Strife May Never Be Same After Board Race

The opening of the county political season last week also signaled the start of political snarling in the South Orange County Community College District, where terms for three of the seven members of a bitterly divided board are expiring, setting the stage for what many see as a referendum on the future of the two colleges it runs.

“It’s no secret that these elections are literally going to determine the destiny of the colleges and the district,” said Kate Clark, an English instructor and faculty leader at Irvine Valley College, which is administered by the South County board along with Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

As though by a fault line, the Board of Trustees is divided into two uncompromising camps: a majority that favors top-down change, reorganization and cost-cutting, and a minority that favors more gradual reforms and consensus among campus groups.

For more than a year, dozens of decisions in the district, which covers nearly half of Orange County and serves 33,000 students, have been made by 4-3 votes. Such fractured decisions were required for a new college president, a faculty contract and even a controversial seminar on the assassination of President Kennedy before it was canceled last year.

The political season opened last week with the start of the 25-day period for hopefuls to declare their candidacy. Candidates have until Aug. 7. Last week, a key member of the minority camp announced she would not seek reelection because of her health.

Joan J. Hueter, one of the longest-serving members of the board, has battled Parkinson’s disease for 12 years and said it has worsened in the last two. But Hueter blistered the slim board majority, of which controversial Trustee Steven J. Frogue is a part, as she announced her retirement.

She blamed the college board for a pattern of “micromanagement and poor judgment” that she said led to an administrative exodus and resulted in state investigations.

“The biggest liability we face is that so many of our top administrators have left,” Hueter, 66, said in an interview last week. “It’s hard to keep consistency going within the colleges because everyone is relatively inexperienced.”

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The district and its two colleges have lost the chancellor, vice chancellor, two college presidents, three vice presidents and several deans in the past 18 months.

“Even administrators who don’t feel threatened are finding the environment to be intolerable,” Hueter charged. “When you talk to people, you hear that a lot of our people are ‘looking.’ ”

Also expiring this year are the terms of Trustee Marcia Milchiker, who has sided with Hueter against Frogue and the board majority, and Trustee Teddi Lorch, a defender of Frogue.

Milchiker, 51, last year co-sponsored a resolution to strip Frogue of the board presidency after the uproar over the JFK assassination seminar, in which Frogue proposed to air the views of an author frequently accused of anti-Semitism who theorizes that Israeli intelligence officials were involved in the killing. The resolution failed, 4 to 3, although Frogue eventually handed over control of the rotating presidency to ally John S. Williams.

Because of staggered terms, Frogue, Williams and Trustee Dorothy Fortune are scheduled to remain in office until 2000, although Frogue is the target of a recall drive.

Milchiker, who is seeking her fourth term, said restoring the colleges’ integrity is her main goal and believes it is necessary to continue opposing the drastic changes favored by the board majority.

“It’s been discouraging, because we had such a wonderful reputation for so many years,” Milchiker said. “There’s still excellent education going on. We need to turn the reputation of the district around and show people it is still the great place it has always been.”

Lorch, 51, did not return phone calls seeking comment on her plans. Tom Lorch, her husband and campaign spokesman, said she is considering running again for what would be her second term.

Williams, the board president through the end of the year, said the economic fallout from the county’s bankruptcy made drastic change necessary, and he defended the top-down nature of the overhaul.

“We have to change the way we do business,” Williams said, adding that the board has been “raked over the coals” for its decisions.

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Many changes have angered teachers, students and community supporters, and raised questions in the state agency that oversees community colleges as well as the commission that accredits them.

The state chancellor’s office of California community colleges said last month that it is investigating the district for possible violations of state education regulations requiring faculty input into key decisions. And the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges said it is tightening its oversight of the district.

Leaving a crucial opening, Hueter said she would help seek a replacement candidate, urging hopefuls to adhere to established policies and practices in overseeing the colleges.

“They must work diligently to prevent further erosion of the reputation of the colleges and morale of the staff,” said Hueter, a career high school teacher and athletic director.

Williams said he would be seeking different qualities in a candidate, looking for those intently concerned with the costs of providing an education.

Trustees receive $400 a month for attending monthly meetings, and must pay a $4,000 fee to have their candidate statement sent to voters, one of the highest such fees in the county.