[Scpg] Former Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum challenges college board

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

Former Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum challenges college board

http://www.thedailysound.com/News/080410trustees

By COLBY FRAZIER - Aug. 4 2010
In the wake of delivering a string of 
controversial changes to its popular continuing 
education program, the perennially stable 
composition of the Santa Barbara City College 
Board of Trustees could be shaken to its core 
this November.

Four of the school's seven trustees - one of whom 
has served for 11 consecutive terms, or 44 years 
- are up for re-election, and all will face 
election challenges.
Two of the challengers filed papers with the 
county elections office yesterday, making their 
entrance into the race official. Two others, 
including former Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum, 
intend to file their papers today.

Although the four challenging candidates say they 
are not running as a slate, they are united on 
many fronts. Indeed, they gathered together at 
the elections office yesterday to file their 
papers.

On policy matters, two of the challengers said 
the long-entrenched board has failed to heed the 
community's concerns on important issues and has 
shied away from the type of inclusive 
decision-making processes many feel are needed in 
challenging times.

"We're all very interested in the decision-making 
at City College to make it fairer, more open and 
inclusive," said Blum, who served two terms on 
the City Council prior to serving two terms as 
mayor. "I think [current board members] have been 
on a long time and I think it's time for active 
and energetic leadership."

In February, the board attached fees to 20 
continuing education classes, a move that drew 
ire from many in the community. And this summer, 
the board offered a pared back schedule, 
shuttering many long-offered courses.
Board members said reductions in state funding 
and roughly $10 million in budget cuts over the 
past two years were the reasons for the tweaks to 
continuing education, which is often called adult 
education.

But where the board saw its hands tied by state 
wishes, community members, many of whom are 
outspoken proponents of the college's robust 
continuing education program, proposed 
alternatives that Blum and others feel weren't 
given appropriate weight by the board.

"There is an amount of discretion there, even in 
the cases where the state had said 'We will no 
longer fund a particular class,'" said Marsha 
Croninger, who has followed the board's decisions 
surrounding continuing education closely, and who 
hopes to win a seat on the board. "Other college 
campuses worked with the problem and have 
resolved it for their fall session. We're not as 
far along."

Desmond O'Neill, who has served on the board 
since 1994, seemed taken aback when told he'd be 
challenged in the upcoming election.
He maintained, as he did when the board levied 
fees on some continuing education classes, that 
the board had little choice in the matter, but 
has nevertheless listened closely to the public 
discourse.
"People can come to board meetings but it doesn't 
change the state regulation we're held to," 
O'Neill said. "New blood is not going to change 
the dictates of the state."
He continued, "I don't think these people who are 
making claims about new blood understand about 
how a community college really works."

However, O'Neill did concede that the school, and 
the board, could have done a better job 
communicating to the public the reasons for the 
fees and class reductions.
In addition to O'Neill, board members Sally 
Green, Dr. Joe Dobbs and Dr. Kathryn Alexander, 
are up for re-election.

The board members are plucked from various 
districts: Dobbs and O'Neill from Santa Barbara, 
Alexander from the Goleta area and Green from 
Carpinteria. But on Election Day, voters across 
the South Coast can cast a ballot for any 
candidate.
Blum and Croninger will be running against Dobbs 
and O'Neill, while former SBCC professor Peter 
Haslund will run for the Carpinteria seat and 
Lisa Macker, an accountant, will run for the slot 
in Goleta.

In years when incumbents are not challenged, 
Croninger said their names don't even appear on a 
ballot, creating a situation in which several 
years may pass between elections.

While O'Neill steadfastly defended the board's 
recent actions, Alexander, who has served on the 
board for nearly half a century, said she agrees 
with Blum's assertions. Specifically, Alexander 
said she feels there have been instances where 
the board could have encouraged more public 
debate.
"I think we should be spending more time 
listening to the community," she said, adding 
that she feels calls for "new blood" on the board 
are "legitimate."
"I'm running on the basis of which I think the 
college has problems and that we would do better 
to try to tackle these problems with at least 
some of [the current] board members there."

Like all public institutions in California, the 
college has fallen on tough financial times. Over 
the past two years, officials have slashed $10 
million from its budget.
City College President Andreea Serban, who is an 
active participant in all board meetings, 
defended the current crop of trustees and 
stressed that the school's fiscal standing, while 
tenuous, is among the healthiest of all colleges 
in the state.
"I believe that the college as a whole and the 
board as a whole has done an exceptional job in 
very challenging fiscal conditions Š" she said.

The school's fiscal upside is perhaps most 
evident in the size of its strategic reserve, 
which stands around $22 million.
Some have suggested that the school dip into its 
reserves to stave off cuts - a proposal O'Neill 
and Serban said wouldn't be prudent.

"These reserves have been built over time through 
a concerted effort from the college," Serban 
said, adding later, "This money was saved on 
purpose to ensure the fiscal stability of the 
college. This is not money to be spent on other 
programs."
When the state failed to ratify a budget on time 
last year, Serban said the City College paid its 
bills for a time with reserves. She said it 
appears the same could happen this year. And she 
stressed that the amount of the reserve, while 
more than quadruple the amount of the state's 
recommended minimum, would only cover two months 
worth of the school's bills if the state turned 
off the money faucet.

When asked about the school's reserves, Croninger 
said she believes the actual number is closer to 
$29 million.

She said the use of this money must be done 
through a collaborative and transparent process. 
"We'd like to have a mission-driven budget, not a 
budget-driven mission," she said.

J'Amy Brown, a former president of the school's 
adult education advisory committee, called the 
continuing education program, which once offered 
around 2,700 mostly free classes each year, the 
"fourth leg of the Santa Barbara Community table."
"It's way more than just this extra place where 
you go and get educated," she said. "It holds 
together a vast part of our community. This is 
their social life; this is their social fabric."

Regardless of who wins the election, Brown said a 
shake-up could help cure any "incumbent 
arrogance" that may exist on the board.
"This shake-up might just be good for everybody," she said.

Brown, whose summer art class was canceled by the 
board, also wondered how hiring a communications 
consultant for $24,000, as the board recently 
did, is fiscally responsible when the school has 
clammed up when asked to fund its beloved adult 
education program.

"As a taxpayer, I would rather have had my art 
class than a PR person," she said.
Serban defended the money that has been spent on 
the consultant, Mary Rose, who sometimes manages 
political campaigns, saying she has been brought 
on for the purposes of "advising college staff on 
a variety of larger institutional roles and 
strategies that relate to improvement in 
communication."

Whether new blood pours onto the board this fall 
or not, the discussion surrounding how decisions 
are made at City College will likely be fierce.

"Difficult economic times mean that we should all 
work together as a community to make good 
decisions and that's not happening," said Blum, 
who in June was elected to a spot on the 
Democratic Central Committee. "I love politics 
but I also love democracy and that's what's 
bothering me about City College. We need to put 
the community back in community college."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.permaculture-guilds.org/pipermail/southern-california-permaculture/attachments/20100809/12e7dab8/attachment.html>