College District’s Union-Backed Candidates Win

In a double victory for the employees union of the Los Angeles Community College District, voters on Tuesday returned one incumbent to the Board of Trustees and ousted another.

With considerable help from the American Federation of Teachers College Guild, Trustee Althea Baker defeated accountant Peter C. Halt for Office No. 2. In the race for Office No. 6, labor lawyer Elizabeth Jo Garfield beat Trustee Patrick Owens, who often feuded with the guild representing the district’s teachers, clerical and technical workers and police officers.

The guild poured thousands of dollars into the Garfield and Baker campaigns.

“We did a lot in the way of campaigning, and the college community was behind me and getting the word out. . . . That’s what really made the difference,” Baker said as the ballot counting drew to a close.

Garfield said she will not wait until her July swearing-in to start work.

“I will begin meeting with legislators to make sure the money allocated to community colleges is sufficient to serve the needs of our students,” she said. “Fortunately, I have excellent contacts with legislators in Sacramento, and I think those meetings will be very effective.”

College finances dominated the campaigns, with all four candidates talking about the need to economize and find new sources of revenue to replace the dwindling funds provided by the state.

Businessman Halt, 32, who was California treasurer for Ross Perot’s presidential campaign, said his expertise would lend a new dimension to a board made up entirely of attorneys and educators. Stumping at countless homeowner and community group meetings, Halt said the district should spend more money in classrooms and less on administration and called for increased partnerships with private industry to help fund more vocational programs.

Baker, 43, who taught psychology and worked as a counselor at the district’s Mission College before getting elected to the board in 1989, touted her knowledge of the district and record of cutting administrative costs and fostering cooperation among factions within the district. She said her strong ties with legislators and other elected officials would help the district in the looming budget fight in Sacramento, where the governor is proposing further budget cuts and fee increases.

Garfield, 40, cited her experience as a labor negotiator and part-time college instructor, as well as her broad spectrum of endorsements, as evidence of her ability to make sound decisions about the district’s future. She promised to be a strong advocate for the two-year colleges, raising their visibility in Sacramento and with community groups. Garfield repeatedly attacked incumbent Owens, who has feuded regularly with other board members since he was elected in 1989, and questioned his effectiveness.

Owens, 58, who bucked the guild four years ago with the help of former colleagues and students at the district’s Trade-Technical College, tried to make an issue of Garfield’s union ties and her marriage to board President Wallace Knox. He said she was a special interest candidate and implied that she could not make her own decisions. Owens cited his own efforts to improve college support through the establishment of alumni groups and a districtwide picnic.

Baker and Garfield, fortified with guild funds and scores of individual contributions from guild members, outspent Halt and Owens. By May 22, the end of the last reporting period before the election, Baker had reported raising $77,000 and Garfield had collected more than $80,000, records filed with county election officials showed. The $27,000 Owens reported raising came mostly from loans. Halt had collected about $4,500 by the end of the reporting period.

Candidates run at large in the 116,000-student district, the nation’s largest. It includes about three dozen cities besides Los Angeles and 1.2 million voters.

The district is governed by a seven-member board, three of whom hold seats with terms that expire this summer. Trustee Lindsay Conner won reelection to Office No. 4 in the April primary, but because no candidate in the other two contests got a majority of the votes, runoff elections were required.