Red County, California

Dozens of supporters turned out to sip bottled water, munch fresh strawberries and listen to speeches on Saturday, June 26, as a coordinated slate of three candidates kicked off a campaign to unseat incumbent Trustees on the Board of the North Orange County Community College District. Members of the slate hope that their message of “Change That Makes Sense” — and general bad feelings towards sitting politicians — will carry them to victory in offices that most voters know little about.

The slate includes Tim Keenan of Cypress, Darlene (“Dar”) Allen of Buena Park and Dr. Ruben Barron of Yorba Linda.

Art Brown, Mayor of Buena Park, introduced Tim Keenan to the crowd. Brown said that he has known Keenan for 15 years through work on the Orange County Transportation Authority and joint city projects when Keenan served on the Cypress City Council. In separate remarks, Brown said that the country lacks graduates trained in technical and engineering disciplines, subjects that community colleges excel at teaching.

Linda Borla, a professor of English at Cypress Community College, introduced “Dar” Allen. A lawyer for 22 years, “Dar” may be better known to some for her work with the Cypress Pops Orchestra for the past 19 years. She has also been active in the Women’s Club and the Multiple Sclerosis Walk of Orange County.
“Mijo” Barron introduced his father, Dr. Ruben Barron. Dr. Barron has been a teacher, school principal and deputy superintendent. A U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, he has served as the president of the Board for St. Francis School, is a 15-year member of Rotary International and an inductee of the Santa Ana College Hall of Fame.

Each of the three candidates was separately approached by the United Faculty North Orange County Community College District to run against vulnerable incumbents.

In a twist on a common slap against public employee unions, United Faculty is worried about waste of public funds. Particular sore points are inadequate attention to budget concerns during Board meetings, construction cost over-runs and extravagant retirement benefits for a chancellor who served the District for only eight years.

Barbara Bennett, past president of United Faculty and currently the union’s most senior board member, stated that the union “wants change because the Trustees are not focusing on students. Instead, they’re a rubber stamp for the Administration.”

The campaign kick-off, held in the back yard of a beautiful home in the Fullerton hills, fired the opening shot of a campaign that, officially, hasn’t started yet. Declaration of candidacy forms cannot be filed with the Orange County Registrar of Voters before July 12. The filing period closes on August 6, unless a current office-holder eligible for re-election fails to file for re-election. Then the deadline is extended until August 11 for anyone except the incumbent.

Local politicos on hand to show support for the slate included Anna Piercy, former Cypress Councilwoman now serving on the Board of Anaheim Unified High School District; Dr. Prakash Narain, Mayor of Cypress; Todd Seymore, Cypress Councilman; and Art Brown, Mayor of Buena Park.

The election of NOCCCD trustees is “at large,” but individual trustees represent and must live within designated areas of the District. For example, Tim Keenan will represent Area II but voters from all areas may vote for him. Dr. Ruben Barron will represent Area III and “Dar” Allen will represent Area IV.

Because of this, the trio can run as a slate. Supporters can vote for all three without conflict.

Area II covers Cypress and Savanna Elementary School Districts plus Los Alamitos Unified School District. Also included in Area II is that part of Garden Grove Unified School District west of Beach Boulevard, east of the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, south of Katella Avenue, and north of Chapman Avenue.
Area III covers Brea-Olinda and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School Districts, as well as La Habra City and Lowell Joint School Districts.

Area IV covers Buena Park, Centralia, and Fullerton School Districts.

For more information about Tim Keenan, call 714-892-9469 or email tjkeenan@dslextreme.com.

For more information about Dr. Ruben Barron, call 714-321-4827 or email rsbarron9@hotmail.com.

For more information about “Dar” Allen, call 714-821-7294 or email Dallen8075@aol.com.

(This post is based on material also published in the Event newspaper.)