Effort to Recall Trustees Fails for Lack of Signatures

A recall effort against three Saddleback Community College District trustees has failed for lack of signatures, but opponents say they will try to oust two of the trustees in the November election, a recall leader said Wednesday.

Former Saddleback trustee Larry Taylor, now a spokesman for the recall group Citizens for a Better Saddleback, said the committee had gathered about 18,000 voter signatures by the May 28 deadline. The group needed 25,000 for a recall election.

Taylor said, however, that the number of signatures the committee obtained is “more than the amount of votes most trustees get in a regular election.”

Citizens for a Better Saddleback targeted Trustees Robert L. Moore, Robert L. Price and William Watts. Price and Watts’ terms expire in November, and Taylor said the recall committee will work to have them defeated should they seek reelection. He said the committee will not oppose a third member, Eugene McKnight, whose term also expires in November. The board has seven members.

A key issue for the recall committee has been faculty unrest at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and at Irvine Valley College (formerly Saddleback College North) in Irvine, the two community colleges the district operates. The faculties have demanded that the board fire Chancellor Larry Stevens, whom the teachers accuse of being dictatorial and unfair. The trustees, however, have repeatedly backed Stevens, and their support prompted the committee to begin its recall effort.

Taylor said Wednesday that teachers feel they can work with some of the trustees, including McKnight, but he said a determined effort will be mounted to oppose Watts and Price for reelection. “We feel our effort to get signatures has not been in vain,” Taylor said.