Countywide : College Official to Serve Time in Jail

Tom Kimberling, Ventura County Community College District vice chancellor for administrative services, will serve his 60-day jail sentence for wife-beating in a minimum security lock-up facility beginning June 17.

Kimberling said Thursday that he has been accepted for the work-furlough program and will be allowed to go to work, but must return to the Camarillo facility nights and weekends. If he abides by all rules of the facility, his jail time will be reduced to 40 days, he said.

Kimberling resigned his administrative post last week under pressure from district trustees, who questioned his ability to continue to supervise college financial affairs. He will remain with the district as a teacher of business courses.

His resignation is not effective until Aug. 16. He must be employed to be eligible for the work-furlough program, and trustees said they wanted Kimberling on board to help new Chancellor Thomas Lakin familiarize himself with the district’s operation.

Kimberling, 44, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor spousal battery and was sentenced May 10. The charge stemmed from an altercation with his wife, Ann Kimberling, who said he had punched her in the nose and mouth and tried to force a stuffed animal into her mouth in an attempt to suffocate her.

The trustees have said they did not ask him to resign his $88,698-a-year salary because of the criminal case.

A series of scandals have touched Kimberling beginning a year ago when charges arose that Trustee James T. (Tom) Ely had falsified travel claims with the district.

Other problems followed, including an omission by one of Kimberling’s workers that resulted in Internal Revenue Service penalties. Questionable financial transactions between Moorpark College and its private foundation also involved him.

He was bitter about the resignation, contending that other factors motivated the trustees’ desire to ask for his resignation, possibly the criminal case.

“I find it difficult to believe there was a sudden loss of confidence in my abilities to run the affairs of the district,” he said.