Investigators hired, district chancellor put on leave

January 9th, 2009, 11:09 am · 21 Comments · posted by Marla Jo Fisher, Staff Writer

Dr. Ken Yglesias

The chancellor of the Coast Community College District, Ken Yglesias, has been sent home on administrative leave and investigators hired to look at unnamed allegations against him.

The move, taken in closed session by the Board of Trustees on Wednesday night while the district’s campuses are closed for the holiday break, came as a surprise to many.

“People are e-mailing each other frantically, asking where is the chancellor and what’s going on,” Eduardo Arismendi-Pardi, president of Orange Coast’s academic senate, said. “Where is the leadership here.”

Arismendi-Pardi and other observers at Wednesday’s board meeting said that trustees emerged from a closed-door meeting at the beginning of the board’s open session and immediately announced that Yglesias was on leave and was being temporarily replaced by Joe Quarles, the vice chancellor of human resources.

Dr. Joe Quarles

Yglesias, who was not present, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Board President Jim Moreno would not say who voted to place Yglesias on leave behind closed doors, or why the action had been taken.

The board also hired an investigative firm, Barboza & Associates of Los Angeles, for $295 an hour, along with computer experts Datatriage Technologies for $325 an hour.

Moreno would only say the investigative firm was hired “for investigations on some college matters.”

Generally considered to be one of the state’s better-run districts, its chancellor oversees three campuses: Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Golden West College in Huntington Beach, and Coastline College distance learning centers that serve people around the world.

Yglesias, a former high school teacher and foreign service officer, joined the Coast district in 1985 as a dean at Coastline Community College. In 1995, he was appointed president of Golden West College. He served there until May 2004, when he was selected as chancellor of the district to replace the retiring Bill Vega.

See updated blog post here:

Coastline president appointed acting Coast chancellor

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JYoung says:

January 9, 2009 at 1:38 pm

Nice job on the anonymity!

Dave says:

January 9, 2009 at 2:16 pm

See ELias v. Carpenter superiour court action and 4th District court of appeal decision. David Elias stated the obvious years ago.

ocobserver says:

January 9, 2009 at 7:04 pm

Let me guess. It had to do with money or women or both.

In the know says:

January 9, 2009 at 8:50 pm

Finally! After numerous years of nepotism, corruption, preferential/no-bid awarding of service contracts, mismanagement/missing management (only at work a couple hours a day), the Coast Board of Trustees finally decided to look behind the fairly transparent curtains. As taxpayers, we can only hope that the BOTs continue to move forward with a full audit at all levels of management within the Coast District to eliminate this on-going corruption, favoritism, incompetence, and waste. If Coast were a business, they would have filed for bankruptcy years ago! Don’t stop now: investigate, audit, and purge the corruption at all levels!!!

January 12, 2009 at 8:34 am

Response to J Young: Perhaps some folks wish to remain anonymous since they are well aware of the hostel and retaliatory work environment that exists within the district – for both workers and contractors/vendors. The issues within the Coast District are not new; the abuse (at various levels of management) has been rampant for many years. We can only hope now that the proper authorities and general public become well aware of all the problems -which cost us/taxpayers millions every year at the District - and take immediate corrective action.

latruk says:

January 12, 2009 at 12:20 pm

Here we go again. The Coast District is continuing with its campaign to rid the district of women and minorities who are in leadership positions.
Ken Yglesias is an outstanding administrator who saved Golden West College from the brink of disaster only to have the current under achieving president (AKA Wes Bryan) run the college into the ground and ruin faculty morale.
The Coast District will stop at nothing to purge itself of qualified minority leadership, faculty and classified…..

WB says:

January 12, 2009 at 7:25 pm

latruk must be thinking about some other district. Yglesias is Hispanic. Quarles, Brahmbatt and Joyce Black are considered minorities as well. Basically all of the top administration is part of a minority group. I can’t imagine a more wrong statement to make about the situation than what latruk just wrote. Let’s just wait and see what the violation is before judgments are made. Clearly angry sexist and racist remarks aren’t going to help Yglesias if he really did do something wrong. I have a feeling latruk habitually abuses the race card so much that they don’t even think before they start running their mouth.

Concerned says:

January 12, 2009 at 8:45 pm

Now that the Board of Trustees has become a ‘union owned’ Board, they’ve become drunk with power and there appears to be no stopping them with their unethical behavior and actions. They’re on a witch hunt for anyone who currently does or has disagreed with them in the past. The Coast Community College District no longer has a Board of Trustees with checks and balances who is taking their fiscal responsibility to the District, the community, the students they serve along with the employees they’ve been entrusted to manage with any real concern except for their own self interest and preservation. The current Board is making fiscally irresponsible decisions in an uncertain economic climate.

Why hasn’t anyone asked the question as to WHY the Board of Trustees requires their own counsel. The District has current counsel on retainer to work through legal actions and to advise the District in all legal matters.

I hope you continue to investigate the current actions of the Board of Trustees.

I would like to see some information on how to recall elected officials of a school board. To whom do you report their abuse of power? What are the steps to request their resignations? Who can take the steps necessary to put the Board of Trustees on leave while pending an investigatation into their email, electronic files, electronic transactions, business dealings as well as any personal relationships that anyone within the Coast Community College District may find objectionable?

Fed up says:

January 13, 2009 at 12:02 pm

All this secrecy. Response to Dave: can you give me a summary of the Elias v. Carpenter case? The Coast District protects its own kind. They move the bad apples around and never punish them. Iglesias will retire with full benefits and live happily ever after.

bpsqwerty says:

January 13, 2009 at 1:55 pm

did anyone consult Enrique?

DB says:

January 13, 2009 at 6:50 pm

As a CCCD employee and a concerned faculty member, I feel troubled that the employees of the District (faculty, staff, and management) are by and large in the dark about what’s going on. Why all this secrecy? Shouldn’t there be at least a brief internal memo to all — either from the Board President or from the Interim Chancellor — explianing why this action had to be taken, and how things will be resolved?

Faculty and staff in the District have often heard rumors about ethics violations, nepotism, and lack of transparency by the administration as well as about political infighting among Board members. In the absence of better communication, we feel very concerned about the fiscal soundness and educational mission of this large institution.

Gio says:

January 14, 2009 at 7:51 am

Thank God for the new board members! A fresh perspective is almost always a good thing in politics, and the atmosphere at the Coast Community College District was getting pretty stale. It is the duty of the Board to manage the district for us, the taxpayers, and I see nothing wrong with them exercising their rights and duties.

Perhaps we will finally have real oversight of the CCCD, specifically in the area of employment practices. As and employee of the District, I have witnessed time and time again the hiring of incompetent, unqualified employees at every level, by a human resource system that is clearly not concerned with real-world abilities, and which lacks professional guidance or methodologies. So many in power at the CCCD are hired for WHO they know, and not WHAT they know, or to maintain a pyramid of managers that form a mutual admiration society, with any form dissent quickly extinguished. Qualified individuals with valuable skills are locked out of this closed ‘club’ and the entire District suffers for it. It’s time for this unprofessional practice to stop. It’s time to audit and reexamination of the hiring policies of the District, and the adoption of a more effective method of terminating bad or incompetent managers, faculty or staff.

This is not a condemnation of the entire management structure of the District - areas such as District Fiscal Affairs have exhibited a high degree of competence over the past 20 years, which has prevented fiscal chaos suffered by many other school districts in the area. There are many other very well run areas in the District, but it only takes a few well placed individuals to cause incredible damage to the functioning of the District.

The CCCD has hired individuals in the recent past that have caused millions of dollars in wasted expenditures, waste of measure C funds, disruption of careers and near total destruction of morale in the areas they purportedly ‘managed’, all under the watchful eyes of the District, especially the old Board, who backed these people 100%. This investigation, for whatever reason, is a good sign that the bad old days may be numbered. Perhaps we can jettison the duds before they cause too much damage, or not hire them at all.

A mention was made of Orange Coast College, but was not followed up. Could this fracas be related to a vice president at OCC who has caused more than her share of turmoil? If so, I say cut bait and run. Buy her out and try again. But then again, OCC is filled with tumultuous managers, faculty and staff. Every subgroup against every other subgroup - little armies constantly at war with each other over petty concerns.

Pity the poor student who is not concerned with these issues and only desires to obtain an education.

Q says:

January 14, 2009 at 8:14 pm

Is this “investigation” about cleaning up the management from the top down or is this just a way to eliminate a Chancellor that may disagree with something the Board thinks? Maybe this is because the Chancellor worked with the previous Board President, Mr. Ruiz even though this is something that a Chancellor “must” do. In any case, who of you could survive some investigator looking at all of your computer files, e-mail, phone records, phone conversations and any other form of correspondence? Is the Board also investigating others that “may” have been on the receiving end of the correspondence? Have they also been place on leave? Have they even been informed that their files are being looked into? When did this investigation start? Did anything happen to PCs and files during the Winter Break like secret investigations? All of these unanswered questions from a Board of elected employees of the people.

When State officials are asking what is happening at Coast (they do not know!) isn’t it time to start to hold our local elected officials up to some scrutiny as well as the Chancellor? When the state departments were called, they had no idea anything was going on. Are they now getting involved or just standing by to see what the local politicians will do?

There are clear and defined powers that the Board have, but have they overstepped those powers? When the District, the County and the State all have counsel ready and waiting to assist in any legal matters, why hire counsel from the law firm that a Board member was (is?) a member? This counsel is not just for this situation as evident by his input during the previous Board meeting. Did this counsel go through the hiring procedures established by the Coast District? This article did not say how much this counsel is costing us taxpayers and why the other available counsel was not used. How about the Register asking the Board to explain this action?

This all kind of seems to smell a bit bad. Is Concerned and DB on the right track? Has the Board really changed, or are they simply now just controlled by the unions? I hope that the Register keeps after this story and does not just push it off. This is costing us OC taxpayers more than just money, but the reputation of a College District that has served the community for a long time.

Funtime Master says:

January 15, 2009 at 9:56 am

In reply to DB:

It’s quite probable the reason there hasn’t been any information released to the faculty/staff that this is an ongoing investigation and there’s nothing like “explianing why this action had to be taken, and how things will be resolved” to muck it up.

Let’s let the investigation proceed and then see where things stand. I’d rather have an investigation to lend some solid facts in any memo released before a premature announcement turns out to be inaccurate, alarmist, or both.

We don’t have a Right to Know everything that goes on here. One of the problems educators have is this attitude everything has to be open to debate/discussion/committee. Let the people in charge get some foundation in fact before they start sharing information…

GWC Employee says:

January 15, 2009 at 3:11 pm

Concerned Says and Q…

What makes you think this District is “Union” owned? One of the problems of the District, is its disregard of the unions. At this moment there is arbitration between the classified staff union and the District regarding a violation of the union contract by the District. For years now our classified union has been more or less impotent and abuse by management of classified staff has been rampant. What needs to be done is exactly this investigation.

Accountability and transparency!!! Not just in Washington…right here in our own backyard…

Hmmm says:

January 22, 2009 at 6:16 am

Congratulations to Acting Chancellor Ding Jo Currie.

Now all the accusations against Chancellor Yglesias regarding his own hiring agenda and that of other administrators within the Coast Community College District have come full circle to the Board of Trustess. Will the union representation now turn their accusing nepotism finger toward that of the Board of Trustees for appointing Ding Jo Currie as the Acting Chancellor. What will be said when we spend thousands of dollars in a futile exercise of searching and advertising for a Chancellor to fill Dr. Yglesias’s vacant position and Ding Jo Currie is surprisingly ‘hired for the position.

Somehow, I imagine that that form of favoritism will be acceptable.

How does the Board of Trustees continually get to point the fingers at others without further examination into their own practices. How is it the employees, faculty and staff of the District, Orange Coast College, GoldenWest and Coastline are not asking the questions of the Board of Trustees and their Union representation. Everyone has an opinion regarding this situation and yet no one is willng to stand up and ask the questions or voice their opinions.

If anyone thinks their job is safe because the Board of Trustees stated at one time that they are not going to lay off employees, management or faculty of the District then I believe you’re mistaken. The Board of Trustees is spending monies they don’t have on a budget that has not accounted for these expenses that will eventually have to come from another budget. The Board of Trustees doesn’t know your name, doesn’t know your family or personal situation, and further more doesn’t care. They only have their own interests in mind and have proven that in the last several public actions that we’ve seen. Who knows what is going on behind closed doors that we have not been made aware of … yet.

frankly speaking says:

January 22, 2009 at 8:10 am

Who is his replacement after the interim? If it will be one of the presidents of the district…bring Ken back! The district is replete with do-nothing, be-gone-from-your-office-for-your-entire-career and learn the art of email autoreply administration. There is a chancellor, 3 or 4 vice-chancellors, 3 college presidents, 9 or more college vice-presidents, 100’s of individual deans and administration types who are under utilized and some without accountability. In many cases they are ineffective and incapable. The staff and faculty do the work of the district and interface with the students. It is a travesty to the community. A single set of responsible and capable administration could run the colleges. The district is a huge resource to the community. It deserves the best in hard-working responsible qualified leadership.

The BOT should be thinking to investigate and lean out all levels of the district administration. The public should also be asking questions. If they knew how and for what their tax dollars are being spent would they be speaking out? I think so.

In the Know says:

January 22, 2009 at 10:35 am

Congratulations to the Board of Trustees in their selection of an excellent choice for Acting Chancellor, Ding-Jo Currie. Currie has the honesty, integrity, and leadership that is needed to rid the Coast College District of the waste, abuse and corruption that has occurred within Coast District for many years. Let’s keep in mind that there is plenty of work to be done by investigators, the BoT and Curry, to drill down to the many levels of management within the District were this type of abuse continues on an ongoing basis even though Yglesias was removed weeks ago. We can only hope and pray that the Board of Trustees makes the selection of Currie a permanent position.

Watching the scene says:

January 23, 2009 at 7:02 am

Things are not always what they seem and CCCD BOT is just another example. Sound, reasoned, fair and thoughtful questions is what the employees want by the BOT and have to ask the BOT. Instead, what we have is a group of people who understand how to leverage themselves politically into discussions with the new BOT as if they speak for the majority of employees at the CCCD and act as if they are in the know about decision making on the campuses. Lots of orchestration is done to make things appear this way to the BOT.

This group uses any means necessary to discredit those who they have disagreed with on the campuses. Shared governance and open vetting of budget and policy decisions on campuses that have led to decisions not in their favor are leading to whispering in the new BOT’s ears about unfairness to them. The new BOT supported in their recent campaigns by the faculty unions are hearing one side of the story by a group causing them to be ready to sweep house thinking this what everyone wants. A new day for all of us. This is perceived as simply a new group of the self interested with their own agenda with newly appointed Ding-Jo at the helm. She has her own skeletons if we care to look back at some of the hiring practices and decisions that happened on her watch at Coastline. Be careful who you put on that pedestal because with very few exceptions there is enough bad decision making and blame to go around.

No surprises here except for the taxpayers who will foot the bill. Speak up or lay down and watch what’s coming. This is so predictable it’s laughable. Real change is simply that and this is not real change this is an organized assault on the people who are simply doing their jobs every day and trying to help educate students without seeking their own agenda. We are all in the trenches doing what we need to do and this lot are running around creating rumor and innuendo. At this point I guess we need to begin to speak up for ourselves instead of letting this pushy group of loudmouths speak for us. Diversity in our workplace or oppositional points of view are not the issue. A corruption investigation is laughable when you look at the influence of those the BOT is listening to they are as corrupt as it comes all under the guise of helping employees and taxpayers.

Those people having the audacity to claim to be speaking for me when no one has ever bothered to ask for our opinion is the problem BOT and loudmouths! How about surveying the good employees of this district and seeing what they really observe, think, and feel on their campuses and the district BOT? Ask us questions about our concerns and observations that are not crafted by a lawyer or slanted to skew our answer to your expected outcome?

BOT ask us our opinion and observations and stop being influenced by campaign money and squeaky wheel politicos.

ksister says:

January 23, 2009 at 2:58 pm

Speaking as one who knows Dr. Currie, there is no better choice for acting Chancellor. She is a true “servant leader”. Under her leadership, her staff (administrators, faculty, classified, & part-time temporary employees) have come to share her vision of “students first”. She has empowered and inspired her staff to get involved in college committees and events. She has an amazing talent for recruiting exceptional decision makers and for nurturing new leaders.
Dr. Currie truly embraces participatory governance. She is honest, caring, respectful, and a highly respected woman. Ask anyone who knows her, works for her, or has come in contact with her. She can be trusted to lead this District.

CB1 says:

January 25, 2009 at 5:28 am

I agree that the chancellor let his administrators, managers, etc. do their jobs without trying to micromanage them. Unfortunately, that was the problem. Some of them may now have to actually work (not just be there) eight hours per day, which may also negatively affect their golf games and real estate jobs. I am surprised that no one has mentioned the GodFather connection at LBCC which still seems to be pulling the puppet strings in Coast District personnel decisions, trying to keep the “good old boy and girl” club going (as well as for friends and relatives of the club members).

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