College District Recall Issue

Re “Time for Trustees to Act,” Jan. 11 editorial:

The Times documented the multiple disasters facing the South Orange County Community College District: administrators leaving, looming financial disaster leading to a threatened state takeover of the district, a blow to the district’s image resulting from Trustee Steven Frogue’s proposed course that you described as “a forum for bigoted ravings.”

You opposed the effort to recall Frogue, citing [among other reasons] the cost of a special election. But allowing Frogue to remain in office until 2000 as part of a majority bloc will cost far more than an election.

Frogue and his cronies throw bucketfuls of money away by their mismanagement and attempts at image enhancement. Because of the Frogue-led board’s actions, the district is spending about $50,000 every month on legal counsel. That $600,000 per year is about the cost of a special election.

The board spent $70,000 on consultants who told the trustees they are not trusted. The report was suppressed. Then they paid $30,000 to a “spin doctor” to improve their public image. They drove away two outstanding college presidents by their micromanagement and a vice chancellor who is a genius in financial management, by refusing to heed his warnings.

They gave a three-month paid “sabbatical” to the chancellor who broke his contract by retiring 15 months early. They are about to incur the expense of replacing top managers while their inexperienced acting administrators try to run the district and colleges.

They brag about saving money by offering early retirement incentives to get rid of experienced highly paid teachers, but their financial expert told them that plan really costs more than it saves.

The board is negotiating a small salary increase knowing that every 1% raise costs $352,000 on a recurring basis.

Based on the Frogue bloc’s record of irresponsible spending, I believe a recall election may be the most cost-effective way to prevent the district’s final slide into bankruptcy.

HARRIETT WALTHER

Santa Ana

* Re “Study Fuels Frictions at Community Colleges,” Jan. 10:

In the past few months, the South Orange County Community College District graduated 43 students from its nationally accredited nursing program and another 28 from its paramedic program; inducted 47 talented students in an AmeriCorps program; saw its forensic team win the national title; implemented a $6-million technology infrastructure which affords all students Internet access; and registered 32,000 students for the spring 1998 semester.

These activities are far more worthy of a Metro cover story than a preliminary report of an administrative analysis prepared by the college deans and vice presidents for district-wide review.

KATHLEEN O’CONNELL HODGE

Acting Chancellor

South Orange County

Community College District

* I see the state may finally have to take over the financially strapped South Orange County Community College District (Dec. 28). Well, the state can’t do any worse than the present chancellor and Board of Trustees have done.

The chancellor promotes and the trustees pass outlandishly high salaries for the faculty--who in turn support anything they do, regardless of the educational value to the students.

They supported Trustee Steven J. Frogue’s irrational and outrageous, now defunct, John F. Kennedy assassination seminar, and now wonder why they have so little community support.

The new acting chancellor and the trustees blame the Orange County bankruptcy for all their problems, failing to recognize their financial ineptness and foolish support of Frogue. They also fail to explain how other districts survived the bankruptcy without their resulting “fiscal crisis.”

It is well past time to throw the rascals and incompetents out.

IRVING FRIEDMAN

Laguna Niguel