Mayor Ed Lee's Shill and House "liberal" Randy Shaw Defends Lee's Appointment of right winger and privatizer Rodrigo Santos To Community College Board "Jones should recognize that Santos will bring key constituencies into the yes side of the City College tax measure
City College
Bay Guardian’s Dangerous Falsehood About City College Tax Measure
by Randy Shaw‚ Aug. 24‚ 2012
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=10427#more

This November, San Francisco voters will be asked to approve a temporary $79 annual parcel tax to support San Francisco City College. I had been informed by those involved in the campaign that a 2/3 vote was required, and told Bay Guardian City Editor Steven Jones this when we discussed it at City Hall. Jones said I was wrong, and maintained his position even after I sent him confirming information. Ignoring the facts, Jones wrote an August 22 story claiming “Shaw said the measure needed a two-thirds vote to be approved, a claim he also made in today’s piece. That didn’t sound right to me, and the Elections Department confirms that it isn’t: Prop. A needs only a simple majority to pass.” Once again, Jones is wrong. And while most of his errors only make him and his publication look bad, this mistake could mislead people into thinking the vital tax will easily pass, potentially diverting money and resources from the campaign.

I try to avoid communicating with the always angry Steven Jones, but we were in an elevator together when he asked me why I thought the Mayor made a good choice in picking Rodrigo Santos for the Community College Board. I replied that even Jones should recognize that Santos will bring key constituencies into the yes side of the City College tax measure, and that this was critical to getting a 2/3 vote necessary for passage.

Jones said I was wrong and that Prop A only needed a majority vote. He sent me email asking for comment on my “error,” following it up with an article (which I am not linking to as it contains additional falsehoods unrelated to City College) whose quotes about my writings on Prop A are excerpted above.

The City Editor of the Bay Guardian had no interest in tracking down the truth about Prop A before writing his attack. When I sent him information from a website confirming the 2/3 requirement and asked for the source for his view, he emailed me the phone number of the Department of Elections.

Why bother pointing out Jones’ falsehood when I ignore so many of his others? Because it will take an all hands on deck campaign to win 2/3 support on a ballot that also has Prop 30 (the Brown tax measure) and a $195 million local parks bond. Add publicity about City College’s past lack of fiscal and administrative oversight and getting to 2/3 becomes even tougher.

The campaign is clearly winnable, but if people think only a bare majority is needed they will put their time and money elsewhere. Let’s hope the Bay Guardian prominently acknowledges its mistake.

SF Demo Mayor Ed Lee Appoints Rightwinger to SF Community College Board
Making waves: Mayor Ed Lee on Tuesday appointed Rodrigo Santos, a structural engineer who has served on three different city commissions, to fill an open seat on the embattled City College Board of Trustees.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Poll-finds-most-in-S-F-want-sheriff-out-3805592.php
Santos, who was already the top fundraiser out of a field of 10 candidates vying for four spots on the board of trustees in the November election, now holds the seat left vacant after Milton Marks III died earlier this month from a brain tumor.
The appointment gives Santos the trappings of incumbency for about 2 1/2 months before a pivotal election for the college, which faces the threat of losing its accreditation in June because of poor financial management.
Lee said Santos' business background - he co-founded the engineering firm Santos & Urrutia in 1988 - was part of his draw as a trustee to help turn around California's largest public school, with its 85,000 students.
Santos has been criticized by some on the city's political left as a conservative and polarizing figure.
He was registered as a Republican for years before changing his affiliation in 2008 to the American Independent Party, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections. He switched to the Democratic Party in December.
Santos came under scrutiny in 2005 for a potential conflict of interest when he headed the Building Inspection Commission but was also hired as an engineer to help get approvals for a construction project that the city department overseen by the commission had shut down.
Lee dismissed the idea that Santos was a polarizing figure, saying, "The business background that Rodrigo brings to this is really a huge asset for City College."
- John Coté


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Poll-finds-most-in-S-F-want-sheriff-out-3805592.php#ixzz24WlTdku1


Endorsements
http://www.santos2012.com/news/endorsements
Partial List. *Titles for Identification Purposes Only
Elected Officials
Gavin Newsom – Lieutenant Governor of California; Former Mayor of San Francisco
George Gascón – District Attorney
Mark Farrell – Supervisor District 2
Carmen Chu – Supervisor District 4
Sean Elsbernd – Supervisor District 7
Scott Wiener – Supervisor District 8
Malia Cohen – Supervisor District 10
Natalie Berg – Community College Board Trustee
Lawrence Wong – Community College Board Trustee
Rachel Norton – Unified School District Board Member – Vice President
Jill Wynns – Unified School District Board Member
Mary Jung – Democratic Central County Committee – Chair
Kat Anderson – Democratic Central County Committee
Bill Fazio – Democratic Central County Committee
Tom Hsieh – Democratic Central County Committee
Meagan Levitan – Democratic Central County Committee
Arlo Smith – Democratic Central County Committee
James Fang – BART Board of Directors
Lynette Sweet – BART Board of Directors
Bevan Dufty – Former Supervisor District 8
Julio Ramos – Former Community College Board Trustee
Jeffrey Fang – Former Community College Student Trustee
Carlota Del Portillo – Former USD Board President; Former Dean CCSF Mission Campus
Rosario Anaya – Former USD Board President; Executive Director of Mission Language and Vocational School
Organizations
Alliance for Jobs & Sustainable Growth
Laborers International Union of North America Local 261
Plan C San Francisco
Residential Builders Association of San Francisco
San Francisco Coalition for Responsible Growth
San Francisco International Association of Firefighters Local 798
San Francisco Janitors – SEIU Local 87
San Francisco Police Officers Association
Small Property Owners of San Francisco
Teamsters – Local 350
Community Leaders
Ahsha Safai – Political Director Local 87; SF Housing Authority
Alan Gruen – Geotechnical Engineer
Albert Urrutia – Principal, Santos & Urrutia
Alfonso Fillon – Former President, Building Inspection Commission
Amy Lee – Former Director, Department of Building Inspection
Andy Levine – Architect
Angus McCarthy – President, Building Inspection Commission
Art Swanson – President, Small Business Network
Brian Kaufmann – Architect
Bruce Bauman – Permit Facilitator
Charles Masten – Analyst, Office of the UC President
Charles Turner – SF Coalition for Responsible Growth
Cherene Ang – Permit Facilitator
Chris Cunnie – Former Undersheriff of San Francisco and Former President of POA
Chris Gruwell – President, Platinum Advisers
Christopher Ridley – Principal, Rollo and Ridley
Colleen Cotter – Vanguard Realty
David Buckley – General Contractor
David Fix – Board Member, Plan C
David Lee – SFSU Professor Political Science; Former Recreation and Parks Commissioner
David Serrano Sewell -Patient Advocate MS/ALS, CIRM
Deklan Dwan – General Contractor
Diarmuid Philpott – SF Coalition for Responsible Growth
Donald David – Principal, Double D Engineering
Doug Chan – Human Rights Commission
Dr. Veronica Hunnicutt – Dean, Office of Student Affairs at CCSF; SF Housing Authority
Eddie Chin – CCSF Instructor ESL Department; President, Chinese American Democratic Club
Edward Riordan – Former President, Olympic Club
Evelyn Karcs – Department of Building Inspection
Frank Chiu – Former Director, Department of Building Inspection
Frank Rollo Jr. – President, Rollo and Ridley
Frank Rollo Sr. – Treadwell and Rollo
Gabriel NG – Architect
Garry Gee – Former President, American Society of Architects and Engineers
Gary Delagnes – President, SF Police Officers Association
Gerald Green – Former Director, Department of City Planning
Gerrard Gallagher – General Contractor
Ghassan Murad – Former Member, Small Business Commission
Harlan Hoffman – Architect
Harrold Lewis - Geotechnical Engineer
Harvey Hacker – Architect
Henry Karnilowicz – President, Small Property Owners Association
Howard Fallon – Policy Analyst, Office of the UC President
Issam Hasenin – Former Director, Department of Building Inspection
James Gallagher – General Contractor
James Nunemacher – Owner/Founder, Vanguard Properties
Jeremiah Cullinane – General Contractor
Jim Salinas Sr. – Carpenters Local 22
John Keogan – SF Coalition for Responsible Growth
John McInerny 3rd – Former President, Board of Appeals
John O’Riordan – President, Irish American Democratic Club
Jonathan Perlman – Architect
Kelton Finney – Board Member, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
Ken Cleveland – Political Director, BOMA
Kevin Cheng – Vice Chair SF PUC
Kevin Mcevooy – General Contractor
Kieran Buckley – General Contractor
Leonardo Zyldeberg – Architect
Luke O’Brien – Vice President, Small Business Commission
Marty Gaewhiler – General Contractor
Mel Murphy – Former President, Building Inspection Commission
Michael Antonini – Planning Commissioner
Michael Garcia – President, Board of Appeals
Michael Sullivan – Board Member, Plan C
Morey Fox – General Contractor
Paul Miyamoto – Assistant San Francisco Sheriff
Phillip Whitehead – Geotechnical Engineer
Michael Wald – Professor of Law Emeritus Stanford University
Ramon Hernandez – LiUNA Local 261
Richard Hart – General Contractor
Rob Black – Executive Director, Golden Gate Restaurant Association
Robert Birmingham – General Contractor
Robert Noelke – Former Senior Housing Inspector
Ron Dudum – Author
Ronald Vernali – SF Coalition for Responsible Growth
Sam Kwong – Former President, Chinese Democratic Club
Scott Bays – Paragon Realty
Seamus Naughton – General Contractor
Sean Keighran – President, Resident Builders Association
Shane O’Reilly – SF Coalition for Responsible Growth
Shaun Moynahan – Principal, SEMCO Engineering
Simon Kwan – SF Coalition for Responsible Growth
Stanley Staitowitz – Professor of Architecture UC Berkeley
Steve Adams – President, Small Business Commission
Sue Lee – Former Planning Commissioner
Theresa Sparks – Director, Human Rights Commission
Todd Mavis – Human Rights Commissioner
Tom McGrath – General Contractor
Tom Murphy – General Contractor
Tom O’Connor – President IAFF Local 798
Victor Makras – SF Pension Board
Vince Courtney Sr. – Executive Director, Alliance for Jobs and Sustainable Growth
William Lee – Former Planning Commissioner
Yakuh Askew – Architect

On Rodrigo Santo's Website link
Rodrigo Santos for Community College Board - San Francisco Nov 6, 2012 Election
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Home » News » In the Press » “City College of San Francisco on Brink of Closure”
“City College of San Francisco on Brink of Closure”
July 6, 2012
Comments Off
We have all heard the worst possible news about our beloved Community College of San Francisco in recent weeks. While much of this news is dire, I believe that there is room for hope that we can save CCSF and preserve such a venerable institution.
As your Trustee, I will work every day transforming the culture at CCSF and refocus the Board of Trustees on a fundamental mission: the education of our students. I am dedicated to finding innovative solutions to our funding problems, create a better resource and staff allocation process, and make every dollar at City College count.
Together, we can save City College and serve the education goals of our students.
- Rodrigo Santos
City College of San Francisco on Brink of Closure - July 4, 2012 – San Francisco Chronicle
Accreditation Crisis Hits City College of San Francisco - July 6, 2012 – Inside Higher ED
Posted in In the Press, Press Releases
Something Has to Give
July 6, 2012 - 3:00am
By
Paul Fain
Public higher education in California may be nearing the breaking point. And the endgame for the worst off among the state’s budget-battered colleges might look like the accreditation crisis that is engulfing the City College of San Francisco.
The two-year college has failed to adequately cope with its money woes, according to a report released this week by the college’s regional accreditor, which gave City College less than nine months to correct a series of financial and administrative problems, some of which were identified as far back as 2006.
The action taken by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges is more serious than placing the college on probation -- a step the commission skipped in City College's case. The “show cause” order is a big step closer to revoked accreditation, and the burden of proof is on the college to prove why that should not happen. If City College lost its accreditation, students would no longer be able to receive federal financial aid and the college would go under -- a prospect acknowledged by the commission, which called for the college to prepare a “closure report.”
The shuttering of California’s largest college would be a five-alarm fiasco. With a total enrollment of about 90,000 students (33,000 full-time) and 12 campuses and sites around San Francisco, City College is probably too big to fail. Most of those students would have no other local option, and the rest of the state’s community colleges could hardly absorb them, anyhow, given that the system will turn away an estimated 200,000 students this year because of financial shortfalls.
As a result, City College’s closure is unlikely, observers say. But the college has its work cut out for it. The commission didn’t blink in 2005 when it shut down Compton Community College because of fiscal mismanagement. In that case, however, the much smaller college was consumed by El Camino Community College, becoming a campus center, where enrollment is actually up.
The commission’s fix-it list is long and the timeline is short. The college is also dealing with further budget cuts, which will get worse if voters don’t pass a tax hike this fall. (A projected $14 million deficit will grow to $24 million without the new revenue, according to the college.) And City College does not have its leadership in place. Don Q. Griffin, the college’s chancellor, stepped down earlier this year after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He was replaced on an interim basis by Pamila Fisher.
"The evaluation report found little evidence of the ongoing assessment, integrated planning, financing/budgeting and improvement that is required of an accredited institution," Barbara A. Beno, president of the commission, wrote in a letter to City College. "The commission also noted that the funding base for City College appears to be inadequate to support the mission of the college as it is currently conceived."
The college takes the commission’s concerns “very seriously,” Fisher said in a written statement. “The report shows that clear, difficult choices must be made, immediately, and at a number of levels,”
Observers predict that if the college can demonstrate solid progress on the report’s 14 recommended fixes -- which cover governance, mission and financial controls -- the commission will give it the benefit of the doubt and keep the doors open. But playing chicken with an accreditor is generally a bad idea, so City College will have to move quickly and decisively.
“We’ll certainly do whatever it takes to keep the college open,” said Steve Ngo, a lawyer and member of City College’s Board of Trustees. Ngo said the college would make the changes required by its accreditor, “no matter how politically unpopular” some of those moves might be.
Who's in Charge?
The commission’s report includes several eye-popping findings. For starters, City College has been running deficits for three years and has dipped dangerously into reserves to cover shortfalls, according to the commission.
Another red flag is the college’s staffing levels, which are the opposite of top heavy. Faculty and staff compensation accounts for 92 percent of expenditures, a ratio the commission found does not leave enough money to run such a large college. And that problem is worsened by too few administrators being on the job. City College has only 39 administrators, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which broke the news about the commission’s report. The college employs more than 1,800 faculty members.
The result is a cumbersome, sluggish planning process, according to the commission, which has been made worse by the budget crisis. For example, the report said City College did not finalize this year's budget plan until four months into the fiscal year.
“There exists a veil of distrust among the governance groups that manifests itself as an indirect resistance to board and administrative decision-making authority,” the commission found. “The team did not find evidence of clearly delineated roles and authority for decision making, thereby hindering timely communication, decisions and results.”
Shaky planning won’t cut it in this fiscal environment, according to the commission, which painted a grim picture of the "unstable" college’s future.
“Without sufficient cash flow and reserves to maintain financial stability and realistic plans for the future, City College will be challenged to maintain financial solvency,” the report said. “Unless the scope of the mission is adjusted or the college finds an additional stable funding source, it is unlikely the college can continue programs at its current level.”
The San Francisco Way
So how did the situation at City College get this bad? The answer, it seems, is one of culture.
People take open access seriously in San Francisco. No college in the state has a deeper attachment to its mission of serving as many students as possible. And City College also prides itself on a decentralized decision-making process, which allows plenty of experimentation at the department level. But those traditions aren’t particularly helpful while a college absorbs a flurry of budget cuts.
City College “has a long history of delegation,” which “was a good thing for long time,” said Scott Lay, president and CEO of the Community College League of California. But “that doesn’t actually work with several years of budget austerity.”
The report failed to fully acknowledge the role of state funding cuts in causing problems at the college, said Alisa Messer, an English instructor at City College and president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the college’s primary faculty union. And she defended City College for sticking to its mission.
“We’re trying not to close the door to our students,” she said, adding that “these are truly contradictory and impossible times.”
Messer also defended the college’s stripped-down approach to administration, which she said has been a deliberate attempt to serve as many students as possible in tight times by “trying to maintain people in the front lines.”
All sides agree that something has to give for City College to get out of its accreditation hole. The state’s 112 community colleges are in the process of making several systematic changes, such as prioritizing first-time students who are most likely to succeed. City College has been in the lead on some related reforms, earning it plaudits from state leaders and powerful foundations. But the college may have to close some of its campuses. And a paring back of academic offerings is probably in City College’s future, observers say, which will be painful and politically divisive.
The college must do a better job of measuring "institutional effectiveness to improve student learning outcomes," the commission wrote. "City College needs to fully integrate the major components of a comprehensive planning process that is directly linked to an annual budget."
The next few months will be busy at the college, which has called in the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team for help as it moves quickly to address the commission’s 14 recommendations. The college must submit an initial plan to the commission by mid-October, just three months from now.
That will be a "Herculean" challenge, Lay said, adding that the commission sent a clear signal that City College must make substantial changes in how it operates. “This is a big wake-up call.”
Even so, Lay does not think the closure of City College is a legitimate possibility.
“If a community college in San Francisco can’t make it, can one anywhere?” he said.

(Photo: Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)


Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/06/accreditation-crisis-hits-city-college-san-francisco#ixzz24gzsmq41
Inside Higher Ed