Local News in Brief : Ousted Official Responds

Angered by her removal as a vice chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, Virginia Mulrooney on Wednesday delivered a blistering, face-to-face attack on the district’s trustees and the American Federation of Teachers local and called for investigations of both.

“This district is run by a Board of Trustees which was bought and paid for by the AFT College Guild, a board which operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the AFT,” declared Mulrooney, shaking with emotion and pointing at several trustees and at AFT College Guild President Hal Fox, who sat silent and grim-faced a few feet away.

Herself the AFT local president before she became vice chancellor for human resources four years ago, Mulrooney alleged that her recent dismissal and that of Chancellor Leslie Koltai in October were the result of the $14,000 campaign loans, later forgiven, from the union to three trustees last year. She said she would call for investigations by the county grand jury and state authorities of the “corrupt bargain” and would file an unfair labor practice complaint against the union.

Fox later said that the union welcomed Mulrooney’s departure and described her allegations as “nonsense.”