Time for a change
Challengers threaten to unseat two PCC trustees
By Jake Armstrong 11/05/2009
Voters heavily favored one incumbent and gave two challengers likely victories in Tuesday’s election to fill three contested seats on the Pasadena City College Board of Trustees.
In an unusually heated contest for an elected board that the public largely overlooks, Trustee Geoffrey Baum took in nearly 70 percent of the vote and beat out PCC student Stephen Gibson to win a third four-year term representing Area 1, which spans Altadena, West Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge.
Berlinda Brown, a health care manager and political novice, may have claimed victory with a razor-thin 39-vote lead over Trustee Connie Rey Castro in the race for Area 3, with 51.2 percent, according to unofficial election results. Provisional and absentee ballots remain to be counted and potentially could close the tiny gap between the two candidates. Updated results are expected Friday.
Voters also propelled communications professor Tony Fellows past four-term Trustee Beth Wells-Miller for the Area 7 seat representing Arcadia. Fellows had a nearly seven-point lead on Wells-Miller, and remaining ballots probably won’t erase that lead. A second challenger, Donna Wilson, took in just 9 percent of the vote. Trustee Hilary Bradbury Huang ran unopposed for a second term representing South Pasadena, San Marino and Temple City.
The board shake-up comes on the heels of a tumultuous year at PCC, marked by the convergence of record demand for classes, budget shortfalls and doubts about leadership. Challengers faulted the sitting trustees for their decision in July to cancel a popular winter intersession on the budgeting advice of former President Paulette Perfumo, only to reinstate it after a closer review of the budget. They also questioned the board’s hiring and treatment of Perfumo, who in less than a year accepted a substantial raise, took a mysterious leave of absence after the intersession gaffe, and then mysteriously quit as president only to be thrust into a specially created position while the trustees were reviewing her performance.
Fellows said the election sent a message that voters are looking for new answers to the college’s problems, and had enough faith in his record and endorsements to put him to the task. “I’ve left every place better than I’ve found it. I hope to do the same for PCC,” he said.
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