Student rep. reiterates his neutrality

A group of Coastline Community College District trustees and candidates is decrying a mailer sent out by an independent expenditure group in favor of two incumbents.

The source of their ire? A mailer sent out by the United Citizens for Better Community Colleges, which shows incumbents Mary Hornbuckle and Armando Ruiz standing with the board’s student representative, Michael Battistone.

In a written statement, Battistone has said he gave permission to use the photo as a way of showing his willingness to reach out to all board members, but endorsed no candidate.

“I feel that the students and the community are best served by my representation if I remain neutral and unbiased in regard to the upcoming board elections,” he said in the statement. “I concede that it is understandable that some have misinterpreted this literature as my endorsement of Ruiz and Hornbuckle, but this assumption is completely false.”

Though Hornbuckle and Ruiz are depicted on the mailer standing together, and the card urges voters to reelect both of them, neither candidate has endorsed the other.

Those complaining about the mailer include Trustees Jerry Patterson and Jim Moreno, as well as candidate Lorraine Prinsky and officials with the Coast Federation of Educators Local, a teachers’ union.

Moreno, who is not up for election and said he had avoided taking sides because it was “up to the candidates and their campaigns to educate the electorate on their own positions,” said the presence of a student on a campaign mailer drove him to break his neutrality.

“This use of a student is the tipping point,” Moreno said, adding that he asked the board to look into possible violations of its code of ethics.

Others, like union officials and Patterson, complained about the source of the mailer as well, a group which came into being only recently and filed its first financial statement about a week ago.

The listing of former district Chancellor William Vega as the group’s treasurer and only reported member, and a donor list including numerous contractors with the district, is suspicious, Patterson said.

“They tried to sneak this one by the public,” he said.

Efforts to reach Ruiz, Hornbuckle and Vega were unsuccessful.

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected].