The Telescope 37.06

Page 1

Voters oust two board incumbents

QiD TltE TELEscopE Palomar College

Volume 37 No . 6

A Publication for th e Associated Students

Friday , November 18 , 1983

San Marcos . CA

Trotta, Baradat, Hughes vvin hotly contested seats By PoUy Filanc In an atmosphere marked by unsu pressedjubilation ove r last wee k's elec tion results, many faculty members experienced a "long overdue" boost in morale. After a hotly contested campaign,

New trustee seeks procedural advice

\ Mary Burke Trotta

Leon Baradat

Barbara Hughes

Voter turnout poor for ASG election Jina Guerrero, Kevin Farrow and Kenneth Anguilo were the winners in the October 24-27 election for the Associated Student Government's legislature. While nine legislative positions were open, only nine students took out election packets and only three returned them. These three went on to place their names on the ballot and win, uncontested. Only 46 students out of the 17,071 on campus voted over a period of four days.

Commenting on the lack of candidates, ASG president Leonard Flagg noted that "Not enough people went out to get their signatures." Candidates must gather 250 signatures on a petition in order to run for ASG office. Vice -president Shannon Ryan blamed the lack of voter involvement on the small amount of campaigning done by candidates. ''There wasn't enough competition and student awareness is down,"¡said Ryan. Dean of Students Norman Price ex-

plained that "because of the average age of Palomar students- 28- many students have other activities such as jobs and families that take up much of their time. Many students just don't have time to get involved in campus activities." Six legislative positions and three judicial advocate seats are still open to students. Anyone interested in an appointive office should contact the Dean of Students office at Ext. 2594.

Newly elected Board of Trustees member Leon Baradat is seeking legal advice over the appointment procedure of trustee Robert Dougherty. Baradat, who feels that the process of Dougherty's appointment "was illegal," is unsure of whether a new board can rescind the decision of an old board. "I am talking to two attorneys who are researching . .. the legality of the appointment. "If it is illegal I will take the neccessarysteps to reverse the appointment." While Baradat said that he "has nothing against Dougherty", he is against the "method by which the appointment was made." Faculty leaders and local residents sharply criticized the trustees for not allowing public comment or interviews, as originally planned. "If Dougherty's appointment is reversed I'll personally invite him to apply for appointment again. But the process has to an open one and it has to be procedurally correct." Baradat's pursuit is "an ethical point. I campaigned on the basis that the appointment was illegal. I feel obliged to the voters to pursue it."

Simson recalls best, worst times By PoUy Filanc For the past 12 years he's seen the best of times and the worst of times. Anton Simson, veteran member of Palomar's Board of Trustees, is leaving the governing board during one of the worst of times. But he feels optimistic that "It's time for new blood, new insights and new approaches." In the last few years, Simson has seen "a widening rift between the college community and the board." He is leaving because he thinks "Others might help in working towards a solution." In last week's board election voters seemed to agree, as they ousted incumbents Charles Salter and James Slivkoff. For this reason, Simson, unlike the incumbents, did not seek re-election. Instead, he feels he has been "here long enough at this particular time." Claiming that he is "not a political person," and "did not want to get in the middle of a big political contest," Simson is confident that if he had run, "I would have been elected. I believe the voters view my position as being helpful to solve the problems. "My strength on the board was listening and asking questions," Simson, who often stood apart from the other members, thinks that the previous board's weakness was its "failure or unwillingness to listen. "It seemed to me the board really didn't try to listen, specifically to the faculty. Anyone from the faculty who spoke up was automatically branded as being non -representative by the board. "At various times I received letters or comments that I was a tool of the faculty. Those people obviously don't have very good memories. I've always questioned the financial requests of the fac ulty and consistently voted for low salary increases." Pausing thoughtfully and grop in g for the right words, Simson further elaborates. "Any c riticism of the administration, specifically of the president, by the

faculty has been almost automatically considered as being incorrect or nonrepresentative. "Performance reviews of the president have been routinely written off as completely misrepresenting the true feeling of faculty. "Certainly, any performance review of any individual has the problem of allowing anonymous expressions of negative feelings. It's always fun to let off steam at the boss and to blame problems on the boss. "So some fi.Itering of performance review results is always required, but blanket rejection of the results is not an acceptable answer for any of the parties." While Simson is supportive of most board decisions, he does point out that the "attitude . .. of not honestly looking for all inputs needs to be changed." He is hopeful that with the newly elected candidates, the attitudes will change. Simson is adamant that ''The faculty should not run the college: The reason the college is here is to produce a learning environment. But its major implementation is via the faculty, so we need to listen to their views." This chasm between the board and the faculty happened because both sides "got defensive," Simson says. "It started out as a difference in views and feelings, coupled with the defensive nature of both sides. It was a continually widening gap in basic com munication ." Some of the controversy arose ove r the faculty's newslette r, Th e Fogcutter. "Th e Fogcutter wasn't always careful of its facts , but it played a valid role. It brought many of these differences out in th e open. Although it was a bit radical , it still presented valid con cerns on th e part of the fac ulty." In response, the board indicated that "th ese are only the wo rds and views of a small s egm e nt of th e fa culty." Simson feels, "We basically had a good board . However, they becam e

preconditioned to ignoring the valid portions of issues when the faculty raised questions. Although Simson seemed to have been "very isolated from the rest of the board," according to one faculty member, he was never afraid to speak out or question the issues. "He favored an open and complete public investigation of all issues," said faculty senate member Mark Edelstein, who has been active in this year's board elections. Edelstein chaired the Committee for Quality in Education which backed the winners, Mary Burke Trotta, Leon Baradat and Barbara Hughes. ''The faculty has often disagreed with Simson," Edelstein adds, "but we have always respected him." At the October 25 board meeting Simson openly criticized his fellow board members for "total lack of leadership" over the September appointment of Poway physician Robe rt Dougherty, in which the board allowed no interviews or public comment at the special meeting. Simson did not attend that special meeting. Declaring that a "fundamental inju~ ­ tice has been done by the board," Simson made a formal motion at the October 25 meeting to reopen the appointment procedure. No one on the board seconded his motion . Now that elections are over, Simson feels the issue should "go away." Even though the recent issues of board leadership and finan ce have clouded Palomar's skies, Simson is optimistic. "In fact," he says, "when th e finances are finally straightened around, Palomar will be in an excelle nt pos ition to move ah ead." Th e financial crun c h has "forced the college to look at th e fundam entals and to dec id e what is really important." But, he s ays , "We must continue to evaluate and re-evaluate our mixture of needs and put emphasis on c ultural, industrial, ethnic and basic edu cation al programs."

Palomar has been lucky, he adds. "We have never really had the big issues of student strife, union (problems) , or (lack of) facilities (as many other colleges face.) We have had a remarkable history of working mutually together." For the past 12 years, Simson says, "It's been one day at a time. Every year has had its concerns, but they have all been workable." With one last board meeting to go, Simson is anxious to start "plucking more daisies." To him this means to do other things. Currently, he is designing and building his second high performance sports car, which will be featured next year on KPBS television . "Our intention is to market the plans of this car for home construction, which is similiar to home-built airplanes." An engineer at General Dynamics for 20 years, he was one of the originators of the Hard Mobile Basing System, which allows for the rapid movement of ICBMs within a military reservation

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voters clearly demonstrated the ir preferences by ousting the two incumbent board members and installing three candidates heavily endorsed by facul ty leaders. Mary Burke Trotta led the race with 15,307 votes, or 16.6 percent for the ballots cast. Leon Baradat came in second with 11,615 votes, or 12.6 percent, while Barbara Hughes followed with 11 ,208 votes or 12.1 percent. The threesome will be sworn in for their four-year term during the Decem ber 6 board meeting. In an 11 -way race for three open board seats, the winners - backed by the Committee for Quality in Education , a group formed by faculty and community members who wanted to see "a more independent board" defeated incumbents Charles Salter and James Slivkoff by a wide margin. Trustee Anton Simson, a 12-year veteran of the board, did not seek re-election. Salter, an attorney, who had served on the board since 1978, claimed 9,425 votes, or 10 percent. Slivkoff, a board member since 1981, walked off with 9,382 votes, or 10 percent. Following the top five vote-getters were Walter Brown, 9,098 votes; Robert Bowman, 7,837 votes; Ilia Mitchell, 7,448 votes; Gerrie Ryan, 6,285 votes; Karl Waack, 2,331 votes; and Bob Ottaviano, 2,014 votes. While most candidates agreed that the college's fi,nancial crunch caused by cutbacks in state funding was a major issue in the campaign, it was not as intense as the question of the previous board's leadership. Some of the candidates felt that the board's leadership in dealing with issues was "lacking." The most recent controversy on campus followed a September board meeting at which trustees Alan Krichman, Salter and Slivkoffunanimously chose Poway physician Robert Dougherty from a field of 17 candidates to fill a vacancy left by William Boyce. Faculty leaders, local residents and trustee Simsom sharply criticized the trustees for n<>t allowing public com ment or interviews, as originally plan ned. Despite public outcry to rescind Dougherty's appointment, trustees stood firm in their decision. According to Baradat, the most critically outspoken of the candidates, "The board had exercised very little leadership by the fact that they made decisions while refusing public comment." That appointment process "hurt the incumbents very badly," Bar ad at said. ''They proved themselves to be insensitive and undemocratic. People don't like either of those characteristics in public officials." Although the process, according to Trotta, was "a significant factor in the defeat of the incumbents," Baradat added , "I don't think the people only voted against the incumbents. They also voted for us. This is determined by the margin by which we won." Baradat said that he would reopen the appointment procedure, but he is unsure about the legal status of a new board rescinding a decision of a previous board. "I will look into it." During the campaign some of the other candidates, including the in cum bents, c harged that the winning trio endorsed by both the Comm ittee and the California Teachers Association, Palomar branch , was an "attempt by the facu lty to take over the board." Although the winners said they were grateful for the endorsements, they pointed out that they were not run ning as faculty cand id ates. Trotta said she never asked them ( the endo rsers ) why they chose her. "I was running my own campaign. " Baradat echoed Trotta, but add ed , "They ( th e faculty) don't dare try to use me as a puppet." Baradat said he was endorsed "h('cause I am my own man, because I am obj ec tive, and because I stand for

Anton Simson

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