Who Controls College Trusties & Bond Billions? #488-489
Los Angeles, CA. -Former L.A. Community College Trustee and Teacher, Pat Owens, is mad as hell and he is not going to take it any more. In a seven minute preview of a Full Disclosure Network® (FDN) two-part series Owens describes what made him so mad and why he has recruited “a non-controlled slate of candidates to take on ‘the good old boys’ of the powerful “Berman-Waxman political machine” in an attempt to return accountability to the taxpayers of the District.
The former L.A. Trade Tech Teacher Pat Owens, told Full Disclosure Network® the well entrenched LACCD incumbents are hand picked to keep the American Federation of Teachers Guild (union) in control of the largest Community College District in the United States with a budget of $640 million and recent bond revenues of over a billion dollars.
Full Disclosure Network® was notified by the LACCD Secretary of the Board of Trustees that the incumbent Trustees had been informed of our invitation to them to participate in interviews for this program. However, to date there has been no response from any of them even though we also sent an Email request to the Chancellor’s office asking for contact phone numbers. Our invitation will remain open amd we hope they will respond before the election to give us their perspective.
The following individuals were interviewed for this program by the Full Disclosure Network®
- Pat Owens, Former LACCD Trustee and L.A. Trade Tech teacher
- Roy Burns, Police Science Instuctor (LACCD) Retired L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy
- Jozeph Essavi, Board Member, Neighborhood Council, Former LACCD student
- Hector Gurule, Computer Businessman
- Guy Mato, Real Estate,Insurance, Deputy Sheriff (ret), Former GM Water Board
Here are some the issues and concerns raised regarding the conduct of the LACCD Board of Trustees:
- Questionable timing of the resignation of Board President Michael Waxman.
- Wasteful spending on three administration buildings, diverting money from education programs
- Union-operated student book stores use questionable 50% + mark-up prices
- Cuts in vocational training programs
- Reducing units per class, downgrading value of the traditional degree, requiring more than 2 years.
- Trustees meetings too frequently held in closed sessions, lack of community input/participation.
- Need for audit of district financials due to questionable spending of bond funds on parking, etc.
