College purse empty - new bond, anyone?

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Friday, October 3, 2008.

Outrage isn't a strong enough word to describe how your Valley Press - along with thousands of students, taxpayers and civic officials - feel about being left holding an empty bag after the admission this week by Antelope Valley College officials that no money remains from the 2004 bill of goods known as Measure R to construct a Palmdale campus.
This, after a fortnight of revelations about the "casino mentality" that has Wall Street clinging to a financial cliff, and about the vacuum of leadership in Washington among self-serving, flip-flopping, public-trough parasites whom the American people elected and entrusted with keeping our ship of state afloat.

Pitchforks and torches, anyone?

Are there any public officials left worthy of voters' trust?

This week's Strange New Respect Award goes to the handful of concerned eagle-eyes who have been demanding for four years that the Valley take notice of what was happening to the $139 million in expansion funding - Measure R - that we approved in a whopping 69% landslide in 2004.

We shudder at the long-simmering rumors of Santa's generosity to AVC athletic facilities and other projects - while plans for a south Valley campus were getting stuffed into File 13.

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford contended on Tuesday that he had been "misled and deceived" and that college honchos used "bait-and-switch tactics" to get bond money that will not be spent as promised in the Valley's booming southern city. At this writing, the city of Palmdale was considering legal action over the fiasco.

Didn't Ledford, college president Jackie Fisher, and other dignitaries break ground in April for a Palmdale campus at 25th Street East near Barrel Springs Road?

Weren't property owners promised that Measure R, which hits them for $19.50 a year for every $100,000 of their assessed valuations, would qualify AVC for up to $417 million in state matching bond funds for building?

Didn't public-opinion surveys show overwhelming support for giving a Palmdale campus priority over other, admittedly worthy projects? Voters in Littlerock and Palmdale "played a significant role in getting Measure R the 55% required voter threshold," according to a hot letter from the justifiably hot Mayor Ledford.

Wasn't the Measure R ballot text specifically worded to say the college district would spend $52 million of Measure R and state matching funds to "provide permanent classrooms, labs, job training and college transfer counseling buildings facilities in the Palmdale area, including the acquisition of a site to allow local students greater access to an affordable education"?

Where was the much-ballyhooed public oversight crew?

Too bad. So sad. The district spent about $5 million to buy land for a Palmdale campus, but after the bond money was allocated to other projects - such as a theater-arts facility - there's no cash left to construct a Palmdale campus.

Fisher contends Measure R did not specify how much money would be spent in Palmdale.

Oh, and that the state has not granted permission to build another campus anyway.

Oh, and that, since the Valley swallowed Measure R hook, line and sinker, construction costs have risen dramatically for new facilities.

"We had to make a decision on the projects here on the Lancaster campus and the project in Palmdale without jeopardizing the projects we had approved," Fisher said. "If we didn't come up with additional matching funds, we would have lost those projects here in Lancaster."

Now the college district is talking about floating another bond to pay for the Palmdale campus.

Where will it stop?

Not on Wall Street. Not in D.C. And apparently not even in our own Valley.

Is it any wonder taxpayers are in such a decidedly, and understandably, foul mood?