College Trustee Candidates Call for Change

Accountability. Credibility. Honesty. That is the mantra of 13 candidates running for the Ventura County Community College District Board of Trustees, including two incumbents fighting to keep their seats.

In the aftermath of a spending scandal that forced former Chancellor Philip Westin to resign last week, all the candidates agree that change is needed to restore public confidence in the 34,000-student district and to ensure that such costly mistakes don’t happen again.

Westin spent $119,000 in public money over four years on meals, car repairs, computers and other electronics, and was accused of mismanaging thousands more. An internal investigation showed that he broke no rules or laws, but the results came too late to repair the institution’s battered reputation.

The controversy catapulted normally low-visibility races onto county taxpayers’ radar. But voters have short memories, and Westin’s departure may mark the end of public interest in the board, said Herbert Gooch, chairman of the political science department at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

“I think it would be more significant if it had happened the weekend before the election,” Gooch said. “It’s reminded people that there’s a problem out there, but now it looks like the problem is solved.”

The winners of the three open seats will help select the next chancellor, balance a shrinking budget and decide how to spend a $356-million bond to improve the district’s campuses in Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark.

Trustees Art Hernandez and John Tallman -- the only board members to oppose Westin’s settlement last week -- are up for reelection Tuesday.

Three Challenge the

Incumbent in Area 1

Voters hungry for reform may not remember that Tallman warned the board about Westin years ago, the trustee said.

“People seem to want to paint us all with the same brush,” said Tallman, 71, of Ventura, who was first elected to the board in 1994. The retired district vice chancellor of instruction was the only trustee to vote against awarding a $30,000 raise to Westin in May, two months after the board had asked him to resign for allegedly abusing his expense account.

But his challengers in Area 1, which covers parts of Oxnard, Ventura and Port Hueneme, said it is time for a new perspective.

“Although he has a lot of knowledge about the inner workings of the district, I think there’s a rebuilding that’s necessary that you can only do with a fresh set of eyes and ears,” said Mary Anne Rooney, 41, of Oxnard, who teaches English to adults in the Oxnard Union High School District.

Kevin Laird, 29, a Ventura accountant, said the Westin controversy has kept the board from dealing with important issues, such as how to spend the bond approved by voters in March and how to build a strong relationship with the new Cal State Channel Islands campus.

“I was concerned about the way the board was running its operations, turning over its power to the chancellor and the abuses that were happening,” Laird said, explaining why he chose to run.

David L. Norrdin, a movie theater attendant from Ventura, said he wants “justice for taxpayers,” particularly senior citizens on fixed incomes. If elected, he wouldn’t spend “one penny” on meals and travel and he would work to rescind expense accounts for the chancellor and trustees.

“They’re not congressmen,” said Norrdin, 43. “They need to stay in the district.”

Nagel Not Seeking Reelection in Area 2

In Area 2, which covers Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and the Ventura County portion of Westlake Village, five Thousand Oaks residents are vying to replace trustee Norman Nagel, who decided not to seek reelection.

Carroll Bowen, 81, a retired professor of political science and public administration at Cal Lutheran University and USC, said the board needs someone with his background to help steer it onto the right course.

“The recent shortcomings which the district has experienced had a bad combination of operating philosophies -- a hands-off board and an executive who at best needed hands-on control,” said Bowen, a Thousand Oaks city councilman from 1970 to 1978.

Cheryl Heitmann, 56, a fund-raising consultant for nonprofit agencies, said the board should create an independent auditing committee to review programs and spending, and should take back the authority it gave the chancellor for hiring and spending. She said the board’s decision on the bond money is crucial.

“The board ultimately has the final say on how that bond is spent,” said Heitmann, who served on a bond oversight committee for the Conejo Valley Unified School District. “It has to be spent wisely and equitably among all three campuses. They all should share in this. It’s really crucial that it’s used the way it was intended by voters.”

Sandy Patrizio, 66, a retired Beverly Hills firefighter, said he is most concerned about improving the district’s vocational education program and training young people for jobs with local businesses.

“That’s my passion, that’s what’s motivated me,” said Patrizio, who was accused early in the race of trying to bribe another Area 2 candidate, Dan Peate, into dropping out. Patrizio denied it and accused Peate of trying to grab headlines by making up the allegation.

Peate had been thinking about serving on the board for some time and finally decided to take the plunge.

“When everything came out, I was definitely concerned about the fiscal responsibility of the board,” said Peate, 24, an employee benefits consultant for an insurance company. “That’s when I decided I would run.”

Homemaker Linda Van Dolsen, 56, said that many of the trustees’ problems stem from an inability to deal with the district’s growth. Instead of confronting the issues, the board simply turned over its authority to Westin, who led by intimidation, she said. As a trustee, she would take back the power and help create an open environment among administrators, faculty and staff.

“So much of running a district is having good employees who aren’t afraid to speak up when they see something wrong,” Van Dolsen said.

Vote Dogs Incumbent Hernandez in Area 5

In Area 5, representing most of Oxnard, El Rio and Port Hueneme, Hernandez has been dogged by his vote in May to extend Westin’s contract and give him a 16% raise -- to $203,000 a year -- although trustees were aware of his spending habits.

Hernandez, of Oxnard, now says he made a mistake because he thought that supporting Westin would help secure money for Oxnard College.

“I certainly would approach the same situation differently,” said Hernandez, 45, who was first elected to his seat midterm in 2000. “When there were issues in getting equity for Oxnard College, I wish I would have gone out into the community and brought people together, so we could say, ‘Hey, bring these things to our community.’ ”

Ron Dyste, a political science instructor at Moorpark College, said that if he is elected, he would ask the Ventura County Superior Court to determine if Westin’s original contract was approved in violation of the state’s open-meetings law, as some critics have charged.

“I would want to know if the contract is valid, then we could adjust the settlement in some way,” said Dyste, 57, a former vice president at Ventura College.

To ease the budget crisis, Dyste said, he would hire an independent auditor to review the district’s expenses; reduce legal fees, which have climbed to nearly $1 million a year; cut the budget reserve to free up about $2 million; and freeze administrative salaries indefinitely.

Deshay D. Ford, 54, an occupational therapist from Oxnard, wants to reduce the number of administrators and lower the salaries of those already working to free up money to hire more full-time faculty.

Sylvia Munoz Schnopp, 43, a Port Hueneme resident who owns a marketing and public relations firm, said there should be more collaboration between the colleges and area businesses to encourage young people to attend the colleges, especially Oxnard College.

“We have to remember that if there weren’t any students, we wouldn’t be in business,” she said.