Union Endorses Only 1 Incumbent in Community College Board Race

The Los Angeles Community College District’s teachers’ union, which has not backed a loser in 10 years of elections, announced Monday that because of widespread dissatisfaction, it will support only one of the three district trustees seeking reelection April 14.

Officials of the American Federation of Teachers local college guild said the union endorses Trustee Harold Garvin, seeking a third term, but opposes Monroe Richman, the board president, and Marguerite Archie Hudson.

Guild President Hal Fox said the union backs Wallace Knox, a Westside attorney in the race against Richman. The guild will announce its choice in the race against Hudson later this week.

The guild also endorsed David Lopez Lee, a USC professor who is one of 14 candidates vying for the seat being vacated by Leticia Quezada. Quezada is running for the Los Angeles school board.

Union-backed candidates receive cash contributions, use of union phones for polling and guild campaign volunteers. Such support is very important in the low-turnout circumstances common in school board elections.

Fox said disgruntlement among the faculty of the district’s nine colleges is widespread, primarily because of the trustees’ handling of faculty layoff notices issued to 157 members last year because of a shortfall in state funding. But almost all of the instructors eventually were reinstated, which Fox said is a sign of the trustees’ incompetence. Garvin was the only trustee who opposed the layoffs.