Drive to Recall College Trustee Launched

A community college official who plunged his district into controversy with his opinions on the Kennedy assassination and the Holocaust is the target of an escalating campaign to unseat him.

Volunteers this week will start gathering voter signatures on a recall petition against Steven J. Frogue, an elected trustee of the South Orange County Community College District.

The Rev. Buckner Coe of Laguna Beach, a recall leader, said Tuesday that volunteers hope to collect 38,000 signatures by March 24 to qualify the measure for the local ballot as early as June.

Several months ago, Frogue angered many students, faculty members and citizens by advocating district funding for a course with guest speakers, one of whom believes that the Israeli secret service played a role in killing President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Frogue’s view that the Holocaust was exaggerated has also put him in the spotlight.

“There are people who are concerned all over this county,” Coe said. “We’re acting on faith that the people of south Orange County believe in the democratic process and are opposed to bigotry in all forms.”

Frogue, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, said in an earlier response to the recall that he advocates reform and that efforts to oust him are “politically motivated.”

Recall supporters will meet from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in a major push to gather 10,000 signatures this weekend, Coe said. They will meet at Harvard Community Athletic Park, 4601 Harvard in Irvine.

Frogue had served as president of the district’s board of trustees until Monday, when his term ended. His successor, John S. Williams, said Tuesday that a recall election would cost the district $450,000 to $750,000, possibly wiping out a projected budget surplus.

“If they put that on the ballot, it’s going to do some serious damage to us,” Williams said.

Critics also have decried administrative changes at Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges made in closed meetings without notice.

Coe said that although Frogue is no longer board president, “he’s still the spiritual leader of that majority, and they have been deciding things consistently on 4-to-3 votes.” Williams usually votes with Frogue.

Trustee Marcia Milchiker, who is in the board’s minority, said the district must begin to “undo some of the damage that has been done.” She has advocated Frogue’s removal from the presidency in the past, but is not involved in the recall.