COUNTYWIDE : Bailiff at Ely Trial to Seek Trustee Seat

The bailiff in the embezzlement trial of Ventura County Community College District Trustee James (Tom) Ely has decided to run for a trustee’s seat himself and promises to clean up the troubled district.

Vernon C. Markley, 42, of Ojai has taken out papers to run against incumbent Timothy Hirschberg in District 3, which includes Ojai, Camarillo, Santa Paula and Oak View.

Markley, a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy for nearly 18 years, said he decided to run for the part-time trustee’s post after hearing testimony alleging lax administration and oversight in the college district.

Ely was convicted June 25 of 29 counts of fraud, embezzlement and conspiracy involving the theft of public funds.

“I’m not running against Ely or Hirschberg,” Markley said Wednesday. “I’m running against a board that was asleep at the switch.”

Markley, who has a master’s degree in public administration, has served for 11 years on the five-member board that oversees $650 million in investments for the county employees’ retirement fund.

“With the checks and balances we have for our board, I can’t imagine something like the Ely case happening,” Markley said.

The college district seats of both Ely and Hirschberg will be on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Hirschberg has said he will run again, and Allan W. Jacobs, 61, a retired school administrator, has taken out papers to run for Ely’s seat, which will become vacant when Ely is sentenced Aug. 9. That is also the deadline to file candidacy papers.