Part III
Re “Kuechle Scores College for Blending Two Opposing Roles Into One”
On Wednesday, West Los Angeles College seats a new Interim President, Dr. Rose Marie Joyce.
She is expected to be in office for the next 10 months, and none of her new Culver City neighbors, who have been challenging West’s building plans, think the long- contentious environment will change.
Says community activist John Kuechle of Culver Crest:
“It is hard to believe they will be able to find another president who will be so willing to cavalierly ignore legitimate requests from neighbors.
“The right person, though, will make things a little better.
“The (Los Angeles Community College District) has eliminated so many of the protections they had agreed to five years ago. Clearly, (the trustees) are not going to be pushing the college to move in a reasonable direction. They have done this unilaterally.
“The old Environmental Impact Report and Memorandum of Understanding, for example, require the District to have an ombudsman, a neutral party. When there is a complaint, the ombudsman is to look into it with a fair and open mind, figure out what is right, and if he thinks the neighbors are wrong, he tells them, ‘No, I can’t do anything.’ But if he thinks it is legitimate, he will go back to the college and say, ‘Look, this is a real issue. We need to do something.’
A Contrary Assignment?
“Well, they never had anyone who was neutral. It was always someone whose sole job was to go to the neighbors and say ‘No.’ It was supposed to be someone who — if he ever did decide it was a legitimate problem — would at least have the authority to deal with all foreseeable situations that might come up.
“About a year ago, the District adopted a manual for their ombudsman. They never told the neighbors about it. We only found out about it by accident, through a Freedom of Information Act request. We had other questions, and this happened to show up.
“They adopted a manual that told me you don’t have authority to do anything without the prior approval of the college president or one other person, whose identity I don’t remember. They were completely violating the provisions they had agreed to in the prior EIR.
Chopping Away
“Even that wasn’t good enough for them. This time around, they said ‘we don’t like this whole ombudsman thing. So we are eliminating our prior agreement to provide one. From now on, we won’t have one.’”
Mr. Kuechle said that the insulting cherry on the sundae was that “virtually all of this was done without any discussion with the neighbors.”
He said that Lamont Ewell, who left July 31 after a four-month stint as Interim City Manager, set up a three-party network discussion among City Hall, neighbors and West L.A. College.
“It only met two or three times,” Mr. Kuechle said. “Then the college moved it into meetings that were just with the city. The city sent several letters saying ‘we need to get the neighbors involved.’ The college sent back messages saying ‘we don’t want to talk to the neighbors.’
“All of this has been done without any discussion with the neighbors, and unilaterally.
“The other thing is, I cannot believe the city is willing to let go after the way the college thumbed its nose at the city. The city sent them a letter at the start of this process saying ‘our City Manager just left. Our new one isn’t here. Will you give us another 30 days to review the EIR. And they got a letter back saying ‘Drop dead.’”
The next step for the neighbors is unclear.
Says Mr. Kuechle:
“It is exceptionally hard for a homeowners association to file a lawsuit, It’s incredibly expensive.”
And that is where the matter will lie until City Hall declares its course, probably sometime after Labor Day.
