>> I'm calling to order the Board of Trustees Pasadena Area Community College District Regular Business Meeting Number 20. It is Wednesday, June the 9th in 2010. Mrs. Thompson, would you please call the roll. >> Dr. Bradbury-Huang. >> Present. >> Mr. Thompson. >> Present. >> Mr. Brown. >> Here. >> Ms. Brown. >> Here. >> Dr. Fellow. >> Here. >> Dr. Mann. >> Present. >> Mr. Martin. Mr. Pack, I'm sorry. [ Laughter ] >> Present. >> Okay. >> It's true. We welcome you, Mr. Pack to our group and would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. >> It would be my pleasure. I pledge allegiance -- >> To the Flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all [ Inaudible Remark ] >> We will now move into close session where we will take up item Government Code 54957 Public Employee Appointment to College President. Trustee Baum. >> We wanna see if there's public comment on any of the close session items. >> We do indeed. Is there public comment on any of the close session items? And I haven't seen any yellow cards so. >> May I have a point of personal privilege? There's something I'd like to say. >> By all means, and welcome back. >> I'm so pleased to be back and I want to thank everybody for the flowers, the fruit, the cards, the food, the prayers and all the good wishes and I'm just so happy to be here. [ Applause ] >> So I invite my colleagues into close session and invite Student Trustee Pack as well for the beginning of that session. Thank you. [ Silence ] >> Welcome everybody. Thank you for being here. I am very pleased to announce that the Pasadena Area Community College District Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to appoint Dr. Mark Rocha to be the Superintendent/President of Pasadena City College. Dr. Rocha will begin his post on July the 1st, 2010. I would now like to proceed with Agenda Item C, which is Consideration and Potential Adaption of Contract of Agreement Between Incoming Superintendent/President and the Pasadena Area Community College District: Discussion with Possible Action. >> I would move approval of the agreement. >> Second. >> Good. I would like to invite our new student trustee to offer an advisory vote and perhaps a statement if you wish. >> We should start to see if there's any discussion for-- >> Okay, do my colleagues have any need for discussion? >> I think it would be helpful for people to know there was a question, a Brown Act related question, about this item. We have our legal counsel present. We've asked our legal counsel for advice to make sure that we are in compliance with the Brown Act. I don't know President Huang if you want her to speak or whether we'll just gonna go with the fact that we are under advice of counsel that we are within the confines and appropriately obeying the Brown Act. I'm moving forward with the contract. >> I think you've stated it pretty nicely, Trustee Martin. Will that work for you, council? [ Pause ] >> Dr. Bradbury-Huang, members of the board, and persons assembled, Mr. Martin is correct. The board has received a letter from an interested citizen relating to a Brown Act question. Dr. Bradbur-Huang has referred the letter to me and I will respond to the individual. And I believe that the assertion of a potential Brown Act violation is not correct. I think it's well intentioned, but it relates to a provision of the Brown Act that will--that applies to close sessions relating to existing employees. And Dr. Rocha is not yet an employee of the college and will not be an employee of the college until July 1st so it doesn't apply. >> Okay, thank you for that clarification. Anything else? All right, Student Trustee Pack. >> I'll just make a brief statement quickly saying that the incoming AS Board is looking forward to working with the president of the Board of Trustees selects and that I also have the opportunity, fortunately, to speak at great length with my counterpart in the Los Angeles Community College District, Rodney Robinson. He's a student trustee for the LA9 and immediately upon asking him about Dr. Rocha, he had nothing, literally, nothing but wonderful things to say about him as a candidate for this office and I have great faith that he will do an excellent job at PCC. So my advisory vote on this matter is aye. >> Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. >> Aye. >> Are there any no's? Are there any abstentions? That is a unanimous vote, Mrs. Thompson, to record. I think the best thing here is I will offer a brief description of Dr. Rocha and some commentary and thus--and a press release will be made available to those of you who are interested, and from that we'll invite campus leaders also to offer statements if they wish, Dr. Sugimoto. So Pasadena City College looks forward to working with Dr. Rocha for many years to come to build a bright future for the college and our community. We especially appreciate the campus and community pulling together as reflected in this meeting right here, rolling up our sleeves, and beginning the task of working together for the advancement of PCC, commensurate with our distinguished reputation. We look forward to greeting Dr. Rocha in person and celebrating his arrival to our community at an upcoming board meeting. And speaking with the board, Dr. Rocha himself reflected, he said, "I am deeply honored by this appointment by the Board of Trustees to serve Pasadena City College as its next superintendent/president. I am grateful for the confidence that the Board has placed in me. I come to PCC with profound respect for its long and proud tradition of academic excellence. PCC has an outstanding faculty and I look forward to listening and learning more about how I can support teaching and student success. I look forward to getting right to work with the faculty, staff and administration." Dr. Rocha also expressed his thanks to current president Dr. Lisa Sugimoto saying, "President Sugimoto has done a great job and I hope I can convince her to stay on as part of the team." The appointment of Dr. Rocha was the culmination of a nationwide search. It was conducted by Academic Search Incorporated in partnership with us. The selection process included campus candidate forums, candidate meetings with campus groups and community members. There was extensive input from students, from faculty, from staff, and from community members. In their comments, many faculty noted Dr. Rocha's experience and knowledge in basic skills and his deep commitment to student success, especially in the STEM, that's the Science/Technology/Engineering/Math, and workforce education. The PCC Board carefully reviewed and considered all faculty and staff input and we voted unanimously to appoint Dr. Rocha as president at our meeting this evening. Dr. Rocha has more than 20 years of experience in higher education and that includes 9 years of experience in the California community college system, most recently as president of West Los Angeles College in the LA College District. He brings extensive experience working in a large, multi-college district. We were highly impressed with Dr. Rocha's collegial teamwork approach at the West Los Angeles College that has resulted in the great progress there in terms of enrollment, budget, external grants and fundraising. During the last 4 years as president of West, Dr. Rocha also led a major bond construction program that has transformed that campus. Dr. Rocha also serves as chair of the Workforce Education Task Force for the 2nd District of LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and he is member of the Board of Councilors for the Rossier School of Education of at USC. Before West LA, previously, Dr. Rocha served as Mission College's vice president of Academic Affairs. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Rocha's administrative career has included service as associate dean and dean in the California State University System and as provost at Seton Hall University. An English professor by training, Dr. Rocha received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern California, his master's from Cal State, Fullerton and his bachelor's from Villanova. In 1993, Dr. Rocha was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship and taught for a year in Caracas, Venezuela, at Universidad Simon Bolivar. His scholarly work is in the field of American drama and theater and it includes publications on the playwrights Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, among others. Dr. Rocha has two sons, Brendan, 19, and Samuel, 13. He resides in Sherman Oaks with his wife Nancy. He is a runner and, in fact, he finished the inaugural Pasadena Marathon just last March. >> That's good. >> Trustee Thompson. >> Thank you very much. I just like to first compliment the screening committee and the process we've gone through to get to this point this evening. I think we're, as a group of Board of Trustees and probably as a college in general, we are delighted to be at this spot and grateful to have come to a unanimous conclusion as to the direction for the college to take. I have also the pleasure of reading a statement from Dr. Jack Scott, the committee--California Committee College chancellor. It was written to me yesterday. Dr. Scott writes, "I am very pleased at the decision of the Board of Trustees to appoint Dr. Mark Rocha as the next president of Pasadena City College. Dr. Rocha has a wealth of experience in community college administration, including a very successful tenure as president of West Los Angeles College. I have heard many glowing reports about his outstanding work at that college. I predict a bright future for Pasadena City College as Mark Rocha works with the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff at PCC in the years ahead. Sincerely, Jack Scott." So, we felt that we had two very well qualified people to choose between and we are, I think, as has been said, delighted to be able to come to this position. We are confident that Dr. Rocha will come in and do a great job listening to people, working with the entire college staff and faculty and students and classified management, et cetera and do a great job for PCC. So, we're glad to be where we are this evening. >> As I mentioned, I would love to invite some campus leaders to speak. Our most important campus leader President Sugimoto, would you wish to? >> Thank you, Dr. Bradbury-Huang. First and foremost, I wish to thank the board for their incredible support during the last 10 months and the support of the executive team. And, of course, I wish to thank the college family for all their support, kindness and care during the last 10 months in moving this college ahead and not just sitting, but making sure that the college is well prepared for this transition. I'm very pleased to be transitioning the college to Dr. Rocha at this time and I feel very proud and honored to be in this position now and to be giving Dr. Rocha the reins to take over and lead this college in its future. Thank you. >> Fabulous. Fabulous. Thank you. Let me call on President-elect of the faculty senate, Ed Martinez. >> Good evening. I just want to say that, as the Vice President of the Academic Senate and as a member of the Presidential Search Committee, that I'm delighted in your choice to appoint Dr. Rocha as president of PCC. He is well qualified and prepared to lead PCC forward. We have a lot of work to do in the areas of developing and implementing SLOs, addressing accreditation issues, and finding new sources of revenue. And I hope that my faculty colleagues will join me in welcoming Dr. Rocha and in providing him with the opportunity to let him and PCC prosper together. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Before I open up to the community, I see Dr. Richard Garcia who was chair of our screening committee who worked so very, very hard with all these applications. Dr. Garcia, would you please--yeah, come to the podium and maybe offer -- >> Good evening. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Once again, it's a pleasure to be in front of you. And I thought it'd be a good idea to give you a final report. I didn't anticipate that the announcement would be made before I got up here so it's very interesting for me to hear that you have made a selection. Let me just start by saying that it was a pleasure and an honor to serve this chair and to be asked by Dr. Fellow to be his representative on this committee. The committee continued to work very diligently, very hard. And, in fact, at times we wondered if there would ever be an end to this processing. I'm certainly glad that we have gotten to the end of this process. Things went very well. And people did, in fact, worked very collegially, very respectfully and really always kept the college in mind and the community that the college serves in mind as it deliberated, as it evaluated and as it brought forward candidates for you to consider. I will say to you--and there are members of the committee and maybe those of you who were in the committee that are still here should stand even though they're not all here. There were 15 members but as I said, there was a bonding that reminded me [applause]. And, of course, we had Lyle there every step of the way, kinda slapping us alongside the head if we deviated from proper protocol. But-- >> Happy to do it. [ Laughter ] >> I do think it's important, really, to say to you that there was some question on the committee about whether or not all that they were doing was for none [phonetic]. And despite my reassurance that what we were doing was ultimately gonna end up on your table, it wasn't until our recommendations made it to your desk that I think there was a sigh of relief on the committee that what they had done was valued. And now that you have appointed Dr. Rocha to be the new president, we are certainly satisfied because the committee would not have put forward candidates that they did not believe was qualified to be considered by the Board of Trustees. I think I just want to say to you that we are very pleased as a committee and very excited about the future of this college and, as I said, the community that this college serves. We wish you all well and certainly wish Dr. Rocha well in this very exciting journey. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Could I invite our colleague, Glenna Watterson to come? You've been with us along the way it seems. >> Here I am again. >> Yeah. >> It seems like 3 years ago I was standing up here wondering why were you hiring Dr. Perfumo. [ Laughter ] >> And we found out and it didn't work out but we are here again. I appreciate the inclusion. I know that there has been a lot of controversy. I know this has been a very difficult time for all of us. But as I said last time, I love this college. This is my life. This is my family. And Dr. Rocha is coming in to a place where people are dedicated, loyal, hardworking, sometimes with not much pay, but [laughter] we will support him. I know that there is--there are people that go no, no, no, but we can't work on that. We can't work with that. We have to work with this person. You have to work with him. And like I said before, we're gonna be here. If it doesn't work out, we're still here. And he is really lucky to be coming to this campus because we are a pillar and we are an incredible institution with incredible people, loving, loving people, my family. I couldn't get up in the morning if I didn't know I wasn't coming here. And so no matter what happens and we're gonna work, I feel strongly that--and now that you've said Jack Scott has given an endorsement that makes me feel better. And he was much--he seem to understand the community college system which was a lot of our concerns because we don't want somebody that's on a high learning curve. We need somebody that's gonna come in and know what's going on. So we'll work with him. We will embrace him. We will watch him. [Laughter] And you have my support. I mean, no matter what happens I'm here. The people that I love are here. And thank you for at least including us and we appreciate that. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Trustee Baum. >> I wanna pick up a little bit where Glenna left off, too, and just to say what a wonderful community this is and that there was spirited dialogue than feedback that we received from this community, from students and faculty and staff, and it's only a testament to the passion that individuals feel about the future of this college. And I think--and I know personally, Dr. Rocha is really looking forward and wants to be part of a community that is so passionate and so devoted to the advancement of this institution. And so, for the compliments and the criticisms, it's--that's this campus community and that's one of the great things about it and we wouldn't have it any other way. So for everybody who wrote or e-mailed or called--I got a call last night at 10 o'clock at night from a member of the faculty to talk about this. It's just--that's what's great about this institution. So thank you for that type of feedback. And a lot of times we'll agree, sometimes we disagree, and that's what makes this institution strong. And I also wanna make sure that we continue to acknowledge Dr. Sugimoto for her extraordinary leadership of this institution in a very challenging year on so many levels and that it was due to her leadership that got us to this point today where we can really move forward. Finally, I am so enthusiastic about Dr. Rocha. From what I have seen in my personal one-on-one conversations with him and his family, this is a visionary leader. This is an innovative leader. But he is a caring man and individual. He has a statewide reputation and that is the right man at the right time for this institution. And once the rest of the campus community has that opportunity to get to know him as well as we have gotten to know him in the last several weeks, you will also be convinced. I am confident of that. This is--we are fortunate to have had this opportunity and this process. Thank you to the screening committee by the way to have been able to deliver to us so many strong candidates, some we brought to campus. And as many know, the pool was very strong and there were many candidates that were part of that pool as well that were exceptional leaders of academic institutions. So we are so tremendously well positioned. And so, I am very enthusiastic and I know that we're going to move this college forward into a great and bright future. Thanks to--with Dr. Rocha at the helm for the next several years. >> Very good [phonetic]. >> Happy to comment, first to the screening committee, just an incredible job. I've sat through a number of searches in my tenure--in my brief tenure here at Pasadena City College and I think the pool that you sent us this time was an incredible pool and I remember thinking there is just several people in this pool that you sent that could really do this job and the difficulty for us will be trying to find out the right fit for us at this time. So, I'm incredibly impressed with the work that the screening committee did. I'm extremely enthusiastic about Dr. Rocha. I think we have somebody with vision. We certainly have somebody with passion. I think we have someone with the stature that represents the distinguished nature of Pasadena City College that we can work with and who will make us all proud as he represents us as superintendent always represents us in so many places. >> Lastly, deviating from Dr. Rocha slightly, at some point the baton passed from the--from Professor Garcia and the screening committee to our own President Hilary Bradbury-Huang and our Superintendent Search Committee with the help of Trustee Thompson. These two people together put in a tremendous, tremendous amount of hours and, in particular, our President Bradbury-Huang, just--I can't believe the amount of time she put in. It became a full time occupation for her. There will be thousands and thousands and thousands of students for years and years to come who will benefit from the tremendous effort she gave us in the last few months when the burden of this search moved from the committee on to the board. And as a fellow trustee standing in awe, thinking as I watched you on the sidelines, man, I'm glad it's not me. [ Laughter ] >> I really wanna thank you for the way you've led this search in an open style, in a participatory style. I know that no stone was left unturned. Every comment was received and checked out to the physical amount of ability that we possibly could. If anybody's interested in the first word that Dr. Rocha spoke as a child, check with us, we know it. [ Laughter ] >> It's all there. So you've really done a great job for us in this college and for many, many students to come. And so I know the rest of the board feels that way and many want to say it. I think we're all lining up but you looked at me and you gave me the mic so I get to be the first. I wanna thank you personally for all the work you did and the tremendous job you did in bringing this in. It's just -- [ Applause ] >> I appreciate that, John. Dr. Fellow. >> Thank you. I'm not going to be with you for a while but I am coming back for a graduation so it gives me an opportunity to also thank you. It's--it was a difficult and laborious job but you showed tremendous leadership and I certainly have enjoyed working with you. I wanna thank Dr. Garcia, who I'm very proud to have selected for this committee and I should tell you Friday and Saturday he has me working on another search all day. I also want to publicly thank President Sugimoto. You certainly deserved much credit for bringing stability and peace to this campus and you are a grand person who is much loved by faculty, students and me. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Unless I see any strong--oh, yes. >> I'm not gonna make a very long comment because, as many of you know, I would not have been on campus since the first meeting in April and, in fact, have not even read my e-mail because of health problem, which is completely over. However, I was very impressed with Dr. Garcia's work because I was the third person on the committee that worked with the search committee. I think he did a tremendous job and it was very professional. And I know that the committee spent a great deal of time and I, like Mr. Martin, I haven't been on so many searches as he has because he's, actually, believe it or not, he's a senior person even though I'm much older. And I think that the committee did a great job. We had wonderful candidates. As far as what happened once the search was turned over to the board, that was just what I--Mr. Thompson would call and report to me are the information I then received and read all the written documents we had about the candidate before I voted. But I'm very aware that Dr. Bradbury-Huang did a tremendous job. She's a brilliant leader. It was open. Everyone was heard. And I also want to compliment you and say I think you did terrific job. Just so I [inaudible] had to spend the whole 6 weeks in bed. [ Laughter ] >> We appreciate your coming here this evening. It is so important for all of us to bring unanimity. So let me adjourn mostly with the feeling of gratitude for President Sugimoto. I won't reiterate what has been said but, you know, we hold you in the highest of regard and we're so grateful for all the work you've done to get us here. To Dr. Garcia, to the screening committee, to all the efforts on campus, to my board colleagues, most especially to Bill Thompson, it's been truly a pleasure and an honor working with you. >> Well, thank you. We give a new significance to Hilary and Bill, I think. >> That's right. [ Laughter ] >> The Billary show. >> Yes. [ Laughter ] >> And so from gratitude to final celebration. Tonight, really, we're here to celebrate the passing into a new presidential term and we're very delighted and grateful that somebody of the high caliber as Dr. Rocha will be with us. So, we adjourn. [ Applause ] ==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====