WOODLAND HILLS : Secret Ballot at Pierce Invalidated

Pierce College’s legal counsel has ruled that a school advisory committee violated the state’s open meeting law when it voted by secret ballot to recommend elimination of four industrial arts programs, college officials said Tuesday.

The ruling invalidates the 7-4 vote taken earlier this month by the school’s 13-member Planning Committee, said Richard Follett, a member of the committee and the Pierce College Council.

The committee, made up of faculty, students and administrators, is scheduled to take another vote today at 2 p.m. in the school’s Administrative Conference Room, he said.

Today’s meeting will mark the third time the committee has voted on the matter, school officials said. The committee’s first vote was later deemed invalid because the committee had failed to reach a quorum.

The matter also must go before the Pierce College Council, which is scheduled to vote Tuesday. Pierce College President Mary Lee has the final say.

Follett said school officials had kept the votes secret so that committee members who don’t have tenure could vote their consciences without fear of retribution.

School officials had no intention of violating the open meeting law, Follett said. They were confused because the law is vague as it relates to internal committees.

Meanwhile, Follett said, it’s possible the committee may decide today to vote on the four programs separately, and not as a single item, as they did both times before.

Ron Smetzer, a Pierce industrial technology instructor, said he was encouraged by the possibility of a separate vote on each program.

“That indicates to me that there is some interest in voting to keep at least part of the department, as opposed to just wiping out those four areas completely,” he said.

Smetzer and other industrial arts teachers have been working to keep the programs, saying they serve a vital need to the community. School officials say the programs should be done away with because they are out of step with the school’s academic mission.