Trustees Cite Evidence for Coolness to Bowers’ Offer : Moorpark: Two board members say a ‘smoking gun’ shows that the college president should be fired.

An offer by Moorpark College President Stanley L. Bowers to resign in exchange for another administrative job probably will be rejected because college district officials think they have a “smoking gun” that shows that Bowers deliberately funneled money through the college’s foundation to circumvent state law.

Bowers has tried to negotiate a deal since he was told May 21 that Ventura County Community College District trustees intend to fire him, district sources said.

Last Friday, in a letter to the district, he agreed to resign the college presidency, which pays about $94,000 annually, if the district would give him one of several other administrative posts with salaries of $80,000 to $83,000 a year.

Bowers, 56, is a tenured faculty member and entitled to a teaching or counseling job--which would pay about $65,000 a year--if removed as college president. But he is not entitled to a management job, according to the district.

Top district officials reacted coolly Wednesday to Bowers’ settlement offer. Since the veteran administrator continues to insist that he has done nothing wrong, officials said they want to give him a chance to prove it Tuesday evening at a public hearing that he requested.

“I’d like to go ahead with the hearing so we can put this matter to a full and final rest,” Trustee President Timothy Hirschberg said.

Trustee Gregory Cole said he would not “entertain any settlement offers until after Dr. Bowers has a complete hearing.”

While saying they would reserve final judgment until the hearing, both Hirschberg and Cole said evidence gathered by the district’s lawyer has convinced them that Bowers should be fired.

“I don’t believe the voters in my district elected me to make deals,” Cole said. “They elected me to make informed decisions.”

Four district trustees are expected to discuss Bowers’ offer at a special meeting Saturday set to prepare for Tuesday’s hearing. The fifth trustee, James T. (Tom) Ely, is charged with embezzling $15,000 from the district and has not attended trustee meetings for months.

Bowers and Lawrence G. Lloyd, a college vice president, are accused of sidestepping state pension and employment regulations by approving payment of two employees with $23,000 funneled through the Moorpark College Foundation in 1989 and 1990.

Both administrators have insisted that their actions were legal and proper. But Lloyd, 57, notified the district Tuesday that he will not appeal a district reprimand because he thinks it is warranted.

Lloyd maintains in a letter to Chancellor Barbara Derryberry that his intentions were good. But he adds, “I sincerely regret that my mishandling of these matters has caused embarrassment to the district and Moorpark College.”

Bowers told The Times on Monday that he approved paying one part-time and one retired employee through the foundation to save a vocational program only after Lloyd assured him that district officials had agreed that the payments were proper.

“So I assumed that the transaction is legitimate and that is (all) I had to do with this whole thing, period,” Bowers said.

But trustees Hirschberg, Cole and Gregory Kampf said Wednesday that a memo from Lloyd to Bowers about the questionable fund transfers convinced them that Bowers knew that district officials had concerns about the program.

The memo, obtained by The Times, was characterized by one top district official as “the smoking gun in this case.”

When questioned about the memo, Cole, Kampf and Hirschberg said they consider it important evidence of Bowers’ mismanagement.

In the Sept. 27, 1989, memo, Lloyd requests Bowers’ approval of a contract with a retired college employee, Dolores Deutsch, who had agreed to oversee the program as a consultant.

“Because of my recent problem with the district office in employing Dolores as a consultant,” Lloyd wrote, “I am proposing that Dolores’ service in assisting with the . . . program be handled directly by the foundation.”

The statement, according to the trustees, shows that Bowers knew that the district did not want Deutsch employed in the program but that Bowers and Lloyd hired her anyway by paying her through the foundation. The foundation is independent of the college, and its books are not subject to audit by the district.

“That was a key piece of evidence” in a highly critical report that the district’s lawyer presented to trustees, Cole said. “It clearly shows there were district concerns about the contract, no question about it,” Hirschberg said.

Bowers could not be reached for comment. But his attorney, Paul D. Powers, said that the Lloyd memo is not significant and that trustees have misinterpreted it.

Furthermore, Powers said the memo does not indicate that district officials had any concerns about routing employee payments through the foundation.

Bowers had been assured by Lloyd months earlier that Lloyd had gained the approval of district Vice Chancellor Tom Kimberling to pay Linda Alfano, a part-time college employee who ran the program, through the foundation, Powers said. And there was no indication in the Lloyd memo that Deutsch could not legitimately be paid the same way, Powers said.

“This wasn’t changing the program. The only change was the player,” Powers said.

Contacted Wednesday, Lloyd said the district’s personnel office had refused to approve the hiring of Deutsch as an hourly employee to run the vocational program that trained students for jobs at specific companies, which in turn paid for the classes.

Lloyd said he did not ask district officials why Deutsch’s employment had been rejected. “I think I assumed it has something to do with retirement,” he said.