Focus in Trustee Race on Reform

A desire to reform the troubled Ventura County Community College District is a driving force among those seeking to become trustees in November, including three alumni of schools in the system.

Voters will have a chance to select three trustees to the board in the Nov. 5 general election, which will include balloting for city councils, school districts and special districts in Ventura County. The general filing deadline for candidates was 5 p.m. Friday.

Two incumbents filed for reelection to the five-member college board, which is under fire for allowing Chancellor Philip Westin to charge the district $119,000 in expenses over four years.

Cheryl Heitmann, a small-business owner in Thousand Oaks, said the financial scandal is a key reason she is running for the seat to be vacated by board President Norman Nagel, a two-term trustee who decided not to seek reelection.

“The credibility of the district has been tarnished,” Heitmann said this week. “I think we need trustees with experience and integrity who will put the focus back on guaranteeing our young people an excellent education.”

Whoever is elected to the board would help set policy for the district and its 26,000 full-time students and hundreds of faculty and staff members at Moorpark, Ventura and Oxnard colleges.

Heitmann will run against Dan Peate, a former Moorpark College student body president who once served as student representative to the board of trustees. The Area 2 seat for which they are competing represents Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and Westlake Village.

Peate, 24, of Thousand Oaks, said he became increasingly motivated to run as he learned about Westin’s spending--and the board’s decision to give him a $30,000-a-year raise anyway.

“When everything came out, I was definitely concerned about the fiscal responsibility of the board,” said Peate, an employee benefits consultant for an insurance brokerage. “That’s when I decided I would run, because I’d really like to see some serious reform.”

Heitmann, 56, has the support of the Ventura County Federation of College Teachers, said union President Larry Miller. The faculty union played a crucial role in pressuring the board to take action against Westin, who was placed on paid administrative leave last month. The board is currently conducting an investigation into his expenditures.

Heitmann, Peate and anyone else who wants to run for Nagel’s seat have until Wednesday to file, because under county rules, when an incumbent chooses not to run, the deadline is extended three business days.

Incumbent Art Hernandez, 45, the Area 5 representative covering portions of Oxnard, El Rio and Port Hueneme, is running for reelection.

He said he hopes voters will appreciate his “long-term service to Oxnard” as a proponent of Oxnard College, and his previous work on local school boards.

“I hope they will look at how I conduct myself personally, in regard to travel and expenses,” Hernandez said. “I do very little travel, if any.”

Hernandez was on the prevailing side of a 4-1 board vote in May to extend Westin’s contract and award him a 16% raise, pushing his salary to $203,000 a year. The vote came two months after Hernandez and his colleagues learned about Westin’s spending habits.

Some citizens became so upset by the move that they launched a recall drive against one of the two trustees not up for reelection this year, Al Jacobs. The other is Trustee Bob Gonzalez.

Hernandez now says that he made a mistake on the Westin vote. “Are there some decisions I made that I would have changed? Yes, there are,” said Hernandez, who was elected to his seat mid-term in 2000. “But I feel I have all the information now to make the right decisions.”

One of his challengers will be Sylvia Munoz Schnopp of Port Hueneme, who attended Ventura College from 1977 to 1979. The owner of a marketing and media relations consulting company, Schnopp, 42, said board members have no legitimate excuse for what happened.

“They’re not doing their jobs,” she said. “They should be asking those tough questions and holding people accountable for every single dollar spent. Where were the checks and balances for taxpayers, who are now suffering the consequences?”

Another Hernandez challenger will be Ron Segovia Dyste, a former vice president at Ventura College who has the support of the faculty union, Miller said. The third challenger is Deshay David Ford, 54, a mental health counselor.

Incumbent John Tallman, a longtime Westin foe and the only board member to oppose extending his contract, will run for reelection in Area 1, which covers parts of Oxnard, Ventura and Port Hueneme. He will have the full support of the faculty union, Miller said. Tallman, 71, was first elected to the board in 1994. “Tallman is a hero,” Miller said. “He’s unbeatable.”

But two challengers will try to prove that wrong: David L. Norrdin, a 43-year-old Ventura movie-theater attendant, and Mary Anne Rooney of Oxnard, who teaches English as a second language to adults. Rooney, 41, a former Oxnard College student body president, said she is undeterred by Tallman’s union backing and believes she can draw the votes of those union members who think that “his time has run its course.

“He has been on the board for a long time,” Rooney said. “That can be a benefit and maybe hold him back in some ways, too, especially now with the situation with Dr. Westin.

“It may be time for a fresh set of eyes and a fresh set of ears. [Tallman] and I share similar views about the importance of serving the students, and I would hope to continue that--with a fresh approach.”