Community College Bill Sent to Governor

The state Senate last week gave final passage to a bill that supporters say is aimed at boosting minority representation on the Los Angeles Community College governing board by forcing trustees to run for election by district.

The seven trustees now run for election at large, meaning all registered voters within the sprawling community college system are eligible to cast ballots in the races.

By a vote of 23 to 11 Monday, the Senate sent the measure by Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) to Gov. George Deukmejian. The governor vetoed the same proposal last year and has indicated he plans to do so again this year, a Polanco aide said.

The community college system encompasses the city of Los Angeles and several surrounding communities. It is composed of nine campuses, including Harbor College in Wilmington.

Polanco and those backing his bill argue that elections by district would increase the chances of minorities winning more seats on the governing board because several districts would contain large percentages of minority voters.

Polanco said he initially pressed to change the voting system “to allow for more racial minority representation . . . because that’s what true democracy is all about.”

The current board is made up of one black, one Latino, one Asian and four Anglos.

In vetoing the same bill last year, Deukmejian said the state should not interfere in local issues. “Local government election matters have traditionally been placed in the hands of local citizens and should remain there,” the governor said.

Deborah Ortiz, an aide to Polanco, said the governor’s office recently restated its opposition in a letter to the assemblyman. “We’re likely to get a veto again,” Ortiz said.

But Polanco said, in an effort to change Deukmejian’s mind, he intends to appeal to the governor’s reputation as a fiscal conservative and stress the cost savings that could be realized by district elections. A state Senate analysis of the proposal estimated that district elections for board seats could cut balloting costs for the community college system by as much as 50%.

Board President Lindsay Conner acknowledged that district elections could save the system $350,000 to $500,000 annually. But he said a majority of the current board opposes such a change because it would lead to “a highly politicized, log-rolling board, and a paralyzed central administration.”

Conner said district elections eventually would force trustees to represent the special interests of individual campuses, rather than all nine schools, and would create “a much more intensely political system.”

He also disputed the claim that changing to district elections would increase minority representation on the board. To support his argument, he noted that the board’s current makeup is the same as that for the Los Angeles Board of Education, which elects its members by district.