Bill May Give Area College Board Voice

Legislation designed to guarantee San Fernando Valley voters a voice in the governance of the Los Angeles Community College system passed a committee and a major hurdle Tuesday.

Sponsored by Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar), the measure would create three Valley districts from which trustees would be selected for the community college board.

Today there are no Valley members among trustees who run the nation’s largest community college system, with more than 100,000 students on nine campuses, including Mission, Valley and Pierce colleges in the Valley.

“My bill will guarantee that no community in the Los Angeles area goes without representation ever again,” Cardenas said.

The board has seven members, all of whom live within seven miles of each other near downtown and East Los Angeles.

The legislation, which has been championed by Cardenas as an effort to give local communities a greater voice, passed the Assembly Committee on Higher Education on an 8-5 vote.

Under the bill, the community college system would create nine districts throughout its 882-square-mile jurisdiction and require members to be elected from each district. The Valley would get three districts and thus three trustees. Members are currently elected at-large.

If the bill is signed into law it would bring the Los Angeles Community College District in line with the way members of the Assembly, city councils and other government bodies, including most community colleges, are elected.

But Cardenas concedes that the bill faces tough opposition from a majority of the members of the Community College board of trustees and from teachers unions, among others.

“It’s been an uphill battle so far and it will continue to be,” he said.

Opponents say district elections will create turf wars between trustees, while at-large elections will ensure that the board is committed to serving the district as a whole.

“I think it’s going to be harmful,” said Carl Friedlander, president of the Los Angeles college guild of the American Federation of Teachers, who testified in Sacramento against the bill.

“The intent of the bill is to create a trustee for each college and I think it will inevitably lead to a balkanization of the colleges,” he said.

The bill is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee today and faces a Jan. 31 deadline for Assembly passage.

There are strong feelings on both sides of the bill.

When Cardenas asked the Los Angeles City Council in November to endorse the bill, the members opted instead to remain neutral.