4 College District Trustees Call on Ely to Resign : Expense accounts: The education official faces trial on embezzlement charges. He accuses the district attorney and a judge of conducting a vendetta.

Four Ventura County Community College District trustees called late Tuesday for the resignation of fellow Trustee James T. (Tom) Ely, who was bound over for trial on embezzlement charges last week. Joined by Chancellor Barbara A. Derryberry, the four individually denounced Ely’s actions.

However, they could not vote on the issue, since it was not on their agenda.

Ely has not shown up for the last several board meetings.

The community college trustees earlier had voted to bill Ely $16,768.32 for “inappropriate, exaggerated or falsely stated” expenses. Board President Gregory Kampf said the total does not include other expenses under review, including additional mileage reports, phone charges and expenses incurred by Ely’s wife, Ingrid, while she served as president of the Moorpark College Alumni Assn.

“I hope that we can collect voluntarily from Mr. Ely without having to resort to legal means,” Trustee Gregory Cole said. “I hope he has the resources to pay.”

Meanwhile, earlier Tuesday, Ely lashed out at county prosecutors and a Municipal Court judge who he said are carrying out a political vendetta against him.

In his press release, Ely attacked Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and Municipal Judge Thomas J. Hutchins, a county prosecutor before he was appointed to the bench in 1989.

“In any other jurisdiction within the state, it is doubtful that such a vindictive action would have ever been brought to trial,” Ely said in a press release distributed late Tuesday. “Usually this type of persecution has been thought to reside in olden days in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia.

“Today, however, history has evolved to the point that this conduct is customary in Iraq, Iran and Ventura County, by virtue of Bradbury’s conduct,” he said in the release.

Hutchins did not return a telephone call Tuesday. Bradbury responded, “I don’t comment on remarks by defendants.”

Ely also derided Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson.

Nelson, who is prosecuting Ely and his wife, Ingrid, for allegedly conspiring to steal more than $15,000 in college district funds by padding expense accounts, said Ely’s “stream of consciousness” press release should be given no credence.

“It’s bizarre, but people react to things differently,” Nelson said. “Everybody is on notice that Mr. Ely is such an unreliable source of information. . . . That’s what this case is about, people relying upon his representations.”

Nelson noted that Ely had attacked Community College District Trustee Timothy Hirschberg when the trustee brought up Ely’s alleged misuse of district telephones at a meeting. Ely called Hirschberg an idiot and said he would sue him. No suit has been filed.

In his release Tuesday, Ely said there is “a long history of ill will” between Bradbury and him. He said one dispute was over the way Bradbury’s office handled the 1987 investigation of former Moorpark Mayor Thomas C. (Bud) Ferguson. City Councilman Danny Woolard accused the mayor of trying to influence his vote by arranging loans. Prosecutors filed no charges against Ferguson.

“Who was the deputy district attorney in that matter?” Ely asked in his release. “Tom Hutchins.”

He added that judges should avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and he questioned whether the judge acted properly when he failed to disqualify himself from hearing the Elys’ case.

He accused Hutchins of attending a party at the district attorney’s office during the Elys’ preliminary hearing and of favoring prosecutor Nelson in his rulings.

In ordering the Elys to stand trial, Hutchins found there was enough evidence to support a 31-count criminal complaint against the couple, who allegedly claimed more than $15,000 in improper expenses between July, 1988, and January, 1990.

No trial date has been set, but Nelson said it will probably begin in December.

Ely was absent from the trustees’ regular monthly meeting Tuesday night. Besides voting to bill Ely for claims he submitted, the board agreed to consider giving up many perks the trustees have received--some of which Ely is accused of abusing. They include district credit cards and telephone credit cards, use of fax machines and health benefits.

The new code of ethics, which will go before the board later this month, will include procedures to censure trustees and to investigate ethics complaints.

“As custodians of a $60-million budget, the public has to know that we have certain standards of conduct to uphold,” Hirschberg said.