Just 1 Trustee at OCC Faces Race, Despite Uproar

Despite a teachers union furor over the “lucrative retirement package” given Coast Community College District Chancellor David A. Brownell, just one of three incumbent district trustees faces a challenge in the Nov. 3 election.

Trustees Armando Ruiz and Nancy Pollard drew no opponent by Friday’s filing deadline. The third incumbent, the Rev. Conrad Nordquist, however, has two challengers. He was backed by the union four years ago but may lose its support this time, a union official said Monday. The union said last month that political retribution might be sought against all three incumbents for their votes in June approving Brownell’s retirement package.

Brownell, who will retire as chancellor next year, was voted a 53% final-year pay increase. By contrast, the 700 teachers in the three-college district got no pay raise whatsoever last year.

After a teacher outcry about Brownell’s retirement package, the trustees met last week behind closed doors to discuss possible cutbacks in that package. A source close to the board said Monday that the board on Wednesday “is very likely” to approve some changes.

Dave Jarman, president of the teachers’ branch of the Coast Federation of Employees, Local 1911, American Federation of Teachers, said Monday that the union is encouraged by the trustees’ possible reconsideration of Brownell’s package. The union represents all the teachers at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Coastline Community College, which has headquarters in Fountain Valley.

“We’ve decided to try to work with the incumbent trustees,” Jarman said. But he added that the union may still drop its support of Nordquist in the Nov. 3 election.

Nordquist, an Episcopalian minister in Costa Mesa, had the union’s endorsement when he was first elected to the five-member board in 1983. Jarman said Monday that Nordquist has since lost some of his supporters among the faculty.

“Some of our membership think he’s anti-faculty,” Jarman said.

Nordquist was on vacation Monday and could not be reached for comment.

Two Oppose Nordquist

Two candidates are running against Nordquist in the Nov. 3 election. They are Paul G. Berger of Costa Mesa, former Marina High School principal, and Hal Roach of Huntington Beach, who is the manager of the computer center at Mt. San Antonio College in Los Angeles County.

Berger has high public recognition because of a widely publicized controversy after he was forced to retire early from Marina High in Huntington Beach after clashing repeatedly with then-Supt. Frank Abbott, who said that Berger lacked leadership and administrative skills. The Huntington Beach Union High School District board in 1984 forced Berger to retire, despite strong support for the principal from students and parents of Marina High School. Parents at one time threatened to recall the board members who voted to oust Berger, and students planted a tree on campus in Berger’s honor.

Jarman said Monday that the teachers union in the community college district has already interviewed Berger for its possible endorsement. “We’ll interview the other candidates also,” Jarman said. He said the endorsement by the union’s Committee on Political Education will be made within the next few weeks.

In the meantime, Brownell, who remains chief executive of the college district until next January, has already made it clear that he supports Nordquist’s reelection. Campaign contribution reports filed with the Orange County registrar of voters show that Brownell last May 14 donated $250 to Nordquist’s reelection campaign.