MISSION VIEJO : New Trustees Pledge to ‘Mend Fences’

With the recent shake-up on the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees, newly elected members are pledging to “mend fences” among the board, administrators and frustrated professors who have been seeking a raise.

New trustees Steven J. Frogue, Lee Rhodes and John S. Williams--all of whom received backing from the district’s faculty union in the often-contentious election campaign--will be sworn into office Dec. 7.

Longtime trustee Harriett S. Walther was the only incumbent to win reelection to the seven-member board.

“I do feel confident that all of the new board members share a very strong belief that what is most important is that we work together,” said Walther, who started serving on the board in 1977.

The new trustees agreed that their first priority will be to foster unity in the district.

“I want to bring the people together,” said Williams, a county marshal who made his first bid for the board four years ago. “There’s been a big wedge driven between the district and the board and the faculty. We need to get people back together.”

Another main priority for the new trustees will be to spend more money in the classrooms and reopen long-stalled negotiations over a faculty pay raise, which has caused much turmoil within the district over the past two years.

Faculty members have sought a 5% raise over a two-year period, while district officials have said there is not enough money for any raise, especially with recent cutbacks in state education funding. So far, the district has not had to lay off any full-time faculty members.

“We must get those negotiations closed,” said Rhodes, a retired Saddleback College biology professor. “We’ve got to bring about some unity within the district.”

Mike Runyan, Saddleback Community College District Faculty Assn. president, said he is optimistic that the new board will be more responsive. During the campaign, the faculty spent thousands of dollars on television and newspaper advertisements to back four candidates, including Frogue, Rhodes and Williams. At one point during the campaign, a local election consultant sent a notice urging all of the district’s 325 faculty members to donate $500 each.

“We certainly feel our effort during the campaign was a factor in the outcome,” Runyan said. “Everyone really believed it was necessary to make a change.”

The new board members will replace longtime trustees John C. Connolly, who served on the board for 14 years, Shirley Gellatly, who served nine years, and Robert L. Moore, who served 13 years.

“I can’t blame anybody,” Moore said. “But the fact is these are tough times, and all (public) colleges are facing the same problems.”

The three trustees recently bid farewell during their last board meeting Nov. 16.

During a recognition ceremony, all three were credited with overseeing an unprecedented $163-million construction drive at Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges, and soaring student enrollment, which jumped from 21,644 in 1979 to 32,858 this fall.

“The record of accomplishments of this board is spectacular, which will be seen very clearly as the years go by,” Chancellor Richard Sneed said of the outgoing board members.