10 Applicants Vie for Trustee Seat on Cerritos Panel

Ten people are vying to fill a Cerritos Community College board vacancy created last fall when Trustee Robert Epple resigned upon winning election to the Legislature.

The applicants include several businessmen and educators, two psychologists and two people who have previously sought trustee appointments.

A college spokesman said that each candidate will be interviewed at a special trustees’ meeting on Tuesday. Within the next two weeks, the six trustees (there is also one non-voting student member) will appoint one of the candidates to serve the remaining nine months of Epple’s term.

The departure of Epple--a Norwalk Democrat who narrowly won the 63rd District Assembly seat held by Republican Wayne Grisham--marks the second time in recent months that the trustees have had to find a replacement for an outgoing member.

15 Months in Term

Former Trustee Barbara Hayden resigned with 15 months left in her four-year term after she won election to Downey City Council last June.

The decision to appoint her replacement rather than hold a special election sparked accusations that the board was not being responsive to communities served by the two-year public institution. The college draws most of its 20,000 students from Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, La Mirada and Norwalk.

After the board appointed Cerritos businessman John Moore, Hawaiian Gardens Mayor Kathleen Navejas led a petition drive to rescind the appointment. She favored a candidate from her city.

The petition was later abandoned when the trustees--who are now elected at large--unanimously agreed to draw a plan for members to be voted on by geographical districts. The Southern California Assn. of Governments is expected to make recommendations to the trustees at the Jan. 17 meeting. If approved, the plan will be placed before voters in November, calling for district-by-district elections beginning in 1991.

‘Stacked Against Us’

“Hopefully, with the approval of the trustee areas we will have representation,” Navejas said. Until then, Navejas said, she considers the appointment procedures to be “all stacked against us.”

“You are dealing with people (the trustees) who all think the same way and appoint people who think the same way as they do,” Navejas charged.

Board President Mark Durant disagreed.

“If she would attend some of the meetings she would see that we hardly vote alike,” Durant said. “We have seven, now six, distinct individuals with seven distinct backgrounds.

“I am very tired of people who don’t participate making accusations. We do not have that type of board.”

Arthur Perez, the candidate Navejas had supported last year, said he did not apply for the Epple position, but added, “That doesn’t close the door for me.”

Perez said he is considering becoming a candidate in November, when four seats are up for election.

According to a college spokesman, the candidates include Bellflower business administrator Geoffrey G. Smith and Paul C. Mangan, a director of real estate training from Cerritos, both of whom were unsuccessful applicants for the Hayden vacancy.

The others are Joseph O. Stits, an education administrator from Bellflower; John Vidmar, a buiness administrator from Cerritos; Albert C. Marconi, a quality control manager/engineer from Downey; Robert T. Pratt, a manufacturer’s representative from Downey; Rick D. Sanchez, an administrator from Downey; Dr. Gary K. Strahle, a clinical psychologist from Downey; Mario M. Ugarte, an educator/psychologist from Downey, and George W. Halsey, a semi-retired educator from Norwalk.