College District’s Financial State

Re “Time for Trustees to Act,” (Jan. 11) editorial:

As president of the Board of Trustees of the South Orange County Community College District, I would like to point to the decisive actions already taken by the board to increase fiscal solvency:

* The Orange County bankruptcy caused our district to lose $2.5 million in the investment pool. Despite this disaster and state funding constraints, the district’s budget committee was able to maintain high quality of education without cutting one class, a remarkable achievement.

* The board initiated cost-cutting measures by reassigning administrators and shifting nearly $525,000 back to the classrooms.

* This board’s personnel action directly resulted in an additional 239 course offerings last semester. The board’s reallocation of $830,000 in faculty salaries from administration to teaching students realized a net savings of $225,000 in administrative overhead.

The financial data on which the state chancellor’s office based its decision to place the district on a Level 2 “watch list” is six months old. The most recent data show:

* A net ending balance this fiscal year of over $2 million, over 3% of its annual budget and exceeding the state’s minimum requirement. This figure is expected to increase to nearly $3.7 million, a 5% ending balance.

* Current projections for the next two years are optimistic for the district, with projected beginning balances of several million dollars each year.

Our trustees will continue to initiate cost cutting and performance-based streamlining so that we may increase service to students while getting the district in fiscal shape to handle the enrollment “tidal wave.’

We’re making the tough choices and needed changes to ensure the future educational viability of the district.

JOHN S. WILLIAMS, President

Board of Trustees, SOCCCD

* Over 35 stories or editorials about South Orange County Community College District have appeared in The Times in the last year. Unfortunately, several more stories have yet to be told.

As a member of the college and district’s budget committees, I see the numbers. In the three years that I have served on these committees no member of the Board of Trustees has attended.

Yet four of the seven members of the board persist in micromanaging these colleges. They have ignored both past practice and the board’s own policies.

This district is one budget year away from assuming responsibility for over 100 acres of the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station. No money has been set aside for staff, maintenance and grounds, insurance, or earthquake retrofit of the many pre-1960 structures.

This district is one budget year away from beginning to repay its certificates of participation, a loan. The district borrowed nearly $18 million. Repayment will amount to about $1 million per year for the next 25 years. And where is this district to find over $22 million it owes to an unfunded liability--a faculty and administrator health benefits package negotiated in the early 1990s that it has not been funding? Yes, indeed, where?

One way these micromanagers have tried to get a little grip on the budget is through not hiring full-time faculty and staff. Saddleback College alone has 40 fewer full-time faculty than it had five years ago (and we have nearly 3,000 more students since 1993).

South Orange County citizens have every right to ask for details of how their $70 million is being spent this year. Ask how much the board spent on consultants. And how much then is diverted from the classroom, from replacement of critically needed faculty, and from the repayment of debt that these individuals have incurred.

ROBERT COSGROVE

South Laguna

* I have attended both Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College. My instruction has been excellent, but I am saddened and angered by what I see occurring: large expenditures of money for consultants and attorneys, far fewer department chairs and deans who know how to answer my questions, and fewer full-time faculty.

I want to express my outrage that four board members have created what appears to be a private club using public money.

Add to this Trustee Steven Frogue’s unorthodox comments and behavior. I have attended some board meetings to learn more about what is going on.

There I was appalled to see how Frogue treats members of the community--forcing the majority of the attending group to sit outside in the cold when the meeting could have been held in a larger room which accommodated everyone. Perhaps these board members did not want the community to be present or to voice their comments on the actions taken.

These are our colleges. I have sent my children to them; I hope my grandchildren will attend them. But what will they find if the present four board members continue to act as they have? I hope Frogue will be recalled. Citizens deserve so much better.

BEVERLY LANCE

Irvine