Sixth in a series
Re “Rocha Says He Doesn’t Recognize the Villain Being Painted”
[img]898|left|Mr. Mark Salkin||no_popup[/img]“I wish him lots of bad luck.”
When a well-known former Culver Crest neighborhood leader learned of the movements on the Pasadena City College campus to dump chief administrator Dr. Mark Rocha, he said his bitter disgust with the President’s conduct in his West Los Angeles College days has not receded.
“I am not surprised he is in trouble again,” Mark Salkin, a decades-long homeowner and community activist said. “He is a piece of (garbage).
“The biggest problem with Mark Rocha is that he has such a big ego.
“There was no room for diverse opinion.
“There was no room to understand what the community needed.
“There was no tolerance for the points of view” of the residential community encircling the West L.A. grounds, a contentious point since the early days of the college, founded in 1969.
[img]1769|right|Dr. Mark Rocha||no_popup[/img]Not necessarily by coincidence, these parallel the accusations Pasadena City College faculty and students have leveled against Dr. Rocha in their no-confidence votes.
“Mark Rocha had to take extreme measures to override our concerns,” Mr. Salkin said, recounting a trail of assertedly busted promises.
Regarding quelling campus noises and mitigating homeowner complaints about vehicular traffic, “He failed to follow the plan that was agreed upon.
“The most egregious lie came when he presented a drawing, or a plan, for the Overland entrance to the college, which was grandiose, in the style of a Las Vegas neon sign.
“We voiced our objections. It kind of sat idle for a year, and he came in with a new plan. I said at that time that the new plan was great. I loved it.
“It was a very low key, low impact redevelopment of the Overland and Freshman Drive entrance (to the college).”
Mr. Salkin, 64 years old and the owner of an outgoing personality, was President of the influential Culver Crest Homeowners Assn. at the time.
“I voiced my approval of the Rocha plan,” Mr. Salkin said. “He took that as the word go, and then he never executed the plan. He just used it to quiet our displeasure over what the college was doing.
“The second biggest lie was when they agreed not to make the road from Leahy down to Overland a through road. It is now a through road.”
Mr. Salkin said he had not thought of Dr. Rocha since left West L.A. College, under curious circumstances, three years ago.
“Mark Rocha did not keep any of his promises,” Mr. Salkin told the newspaper. “We had a written agreement with the college. He walked around telling everybody it was fulfilled. It never was fulfilled.
“And then he walked around saying his own council told him he didn’t have to follow the plan, that the plan had been completed. It never was completed.
“This was a written agreement he had with the Culver Crest association.”
Mr. Salkin no longer is a member of the homeowners group.
After the Rocha flap, “I wanted to sue the college,” he said. “Nobody else did, so I quit.”
