School daze

San Diego — San Diego's Kelsey-Jenney business college, the city's oldest institution of higher education, founded in 1887, has been placed on "warning" probation by its regional accreditor, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. In a joint statement, the school and the accrediting agency said that probation was triggered by questions about the school's board of directors and its financial planning. The school was required to create a plan to deal with "financial emergencies" and put in place new policies to evaluate boardmembers. No other details were made public. As of this week, the college's website still says the school is "accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), a regional accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education." The next accreditation review is set for June. According to a news release from the college, "Kelsey-Jenney College has recently hired a new president and she and the board are committed to addressing the recommendations for improvement in a timely and effective manner." ... There's more trouble for San Diego monsignor "Father Joe" Carroll in Las Vegas. Local charities who run car-donation programs are complaining that Carroll, who announced several weeks ago he is closing his "MASH Village" homeless center in Vegas, is unfairly competing with them. "I think it's disingenuous to ask for donations to support homeless people if you're not even going to provide services in Las Vegas. It's really frustrating for those of us providing local services to see local dollars going to an outside community," Ed Guthrie, executive director of Opportunity Village, told the Las Vegas Review Journal. Replied Carroll, "They're just greedy and jealous, like vultures coming in to pick our bones. We're just trying to keep providing services. If we run out of money and we have to shut down early, hundreds of families will be put on the streets." But after October, Carroll acknowledged, proceeds from the 50 or so monthly car donations made in Las Vegas will be used in San Diego.

Cash for fishing Newly hired San Diego fire chief Jeff Bowman has left some bruised feelings behind in Anaheim, where he also ran the fire department. Because the 50-year-old Bowman is taking early retirement after 28 years in the Anaheim department, he will be able to collect an annual pension of $128,000. Combined with his San Diego salary of $152,000, he'll be making about 85 percent more than his current base salary, reports the Orange County Register. "This isn't a knock on the chief; this is legal, but there's something wrong with the system,'' Bill Mitchell, a government watchdog formerly with Common Cause, told the paper. "There's a lot of other people who reach a certain age and can't work at that age.'' Bowman is taking advantage of a new pension deal negotiated between the city and its firefighters union in November of last year, which increased the city pension from 2 to 3 percent of the total salary for each year a firefighter works for the city. Since then, 20 other Anaheim firefighters, more than twice the average rate of retirement, retired before the new benefits went into effect ... Since March 4, San Diego's new ethics commission has logged ten complaints, six formal, four informal ... SDG&E's Yolanda Whiting has been appointed by the state Public Utilities Commission to its newly chartered "low-income advisory board," which is supposed to "advise the commission on low-income electric and gas customer issues."

Art of radio First it was radio stations, then concert promotions, then billboards. Now Clear Channel Communications, the octopus-like media conglomerate that virtually controls radio in San Diego County, has branched into museums. The company is reportedly getting together with the Vatican to produce a traveling museum show called "St. Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes" to include 350 various artworks from Vatican collections. The tour is expected to stop in Houston and San Diego ... Rear Admiral Richard J. Naughton, creator of San Diego's Center for Maritime Dominance, a tactics school for advanced weaponry, is taking over as head of Annapolis, reports the Baltimore Sun ... Luis C. Villegas Jr., an executive administrator at the San Diego Unified School District, is leaving his post to become superintendent of the Santa Paula Elementary School District ... Santa Barbara's James Herman, a 1975 graduate of Cal Western Law School, is running for president of the California State Bar.

Contributor: Matt Potter