Ways to Make Foundation More Accountable Studied

Community college trustees and Moorpark College Foundation members are looking at ways to make the foundation more accountable in the wake of recent questionable funding transactions.

Three members of the foundation board met Tuesday night in a closed session with three trustees from the Ventura County Community College District.

After the meeting, Thomas Mackel, past chairman of the foundation board, said the trustees asked the board to consider changes that include letting district officials see the foundation’s quarterly financial statements and audits.

The nonprofit foundation, which raises funds for the college, operates independently from the college, unlike the foundations at Ventura and Oxnard colleges, Mackel said.

Trustees were told last week that Moorpark College and its private foundation may have improperly juggled funds in paying out about $25,000 in salaries to two employees.

District board President Timothy Hirschberg said the money may have been channeled improperly from the college through the foundation in 1989 and 1990 to circumvent union contract restrictions and pension regulations.

The two employees, Kathy Alfano and Delores Deutsch, administered a college education and training program that offered courses tailored to the needs of employees of businesses in the east end of the county.

Alfano, a part-time teacher at Moorpark College, was restricted by union regulations from working longer hours. To circumvent the limits, her salary was channeled through the foundation, Hirschberg said.

Deutsch, a retired Moorpark College faculty member, was paid by the foundation apparently to skirt the possibility of losing pension benefits, he said.

Moorpark College President Stan Bowers and Lawrence Lloyd, vice president in charge of administrative services, insisted that the channeling was proper and had the approval of both foundation and district officials.

“It doesn’t skirt anything,” Bowers said. “It doesn’t violate anything. It was clearly aboveboard. The money is absolutely accountable.”

He said other college districts have channeled funding for similar programs.

Mackel said he didn’t believe that the entire foundation board discussed or approved the arrangement. “I doubt very seriously that it would have been approved,” he said.