Delta's design for waste

Latest move makes us wonder whether Mountain House campus will happen

By The Record

May 26, 2008 6:00 AM

There are redos. And then there is nonsense.

What happened at last week's meeting of San Joaquin Delta College trustees seems to be the latter.

Trustees voted to spend nearly $4 million for an architect to design Delta's Mountain House campus even though nearly $4.2million already has been spent to do the same design work.

When does this end? We're now four years downstream from voter approval of a $250 million bond measure, and we don't even have plans for the Mountain House campus.

Oh, and in that time, the estimated cost of that campus project has ballooned from $50 million to $95 million.

Complete article...

Design will set Delta back $4 Million

By Alex Breitler /Record Staff Writer

May 21, 2008 6:00 AM

STOCKTON - San Joaquin Delta College trustees on Tuesday approved spending nearly $4 million for an architect to design its Mountain House campus, despite one trustee's objections that millions in voter-approved money has already gone to other architects.

The college has paid a half-dozen firms nearly $4.2 million for the design of the long-awaited campus, according to figures current through mid-March.

Meanwhile, nothing has been built, Trustee Ted Simas said.

"To me, this is strictly redoing what we've already done," he said. "What we're doing is paying double."

A report requested by Simas shows that the college has paid six different firms various sums to design the Mountain House campus. The largest chunk of money, $2.5 million, went to Fresno-based Darden Architects, which completed artist renderings and even won an award for its work from the American Institute of Architects, San Joaquin chapter, in 2005.

College officials, however, weren't happy. The firm used a "cookie-cutter" approach to create a campus that resembled a junior high school, they said.

"It was a mess," Delta President Raul Rodriguez said.

So the board on Tuesday approved by a 6-1 vote a $3.9 million contract with tBP/Architecture, which has offices in Concord. Simas was the lone vote of dissent.

Complete article here...

Record to Raul: Fish or Cut Bait

He's got to let us know

Is he staying or is he going?

That's a question a lot of people are asking about Raul Rodriguez, president of San Joaquin Delta College.

Last week, he pulled out of the running to be chancellor of the Riverside Community College District. That board apparently was divided between Rodriguez and one other candidate. Rodriguez cited the desire to stay near his family for dropping his candidacy, but then, being hired by a divided board is not a situation that ensures job security.

Last fall, Rodriguez was a candidate for chancellor of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, a job he did not get. In March, Delta trustees extended his contract by three years, to 2012.

All of this is going on as district residents wait to see how $250 million in bonds they approved four years ago will be spent. Or if.

It's time for Rodriguez to decide: Is he staying or going? If he is staying, let's get these bond projects going. If he is going, best to him, and it's time for trustees to start taking charge.

Originally published by the Record, on 5/20/08

Board Makes a $14 Million Error

College, developer dispute Mountain House campus deal

Written by Ben Marrone/Sun Post Friday, 02 March 2007

A disputed deal between the San Joaquin Community College District and a Mountain House developer may force the district to pay an extra $14 million to build a satellite campus in Mountain House — putting the squeeze on other college projects in Manteca and Lodi.

According to the college’s business services director, Andy Dunn, developer Gerry Kamilos — the builder responsible for creating Mountain House — agreed to cover all the fees the college would have to pay to join the not-yet-incorporated city.

But for months, the district has tried to get Kamilos to sign a contract promising to cover $14 million in “traffic impact fees” that the district didn’t learn about until after it signed its first contract with Kamilos in 2005.

In February, college trustees voted to donate several acres of land to Mountain House for roads and a water-storage tank — which Dunn says everyone building in Mountain House is required to do — but the vote was not unanimous, and some trustees think the college is moving too fast.

Trustee Ted Simas, who represents Manteca and Escalon on the college board, said giving up land for the roads and the water-storage tank now — before Kamilos signs the new contract — leaves the college vulnerable to a bad deal.

“He’s been stalling,” Simas said. “My theory is without that water site, he’s not going to be able to do anything. To me, we just gave up our last bargaining chip.” ...

Complete article here.

Labor conflict is really about a crisis of leadership at Delta College

Lodi News-Sentinel, May 17, 2008.

We know the public is mostly interested in the quality of education available to Delta College students. The public also wants to see that the bond money they voted for in 2004 is spent wisely and that a fair number of the promises from district leadership are kept. These are the things the public should be interested in. Delta teachers care deeply about these issues, too.

In fact, we regret the energy we've had to spend over the last year in trying to get the district leadership to bargain in good faith. District negotiators have offered us 1 percent over three years — even though other employee groups have received 2.5 percent raise. Other districts in the state have shared this year's 4.53 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) with their faculty and staff.

The Delta trustees refusal to share even a significant portion of the COLA with faculty is puzzling since Delta College teachers have been one of the most productive faculties in the entire California College system. We have consistently maintained student/teacher ratios in the high thirties, 20 percent or more above statewide averages. High class sizes generate more income for the college. The result for the college over this period has been record or near record income and record reserves.

Why would a college in excellent financial shape-with admittedly a couple of lean budget years ahead — deliberately snub a highly productive faculty? It is a puzzlement. With rising food, gasoline, and medical costs eroding teacher-buying power, the Board of Trustees has offered us a small fraction of the salary increase offered to other employee groups. We can't see how fomenting conflict with a productive faculty could be in the best interests of the college.

However, faculty conflicts with the board and administration are not simply over salary and benefits. We urge you to review carefully the performance of the Delta Trustee on a number of issues:

• Management of the Bond. Some trustees have tried to be good stewards of public funds — Ted Simas, for example. We also know that some outside consultants are necessary in a large and far-flung building program like the one the board promised voters. But tens of millions of dollars have been wasted on bond project consultants who were poorly supervised and whose productivity-beyond racking up bill-able hours-was painfully meager. After four years, the board has done more scaling back of promises than building to meet them.

• Neglect of the Colleges Building and Grounds. Both the board and top administrators have ignored issues of campus maintenance and widespread vandalism. For years, the grounds of the college were an oasis in an urban setting. Unfortunately, years of neglect have diminished the beauty of the grounds. Graffiti is common on campus and so is vandalism, especially in bathrooms and stairwells. Recently, one of our campus police officers, with $500 in seed money from the teachers' union, convinced President Rodriguez to support a secret witness reward program as part of an anti-vandalism program. We applaud the officer for going the extra mile to protect the college physical plant and President Rodriguez for supporting him. But we wonder about the drift that allowed tens of thousands of dollars to be wasted over the last four years.

• Lack of Professionalism. This spring, the chairman of the accreditation team visiting our campus admonished the Trustees to develop an ethics policy for themselves and then follow it. The trustees have violated the Brown Act on three or four occasions and recently took Brown Act training to help them comply with the law. The Brown Act essentially requires the trustees to make decisions during regularly scheduled and recorded meetings, so the press and the public can monitor their activities. One of our trustees explained that his failure to include a $2.5 million land deal in a required financial disclosure was an honest memory lapse because he was filling out the form in his pick-up outside the county registrar's office. We don't question this trustee's honesty. But we hope voters will question his casualness about his financial disclosure obligations.

Of course, we would appreciate public support for our struggle to get a fair contract from the college district. But people have told us that might be a hard sell. We have more confidence that the public cares about the welfare of Delta College and the performance of the board of trustees charged with its care.

--SJDCTA

Delta pays $533,000 to consultant

College's expenditures toward acquiring land getting mixed reactions

May 23, 2007. Lodi News-Sentinel

San Joaquin Delta College has paid nearly $533,000 to a Pasadena-based consultant to help the college acquire land for future satellite campuses in Lodi, Galt and the foothills.

More than $423,000 alone has been paid to David Rodriguez and his firm, Public Private Ventures, Inc., for work securing the Victor Road site just east of Lodi, according to documents obtained by the News-Sentinel.

Complete story

San Joaquin Delta trustees benefit from rule change

April 20, 2007. Lodi News-Sentinel

Every penny of San Joaquin Delta College trustees' medical expenses will be paid for by the college — in some cases for the rest of their lives — while college workers' health care costs will remain capped, following the reinterpretation of a vote cast 18 months ago.

President Raul Rodriguez's recent decision that the college would reimburse all health care "deductibles, co-payments or non-covered reasonable health care expenses" for trustees was based on an October 2005 board vote that gave trustees better health care benefits than those enjoyed by college managers, according to a memo handed to trustees Tuesday.

Complete story

Lodi native Goehring cites a conflict of interest

Delta leader — and critic — quits foundation board
(Aug 21, 2007) Lodi News-Sentinel

Victor Goehring — one of San Joaquin Delta College's original trustees, and a vocal critic of its current leaders — resigned this week from his post on the college's foundation board.

Goehring, 81, cited continued frustration with the college's Board of Trustees and a conflict of interest for the resignation.

Complete story

Another change arises in Delta trustee benefits

Just two members of the San Joaquin Delta College board of trustees will have all of their health expenses covered by the college, according to a new interpretation of the college's health insurance offerings by President Raul Rodriguez.

It is also the second time this year Rodriguez has reinterpreted the college's health benefits without an official vote of the board. In April, he reinterpreted a two-year-old vote by the board to mean that the college would reimburse all co-payments and deductibles charged to college trustees under their health insurance plan.

Complete story

Trustee Parises Linked to Developer

Delta trustee sold land to developer with interest in Lodi satellite campus Parises says he had no idea Gillespie's firm would be part of the campus negotiations

San Joaquin Delta College Trustee Dan Parises sold 10 acres for $2.5 million to a real estate developer that now has a stake in the ongoing land negotiations for the college's Lodi campus.

Dale Gillespie, whose real estate firm DGP Real Estate now represents landowners negotiating with Delta, also said his deal with Parises had nothing to do with the college's decision to build a campus in Lodi.

Complete story

---

Parises' Troubling Failure to Disclose.

Lodi News-Sentinel (CA)-May 12, 2007

We endorsed Dan Parises the last time he ran for the Delta College Board of Trustees.

...
Parises received $2.5 million for a piece of land on Harney Lane.

Somehow, Parises failed to disclose the money as is legally required.

"I guess I screwed up," Parises said when told of the oversight.

But it gets more complicated, and more malodorous.
Parises got the wheelbarrow of cash by selling 9.9 acres to Dale Gillespie and his San Joaquin Land Co. The Parises parcel will be part of the Reynolds Ranch development, an ambitious, massive and controversial venture.

Gillespie, through another company, DGP Real Estate, is brokering the sale to Delta of land on Victor Road. That land is being earmarked for a Lodi satellite campus. And that deal, which is now in escrow, carries opposition and controversy.

The Victor Road deal will no doubt result in substantial commissions for Gillespie and DGP real estate.
Parises voted in favor of the deal after selling his own land to Gillespie and partners.

And San Joaquin Land Co. owns land near the proposed campus, primed to benefit from escalating land prices near a college setting.

Is Parises now caught in a web of ethical, perhaps even legal, complications?
Unclear.
It is clear that, in regards to the $2.5 million land deal, Dan Parises served his own interests while failing to meet those of public disclosure.
Source

Mismanagement of Bond Funds Plagues Delta College

Delta's future in Lodi iffy? Despite skyrocketing costs, administrators claim satellite campus will become a reality
Lodi News-Sentinel (CA) - April 3, 2007
Author: Chris Nichols News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Ballooning costs at San Joaquin Delta College's new campus in Mountain House and a mismanagement of other funds have wiped out more than $23 million originally set aside for classrooms and other capital projects at Delta's future Lodi and Manteca campuses, a college trustee said Monday.

Ted Simas, who represents Manteca on the college board of trustees, said Delta administrators early last month removed Lodi and Manteca from a priority list for capital funding.

"There is nothing, not a portable toilet," Simas said. "When the box is blank that means (the funding) is gone."

Lodi residents and leaders have reacted with concern this past week about Delta's trouble managing its $250 million bond, approved by voters in 2004 for college upgrades and expansion.

Delta College administrators acknowledge bond construction costs have spiked beyond what they expected, but maintain that the Lodi campus will be built.

And two Lodi city councilmen dismiss fears that the entire project is in jeopardy.

Lodi Mayor Bob Johnson and Councilman Larry Hansen noted that plans to purchase the 118-acre Lodi campus at Victor Road and Kennison Lane are still moving forward.

"I'm still optimistic that we're going to see a campus built in Lodi," said Hansen. "It's challenging because the pool of (Measure L bond) money is shrinking. I recognize that."

Simas, the college trustee, referred Monday to a Measure L bond update report, which shows that the college has earmarked money for the purchase of campus sites in Lodi and Manteca but also includes a blank box under "Lodi center facilities" earmarks.

The bond update was discussed at the trustee's March 8 meeting.

Timeline for Delta College's Lodi campus March 2004: Voters in the San Joaquin Delta College district approved Measure L, a $250 million bond that set out to upgrade Delta's Stockton campus and establish new campuses in the region, including the Lodi-Galt area. November 2006: Delta College Trustee Maria Elena Serna is reelected to her fifth term on the Delta College Board of Trustees, representing the Lodi area. December 2006: The Delta College Board of Trustees vote to purchase 118 acres of property east of Lodi between Victor Road and the Mokelumne River to build a future Lodi satellite campus. March 2007: Delta College administrators and trustees acknowledge that project costs for the Mountain House campus near Tracy have ballooned from the initial $50 million estimate to more than three times that figure. Despite the financial troubles, Delta College President Raul Rodriguez maintains the Lodi campus will be purchased and classrooms will be constructed, without the need for an additional bond measure. — News-Sentinel staff. He also questioned why Delta agreed to spend so much on the Lodi campus — upwards of $15 million, including infrastructure costs — but then took money away from classroom construction.

Delta College Trustee Maria Elena Serna, who represents Lodi, could not be reached for comment.

Delta College President and Superintendent Raul Rodriguez, however, acknowledged Monday that the high cost of the bond projects has forced the college to remove earmarks for Lodi and Manteca's capital projects .

But he said the college will find other ways to raise money, or streamline other bond projects , so classroom construction money is available for the two future satellites. Rodriguez said he did not think an additional bond measure would be needed to fund the Lodi campus.

He confirmed that Delta's agreement to purchase the 118-acre Lodi campus is moving forward.

"Lodi is definitely one of the critical projects that we're going to do," Rodriguez said, adding that portable classrooms used first at the Mountain House campus could later be used in Lodi, saving the college some money.

He added that as enrollment rises at the future Lodi campus, Delta will be eligible for more capital project funds from the state.

Lodi City Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce said she is concerned about the college's management of the bond money, noting Delta "promised" a campus to the city and its residents.

Ann Cerney, a former Delta trustee and local activist, added that it would be "tragic" for the campus project to come to a halt "because so many people decided to support this."

Johnson, in contrast, said Delta has been committed to Lodi despite its financial troubles at other sites, including Mountain House.

Project costs there have spiked from an initial estimate of $50 million to upwards of $160 million, according to Simas.

He noted that Delta's purchase agreement for the east Lodi campus was a very big step.

"What people have to realize is Delta College never promised this thing would materialize overnight," he added.

Contact reporter Chris Nichols at chrisn@lodinews.com.

Grand jury probes Delta College leadership

SJDC Watch can hardly wait for the release (expected in July 2008) of the Grand Jury report. We plan to go over this document with a fine-toothed comb.
Read the Lodi News-Sentinel article here.

Huge cost overruns and slow progress @ Mountain House

This interesting Phil Hayworth article on Delta's "buyers remorse" is from July 2006 and issued by the San Joaquin News Service. It shows the disarray in the Board over Mountain House. There is a wonderfully ominous statement by Leroy Ornelas, SJC supervisor for the Tracy area.
Excerpt:
The drama surrounding the San Joaquin Delta College campus at Mountain House is far from over, as two trustees argue the board should dump the project and move it to Tracy.
Huge cost overruns and slow progress on the 125-acre campus have trustees Ted Simas of Manteca and Greg McCreary of Tracy wondering if it would be better to downsize the main building, build it, sell it, then move the campus to the 11th Street site the city of Tracy offered for free to Delta earlier this year.
Complete article...

SJDCTA @ Gateway Groundbreaking....

SJDCTA delivers a peaceful, respectful protest at the groundbreaking ceremony, on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 @ 4:30pm. SJDCTA, which has been without a contract for almost one year, is protesting the lack of progress at the negotiations table. The Stockton Record reported that SJDCTA was "ignored" by the leaders of the ceremony. Watch the video, and judge for yourself. SJDC Watch would like to see the same respectful, measured approach exhibited by both management and faculty at this public event made manifest at the negotiations table.

SJDCTA responds to the Lodi News Sentinel...

The Lodi News Sentinel published an OpEd this weekend.
The SJDCTA Crisis Committee responds:

We won't claim to be a disinterested party since we've been part of the SJDC faculty for at least seven years, and some us for more than twenty years.

The anonymous editorialist makes some good points. There are people losing their jobs in a down economy. We are thankful for having job doing something we enjoy doing. But the editorialist's advice that we should feel "lucky" to have a job appears to be his polite way of telling Delta teachers that they should be abjectly grateful to have job. The implication is that the teacher's union should not presume to bargain with the college and simply accept what it offers. Unfortunately for the Delta’s leadership (and possibly, the editorialist), collective bargaining is a right of employees--a right protected by state and federal law. We do congratulate
him for exactly catching the tone of the district bargaining team. Perhaps the source of his facts, too?

We'd like to try to add some balance. First, the editorialist made no attempt to contact the teacher's union to see if there might be another side to his one-sided analysis of the current labor conflict. So let's look at the salary offer the editorialist thinks is “realistic”: A one percent raise for 2007-2008 with no retro-active pay while gasoline and food prices have gone up sharply and faculty members with dependent children have been have been paying $400-$500 a month for insurance beginning in October of last year. In 2008-2009 and in 2009-2010, COLA
plus .5% (a half of one percent). COLA is expected to be zero for 2008-2009 and may well be zero for the next year. The .5% raise is dependent on a 2% growth in enrollment and on the state funding payments for enrollment growth. The state may suspend payments for enrollment growth next year and possibly the year after. These last points are mentioned but muted by the editorialist.

So the district's offer, which the editorialist thinks is realistic, is essentially: no raise for 2007-2008; possibly 1% for 2008-2009 (since that's the earliest the district’s offer of 1% could possibly go into effect; probably no raise for 2009-2010. So in effect, the Delta teachers are being offered a 1-2% for three years while food, fuel, and medical insurance premiums are on the rise. Apparently, the editorialist believes that one of the most productive community college faculties in the state should accept a sizable pay cut over the next three years. A significant
pay cut--a sharp decrease in actual buying power--would be the result of taking the “realistic” advice editorialist has offered. Given the editorialist's view of “realism”, he must believe we will still be able to recruit high-quality new faculty by offering them large class loads and declining salaries and benefits. We'll clinch the deal by reminding them they're lucky to have a job at all.

The editorialist also misses other important points. All the other employee groups at the college were offered a 2.5% salary increase 2007-2008. We have been offered a “realistic” 1% non-retro-actively. The figures the editorialist cites for the union's bargaining position are out of date. They do not reflect the current position of the union, and he or she has made no attempt to talk to the union about more recent bargaining. The district's original offer was zero for 2007-2008, COLA for 2008-2009,
and COLA for 2009-2010 (essentially, three years of zero)--no mention of that by the editorialist.

The editorialist's comparison to CSU Professors ignores an important point. Delta instructors teach more classes and have larger student loads. In fact, over the last four years, Delta teachers have had some of the largest teacher-student ratios in the state community college system, consistently 20% or more above state averages. The teachers agreed to carry heavier loads in exchange for base salaries within the top 10 for the system.

Another point the editorialist misses is that the college received a 4.53% cost of living adjustment (COLA) from the state this year to go along with record or near record income and record reserves. Other community college districts have passed along their COLA to their staffs for 2007-2008 with retro-active pay. Recently, Yosemite CCD made the decision to pass along its COLA to its faculty. Delta College has chosen not to. The editorialist would call that “realism.”

In addition, the teacher's union believes the college has violated contract language requiring a salary increase based on a 16-member comparison group of colleges and has filed a complaint with the Public Employees Relations Board (PERB). PERB will sometime in late summer or early fall. Even the editorialist must believe that contracts freely entered into by both sides should be enforceable.

Finally, the editorialist is quite cavalier about the grand jury investigation of the board of trustees and upper management at the college. Neither he nor we know how the grand jury’s report will read. But even the accreditation team that visited the college this spring advised the Board of Trustees to develop an ethics policy for itself and then follow it. Of course, matters of this sort are of no interest to the
editorialist.

SJDCTA Rebuts the Lodi News-Sentinel here