PCC Courier, April 10, 1997

OPINION Faculty Elections Committee under fire for possible illegalities Electoral process, tainted by last minute maneuverings, evokes cynicism of faculty’s ability to conduct their affairs. „ FEATURES »~ PCC music instructor gains foothold in Pasadena musical community James Arnwine leads the Pasadena Young Musi¬ cians Orchestra as guest conductor. 4 SPORTS Track star Phillip Gonzalez winds down his PCC career Gonzalez will leave PCC with the hope of running at the Division I level. 6 Board member says committee violated Brown Act By RACHEL URANGA Courier Staff Writer The Faculty Senate Elections Commit¬ tee, in violation of the Brown Act, met behind closed doors on April 3 to decide the fate of the upcoming faculty election. “The committee was absolutely in violation of the Brown Act,” said Rich¬ ard McKee, Faculty Senate parliamentar¬ ian. Citing four separate violations of the Brown Act, an official notice to demand “cure and correct the illegal actions” was submitted to the Faculty Senate Board by McKee on April 7. The action was filed after he was notified of The Courier ’s intent to take legal action, after a reporter was denied access to the April 3 meeting. Failure to comply with the demands could result in civil action against the Board, as well as the committee. Possible criminal action could be taken against individual committee members. In addition, Ellen Ligons, Faculty Senate president said that all actions of the commit¬ tee have now been declared invalid and in violation of the Faculty Senate constitution. “All decision making power rests in the senate board,” Ligons said. Joanne Kim, election committee chair, had refused to disclose her committee’s meeting location. “This doesn’t pertain to the Brown Act,” Kim said. “ It is not a public issue. It concerns procedural matters. Kim repeatedly stated that her position was that of the committee. “Forthe 1 7 years I’ye been here that’sthe way we’ve done it,” Kim continued. “Why should the public be invited when the com¬ mittee meets. We just invite the committee members.” The Brown Act requires committees of the Faculty Senate to be open. Any action taken by a committee in closed session is illegal. During an April 1 meeting, procedures for tallying write-in ballots were established in which only a clear mark in the box next to a write-in candidate’s name would be counted as a vote. The committee decided not to count the votes of faculty members who wrote in a candidate’s name but failed to place a check next to that name. Kim called a special elections committee meeting April 3 to express her concern about the clarity of the ballot directions, specifi¬ cally “use write in for other choices.” The tear -off portion of the ballot said "mark ballot,” but no indication was given as to what would be an acceptable mark. Some faculty members believed that by merely writing in a name, they had marked their choice and the vote was valid. Feeling that the system adopted by the committee was unfair, Gloria Horton, re¬ signed in protest. “I didn’t have a problem with how the decision was made, I just felt the procedure was unfair,” Horton said. She also stated she was unaware of any action taken by the committee to keep the meetings closed prior to her resignation on April 3. Counting of the ballots, set for April 1 1 has been indefinitely postponed pending a vote of the Faculty Senate Board. “The committee established rules in which some votes were not counted with no plans to inform the faculty,” said Ligons. On April 14, the Faculty Senate will vote on whether to adopt procedures passed by the election committee in closed sessions. “The ballots are ambiguous,” Ligons said. “The decision of the election committee is disenfranchising to faculty who didn't do both.” JO VALMAS / THE COURIER A weak root system, combined with yesterday's unusually strong winds, led to the demise of this tree that adorned the E Building. Community colleges to play a pivotal role in California's future economy ■ After visiting with old friends, Assemblyman Jack Scott discussed the future of California community colleges By YUSEF ROBB Courier Staff Writer Assemblyman and former PCC president, Dr. Jack Scott, returned to his old stomping grounds on Friday to bring the PCC community up to speed on what he and the state legis¬ lature are up to these days. Welfare was discussed by Scott, who said that “no problem is greater.” He warned the community col¬ leges to “be ready” for an expansion in vocational training programs. He said that the community col¬ leges can help send people from welfare to work. “There is no question the com¬ munity colleges can be involved,” he said, “If we’re going to be serious about welfare reform, we need train¬ ing.” He referred to PCC’s Community Education Center as a model job training program. “It’s been a wonderful institution in getting people to work,” he said. “The economy of this state has turned, a comer,” he said. “Revenue and personal income are up . These are signs that we in the community colleges need tobe aware of.” “We’re still quite a bit behind in education,” Scott said. “The current trend in the state is to have “the best prisons and the most mediocre schools. We’re not in any danger of spending too much money on educa¬ tion.” Scott referred to a chart which showed the “absolute decline” in education spending, which has left California 4 1 st in the union in edu¬ cational spending per student, down from a high of fifth in 1965. He has hopes for the system, though. Scott said that the top con¬ cern of voters is schools, and not crime as it has been in previous years. He did warn, though, that voters “are not willing to write a blank check” for educational spending. Scott applauded Gov. Pete Wilson’s budget which includes sig¬ nificant increases in spending for education. “I think [education] is essential to the economy of this state.” Scott started out his talk with the story' of how he made the decision to mn for the 44th District Assembly seat. Scott said that as he was winding down his PCC career and making plans to teach at Pepperdine, when he was approached by former Attor¬ ney General John VanDeKamp, Board of Tmstees member Jeanette Mann, and other local Democrats who wanted him to mn for the state assembly. Scott said he was hesitant at first, but he followed his wife’s encour¬ agement and decided to ran. As for campaigning, Scott said that it was “an exhilarating experi¬ ence, but it’s tough and hard.” He cited the difficulty in having to ward off untrue allegations from his opponent. At one point in the campaign, literature was distributed that said Scott would support a law that would ban the spanking of children by their parents. “My adult children laughed about that,” he said. As for his political agenda, Scott said that he made education a “cen¬ tral plank to his platform.” “I was pleased to receive unanimous sup¬ port from the entire educational com¬ munity.” After his election, Scott has re¬ mained true to his platform, serving as chairman of the education sub¬ committee which is quite influen¬ tial, as education accounts for 55 percent of the state budget. “I love to talk about education,” he said. “That is my key issue.” $64 permit is only choice for next year By RACHEL URANGA Courier Staff Writer Eliminating all one, two and three day parking permits, the Board of Tmstees unanimously passed a pro¬ posal to establish a flat rate of $64 for all semester parking permits to go into effect in Spring 1998. By terminating daily semester permits the Board hopes to cut down the number of citations students re¬ ceive and wipe out the long lines caused by students buying the dif¬ ferent types of permits. Without the limited use parking permits, a lot of the bureaucracy and hassle will not occur, said Phillip Mullendore, director of police and safety services. The price of daily permits would remain at $ 1 . Students would no longer be able to purchase one, two or three day semester permits. Currently 8,000 permits are is¬ sued and of those 2,450 have been limited semester day permits. This action is not expected to generate additional parking funds, said Mullendore. “We are talking about conve¬ nience, not a fee increase,” said PCC president James Kossler. Please see PARKING page 6 Proposed legislation to freeze increases in fees until 2000 By MICHAEL GORZYNSKI Special Correspondent A bill that will freeze student fees through the end of the century' and limit fee increases thereafter was introduced by state assembly mem¬ ber Denise Moreno Ducheny. The bill was sponsored by Lieu¬ tenant Governor Grey Davis. Assembly Bill 1318, the College Affordability Act of 1997, would freeze tuition costs until the year 2000 at the University of California, California State University and Cali¬ fornia Community College systems. AB 1318 would also limit all fu¬ ture fee increases after the year 2000 to the percentage of change in California’s per capita personal in¬ come growth from the prior year. This figure has averaged around four percent over the past decade. “Our bill continues to hold the line on fee hikes and sets a rational policy for future increases at our state’s public colleges and universi¬ ties,” said Ducheny, chair of the assembly budget committee. “The skyrocketing fees of the early 1990’s had a devastating effect on working families and our public higher edu¬ cation system. We lost more than 58,000 students.” “Freezing student fees until the year 2000 will allow us to catch up, stabilize and make our colleges ac¬ cessible for California’s working families,” Ducheny said. “Further¬ more, under our bill, future increases will not skyrocket out of control, but instead will be much more gradual and predictable.” Ducheny sponsored comparable legislation last year under Assembly Constitutional Amendment 44. How¬ ever, the proposal died in commit¬ tee. Sources blame the failure of АСА 44 on last year’s Assembly Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendment’s Committee whose Republican majority did not support the fee reductions. Ducheny is not unfamiliar with the troubles California community colleges have had over the last few years. Prior to her election to the Assembly, Ducheny was a trustee in the San Diego Community College District. She also served as the chair of the Association of the Latino Com¬ munity College Tmstees of Califor¬ nia and was a member of the Board of Directors of the California Com¬ munity College Tmstees Associa¬ tion. Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play Major League Baseball, was honored by the Dodgers last week. PCC also honored its most famous alumnus, by placing his portrait on the cover of this year’s college catalog. See related story on page 6.