Make American Democracy Work

By Jill E. Case

Governance and leadership means ingnoring personal ideology and acting in the best interest of the governed.

It matters not if the majors and programs are the best in the country if our students cannot take them due to limited offerings. Classes are cut despite proclamations otherwise and the proof is empirical. Anyone can check it for themselves. Administration continues to grow while faculty is laid off due to cuts.

The Mission of the Community College District is not being followed. We recently almost lost accreditation and taxpayer money is lost or spent due to ideology rather than the best interests of the students. The Board spends money on attorneys while student services and classes are cut. Federal Grants are ignored because of disagreement with policies that have nothing to do with education. A Mission Statement is not even available for review.

I pledge to put only the best interests of the Community College District first, despite my personal beliefs. My personal ideology has nothing to do with the health of the District and the expenditure of taxpayer money and will never be a consideration when setting policies or determining expenses and funding sources. Our Community College District must embrace the needs of ALL the members of the community, not only the ones who share ideology with the governing board. I pledge to work to include ALL the members of the community, even those who disagree with me, and focus on only those policies and services that meet the needs of the employers and the students in our community.

If Board members of any public entity want to support a personal belief, they should pay for it with their own money and not use taxpayer dollars to do so. It is a leadership responsibility to recognize the difference and any other behavior is self-serving and inappropriate.

The recent scandals in Bell and San Diego have highlighted the need to hold our leadership and governing board members accountable. Twenty years of the same governance has hurt the Board's perspective and accountability is lacking.

The only way the people can assure proper oversight and accountability is to rotate governance, as our founding fathers wanted. The election process is the way to achieve that end.

Vote to bring a new voice and perspective to the Board through American Democracy.

If elected, I will not serve more than two terms and will step aside to allow for that fresh voice.