Coast College Board Names Brownell to Chancellorship

In a surprise move, the trustees of Coast Community College District elevated Acting Chancellor David A. Brownell to permanent status Thursday.

The decision, made by a 4-1 vote behind closed doors, came despite the board’s pledge last April to conduct a national, competitive search for a new chancellor.

Board President Armando Ruiz said that the board had “changed its mind.”

“We felt it in the best interest of the district that we appoint him now,” Ruiz said.

The one vote against Brownell was that of veteran trustee George Rodda Jr., who has frequently been at odds with the new board majority elected with the backing of the teachers’ union. Rodda was not immediately available for comment Thursday night.

The appointment puts Brownell in charge of California’s second largest community college district. With about 54,000 students, the district is made up of Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Golden West College in Huntington Beach, and Coastline Community College, Fountain Valley.

Has Been Acting Chancellor

Brownell, 50, was named acting chancellor April 25. He had been a dean at Coastline Community College, the smallest of the three in the district.

He was the unanimous choice of the board to be interim chancellor, succeeding Norman E. Watson. Watson, who had been chancellor 20 years, announced his retirement a week after the new trustees won a bitter election in November, 1983. The three new board members had sharply criticized Watson during their campaign.

Watson had received national honors for his stewardship of the district, but many teachers at the three colleges vehemently opposed him after faculty layoffs in 1983.

After the 45-minute meeting Thursday afternoon, Ruiz said the board majority thought that “Dave is beyond our expectations in keeping this district together” and thus merited the chancellorship. Ruiz also said Brownell’s help would be needed immediately to deal with the district’s “uncertainties with the Legislature.”

Candidacy Uncertain

The state Legislature has cut community college budgets over the last three years, and lawmakers are considering further cuts. Community colleges lost enrollment last fall, partially due to new legislation requiring payment of tuition.

Until Thursday, the board had repeatedly said a new, permanent chancellor would not be named until after a national search for Watson’s successor, probably in late spring. Minutes of a closed board meeting show that when Brownell was appointed acting chief executive, it was with the understanding that he could not be a candidate for the permanent position. Ruiz later disputed that such an agreement existed, and Brownell said in a recent interview that he intended to compete for the permanent chancellorship.

Asked if the board had advertised the chancellor’s position, Ruiz said, “Initially, we did, in announcing Norm’s (Watson’s) retirement in the spring (of 1984). At that time, we changed our direction. We had a selection process at that time. It came out, and then the board changed its mind and went to another selection process, and we appointed Dave the acting chancellor.”

Ruiz said the non-competitive appointment does not violate state equal-opportunity or affirmative-action guidelines. “We have it in district policy that when the district is in need, the board has the right to appoint to continue the business of the colleges . . . I checked with the (state community colleges) chancellor’s office (in Sacramento), and (was told) that there’s no problem: the board has the sole authority to do it.”

“He (Brownell) is not being upgraded. He was assigned, so there is no violation of affirmative action. That’s the difference because we appointed him.”

Brownell was dean of administrative services at Coastline Community College. He has a master’s degree in administration and supervision from Cal State Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree from La Verne College. Before coming to Coastline in 1976, Brownell served three terms as mayor of Victorville, in San Bernardino County, and was superintendent of public schools in the Adelanto School District near Victorville.

Rev. Conrad Nordquist, one of the three new board members and immediate past president of the board, has credited Brownell with “doing wonders” with the district’s budget in 1984. Nordquist said Brownell took a budget expected to run as much as $5 million in the red and managed a $7-million surplus at the end of the fiscal year, last June 30.

The new board managed the hefty surplus despite having hired back 55 college teachers laid off by the previous board.

Brownell has been a staunch defender of the new board majority and some of the new board’s more controversial moves, including the hiring last summer of a former teachers’ union president, Phillis Basile, as chief personnel officer.