smith, I offer the following on Lynne Riddle’s qualifications: Juris Doctor, UC Hastings College of Law,1977; Post-doctoral fellow, Dept., of Philosophy, UCSB, 1972; Ed.D., School of Education, Syracuse University, NY 1968; MA/BA, CSLA, 1963, 1960; US Bankruptcy Judge 1988-2002; AFL-CIO Election Protection Coordinator for Oregon, July-Nov 2004; Educator, Classroom assistant professor to grads/undergrads in education, Syracuse University; CSULB; State University of Iowa, Iowa City; UCSB; Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; UCI Extension, Advanced Paralegal Studies; and Continuing Education of OC and LA county attorneys; additionally:
Student OCC, Student Body President 06-07 and 07-08; cub reporter OCC Coast Report, member of ASOCC Fiscal Affairs Council 07-08 and 08-09; VP of Fiscal Affairs Council 09-10; and I can go on and on.
Lynne is the most qualified candidate in this election and that, my friends and those who did not know, is a no brainer.
If Dr. Riddle is running an open, ethical, and transparent campaign, why did she list her ballot designation as “Retired Federal Judge” when the fact is that she resigned from the court on 4/14/02. For judges no longer serving in their appointed seats, there are 4 designations: “elevated”, “terminated”, “resigned”, and “retired”. The Fair Employment Practices Office, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts clearly lists Lynne Riddle as having resigned, not retired. There is a big difference between the two. Maybe it is Dr. Riddle who is hiding the truth from the public.
Federal Bankruptcy Judge terms are 14 years. Dr. Riddle completed her term. Simple…nothing hidden.
Dr. Riddle, RETIRED, from her position as a Federal Bankuptcy Judge. Period. It’s fact.
SAN FRANCISCO — Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has announced the appointment of Mr. Peter Carroll to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Lynne Riddle. Mr. Carroll will be sworn in and begin his 14-year term on August 1. He will maintain his chambers in
Riverside.
XOXOX
Judge Lynne Riddle retired and was honored at a retirement dinner with at least 500 attorneys and judges in attendance. There is no myth here. JH do your homework.
Thisrace is over.
I hope many voters read up on thsi race. My girlfriend and me went to a candidate debate last night and learnd some things. Work experience matters and two pepole running, Grand and Jenkinns are not ready or even prepared. They don'[t kinow the job.
My dad would say she needs more esperience in the world work place. I surprised to see how Shana is so unready for this work she talkis about. I felt Their supporters, some weere there, should cancel any checks they have written to these two “light weights.:” their song was “students first.” I think not. Their song is “foundation first” and damn anyone who gets in our way.
Who really is backing these two? Finding out will make the picture real clear I think.
If I could vote in this race, I would choose their opponents who show class.
Note to Shana: You are being used.
Archie