Sierra split could worsen

A colleague now is proposing that the board president be stripped of his title.
By Eric Stern and Kim Minugh -- Bee Staff Writers
Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, June 11, 2006

Story appeared in Sacramento Bee Metro section, Page B7

Sierra College has been plagued by grand jury reports of administrative mishaps, a board takeover and the ouster of the college president. A recall effort is under way, and the Board of Trustees president faces a coup this week from fellow trustees.
Another wound remains open after Tuesday's election, when a bond measure to renovate campus facilities failed at the polls for the second time in two years.

Some attribute its failure to tightfistedness among voters in Placer County, a conservative enclave that has surpassed Orange County in terms of per-capita registered Republicans. Others see the bond's defeat as a referendum on the fractured board of trustees.
With 20,000 students, Sierra College in suburban Rocklin remains a source of local pride, a regional economic engine and a rival to long-dominant community colleges in the area, such as Sacramento City College.

Sierra College satellite campuses have opened in Roseville, Grass Valley and Truckee. There is talk of another in Lincoln.

Academics at Sierra rate highly -- the school is the state's leader in awarding associate's degrees.

The main campus -- nearly as large as California State University, Sacramento -- is a pastoral refuge along Secret Ravine.

The road that leads there, Sierra College Boulevard, is an ever-widening thoroughfare of Placer County that cuts through hillsides covered with new homes and shopping centers.

Low-slung buildings ring a green campus mall, and a newer, four-story library stands as a giant, white monument in the center. Sierra is one of the few community college campuses in California with dormitories.

But the landscape disguises aging buildings, where heavy rains often flood floors -- at times shutting down the school's telephone system. In 1997, deteriorating facilities were cited by the San Francisco 49ers as a reason they pulled out of Sierra, where for 17 years they had held summer training camp.

Accommodating growth is not a new problem for the seven-member board of trustees. The challenge is among themselves.

The infighting began nearly 15 years ago with a kindergarten teacher.

The teacher, Sally Robison, was elected to the board in 1992 on a shoestring campaign and forced the board to take a harder look at spending, at times to the point of frustration -- she once questioned a $31 bill for bottled water.

The board continued to be dominated by longtime community leaders. "There was an attorney, an optometrist, a restaurant owner, a farmer, another farmer, and the latest one who has come on was … an administrator in the school district," recalled Barbara Vineyard, 67, who has served on the board since 1983. "It was pretty calm."

At times it was too sleepy, a Placer County grand jury said. College officials were secretive about a $600,000 gender-discrimination lawsuit, and the district was balancing its budget by borrowing from employee retirement funds, according to grand jury reports in 2000.

By 2004, a slate of ambitious young Turks -- Republican Party activists in their 20s and 30s -- had taken over the board with a pledge to tighten financial controls at the college.

Their politics weren't unusual. Most elected officials in Placer County, including the Sierra trustees, are Republicans. But the new board members introduced a level of rhetoric never seen on the apolitical panel.

Trustee Aaron Klein, 27, a county GOP committee member and prolific Internet blogger, has attacked "Howard Dean ultra-liberals" on his Web site for the backlash against him and other board members.

"What we have is a relatively small group of very liberal faculty and staff who do not want to be governed by a conservative Republican board of trustees," said Jerry Simmons, 32, president of the board of trustees and another GOP committee member.

Other trustees are baffled that political labels have taken such a high profile -- and are tossed around so loosely.

"I'm a fourth-generation registered Republican in Placer County," said Vineyard, who has clashed with the new board members.

Klein led the charge last year to push out college President Kevin Ramirez, a popular administrator. One board meeting during the controversy was moved to a campus theater to accommodate employees supportive of Ramirez.

Klein accused Ramirez of breaking the law -- money laundering -- to bolster a 2004 bond vote for the campus. Ramirez, after leading the campus for 12 years, stepped down in January 2005 with a $500,000 contract buyout.

A county grand jury later said -- in bold-faced type -- that the allegations against Ramirez were "utterly without merit" and suggested that Klein apologize for stirring the controversy and tarnishing the college's reputation.

Faculty and staff are now pushing back, although several say they feel threatened for speaking out. To protect themselves, management staff joined the Teamsters union last year.

Interim college President Morgan Lynn said the new board members are looking for problems that aren't there, nitpicking at district spending plans.

Budget talks last year led to delayed spending on routine items, she said. Twenty-dollar DVDs for nutrition classes were put on hold for months, new anatomy models couldn't be ordered for nursing students and a professor, tired of waiting for approval, paid $25 out of pocket to renew the school's annual membership in a state chemistry association.

Over the past 10 years, the district has maintained budget reserves from $4 million to $7 million and has improved its bond rating to ease future borrowing.

Recently, the district was dipping into reserves to balance the budget, now more than $75 million. Last year, trustees built a surplus for the first time in four years, and the new trustees say more money is being set aside for facility maintenance and employee retirement benefits.

"For years, the board largely has been a rubber stamp," Klein said. "In the last election, that changed. … We're doing the job the voters sent us here to do."

Voters already may be wary of the new tone and direction of the Sierra board, however. In last week's election, the bond measure failed, and trustee Simmons lost his bid for county supervisor and was dumped from the GOP central committee.

"Obviously the public was sending a message," said Anthony Maki Gill, president of a Sierra College employee group.

A recall -- led by former Placer County mayors and a former supervisor -- is being pushed against Simmons and Klein. At this week's meeting, Simmons also will be fending off fellow trustee Dave Creek's proposal that Simmons be stripped of his title of board president.

Attention also will shift to incoming district President Leo Chavez, currently heading a San Jose community college district, who starts at Sierra next month.

Meanwhile, students like Mary Anne Dizon, 21, are more concerned about fee increases, expensive textbooks and getting into required classes. "When I'm so into studying, I forget what's going on around us," she said.


Sierra College: A timeline
2000
January: Grand jury discloses that the college negotiated a $576,000 settlement with a campus librarian to end a gender-discrimination lawsuit

July: Grand jury criticizes college for mismanaging funds, restricting public information and invading privacy of a trustee who clashed with administrators

2001
February: Grand jury criticizes college officials for borrowing $165,000 from retirement funds to balance budget

2002
November: Jerry Simmons elected as a district trustee

2003
March: State budget cuts force tough decisions; trustees eliminate 400 courses and slash library hours

2004
March: Voters reject $394 million bond measure for Sierra College campuses

November: Voters approve bond measures for satellite campuses in Truckee and Grass Valley; Aaron Klein and Scott Leslie win election to board of trustees; Simmons re-elected; new bloc formed with incumbent trustee Nancy Palmer

December: Klein accuses college President Kevin Ramirez of money laundering, calls for investigation

2005
January: Ramirez forced out after 12 years as head administrator

2006
March: Grand jury clears Ramirez of wrongdoing, blames trustee Klein for stirring controversy with "unfounded, misleading and ... unsubstantiated allegation(s)"

May: Board rejects most findings of grand jury; recall effort is launched against trustees Klein and Simmons

June: Voters reject $78.2 million bond measure for Rocklin campus; Simmons loses elections for county supervisor and county GOP committee seat

July: Leo Chavez, interim president at a San Jose community college, to take over as new Sierra College president