Opponents want trustee to resign

Michael Miller

A coalition of school officials and other citizens stood up at the

Coast Community College District Board of Trustees’ meeting on

Wednesday to demand the resignation of board member Armando Ruiz.

The trustee, whose retirement and subsequent reelection last fall

led many to question his honesty, sat quietly on the panel as members

of the public rose to confront him. Most of the speakers were

signatories of a petition last month that sought a special election

to recall Ruiz.

Ruiz offended many in the community last October when he retired

from two state jobs -- a full-time counseling position in the South

Orange County Community College District and a part-time seat on the

board of trustees -- on the same day. By retiring from the two

positions simultaneously, through a state law, Ruiz was able to

calculate both pensions according to the salary from his full-time

job. Reportedly, the move boosted his total pension to more than

$100,000 a year.

Four days after leaving both positions, Ruiz ran for reelection to

the board of trustees as an incumbent and won. Although the action

was legal, many accused him of defrauding voters and double-dipping

into the state pension fund.

The trustees’ meeting on Wednesday, which was called specially for

a budget discussion, gave Ruiz’s opponents an opportunity to address

him in person.

“Unlike any other elected official, we are termed trustees, and

‘trustee’ is on your name plate,” said Martha Fluor, a board member

of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. “Do the right thing.

Apologize, resign and forfeit your ill-gotten retirement.”

Jean Forbath, the founder of Share Our Selves in Costa Mesa, asked

Ruiz to “save the taxpayers and the district the pain of a recall

election.”

Ruiz was not available after the meeting to respond to the

comments.Last month, 20 individuals -- including Fluor, Forbath and

fellow coast district Trustee Jerry Patterson -- filed a notice of

intention with the Orange County registrar of voters, seeking to

circulate a recall petition. An attorney for the signatories

delivered the notice to Ruiz on May 22.

The petitioners, in their notice of intention, claimed that Ruiz

deceived voters by listing himself as an incumbent on the November

ballot and that he wasted state funds by taking full-time pay for his

part-time trustee job. In addition, the filing labeled Ruiz “the

district’s junket king,” claiming that he has charged taxpayers

$107,000 for travel expenses.

On May 31, Ruiz filed a furious response with the registrar of

voters, calling the signatories’ plan a “deceptive recall” and

painting Patterson as “an angry man who wants to grab political

control.”

Responding to the notice, Ruiz argued in his written statement

that he did not retire from his two jobs through a “loophole,” but

took his earned retirement from the other district where he worked.

He did not mention the issue of his pension from the Coast District.

“My retirement is not costing the South Orange County Community

College District or the Coast Community College District any money at

all, because they’re no longer contributing to my retirement,” Ruiz

said Wednesday before the meeting. “The state of California is paying

my retirement.”

He also claimed that he followed the Orange County registrar of

voters’ instructions in running for reelection and that his travel

expenses had gone toward trips to advocate for college programs. A

genuine waste of public money, he argued, would be the recall

election, whose cost he estimated at $850,000.

“I think people, if they read my [response] statement, will

realize it’s sour grapes on Jerry Patterson,” Ruiz remarked. “Eight

hundred and fifty thousand dollars that will be taken away from

classroom education is wrong.”

At the meeting on Wednesday, a dispute arose over another charge

in Ruiz’s written response. Ruiz claimed that Patterson had attempted

to defeat him and board member Paul Berger, who died in January, in

the last two elections. Patterson vehemently denied the charges,

saying that he endorsed Berger in his last reelection.

“Mr. Ruiz has crossed the line of decency and fairness in his

completely false and untruthful personal attack upon me,” Patterson

said.

Responding to the second point on Ruiz’s statement, Patterson

denied his colleague’s claim that Ruiz was “instructed” by the

registrar of voters to file for reelection as he did.

“What do you suppose the registrar would have told Ruiz if he

said, ‘I am the incumbent now, but plan to resign as the incumbent

before the election?’” Patterson asked.

Suzanne Slupsky, the county’s assistant registrar of voters, said

Ruiz had done nothing wrong by listing himself as an incumbent on the

November ballot. According to county law, candidates may list an

occupation or vocation that they held in the 12 months prior to

filing paperwork to run for office. Ruiz identified himself on the

November ballot as a “governing board member” of the coast district.

“There’s no statute that prevents someone from doing that,”

Slupsky said.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.