Mission College Gets Lesson in Local Politics

A routine presidential search for Mission College has turned into a politically charged brawl between three local Democratic politicians and the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees.

At stake is the leadership of the district’s smallest college, which serves one of the city’s poorest areas. The row began after the board rejected three candidates for Mission’s top post and voted to reopen the search earlier this month.

Among the rejected finalists was Saeed Ali, an aide to state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) and a liaison for the Legislative Latino Caucus in Sacramento. The other two contenders, Illinois Central College Vice President Bettsy Barhorst and Valley College Vice President Susan Carleo, also were recommended by an advisory committee appointed by the board.

Ali, a former Glendale Community College teacher, was favored by Assemblyman Tony Cardenas and state Sen. Richard Alarcon, both Sylmar Democrats. Although Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla did not endorse Ali, he said he was disappointed with the search process. All three said Ali’s familiarity with Latino politicians in Sacramento would have improved Mission’s standing. Mission College serves a predominantly Latino community.

“Was he my favorite candidate? Absolutely,” Cardenas said last week. “He’s demonstrated the kind of balanced background that Mission College needs to grow and work with Sacramento. He brings a lot of qualities that can help that college out tremendously.”

But some trustees said Ali’s political connections combined with his lack of administrative experience worked against him. The board has never hired a president who had not first been a college vice president, district officials said, and few trustees thought he was qualified to run a community college--especially one with a past as checkered as Mission’s. Its last president, William Norlund, retired last month after community groups blocked his attempts to expand the 6,600-student, 22-acre campus.

“I think it would have been a very bad thing to have had political people controlling our personnel at Mission College,” said Kelly Candaele, the board’s president. “The loyalty of the president has to be to our board and our chancellor. It can’t be to other elected officials who might have other agendas.”

Board Vice President Georgia Mercer said Mission is doing fine without interference from legislators. “We’ve turned the corner fiscally; we’re building a new building to accommodate more students; we’re increasing our enrollment--so back off.”

Cardenas, Alarcon and Padilla plan to do nothing of the sort. They have scheduled a news conference this week at Mission to call on the state community college chancellor to investigate the presidential selection process. Some trustees also fear that community members are planning to launch an effort to split Mission from the Los Angeles district.

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Alarcon stopped short of endorsing such a plan, but said he would consider a separate San Fernando Valley community college district.

“The community college trustees haven’t been responsive to the concerns of the community,” he said. “The community college district has always screwed up the process in regard to Mission College.”

Alarcon said he was further dismayed by the board’s decision to appoint Thomas Oliver, Mission’s academic affairs vice president, as interim president.

“I think Tom’s a great guy, but frankly, he was part of this administration that blew the money,” said Alarcon, referring to $4.8 million in land acquisition funds that Norlund’s administration failed to use before three separate spending deadlines.

After a lengthy process spearheaded by Cardenas and supported by Alarcon, the money was recovered and included in Gov. Gray Davis’ 1999-2000 budget. The funds were allocated to construct a 20,000-square-foot building on the campus. “When Tony and I worked so hard to recover that money, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let that money just fall by the wayside,” Alarcon said.

Alarcon also took issue with the board’s appointment of East Los Angeles College instructor Daniel Castro to an interim vice presidency at Mission without a bona fide search process. He said the appointment smacked of cronyism because Castro’s wife is a teachers union leader who has supported current and former trustees.

But trustee Sylvia Scott-Hayes said she would never have supported Castro had he not been qualified. “He has a good reputation as someone who does a lot in the Latino community. I have known him as an educator.”

Castro was among the 55 original candidates for the presidency, but wasn’t selected as a finalist by the board’s advisory committee.

Some question the legislators’ sincerity and contend that they are using Mission College to solidify their base of support in the northeast Valley. Many believe Cardenas is preparing to run for Assembly speaker, and is trying to please powerful political allies in Sacramento--such as Polanco.

“They didn’t get their way--they didn’t get their person in place and they’re mad,” Mercer said, summing up her view of Cardenas’ and Alarcon’s position.

Assemblywoman Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who left a community college trusteeship last year, said pressing the district to appoint Ali raised ethical issues.

“Eyebrows should be raised when legislators carry bills for colleges and then turn around and expect their staff members to be given cushy jobs,” she said.

Romero, who helped Scott-Hayes during the last community college board election, also suggested that the battle was as much about gender lines as about political differences.

“It’s testosterone gone mad,” she said.

Some officials familiar with the dispute said Mission is caught in a boys-against-girls boxing match with Polanco, Cardenas, Alarcon and Padilla in one corner and Romero, Scott-Hayes and Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina in the other. But Scott-Hayes dismissed a suggestion by Alarcon that her relationship with Romero and Molina spurred her rejection of Ali.

“They [Cardenas, Alarcon and Polanco] work together all the time,” Scott-Hayes said. “But if women work together that’s a big conspiracy. Maybe because I’m a female they think I don’t have an independent mind.”

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Mission has struggled in recent years with mismanagement, thinning enrollment and shrinking budgets. A district deficit forced Mission to cut 30% of its classes in the fall of 1997, sharply eroding enrollment. Then campus officials were late releasing Mission’s 1998 spring semester schedule and enrollment dropped an additional 14%.

Norlund increased Mission’s offerings and enrollment, but last November he accepted the blame for failing to use $4.7 million in state funds for a badly needed campus expansion project.

The plan was to build four classroom buildings and 1,000 parking spaces on 30 acres occupied by El Cariso Golf Course. A new golf course of equal size would then be built on land straddling the Pacoima Wash, but that plan was rebuffed by golfers, hang gliders, equestrians, ballplayers and other community groups that used the wash as a playground. Norlund apologized to the community “for not involving them from the beginning.”

Meanwhile, the board of trustees intends to reopen the presidential search and hire a private head-hunting firm to broaden the pool of applicants. The original candidates are welcome to apply again, but it’s unlikely any of the three rejected finalists would be hired, district officials said.

Several board members said they were confused and disappointed that Alarcon, Cardenas and Padilla had taken such an antagonistic stance toward the district.

“The dialogue has become one about who controls Mission College instead of quality education,” Candaele said.

But he pledged to banish any doubts about the board’s authority. “As board members, we have the final decision over who the presidents of our colleges are,” Candaele said. “The voters selected us to make those decisions and we take that very seriously.”

Mercer acknowledged that the district has had plenty of problems in the past, but said Mission is rebounding. The college recently reported a 12% enrollment increase. And as proof that the district can still attract top talent, Mercer pointed to the board’s recent selection of Rocky Young--a respected and well-known administrator--as Pierce College’s latest president.

“Give us a chance,” Mercer said. “Let us prove ourselves.”