Unions Prominent in College Board Races

Faculty union campaigns to oust incumbent trustees in two districts dominate community college district elections set for next Tuesday in Orange County.

Voters in every segment of the county will choose board members in the four districts that govern eight community colleges.

The most heated races are in south Orange County’s Saddleback Community College District and Coast Community College District in the western part of the county, where teachers’ unions have mounted drives to oust incumbents.

Incumbent Not Seeking Reelection

In the Coast District, the union is seeking to defeat incumbent Richard E. Olson, the only board member remaining after three union-backed candidates won positions on the five-member board in 1983. Incumbent George Rodda Jr. chose not to seek reelection this year.

In the Saddleback District, three seats on the seven-member board are up for election. Two incumbents--William Watts and Robert Price--are being challenged by a union-endorsed slate. Incumbent Eugene McKnight, whose seat is up for election, chose not to run for another term.

Less visible races are in progress at North Orange County Community College District and Rancho Santiago Community College District.

Some political observers have compared this year’s election in Saddleback Community College District to the 1983 campaign in Coast Community College District. In 1983, the Coast teachers’ union, after having backed an unsuccessful recall effort against the incumbent board majority, was successful in electing a new majority.

Somewhat similarly, Saddleback District faculty earlier this year were among the leaders in an unsuccessful drive to recall incumbents Watts, Price and Robert Moore. Moore’s seat is not up for reelection, but the union hopes on Nov. 5 to oust Watts and Price and capture the seat being vacated by McKnight.

Essentially, the Saddleback District incumbents are defending their record--including their support of Chancellor Larry Stevens. The union-backed challengers are critical of the current administration of Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College, both of which are headed by Chancellor Stevens.

Watts is opposed by union-endorsed Joan Hueter, an athletic director, and by Gerald A. Wolf, an attorney and businessman.

Hueter has said that the incumbent board has squandered money on “unnecessary consultants” and has refused “to hire enough full-time teachers to offer critical classes.”

The union and its endorsed candidates are trumping up charges in an effort “to control the college district,” Watts responded.

Wolf has said that as the non-aligned candidate in the race, he is preferable because “I’m not indebted to anyone.” Wolf is currently chairman of the board of directors of the Greater Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, and he has served as a judge pro tem on the Orange County Superior and Municipal courts.

Campaigned Against ‘Hobby Courses’

Wolf has campaigned against what he calls “hobby courses,” such as tap dancing, and has said that the colleges should instead stress scholastic, vocational and remedial education.

Incumbent Price is opposed by union-endorsed Marcia Milchiker, a research biologist. She has charged that Price hasn’t been to Sacramento frequently enough to protect the interests of the community college system. Price has responded that he has been in close touch with the legislative scene in Sacramento.

“The real issue in this election is the union’s expensive effort to try to win control of our district,” said Price. A third candidate in the race is Burl Hobson, a computer consultant.

McKnight endorsed Perry E. Jacobson, a Cal State Fullerton sociology professor, to succeed him. The union endorsed Iris Swanson, a retired executive assistant who had been on Saddleback College’s administrative staff for 15 years. The two other candidates in the race are Ian Doyer, who is retired, and Mike Eggers, an aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad).

Eggers is backed by many supporters of the incumbent board of trustees, and he has come under fire from the teachers’ union, which has accused him of unethical conduct. Eggers has responded with head-on attacks against the union, accusing it of “one-sided emotionalism.”

In the Coast Community College District, incumbent Olson is under fire from the teachers’ union-backed candidate, Sherry Baum. Baum, who has been on the Huntington Beach Union High School District board, zeroed in on the fact that Olson is also a candidate on the Nov. 5 ballot for the Midway City Sanitation District. Baum accused Olson of wanting “to collect titles rather than serve the public interest.”

‘Don’t See Any Conflict’

Olson, in rebuttal, said that he has served on both boards for several years and has performed both jobs well.

“I don’t see any conflict at all,” he said. “I think (being on two boards) has assisted me in being a skillful legislator--knowing whom to deal with. If there were such a conflict, there’d also be a conflict for the many mayors in the county who also serve on dual boards.”

Olson has questioned the union’s reason for seeking to elect board candidates. “Any special-interest group must have some motivating needs to their end to seek additional candidates on the board,” he said.

Baum has said that in contrast with Olson, “I am running as a full-time board member.” She also criticized Olson for the teacher unrest of 1983 that accompanied the board’s layoffs that year.

The seat that Rodda is leaving is being sought by three candidates: Walter Howald, an attorney who is endorsed by the teachers’ union; David A. Post, an airlines pilot, and John Spencer Crump, a business consultant in his father’s company and a junior at UC Irvine.

‘Independent Candidate’

Howald has said he was not recruited to run by the teachers’ union; he said he was endorsed after he had filed as a candidate. “I’m an independent candidate, and always have been,” he said. Howald said the new board majority since 1983 has had “an adversarial approach to some of the problems, rather than working together.” He pledged to work for a more harmonious board.

Crump, 21, a psychology major, criticized “substandard” courses offered by Coastline Community College, a non-traditional college in the district. He said he would explore the possibility of allowing Orange Coast College and Golden West College offer the off-campus courses and close down Coastline’s administrative staff to save money.

Post, in an appearance at Golden West College, campaigned against drug use and said teachers aren’t doing a proper job in instructing students on how to study.

In Rancho Santiago Community College District, veteran trustees Carol Enos and Shirley Ralston are opposed for reelection by three candidates. The incumbents are running in a single trustee area: the top two vote-getters are elected.

Defeated Two Years Ago

Opposing Enos and Ralston are Art Hoffman, a technical writer; Craig H. Miller, a farmer and teacher, and Bea Foster, a teacher and community volunteer. Foster ran for the board two years ago and was narrowly defeated. She has criticized the incumbent board for changing the name of Santa Ana College to Rancho Santiago College and has said she would work to restore the old name.

In North Orange County Community College District, two incumbents didn’t seek reelection, thus leaving open seats in two trustee areas. In Trustee Area 2, Charlie Hilfenhaus of Buena Park, an administrative assistant for the Interfaith Peace Ministry of Orange County, has criticized the state’s new $50-a-semester tuition at the community colleges. His opponent, two-term Cypress City Councilman Otto Lacayo, has called for simplifying the budget procedures of the district, which governs both Fullerton College and Cypress College.

In the district’s Area 3, Alan E. Wheatland of La Habra, a construction company chairman, is opposed by Barry J. Wishart of Anaheim, an attorney. Wishart has said he opposes proposed minimum-entrance requirements for the community colleges, which have traditionally been open to any person who could benefit, regardless of educational background.