College Trustees Weigh Ban on Alcohol

Rancho Santiago College District trustees debated late Monday whether to ban drinking alcohol at board meetings after a trustee complained that liquor was served at official, off-campus sessions at taxpayers’ expense.

Although no formal vote was taken, a majority of board members appeared to support the proposed policy, which may be decided at next month’s meeting.

Board members Charles W. (Pete) Maddox, Brian E. Conley, and Michael Ortell said they would support the liquor ban. Enriqueta Ramos and Tom Saenz did not comment during the discussion of the issue but previously indicated that they favored it. Shirley Ralston did not say how she would vote.

Only Trustee Carol Enos said that she would not vote for an outright ban on drinking liquor at meetings but emphasized that the district should not pick up the tab.

“This is the same kind of process that started McCarthyism,” Enos said during the debate in which she and Ralston protested that Maddox had made his allegations through the news media.

Maddox raised the issue after noticing that a $2,545 bill at the Antonello Ristorante in Santa Ana for four nights of board activities there in August, 1991, apparently included a $413.75 tab for alcoholic beverages.

The proposed policy states that “no alcohol will be consumed by any member of the Board of Trustees at any official meeting where the business of the district is being conducted . . . (and) no public funds will be used to cover the cost of alcohol consumption at any meeting of the board for any reason.”

Current and past board members said last week that candidates for top administrative posts had been interviewed at dinners. Beer also was occasionally served at informal work sessions at local hotels.

Chancellor Vivian Blevins said the state education code does not forbid drinking wine with dinner. She added that since she became chancellor last year, all meetings of the board, except one, have been held on campus.

Maddox alleged that the move to include the bar bills as legitimate meal expenses at Antonello was spearheaded by former board members Rudy Montejano and John Dowden, as well as current members Ralston and Enos. Because the four constituted a four-vote majority, Maddox said he, Conley and Ortell--the balance of the board at that time--were powerless to stop them.

But Enos and Ralston angrily denied the charges and countered that Maddox was trying to discredit them and embarrass the district.

Dowden, a founding board member who stepped down last year after serving two decades, has defended the practice, saying that dinner meetings tested the ability of job candidates to mix socially.

Earlier in the board meeting, Enos asked the board to consider at its next meeting whether to cut the out-of-state travel budgets for trustees. She made the request, she said, because recent district budget cuts had included reducing classes and faculty.