The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District board is considering a proposal to reject nearly all the recommendations a county grand jury made to address ethical issues at local community college districts.
Among the recommendations that could be rejected are establishing an ethics committee for the five community college districts in the county, board member term limits and a cap on campaign contributions.
Grossmont-Cuyamaca board President Bill Garrett, who has been on the board since 2004, said state laws and agencies are already in place to guide trustees and punish violators.
District administrators prepared the draft proposal and presented it to the board Tuesday. The board will vote on it Aug. 19.
The county grand jury launched an investigation into the community college districts last year after receiving complaints from eight residents. It found ethical issues in the Southwestern, MiraCosta, San Diego and Grossmont-Cuyamaca community college districts. Its findings and recommendations were released May 27.
The grand jury report recapped a series of recent controversies at community colleges, including the changing of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca chancellor's contract without board approval in 2006. It also raised conflict-of-interest concerns about the relationship between a Southwestern Community College trustee and an administrator. The grand jury didn't identify the colleges where the problems occurred in most of its findings.
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Developments
Grand jury probe: Found ethical issues in governance of four of the five San Diego County community college districts and made recommendations in May 27 report.
Main recommendations: Establish an ethics committee for all five college districts; establish term limits for college trustees; limit campaign contributions.
Deadline: Districts and county Office of Education must submit responses by Aug. 26.
Grossmont-Cuyamaca: Will vote Aug. 19 on proposed response received Tuesday.
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The grand jury required that all five districts as well as the county Board of Education respond to its recommendations by Aug. 26. Other districts plan to discuss and vote on their responses in the coming weeks.
The grand jury recommended that the five districts provide $500,000 to staff a countywide educational ethics committee that would investigate whistle-blower complaints and monitor compliance with open-government laws. It recommended that the county Office of Education set up the committee.
“They need an independent organization to be an oversight for the colleges, not just the grand jury doing it once every few years,” former grand jury foreman Michael Letendre said Tuesday.
The Grossmont-Cuyamaca board is considering dismissing 11 of the 14 grand jury recommendations as unnecessary. District officials said most of the problems identified by the grand jury were found in other districts. The three recommendations the draft response agreed with had been implemented already, it said. Two involved police training standards and oversight; the other involved studying whether to hire an attorney for the district instead of contracting for legal services. The district said it had found contracting to be more beneficial.
While the Grossmont-Cuyamaca board didn't discuss the draft response at Tuesday's meeting, board members indicated in interviews that they held varying opinions.
Trustee Rick Alexander said the grand jury's proposed ethics committee would be “just another layer of bureaucracy.”
Trustee Deanna Weeks, a member since 2004, said, “It would be expensive.” Alexander, a member since 1990, said the public benefits from trustees with long experience and doesn't support term limits.
But trustee Timothy Caruthers, a member since 1996, said the grand jury's opinions should be given more weight. He said he would consider term limits “if that's what the public wants.”
Trustee Greg Barr, a member since 2006, said he supports term limits and creating an ethics committee but is still gathering information.
Leonel Sanchez: (619) 542-4568; leonel.sanchez@uniontrib.com
