Decision ’93 / A Look at the Elections in Los Angeles County : Money Issues, Headquarters Dominate Race : Community Colleges : Three at-large seats will be filled on the board that runs Los Angeles Community College

Budget cuts, fee increases and a site for administrative headquarters are dominating the campaigns for three seats on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees.

Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed increasing fees for the state’s 107 community colleges to $30 per unit for most students next school year. That would be $900 a year for a full-time student, a 650% increase.

The present cost is $10 a unit, but by law no one pays more than $120 a year. Wilson would remove the limit.

Additionally, most students with bachelor’s degrees would be charged $105 per unit.

The governor suggested the increases to the Legislature to help make up some of the $301-million cut he proposed for the colleges in his preliminary 1993-94 budget.

Officials of the nine-college Los Angeles district say Wilson’s proposals would shut the door on higher education for many of their 115,000 students, two-thirds of whom are members of minority groups. About a third of the students had annual household incomes of $12,000 or less, according to a 1988 survey.

Even the new fees would not offset the expected loss of state money, so the college plans to slash budgets. Planned cutbacks range from 5% at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to 12% at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley.

The issue of money has been prominent in the campaigns, even though the seven local trustees have little influence over the state budget.

Closer to home is the district’s long, painful search for a permanent home for its central staff. The board’s recent 4-3 vote to sell, at a loss, a building it bought three years ago in favor of leasing a site downtown has drawn fire from several candidates.

Leasing will cost the district less than operating its own building but will leave it looking for new quarters in 12 to 20 years.

Its potency as an issue has been reduced by the fact that all three incumbents facing election opposed the switch.

Each seat, which the district refers to as an office, is filled separately but all the elections are at-large. Voters throughout the district can cast one ballot for each office.

Here is a race-by-race report.

Office No. 2

In the hottest race, the incumbent has become an issue.

Challengers to Patrick Owens, who has held the office for four years, seek to paint him as being ineffective and even destructive.

“I believe that Pat Owens is not an effective voice for speaking out for the community colleges--not in Sacramento and not with the public in Los Angeles,” said candidate Elizabeth (Beth) Garfield, an attorney and the wife of board President Wallace Knox.

The irascible Owens is often at odds with the college staff and other board members.

Garfield and Joseph Ortiz, who heads a public relations firm in the San Fernando Valley, are believed to be front-runners among his seven challengers. The large number of candidates makes it unlikely that anyone will earn the necessary 50% of the votes plus one, pointing to a June 8 runoff.

Garfield, who specializes in labor relations, has the endorsement of the AFT College Guild, an important factor in board elections, and of several other unions. She also is backed by several prominent Democratic elected officials, including Reps. Howard Berman and Julian Dixon, state Sens. Teresa P. Hughes, Herschel Rosenthal and David A. Roberti, and Assembly members Barbara Friedman, Terry B. Friedman, Burt Margolin and Marguerite Archie-Hudson. Her supporters worry privately that her marriage to Knox will become a big issue, especially if she gets into a runoff with Owens.

Ortiz is endorsed by several civic and business leaders and by Democratic and Latino groups, including the Mexican-American Political Assn. and the district’s Latino Faculty Assn.

Forced to drop out of high school to help support his family, Ortiz resumed his education while in the military and he said he has devoted his entire career “to working to open up opportunities for others.” He calls for stronger business-college partnerships to “place a lesser burden on taxpayers.”

The maverick Owens is counting on a network of alumni clubs he has organized to help his campaign and the district’s funding prospects in Sacramento.

A longtime teacher at Trade-Tech, he cites as his major accomplishments putting on the district’s annual spring picnic and organizing opposition to some of his colleagues’ proposals.

“The guild wants my butt, let’s make no mistake about it,” Owens told a candidates forum. He criticized the union’s endorsement of Garfield.

Owens’ other challengers include Cal State L.A. student Ronald R. Williams, USC student Gabriel A. Orosco and Chatsworth High School senior Josh Addison Arce.

Attorney Eric C. Jacobson, who pledged to improve the district’s vocational education programs, and educator Maria Escalante, who proposed a series of tax increases to improve college funding, also are running.

Office No. 4

Incumbent Lindsay Conner, endorsed by the guild, has drawn fewer challengers.

A 12-year incumbent, he is receiving vocal opposition from community activist Xavier Hermosillo, who accuses the district of wrongdoing and waste in its handling of the administration building search.

Hermosillo is a founder of NEWS for America, an activist group that says Latinos are being muscled out by African-Americans and other groups in competition for jobs and political office.

He also was a leader in the costly and ill-fated attempt to bring the Raiders football team to Irwindale.

Hermosillo accuses the trustees of failing to “look ahead and plan for ways to help rebuild our economy.” He planned to run for City Council until Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores decided to seek reelection. Some Latino leaders and several Republican lawmakers, including Flores, have endorsed him.

Conner says he has helped to cut administration by nearly 50% and bring financial stability to the district despite decreasing state funding. As the first local board member to be elected president of the California Community College Trustees Assn., Conner said, he has had the opportunity to “be a statewide player” on behalf of the two-year colleges.

He also played a key role in settling a potentially divisive struggle between elected officials and faculty senates.

Most local Democratic elected officials have endorsed him, as has the Administrators Assn. of Los Angeles Community Colleges.

Casey Peters, a university library staffer, also is running for office. He credits his tuition-free studies at City College with setting him on a course that eventually led to a master’s degree from UCLA.

Office No. 6

Althea Baker, elected four years ago, has drawn four challengers.

An attorney and a former counselor at Mission College, Baker says she has fought to preserve Californians’ access to higher education and has put classroom and student services first in budget debates.

She has received the AFT College Guild’s endorsement.

Among her challengers is Stanley Camilla Benson Viltz, an administrator at Southwest College. Viltz is running on her grasp of district operations and said she has a plan for getting more funding.

Candidate Fernando del Rio, communications manager for the Southern California Assn. of Governments, is active in many civic and business groups and is a board member of the Foundation for East Los Angeles College.

Peter C. Halt, a certified public accountant who was treasurer for Ross Perot’s presidential campaign in California, says he would bring sound fiscal experience to the board. He has opposed the plan to lease a headquarters building.

Alice Hilda Lane, a political consultant, also is on the ballot.

The Candidates OFFICE NO. 2 Josh Addison Arce, 17, is a senior at Chatsworth High School.

Maria Escalante, 50, is director of admissions at the Nova Institute, a technical school in Los Angeles that trains medical assistants.

Elizabeth Jo Garfield, 40, is a lawyer who lectures on labor relations at Los Angeles Trade Tech and UCLA.

Eric C. Jacobson, 38, has edited legal briefs and documents for a Los Angeles law firm.

Gabriel A. Orosco, 21, attended Pierce College and Rio Hondo College and is attending USC, where he is majoring in accounting.

Joseph Ortiz, 51, is president of his own public affairs and communications company in North Hollywood.

Patrick Owens, 58, taught automotive technology at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College for more than 19 years. He was elected to the college board in 1989.

Ronald R. Williams, 39, is a student at Cal State L.A. majoring in business.

OFFICE NO. 4

Lindsay Conner, 37, was first elected to the board in 1981. He is a partner in a Los Angeles law firm.

Casey Peters, 40, is an administrative assistant at the UCLA research library.

Xavier Hermosillo, 42, manages a public relations company in San Pedro.

OFFICE NO. 6 Althea Baker, 43, was elected to the board in 1989. She also practices law, specializing in family issues and arbitration of labor disputes.

Fernando del Rio, 61, is the manager of public communications for the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Peter C. Halt, 32, is a self-employed certified public accountant.

Alice Hilda Lane, 44, is a student studying fine arts at USC.

Stanley Camilla Benson Viltz, 48, is dean of academic affairs at Los Angeles Southwest College.

L.A. Community College District

Here is a look at the nine-campus district, which is the nation’s largest, with a total enrollment of 114,917 students. Area: Includes the cities of Los Angeles, Agoura Hills, Alhambra, Bell, Bell Gardens, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Calabasas, City of Commerce, Cudahy, Culver City, Gardena, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Lomita, Maywood, Montebello, Monterey Park, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, San Gabriel, San Fernando, South Gate, Vernon, West Hollywood, Westlake Village and parts of several other cities and unincorporated communities in the county.

Students: It educates 9% of California’s community college students and represents 2.5% of national enrollment in two-year colleges. Women have been a majority since the late 1970s at all campuses except Trade-Tech.

Ethnicity: The number of Asian-American and Latino students has increased over the last decade. The percentage of African-American students has begun to increase after declining during the 1980s. Anglo enrollment has declined since 1975.

Students’ ages: The student body has aged since the 1970s. The percentage of students under 20 has declined as older groups have increased. Older students tend to take fewer classes and attend evenings.

Member Schools

NAME LOCATION ENROLLMENT East Los Angeles College Monterey Park 15,494 Harbor College Wilmington 9,218 Los Angeles City College Los Angeles 16,877 Mission College San Fernando 7,423 Pierce College Woodland Hills 18,584 Southwest College Los Angeles 5,707 Trade-Technical College Los Angeles 13,888 Valley College Van Nuys 18,874 West Los Angeles College Culver City 8,852