A Stunned Community Mourns : College District Faces Void After Chancellor’s Death

Three years into a massive reorganization of the Ventura County Community College District, officials Monday were wrestling with how to maintain their course after the sudden death of Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin.

Lakin, who medical officials say died Sunday of the so-called flesh-eating bacteria, was chosen from more than 60 candidates to replace outgoing Chancellor Barbara Derryberry after a widespread search in 1991.

He accepted the job while the district was in the midst of severe financial problems, including cash-strapped budgets, fiscal mismanagement and the criminal indictment of a former trustee.

Lakin’s death “throws a big whack in the district’s restructuring plan,” said Trustee Gregory P. Cole, who chose not to seek reelection earlier this month and will vacate his seat next week.

“It kind of cuts the head off the district because it’s lost its leader,” Cole said. “Lakin has assembled a management team that just over the last six months has been able to pull everything together.”

Administrators spent much of Monday huddled in the district office discussing how to replace Lakin, the popular chancellor who many credit with rescuing the three-campus district from the brink of budgetary and organizational chaos.

“We went through a lot of trouble and a lot of effort to find a candidate like Tom,” Trustee Pete E. Tafoya said. “It’s going to be difficult to find another person like Tom, but they are out there.”

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An interim chancellor will likely be named next week, when the two newly elected trustees--John Tallman and Norman J. Nagel--are sworn in.

David Mertes, chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, said Lakin already laid the groundwork for continuing improvement within the local college district.

“Tom was a very stabilizing force in the Ventura district,” Mertes said. “He came at a time when there was a variety of difficulties to be addressed.

“What (trustees) need to do now is have a strong interim person that can work closely with the board and keep the stability Lakin developed,” Mertes said, “then plan how they will select a long-term chancellor.”

Trustee Timothy D. Hirschberg said Lakin helped sort out the fiscal mess left by former Trustee James T. Ely, the strong-willed board member convicted three years ago of embezzling school funds. Ely died last December.

“The financial problems that we had when we brought on Dr. Lakin were mainly internal,” Hirschberg said. “The new challenges that have come upon us are external.”

But Tallman, who ousted appointed incumbent Karen M. Boone in the Nov. 8 general election, said he was not entirely supportive of the direction the district has taken under the current governing board.

“That was going to be a problem if Thomas hadn’t died,” Tallman said Monday. “(The board) misinterpreted the need for accountability.”

The board could achieve better fiscal control while still ensuring that campuses maintain their independence, Tallman said.

Following Ely’s embezzlement conviction, the college district governing board moved to establish better controls over its funds.

In his 3 1/2-year tenure, Lakin implemented a series of changes ordered by the board, consolidating many of the accounts at Oxnard, Ventura and Moorpark colleges, weeding out less productive staff through early retirements and beefing up the district’s low cash reserves.

Tallman, however, a former district administrator who campaigned on pledges to impose stricter controls while allowing the colleges to maintain autonomy, questioned some of the accounting practices employed by Lakin, who was paid $119,000 annually.

“There were some suspect items in there,” Tallman said of the district’s $58.6-million 1994-95 budget.

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The incoming trustee said district administrators overestimated how much money they would receive from the state, in effect, balancing a budget on assumptions.

Such practices, Tallman said, led the state chancellor’s office to place the Ventura County Community College District on a statewide “watch list” of precariously managed districts.

The district was removed from the list earlier this year, Mertes said.

“Whether you’re on the watch list or not, and whether you have the reserves or not is totally dependent on your income budget,” Tallman said. “If you budget enough income, you’ll never appear on any watch list.”

Specifically, Tallman questioned why the board would--at Lakin’s recommendation--approve a budget that assumed the state would fund at least $800,000 in reimbursements for sinking property tax revenues.

Gov. Wilson on Sept. 30 vetoed a bill that would have allowed those reimbursements for community colleges, forcing the district to make up that deficit with an expected $1-million health insurance refund to the budget.

Tallman also said the current budget used summer school enrollment to balance last year’s spending plan, meaning that money would not be available this fiscal year.

“That kept (the budget) last year from appearing to deficit-spend, when in fact it did,” he said.

Nonetheless, board President Allan W. Jacobs supports the work that Lakin and his staff have done over the past three years.

“The direction that Dr. Lakin took was the direction the board gave him at that time,” Jacobs said. “John (Tallman) is a new board member and he will certainly have his input and push his agenda.”

But, Jacobs said, he wants to investigate Tallman’s claim that enrollment from the summer, 1994, session was used to cover deficits from last year.

“He’d have to prove that to me, and that would be a good question for (Vice Chancellor) Jeff (Marsee) to respond to.

“Obviously, John has a (financial) expertise that’s going to be helpful to the board,” Jacobs said. “If he can prove that to me, I might have to take a different stance.”

Marsee spent Monday with Lakin’s family, arranging the funeral service and tentatively planning a district remembrance ceremony. He was not available to discuss the budget.

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Several trustees contacted Monday said the search for a permanent replacement would begin as soon as possible. But none would say whether they are inclined to promote someone from within the district office.

Outgoing Trustee Cole said he hopes the board chooses an outsider with considerable experience running a college district.

“The board made a decision over three years ago to look for an innovative leader to bring about change because the district had been so inbred for so long,” Cole said.

“My recommendation would be to open up the process and seek the best candidate from California’s community colleges.”