The proposal by the City of Huntington Beach to build a Costco on part of Golden West College, in Huntington Beach, has blown up in the face of the City and Coast Community College District (CCCD) Trustees.
While a proposal to build the mega store on Orange Coast Community College District land is in its infancy, residents from Huntington Beach and Westminster are joining forces to smack down the proposal before it gains momentum.
Here are some excerpts from an article by the O.C. Register, which details the community uprising against the project:
More than a hundred have signed a petition, and city officials from Westminster have even stepped into the fray. The Westminster City Council passed a resolution in October condemning the project.
“I’m troubled that college officials did this without letting us know,” said Westminster Councilman Kermit Marsh, who worked with others in 1999 to fight a residential project in the area and won.
“They promised us that they wouldn’t do anything in that area without letting us know,” he said. “They basically snuck behind our backs and did this, which is what makes it outrageous.”
The L.A. Times set up a bulletin board regarding the proposed Costco, at this link.
The newspapers did not however tell their readers how to contact the Huntington Beach City Council or the CCCD Trustees. You can contact all the members of the H.B. City Council by clicking here. As for the CCCD Trustees, here is their contact information:
- Jerry Patterson, Board President, Trustee, Area 2 (pictured above)
- Armando Ruiz, Board Vice President, Trustee, Area 3 (pictured above)
- Mary Hornbuckle, Trustee, Area 4
- Walter Howald, Trustee, Area 5
- Jim Moreno, Trustee, Area 1
- Paul Bunch, Student Trustee
If the name “Armando Ruiz” sounds familiar, that’s because he is already infamous for ripping off the taxpayers. “The Orange County Register (June 3, 2005) reported that Coast Community College District Trustee Armando Ruiz won’t resign despite complaints about increasing his pension ten-fold by retiring, then immediately running for re-election. He said, “I earned my pension. I think the real issue should be the excellent quality education students have received in this district during the 21 years I’ve been here.” On October 31, he retired and won re-election as an incumbent two days later. The newspaper reported that he took advantage of a legal loophole in state law, since closed, that let him inflate his pension from his part-time district job. It went from $5,000 per year to an estimated $54,000 annually.”
These Trustees are all crusty politicians who have been hacking away for years, to wit:
- Jerry Patterson lives in Fountain Valley. He is a former city attorney for a number of cities. He is a former Congressman and former Mayor of Santa Ana. He is married to Linda Moulton-Patterson, the former Mayor of Huntington Beach.
- Mary Hornbuckle is a former member of the Costa Mesa City Council. She still lives in Costa Mesa.
- Walter Howald, like Patterson, is an attorney. He lives in Corona del Mar. He claims to have prior experience with educational legislation and lobbying.
- Jim Moreno lives in Huntington Beach. He is a former senior deputy to an L.A. County Supervisor.
- Armando Ruiz lives in Huntington Beach. As you read above, he is a craven thief of taxpayer money.
Now is the time to contact these Trustees and demand that the Costco project be canceled. If they do vote for it, they deserve to be recalled or defeated when they come up for reelection. My advice to the people who live in this college district is to pay more attention to whom they vote for.
We have the very same problem in Santa Ana, where our college trustees and Santa Ana College administrators were asleep at the wheel while the fire alarms and fire suppression systems at Santa Ana College were malfunctioning – since 2005.
Is Golden West College going to get rid of it’s Baseball and Soccer programs? According to the L.A. Times article, the proposed location of this project will displace these fields.
The proposed Costco site would bury the sports fields under cement, so no more baseball/soccer/football/archery.
Join the group at http://www.savemcfadden.com where people opposed to this move can join together, exchange information and voice opinion.
Mr. Pedroza:
What is your opinion of Mr. Ruiz now that he is running for re-election?
Do you think the people of the Coast Community College District will want an alternative?
Kasje,
I can only hope so! Ruiz really needs to be voted out of office…
Thank you for your comments, Mr. Pedroza. Mr. Ruiz is trying to obtain the endorsement of the Orange County Democratic Party for his re-election. He should not be endorsed because of his ethical failings. His pension is unethical and as the current Board President, he has repeatedly violated the Brown Act. It really is time for a change …
Kasje,
Mr. Ruiz did not get the endorsement of the O.C. Democractic Party last week. Instead, the party endorsed Lorraine Prinsky, who is running against Ruiz for the Coast District board. This is a step in the right direction for honesty and integrity in our local politics. It is reassuring to know that the political establishment frowns upon pension double dippers.
Anonymous
I received the following email about the Coast Community College District:
Dear Members of the Coast District Community:
If you did not know, the Coast Community College District board has three seats up for election this Fall. I live in the Coast District community, but am writing anonymously to protect my privacy.
I am writing to you specifically about Area 3 of the District, the seat held by trustee Armando Ruiz. If you did not know, Mr. Ruiz, with the full complicity and knowledge of the Coast District adminstration, took advantage of a state loophole in 2004 to double the size of his pension, which so far has cost taxpayers over $250,000, and will cost over $1,000,000 throughout the remainder of Ruiz’s natural life. Many people in the community expressed outrage at Ruiz’s actions – there was a recall attempt in the community, and local political leaders rebuked Mr. Ruiz for his conduct. Since that time, Ruiz has continued to collect his six figure pension and his salary as a trustee. In addition, he drives around the District in a Mercedes Benz coupe, and uses District resources for his personal use.
This year, Mr. Ruiz is being challenged by Lorraine Prinsky, a professor at Cal State Fullerton. Ms. Prinsky is running on a platform of ethics and pledges to the stop pension abuse like Mr. Ruiz’s that takes place on community college governing boards. In addition, it is Ms. Prinsky, not Armando Ruiz, that secured the endorsement of the Orange County Democratic Party last month. Whatever your political affiliation, the Democratic Party should be commended for endorsing a candidate that is running on a platform of ethics and integrity in public service, and who will stop pension abuse by college trustees that work both as a trustee and a government employee at the same time. (www.lorraineprinsky.com). There is a third person in the race, Don Apodaca, but little is known about him.
But, more importantly, Ms. Prinsky will support openness and transparency in the management of the Coast District board. If you did not know already, Mr. Ruiz has served on a land development committee for the board. This committee is the one that brought the CVS Pharmacy, which will be selling alcoholic beverages on the campus, to Golden West College , and also, which secretly supported the proposal to build a Costco on the Golden West College campus. How could administrators like the Golden West College president tell people that the Costco deal was “approved” without the support of some higher authority? He has no power whatsover. The proposal may have came from the City of Huntington Beach, but Ruiz and others on the board were looking at Golden West College “surplus land” for development as far back as 2005. At a very recent meeting of the board, Mr. Ruiz rebuffed and delayed the request of some of his board colleagues to make the board’s land development activities more open. Why wouldn’t Mr. Ruiz support a more open and transparent land development process at the Coast District? Wouldn’t an open and public land development process best protect the interests of the community, the students, and the District? Hasn’t Ruiz learned anything after the community’s reaction to the Costco proposal?
And, as president of the board, Mr. Ruiz delayed sharing a letter from State accreditors, with his fellow trustees. This letter placed Orange Coast College on a Warning status. And, at this time, Mr. Ruiz is doing nothing in his current leadership capacity on the board to oversee or correct, the deficiencies that prevail at Orange Coast , the flagship campus of the Coast Community College District. This is yet another reason why new leadership is needed on the board.
Each of you are all intelligent, informed people. You have to make your own decisions about the elected officials that you want representing you on the Coast District board, but I hope you will take some of these comments into serious consideration this Fall on election day when you vote for your trustees.