Colleges Select David Mertes as New Chancellor

David Mertes, the head of a community college district in the Sacramento area, has been chosen to be the new chancellor of the state community college system, officials announced Saturday.

Mertes will fill the post of the previous chancellor, Joshua Smith, who angrily complained about bureaucratic roadblocks to reform and quit last August.

The California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted unanimously at a meeting in Palm Springs to appoint Mertes to the post that oversees 106 two-year colleges attended by a total of 1.27 million students.

Mertes, who will take over the $91,470-a-year job in July, is currently the chancellor-superintendent of Los Rios Community College District, which has three colleges and about 60,000 students.

Smith left in August after only two years on the job, because of what he said was the slow pace of changes needed to strengthen the roles of the chancellor and the governors and to steer more students and money to the community colleges. A commission on the state Master Plan for Higher Education has recommended those controversial changes, but their fate is still uncertain in the Legislature.

Mertes, 58, could not be reached for comment Saturday. However, several high-ranking officials said he was chosen partly because he is familiar with those problems and is viewed as capable of working with legislators and the governor, as well as with the leaders of the 70 local districts who sometimes jealously guard their powers.

“We were looking for someone with a vision and an understanding of the state community college system and someone who would be able to build a relationship with the state Legislature in order to improve the system,” said Bill Kolender, president of the Board of Governors and San Diego’s police chief.

A Different Approach

Another person close to the decision said the board wanted someone who would be less confrontational than Smith.

“Smith’s style was perhaps more revolutionary. Mertes will be more evolutionary,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.

Another strength, those officials said, is the recognition that the three Los Rios schools--Cosumnes River College, American River College and Sacramento City College--have gained in attracting minority students, creating remedial programs and boosting student transfers to University of California and California State University campuses.

“He has a reputation for being very progressive. Many of the Los Rios programs are model programs for the rest of the state,” said the state deputy chancellor, James Meznek.

Before his Los Rios position, Mertes was superintendent of the Santa Barbara Community College District from 1978 to 1981 and president of the College of San Mateo from 1968 to 1978, said Martha Kanter, assistant deputy chancellor. Mertes earned a doctorate in biochemical embryology from UC Berkeley in 1966 and was a research fellow for the American Cancer Society before he became an administrator.

Resumes Submitted

In looking for a new chancellor, the board hired the Korn/Ferry executive search firm, which presented the resumes of 25 candidates to a special committee of officials and faculty. That panel narrowed the field to nine and, after interviews, presented three to the Board of Governors. The names of the two unsuccessful finalists were not released.

After Smith’s departure, Jack Randall, the chancellor of Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, became interim chancellor. He will return to his regular job in July, officials said. Meanwhile Smith, who had been head of a New York City community college before taking the California post, has returned to the East Coast and is chancellor of Brookdale Community College, a 35,000-student institution in Lincroft, N.J.

Karen Sue Grosz, president of the Academic Senate for the state community colleges, said she thought most teachers and administrators would welcome the choice of Mertes.

“He comes from the ranks of district leaders and he has their respect. They know him. They didn’t know Joshua Smith,” she said.

The community colleges occupy the lowest level of the state’s higher education system and offer vocational programs and lower division undergraduate courses. However, unlike the University of California’s nine campus and the California State University’s 18, the community colleges are in a loosely knit system with each district run by a locally elected board. That has produced political tensions and a very wide range in the quality of the schools.