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.
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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.