Guest Opinion | PCC Management Association: Incompetence is Expensive

Editor’s Note: The following letter was delivered Wednesday night to the Pasadena Area Community College District Board of Trustees during their regular meeting by Mat Camara, the acting Board President of the Management Association, who introduced himself to the Board by saying he has been at Pasadena City College 15 years, and have served under seven Superintendent- Presidents.

Tonight, we will not be providing you with more campaign quotes from Board of Trustees President Chen Lau or Trustee Kwong, quotes that have not aged well and have proven to be hypocritical and comical at best. We won’t be dignifying absurd insinuations that the Management Association was put up to this by the PCC President. We won’t be revisiting Trustee Kwong’s racist sentiments at the March 7th Facilities Board Committee meeting, nor the failure of Board leadership to discern between Board Bylaws, Board Policies,

Administrative Procedures, and the Shared Governance process. We won’t be discussing how our Cost of Living Adjustment was indiscriminately pulled from last month’s Board meeting.

Why? Because this was never about a COLA. No, tonight’s focus is about the questionable expenditures that we presented to you at the March 15th meeting, and how the Board of Trustees’ incompetence is expensive.

We understand how some members on the current Board, specifically Board President Chen Lau and the recently elected Trustees, like to distance themselves from the previous Board. For instance, when it comes to precedence with collective “me, too” bargaining agreements or the Superintendent-President’s current contract. But make no mistake, the current fiscal waste and legal expenditures abuse is solely the current Board’s fault, specifically, Board President Chen Lau. It’s also worth pointing out that Trustee Chen Lau has served on both the previous and current Boards.

At the risk of being whistleblowers, we’d like to draw your attention to the gross misuse of public funds by our very own Board of Trustees. Even though the District already has legal representation, the Board decided to inexplicably retain their own law firm, Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud, and Romo (Atkinson Firm). The move has duplicated the district’s legal efforts and is now costing us twice as much in unnecessary legal fees. As COVID relief funding dwindles and post-pandemic belt-tightening becomes reality, this money would have been better served supporting the very reason we are here: our students.

From December 2018 to August 2022, almost a 4-year span, the Board of Trustees spent approximately $10,000 – $13,000 on attorney fees with the Atkinson Firm. These fees might have been spent on structuring the contract of our newly hired Superintendent-President and/ or other types of consulting fees – nothing necessarily out of the ordinary. But then something interesting happened…

In late June of 2022, three new trustees were elected: Steve Gibson, Alton Wang, and Education Lawyer Kristine Kwong. One month later, one-term Trustee Sandra Chen Lau was named Board President. What should be shared is that during Trustee Chen Lau’s first term,

she failed to complete the ETP, the Excellence in Trusteeship Program. The ETP is a program designed by the Community College League of California to help trustees fulfill their leadership role and responsibilities by providing a comprehensive program aligned with accreditation standards and sound leadership principles facilitated by experienced practitioners in the field. Trustees are given 24 months to complete Brown Act and Ethics training, in addition to other competencies.

Board President Chen Lau in now entering her 57th month as a member of the Board, and has REFUSED to complete the ETP. Three new Board members led by an incompetent Board President have proven to be expensive for the District.

Only two months after Trustee Chen Lau ascended to Board President, and per our Public Records Act request, PCC began to incur an unprecedented amount of legal expenditures by the Board. In fact, from September 2022 to January 2023, PCC spent nearly $75,000 – or approximately $18,750 per month – in legal fees to The Atkinson Firm. And the spending has not stopped. We promise to share February, March, and all the successive months of legal fees as soon as we receive them. What has PCC gotten in return for these massive legal expenditures?

Nothing. Nothing. At. All.

There has been no dramatic difference in anything, except for the Board’s escalating legal expenses. And why is the Board spending so much on legal fees? The answer is simple: only an inexperienced, insecure Board would need to lean on legal counsel as much as this Board has. Instead of educating themselves and attending the necessary ETP training, the Board leans on legal for just about everything.

Trustee Gibson, you emphatically declared that the buck stops with the Board of Trustees. So, can you please explain why the Board spent $21,374.50 in the month of October with The Atkinson Firm? Or $26,274.00 in January?

Trustee Wang, it appears by the amount of billing hours we’re paying The Atkinson Firm’s attorney, Irma Rodriguez Moisa, that the Board is leaning on her a lot for expensive guidance. Will she be our next Superintendent-President since you all are using her for everything else?

Trustee Kwong, didn’t the Atkinson Firm draft our Superintendent-President’s original contract? Haven’t you now spent at least $75,000, if not $100,000, to have the same firm figure out how to undo their own work?

Board President Chen Lau, seeing that you voted in favor of canceling the Winter Session in October of 2020, has The Atkinson Firm been able to affect the outcome of our PERB case in a way that’s different than the college’s legal representatives, the Erickson Law Firm, a firm that specializes in Education Law? Has paying two separate firms positively impacted the college’s position? Why are we spending so much money on one law firm to duplicate the efforts of our other law firm? One can guess – because incompetence is expensive.

Board President Chen Lau, on March 23rd, you provided Colorado Boulevard.net news outlet, not the Management Association, a response to our letter of concern. In it you stated, “The changes that voters demanded were more oversight, accountability, and transparency with decision making.” We couldn’t agree more. Please, be transparent with your decision-making on why you keep using PCC as your legal advice ATM machine.

Incompetence is expensive.

Another item that demands attention is who exactly has the new Board Members’ and Board President’s attention. It’s the faculty. It goes without saying that our faculty members are our frontline with students, and we would not have a top-ranked college without them and their

life-altering skillsets. However, it’s also worth pointing out that we would not have a top-ranked college without ALL of our caring student support services, which include our hard-working facilities and grounds maintenance staff and the dedicated people who do everything they can to keep the campus running. The issue, again, is with some of our burn-it-all-down faculty,

the ones who make their monthly Board Meeting appearances (like this evening) and claim to represent all faculty at the college. Their specific political contributions create an unavoidable conflict of interest for some of our Board members.

Per LA Vote.gov, here’s a sample:

Trustee Kwong Campaign Contributions

• $15,000 from the PCC Faculty Association
• $1,000 from Dan Haley, former PCC Faculty
• Also of note is a $5,000 contribution from Trustee Sandra Chen Lau

Trustee Gibson Campaign Contributions

• $10,000 from the PCC Faculty Association
• A $2,500 contribution from Trustee Sandra Chen Lau

Trustee Wang Campaign Contributions

• $12,000 from the PCC Faculty Association
• $1,000 from Dan Haley, former PCC Faculty

Between the three newly elected trustees, more than $45,000 in campaign contributions were received from PCC Faculty or Board President Chen Lau. To put in perspective, PCC Faculty and Board President Chen Lau’s contributions to the three new Board Members was about

$15,000 more than the total costs of former incumbent Trustees Berlinda Brown and Anthony Fellows campaigns combined. So yes, incompetence is expensive.

Although the Faculty Association probably feels some buyer’s remorse, there should be absolutely no question where these new Board Members’ loyalties lie.

The only question is does this relationship violate ACCJC standard IV.C.11? The standard reads clearly that “the governing board upholds a code of ethics and conflict of interest policy, and individual board members adhere to the code.” More specifically, “Board member interests are disclosed and do not interfere with the impartiality of governing body members or outweigh the greater duty to secure and ensure the academic and fiscal integrity of the institution.”

Board President Chan Lau, newer Board Trustees, is there anything you’d care to disclose about your relationship or the potential guidance you’re receiving from some of our burn-it-all- down faculty members?

At last month’s Board Meeting, we requested that you, the Pasadena Area Community College District Board of Trustees, improve upon the following:

• Stop micromanaging and overstepping your boundaries and place trust in your Superintendent-President to lead the college. Since last month, we are STILL hearing accounts from our colleagues who have received direct phone calls or emails from certain Trustees during non-work hours. Allow us to remind you again that you have one employee, the Superintendent-President. You would know this if you attended your necessary ETP training.
• Put aside your personal interest and follow the guidelines defined by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges and act as a collective agency.
• Demonstrate respect for all of the District’s employees equally and be open to dialogue with all constituency groups.
• As a united group, be committed to promoting and demonstrating an anti-racist culture and recognize when you have failed to do so.
• Fulfill your duty to the college and, more importantly to our students, in an open, ethical, and transparent manner.

Today, the MA met with Trustee Kwong. We had a very productive conversation and we look forward to continuing this important dialogue. In stark contrast, our meeting earlier this week with Board President Chen Lau did not go as well. Our sincere hope was to reopen dialogue and address our concerns. Instead, it pains us to say that the meeting was a resounding failure, and now we’ve done a complete 360. Board President Chen Lau, your circular reasoning has left us in the exact same dizzying spot we were in before. Our concerns have still been woefully ignored and we have yet to see any real progress.

Therefore, in solidarity, the Management Association requests the following:

1. Return to the traditional Board of Trustee rotation for Executive Officers that you abandoned this past July. Previously, Trustees would cycle through the Executive Officer roles taking on increased responsibilities as they gained Board experience.
2. New Trustees who rotate onto the Board of Trustee Executive need to complete the ETP (Excellence in Trusteeship Program). Most of these recent issues might have been avoided had our current Trustee President participated in the training herself.
3. Finalize and extend the Superintendent-President’s contract to 2025 in accordance with what was decided by the Board in 2022. You have broken with past protocol, and most likely the law, given that you have not honored the satisfactory evaluation previously reported by the Board. Your gross mismanagement and treatment of our Superintendent- President will most likely result in a future costly legal settlement for the District. Incompetence is expensive.
4. The agenda review process should consist of 3 Board of Trustees Officers in consultation with the Superintendent-President. This will ensure that the college’s business items are appropriately discussed and not censored. The current practice of only 1 Board member deciding on approving agenda items is authoritative and censorship.
   
5. Finally, we ask that Board President Sandra Chen Lau resign IMMEDIATELY. Trustee Chen Lau, you ran on a campaign promise to build a strong working relationship between the Trustees and the Superintendent-President; restore stability, morale, and civility on campus; and practice fiscal responsibility. That promise is obviously a lie. Your leadership and time on the Board have delivered none of the above. Board President Chen Lau, you have done enough damage to Pasadena City College. Please resign immediately for the good of PCC.

Instead of focusing on teaching our Board of Trustees how to be a Board of Trustees, we should be focusing on supporting and teaching our students, our number one priority.

An accreditation alarm bell for the Management Association has been ACCJC standard IV.C.5 where, “The governing board has the ultimate responsibility for educational quality, legal matters, and financial integrity and stability.”

Board President Chen Lau, not only have your decisions potentially put us at legal risk, but your actions have destabilized the District by creating adversarial relationships between the Board and leadership, the Board and the college, and the Board and the community.

In closing, your incompetence has had more than a financial cost, it is also costing us our college’s reputation.

Your incompetence is expensive.