Candidate for
Trustee; North Orange County Community College District; Trustee Area 2

It is time to bring business sensibilities to the Board of Trustees. With regular cuts to education budgets due to a lack of fiscal accountability in Sacramento, we need to elect business people with experience managing budgets on a day-to-day basis.

We also need board members who are responsive to the electorate. Five of the current seven trustees were originally appointed to serve on the board, not elected by you, the voter. I pledge to not be a rubber stamp to administration and will thoroughly research and review the agendas presented to the board of trustees. I will ask the tough questions needed to ensure results.

I'm not willing to compromise on the educational opportunities provided to students. I want to see fewer costs for administration and more money in the classrooms. I'm ready to work hard to ensure students receive the best that our community colleges have to offer. Even in difficult times, I will prioritize students and programs that improve our community, local economy and job outlook.

My experiences as a small business owner, former mayor of Cypress, and OCTA Board Member taught me how to respect tax dollars and make every dollar count. In these positions, I've prioritized agency budgets larger than that of the North Orange County Community College District. Often times it requires doing more with less.

Serving 8 years on the Cypress City Council and 6 years on the OCTA Board of Directors gave me extensive budget experience with governmental agencies. I participated successfully in various employee group negotiations and served and led numerous other government boards and committees during this time frame.

In my 30+ years in business I have managed to stay profitable through several periods of economic downturn by adapting and doing more with less. I will apply this business operational philosophy to NOCCCD.

I believe that the current administration is top heavy and needs to be reviewed. In addition, money that could go for students and classrooms has been squandered on construction with hundreds of change orders resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in overages. Construction projects need better preplanning and tighter oversight. The current board has shown little interest in reining in building costs.

My first goal would be to revise the policy that allows lifetime medical benefits for trustees who serve more than 15 years. This is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars.

The district could work harder to expand further outreach to the private sector to provide "real" work environment opportunities, grants and partnerships to benefit students. The current cuts include the elimination of supervised internships. I see internships as a cost effective pathway to employment for students and should continue to be a part of every program.

Many policies have been adopted without adequate public input and need to be addressed by a new, energized board of trustees. Collectively, these policies have had a serious impact on the North Orange County Community College District's bottom line.

I am proud to have earned the endorsement and trust of a bipartisan group of state and local elected officials who know that, if elected, I will work hard for the benefit of North Orange County Community College District. Please see my list of endorsements.

Finally, we don't just need change for the sake of change; we need change that makes sense for the sake of the students, the faculty and staff and the taxpayers of North Orange County.