Board Meeting Tonight! 7 pm on Main Campus

It promises to be lively one, as community group Crossroads II speaks out on the agreement with Focuscom.



Crossroads president Peter Watry sent the following email to supporters:

Date: September 7, 2010 2:55:34 PM PDT

Subject: SWC - HOW THEY ARE SPENDING PROP R BOND MONEY

Crossroaders,

We have heard from many of you that you are outraged that Southwestern College has signed a $100,000 contract with a company called Focuscom, Inc. to mount a PR campaign to convince the public that the College is spending Prop R funds appropriately. As far as we are aware, no one doubted that the funds were being spent appropriately. Ironically, we are now convinced that they are not being spent appropriately.

Prop R was a $389,000,000 bond measure that asked voters to raise their own property taxes to enable the college to upgrade its facilities. Prop R was passed in November 2008. The Crossroads II Board of Directors supported Prop R, and urged CII members to vote in favor of it. And we now know by reading the contract with Focuscom that our own property tax money is being spent to manipulate our views!

In response to the concerns of our members, I wrote a letter to the college president and board members requesting that an item be put on the agenda of the September 8 Board meeting to discuss this $100,000 contract. We have since reviewed the agenda of the September 8 Board meeting, and the item we requested be put on the agenda is not there. The college has not even afforded us the courtesy of a reply to our letter. So we urge you to attend the College Board meeting on Wednesday, September 8 at 7 pm and inform the Board members how you feel about this waste of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars. The details are below:

Southwestern College Governing Board Meeting

Wednesday September 8 at 7 PM

Room 214 at the College

Speak under Agenda item No. 10 - Oral Communication

To speak to the Board you must fill out a yellow request card after you arrive at the meeting. Then you can speak when Agenda Item 10 comes up.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Peter Watry
Acting President

For more commentary on this latest development, please see the blog SWC Board Must Go!

Also, please consider attending this Friday's fundraiser for alternative Governing Board candidate Tim Nader. We can make a difference!