Local Trustee, Local Accountability

Californians are fortunate to have a community college system that meets the needs of local residents by offering low-cost, quality higher education to those who traditionally could not afford more expensive alternatives.

Unfortunately, those who live in the communities surrounding Mission College in Sylmar have little or no say in what happens there. Opinions of the local community are listened to but are rarely implemented.

That is why I authored Assembly Bill 1328, which allows communities to elect local candidates to the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees. The bill mandates that LACCD trustees live in the districts from which they seek election.

The LACCD is the largest community college district in the nation. It encompasses more than 880 square miles. It is more than 400 square miles larger than the city of Los Angeles, with campuses from Harbor College in Wilmington to Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

Under the current system, part-time board members must reach out to an electorate larger than the group of voters that elects the mayor of the city of Los Angeles. Under AB 1328, each trustee would only have to reach out to 275,000 voters.

I believe this would guarantee that the San Fernando Valley and other communities would receive the local representation they deserve.

History has shown that the LACCD’s at-large elections have led to a cluster of power on the other side of the hill. Until the last election, all seven board members resided in or near West Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and central Los Angeles.

With such a concentration of power, it is impossible for board members to be sensitive to every community within the boundaries of the district.

For instance, many of the colleges in the district need to expand to deal with the growing population they serve. In Sylmar, we desperately need expansion if Mission College is to keep up with the growing student population in the northeast Valley. But our appeals remain ignored.

Even when the state appropriated $4.7 million to Mission College for expansion, there was no Valley leadership on the board to make that a reality. After six years of missed deadlines, the LACCD and Mission College lost the money.

I was able to acquire funding again after making sacrifices on behalf of the northeast Valley. It remains to be seen if the district will properly apply the funds.

With more local representation, we could expect that these kinds of things would not happen.

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The bill has undergone some changes so it has a better chance of becoming law. Last year, I authorized a similar bill. The LACCD trustees and other interested parties were opposed to certain provisions, including the expansion of the board and placement of the election on even-numbered years.

This year, I agreed to keep the size of the board at seven and the election on odd-numbered years. With that, the LACCD agreed to support the bill and was given until 2003 to organize the new districts and allow current board members to finish out their terms.

Without my legislation, a candidate wanting to run in a particular area would need nearly 100,000 signatures on a petition, an expensive alternative.

The most viable solution is AB 1328.

I want someone who lives in our community and has a stake in what happens in the Valley to be our representative on the LACCD board. Someone who knows the Valley’s unique concerns and circumstances. Someone who will not sweep aside what our community has to say. That would ensure that when there was a problem, there would be someone whom we could hold accountable.

Assembly Bill 1328 sits on the desk of Gov. Gray Davis awaiting his signature. I strongly encourage everyone to show support for Valley representation.

I want someone who lives

in our community and has a stake in what happens in the Valley to be our representative on the LACCD board.

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The District at a Glance

The Los Angeles Community College District is the largest in the state and thought to be, along with Miami’s, one of the two largest in the country. The institutions are headed by presidents who answer to a districtwide chancellor. Most revenues are apportioned by the state based on enrollment.

By The Numbers

Colleges: 9

History: First campus, City College, opened in 1929 but operated as part of the Los Angeles Unified School District until state legislation made it an independent entity in 1969.

Area: 882 square miles, from Sylmar to Willmington and Woodland Hills to Monterrey Park.

General Fund Budget (98’-99’): $308 million

Students: 100,000

The district has 8% of all California community college students.

The district has 6% of the public undergraduate enrollment in California.

80% of students are minority.

The 17,000 black students are more than three times the number of blacks in the University of California system.

The district’s 44,000 Latino students make up 12% of all Latino undergraduates in the state.

40% of the district’s students are nonative English speakers.

40% are from homes below the poverty level.

25% are from homes in which parents received only elementary school education.

14% of students did not graduate from high school. (Some may hold equivalency certificates.)

Source: Los Angeles Community College District