Trustee fires back at critics

Jeff Benson

Coast Community College District Trustee Armando Ruiz finally broke

his silence Wednesday, but declined to mention during the district’s

board meeting whether or not he’d retire and run again as an

incumbent. Because of a glitch in state law, the move would increase

his Coast retirement pension tenfold.

Instead, Ruiz turned the tables on fellow Trustee Jerry Patterson,

who publicly questioned his ethics in Wednesday’s board meeting and

in the Sept. 1 meeting.

“He’s disguising his own attempt to displace a board member and

replace me with hand-picked candidates,” Ruiz said as Patterson sat

three seats away. “Now Mr. Patterson complains I’m misleading voters

by running as an incumbent. The Orange County Registrar of Voters

said it’s perfectly lawful to run as an incumbent. I was an incumbent

in August and I’m an incumbent today.”

Ruiz is on schedule to make approximately $5,000 per year in his

trustee pension when he retires from Coast Community College

District.

If Ruiz retires Oct. 31, on the same day he retires from South

Orange County Community College District, he’d boost his Coast

pension to almost $55,000 annually. State law allows for

officeholders who retire from two positions on the same day to

double-dip in the state retirement systems, drawing pensions from

both jobs. The excess money would be based upon his $107,000 maximum

salary at Irvine Valley College. In total, he could collect a total

annual pension of $120,000 when it would be half of that if he

retires on separate days.

District officials have expressed concerns about Ruiz’s silence

and the possibility of him retiring two days before he could be

reelected Nov. 2.

Patterson presented a resolution Wednesday to see that future

incumbents are governed by stricter ethical guidelines in their

campaigns for re-election. But Trustee Walter Howald called the

resolution flawed because it twice named Ruiz specifically, when it

could have been more generic and legally binding. Patterson had also

listed a board hearing date, Dec. 15, 2004, to consider censuring

Ruiz’s contract if any actions or conduct do take place before

election day.

Even Patterson later admitted he was wrong by being so specific.

He went as far as to declare he wanted three paragraphs of the

resolution’s paragraphs omitted and had it immediately resubmitted

for approval, but none of the trustees voted one way or the other.

“C’mon, guys. Where are your ethics?” Patterson pleaded to the

board. “I’m beginning to wonder now.”

Ruiz called Patterson’s claim a “complete fabrication” and said

Patterson has no business promoting a “self-serving political agenda”

in the boardroom.

Patterson had said in a two-page statement of opposition Sept. 1

that the disagreement between he and Ruiz wasn’t personal. But on

Wednesday, he said it’s becoming personal. The goal is “to get some

ethical conduct in the campaign of a trustee seeking reelection,”

Patterson said. And Wednesday, after hearing Ruiz speak, Patterson

said he felt the likelihood of Ruiz’s Oct. 31 retirement was “crystal

clear.”

“It’s not out in the open until Armando retires,” Patterson said

during the meeting. “He could leave me with egg all over my face and

say, ‘You’re wrong. I didn’t retire.’ But I don’t think he’s going to

do that.”

Dean Mancina, President of the Coast Federation of Educators,

spoke three times about his ethical concerns with Ruiz’s possible

retirement. He also said he’s filed for an investigation with the

Orange County District Atty.’s office for not allowing the public the

right to speak at the Sept. 1 board meeting, citing Brown Act

violations. At that meeting, Board President George Brown refused to

hear public comment on the Ruiz retirement, citing that people can

quit their jobs without prior approval.

“This behavior, to me, really called into question the ethics of

this board and this district,” Mancina said to the board. “Are you

taking a political position regarding the upcoming election when you

shut down public comment on Sept. 1? It sure looked like it to me.

Unless you have [extra-sensory perception], you could not have

possibly known the actual content of what might have been said had

you let freedom of speech reign.”

If Ruiz was elected to another term, the teacher’s union would

petition for his recall on the first legal day it’s possible, Mancina

said.

“The [Coast Community College District] Board of Trustees each

showed their true colors tonight when only one of them, Jerry

Patterson, voted for ethics,” Mancina said after the meeting.