L.A. COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT ELECTION : Fiscal Problems Become Major Issue in Campaigns for 4 Seats

In the campaigns for four seats on the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, talk of the nine-college district’s fiscal troubles dominates the speeches and candidates forums.

One open seat on the seven-member board has attracted 10 candidates in Tuesday’s Municipal Primary. The other three college seats on the ballot--each with incumbents trying for another four-year term--have generated a lot less interest. One incumbent drew just one challenger, while the others have two opponents apiece.

In the face of dwindling state funding, the board has drained its reserves and cut hundreds of classes while enrollment grew to about 111,500 full- or part-time students this year. More cuts are looming for the coming budget year.

The district’s huge size--it contains about 5 million residents and almost 2 million voters--makes campaigning tough without the help of the district’s faculty union--Local 1521 of the American Federation of Teachers College Guild--or other organized backing.

Candidates run at-large for a particular seat and thus must seek votes from throughout the district, which covers all of the communities served by the Los Angeles Unified School District, plus Alhambra, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Culver City, Las Virgenes, Montebello and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The district’s size, plus the generally low voter interest, has meant that the guild has been able to dominate the elections because it can provide money and volunteers and get its members to the polls.

This year, the guild is spending about $19,000 in contributions and campaign mailings for Paul Koretz, who is seeking the open seat. Art Forcier, the guild’s political representative, said the union decided to stay neutral in races with incumbents this year because of long delays in negotiating a current contract.

“We are not hostile to them . . . they have done some good things,” Forcier said in explaining why the guild has not backed any challengers to the three incumbents, each of whom had the union’s support when they ran four years ago.

“You’ve got to get a base that can get out the vote and raise money,” said Trustee Patrick Owens, who in 1989 became the only person in recent years to get elected without guild backing.

In the race for Office No. 5, being vacated by Trustee Harold Garvin, four of the 10 candidates are widely perceived as having the best chances. With such a large field, no one expects any single candidate to get enough votes to win in the primary. Unless one candidate pulls in a majority, the top two vote-getters will meet in a runoff June 4.

Koretz, a West Hollywood city councilman, also has endorsements from several area elected officials. Among them are county Supervisor Ed Edelman, Sheriff Sherman Block, Mayor Tom Bradley and several Los Angeles City Council members, including President John Ferraro, as well as several of the area’s state legislators and state Controller Gray Davis.

Among Koretz’s campaign promises are pledges to try to “cut the bloated administrative bureaucracy” to put more money into the classroom, restore the many night classes that fell to the budget ax and expand English-as-a-second-language classes. He also promises to push for more state funds and called for the district to take all students who apply. (District officials said they had to turn away 34,000 applicants last year because they had all the students they could accommodate.)

Kenneth S. Washington, a retired college administrator who was elected to the original Board of Trustees when the district was formed in 1969, has a long history of political activism.

“Practically all the candidates want the same thing for the colleges: more classes, less waste, more resources, less overhead,” Washington said. “The element that separates me from the pack is experience.”

Besides once serving as vice chancellor in the local college district, Washington’s experience includes stints as an assistant superintendent in the state Department of Education and president of San Francisco City College.

Peter Ireland of Van Nuys is a former aide to county Supervisor Deane Dana and an executive of the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. He is supported by Trustee Owens and by the board’s non-voting student representative, Joe Rudynski, as well as a state vocational education association and a group of retired faculty of the district’s Trade-Technical College.

Ireland, whose wife attends Pierce College in Woodland Hills, calls for giving budget priority to students and faculty, preserving the farm for Pierce’s agricultural education program and helping more students transfer to four-year colleges.

Patrick McGuire, an adult education teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, has long been active in local Democratic Party politics, is a member of the Democratic Gay and Lesbian Caucus and has served on the boards of several environmental groups, including Heal the Bay and the Ballona Lagoon Preserve. He has endorsements from many Democratic leaders, including Dianne Feinstein, the party’s gubernatorial standard bearer last year.

McGuire, a Los Angeles resident, said he would concentrate on community college issues and not use the board as a “steppingstone” to more visible or more powerful offices.

Other candidates are:

* Attorney John J. Jamgotchian of Northridge, who is active in church and business groups. He wants to improve students’ transfer prospects and hire more part-time instructors from the business community to broaden class offerings.

* Gloria Elisabeth Rothenberg, a Northridge real estate broker, who is active in local homeowner, business and temple organizations. She calls for improved management of the district’s funds, new ways to seek private grants and expansion of both academic and vocational programs.

* Stockbroker and part-time teacher Hal J. Styles of Woodland Hills, who advocates improving and expanding vocational education and forming partnerships with corporations. He wants to reduce costs by “downsizing” the district’s central administration and by cutting the district’s share of the costs of the administrative staff’s health benefits.

* Howard Watts of Los Angeles, a disabled veteran who for years has been regularly attending local government meetings, wants to keep the Pierce farm, stop contracting for private legal services and stop the district from eliminating classes. He opposes Proposition C, a bond measure that would provide $200 million for buildings and maintenance work.

* William D. Zuke, a former Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks employee now on a disability pension, who lives in Los Angeles and has been active in groups working for improved circumstances for the disabled. He calls for the board to hold fewer closed sessions, as allowed by state law, and opposes efforts to have trustees elected by geographic areas.

Candidate Brad R. Hamill, an aerospace engineer, did not respond to The Times’ request for information about his campaign.

For Office No. 1, incumbent Wallace Knox is being challenged by Elizabeth K. Stone of Los Angeles, a United Airlines employee fielded by the Socialist Workers Campaign Committee. Knox, a Los Angeles attorney seeking his second term, has been working on decentralizing the district and shifting more authority and resources to each of the colleges. Stone, a socialist since 1961, has been active in the anti-war and women’s rights movements.

The socialists group also has fielded another candidate, John Evenhuis of Los Angeles, one of two challengers to incumbent Julia Li Wu in Office No. 3. Evenhuis, a student at Pasadena City College, which is in another district, called for restoration of classes lost to the budget crisis and wants more education funding.

Elizabeth Michael of Los Angeles, who was the underdog Republican candidate in the 45th Assembly District last fall and whose endorsements include county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, has criticized Wu’s record. She opposes the board’s purchase of administrative headquarters to replace its rented offices and, despite budget problems, she wants the district to keep all its teachers, classes and “key administrators.”

Wu, a Los Angeles librarian who became the board’s first Asian-American when she defeated an incumbent four years ago, said her priorities are excellence in teaching, efficient management, equitable funding, equal opportunity and clean, safe campuses. During her tenure, she said, the district has decreased its administrative office staff and increased the numbers of students and full-time teachers.

In Office No. 7, Board President David Lopez-Lee is being challenged by Mark Isler of Van Nuys and Gerald C. (Brodie) Broderson of Hollywood. Broderson, a longtime Valley College student who has criticized the board for laying off part-time instructors, describes himself as a community crime fighter and calls for voters to turn out all of the incumbents.

Isler, a business owner and former teacher who was an underdog challenger to state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig last year, has strong backing from area Republicans. He criticizes the current board for “waste and mismanagement” and wants to improve student performance and instill the teaching of such values as “honesty and decency” into the curriculum.

Lopez-Lee, a Los Angeles resident who teaches in USC’s School of Public Administration, said he wants to continue working to improve the district’s financial status, including lobbying for more state funding, and opposes state measures that he believes would take away local districts’ autonomy. He has long been active in Democratic and East Side politics.

Colleges governed by the district are East Los Angeles, Los Angeles City, Harbor, Mission in Sylmar, Pierce, Southwest, Trade-Technical downtown, Valley and West Los Angeles.