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Questionable Contract for Southwestern College?
Humberto Perraza voted against the proposal.— July 17, 2012 5:26 a.m.
Questionable Contract for Southwestern College?
Given the recent history at SWC and Sweetwater, C.M. Brahmbhatt and Cambridge West should not have submitted a proposal. Given this same history, the SWC Governing Board should not have considered a proposal from "insiders"--even if it was the best and the cheapest. It's clear that administration and the Board still don't get it. The ONLY exception is Humberto Perraza. He was the only Board member who spoke--and voted--against it. We should remember this when we vote in November.— July 17, 2012 5:25 a.m.
Chula Vista Considers West-Side Apartment Complex
It's easy for people like Kevin O'Neill to propose we wean ourselves from our cars. But how? I wonder how many people at the meeting got there on foot, by bicycle, or on public transportation?— April 5, 2012 10:30 a.m.
More Corruption Charges in South Bay
SWC and SUHSD were "disconnecting." But then SWC hired a new Public Information Officer. Guess who? Lilian Leopold, who, of course, was Jesus Gandara's spin doctor. She'll be making $10,300 a month--more than I make as a full-time teacher with 25 years of seniority. And she gets 12 paychecks every year. Teachers get 10.— March 27, 2012 9:35 a.m.
More Contractor Coziness with Southwestern College Officials
BCA's plans for the Southwestern College corner lot included a cafe and a bookstore. But Prop R, which provides the construction money for this project, excludes any retail establishments. So who didn't do his homework? The architect? Saville? Nick Alioto?— January 3, 2012 3:40 p.m.
Sweetwater Union High School Board Prompted for Report on Scott Alevy's Work
Attorney-client privilege? Bullshit! The REAL clients here are taxpayers. The SUHSD used our money to hire lawyers to conduct contract negotiations with the faculty union. The lawyers also requested, and were granted, additional money to hire a PR guy. Because we have an absolute right to know how that public money was spent and on what, the district hired--again, with public money--an investigator to, well, investigate and provide answers to these questions. We have an absolute right to see the results of this taxpayer-funded investigation. Otherwise, how can anyone ever know whether the investigation was up-and-up or a cover-up?— November 19, 2011 5 p.m.
Bond Money Figures Big in South Bay Schools’ Elections
Another SWC Governing Board reform that's needed: Currently, candidates compete for a single seat on the Board, even though the "seat" they're running for is meaingless. It's not a geographical seat or anything else. What have, in effect, is seperate elections for seperate Governing Board seats. As a consequence, the winner of a seat might not receive a majority of the votes. Almost certainly, this is going to happen on Tuesday: Tim Nader is running for a seat against the incumbent Jorge Dominguez, against Bud MacLeroy, and against Jaime Mercado. Because there are four candidates, none of them is likely to receive a majority of the votes. (I'm going to pause inside these partentheses to suggest that the reason Mercado is running for this seat is to split the ballot and take votes away from Nader--which will benefit his Sweetwater Union High School District colleague Jorge Dominguez. Why else would someone like Mercado--who's politically savvy--place himself on the ballot and then do absolutely nothing to win the election? He has shown up at none of the candidate forums, mailed no mailers, taken out no ads, done nada, zip, zero, zilch, but he's sure to get several thousand votes simply because he's on the ballot and because some folks will vote against any incumbent. These are votes that Nader will not get.) Back on topic: Because SWC Board elections are for individual seats, there's a real possibility that a loser in the election for a given seat could receive more votes than a winner of the election for a different seat. The solution for this undemocratic mess is simple: If there are three seats open, then voters should vote on the entire list of candidates, and the top three vote-getters win. --Philip Lopez— November 1, 2010 9:56 a.m.
Bond Money Figures Big in South Bay Schools’ Elections
So vote out the unethical incumbents who have accepted tens of thousand dollars in "pay-for-play" money, and insist that new school board members enact term limits while prohibiting donations from contractors who are doing business or want to do business with their districts. --Philip Lopez— October 31, 2010 10:10 a.m.
Public Records Suggest Southwestern College Used Public Funds Frivolously
So everything's hunky-dory at Southwestern College, and the only reason people think differently is because Andy MacNeill and I have intimidated the entire Academic Senate, the Council of Chairs, and the classified employees' union into voting "no confidence" in Raj Chopra. While we were at it, we intimidated WASC into putting SWC on probation, and when the accreditors cited the "climate of fear and intimidation on campus," they really meant to say it was Andy and I who are responsible, not Chopra and his hitmen. But that's not what they said, so they must have been intimidated. Apparently, we also intimidated student journalists into criticizing Chopra and the Board, and then we intimidated Chopra and the Board into trying to silence the Sun. At the same time, we intimidated the Board into putting 'way to much money into District reserves, even though we told them not to, and we also intimidated the Board into unneccesarily cutting classes, even though we told them it was, well, unnecessary. We also must have intimidated Jorge Dominguez into lying about not laying off any teachers and not cutting any classes, and we must have intimidated Yolando Salcido into writing fake campaign endorsements. I sure would like to know how I got all this done since I don't have any kind of power that would allow me to intimidate anyone. One of my favorite fantasies is fitting a few individuals with a custom-made set of concrete overshoes at the end of the IB pier, but they're purely fantasies--as are the pitiful accusations made by truthhurtsright. --Philip Lopez— October 24, 2010 5:06 p.m.