College District Board Votes to Switch Trustee Elections to Even Years

In a move that angered the politically powerful teachers’ union, the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees voted 4 to 3 Monday night to shift its trustee elections to even-numbered years, when more voters usually go to the polls.

Trustee Harriett Walther said the change would lessen the clout of “special-interest groups” in being able to sway trustee elections.

The move’s initial effect is to extend by one year the term of four incumbents and to switch their election from this November until November, 1988. The supporters of the change said the switch will save the money-short Saddleback and Irvine Valley community colleges $176,000 in election costs and let more people participate in the district trustee elections.

But opponents argued that it’s not certain yet that much money will be saved. Opponents also argued that the trustee elections would be lost in the clutter of the bigger ballots in even-numbered years.

Robert Kopfstein, president-elect of the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Assn., the teachers’ union, said after the board meeting that he will ask the union membership at its April 20 meeting to support a recall action against the four trustees who voted for the election change.

The faculty association two years ago was successful in electing three new board members and in ousting former Chancellor Larry Stevens. Those actions came after a bitter political campaign preceded by an unsuccessful recall attempt against board members opposed by the union.

The trustees’ split vote Monday night came after heated debate. Some opponents of the move charged that the incumbent trustees wanted to extend their terms and get a one-year “free ride.”

A relatively new state law allows school and community college governing boards to change their elections from odd-numbered years, when off-year elections with low voter turnouts are held, to November of the even-numbered years, when elections have bigger turnouts. Many Orange County school districts have voted to switch their elections under the new law. Those districts said the move was both to save money and to allow more voters to participate.

Saddleback Community College District’s former board of trustees had voted in October, 1985, to switch its elections to even-numbered years. But after the union-endorsed trustees took office and commanded a majority on the board, they voted to rescind the election shift.

The vote Monday night was to take up the issue once again.

Three holdover trustees from the “old” board--John C. Connolly, Bob Moore and Walther--were joined by new trustee Joan Hueter in support of the change. Voting against the move were the three other trustees, Iris Swanson, Shirley Gellatly and Marcia Milchiker, who all had strong union backing during their elections.

Hueter, the swing vote, also had faculty union backing, and some of the teachers speaking Monday night told her she wouldn’t be a trustee if it hadn’t been for faculty support.

Her voice choked with emotion, Hueter said: “I considered the amount of money that we are going to save (by changing the election date). This (saving) would be at least three, if not four, faculty salaries.” She added that she also thought it wise to get more people involved in the trustee elections.

Kopfstein said after the meeting that he and other faculty members who supported Hueter are unhappy with her decision. “If there’s a recall, she’ll be included,” he said.