It was misting and slightly foggy in an autumnal kind of way this morning when a visitor arrived at one of the handsomest properties on the Westside, the sloping hills of the charmingly green West Los Angeles College campus.
Happily for students, faculty and guests, the campus remains in a state of permanent construction/expansion, giving the layout a futuristic image, that tomorrow will be even better.
Tucked away in a warm, comfortable setting near the top of the campus is the Office of the President, the busiest enclave on the grounds. Seven weeks ago, on Aug. 25, the setting became home to its third occupant in the last 4½ months.
On a chilly day at precisely the appointed hour, Dr. Rose Marie Joyce, attired in a smart black cape, appears in the doorway.
Just as certain factions in Culver City would love to retain Interim Supt. Patty Jaffe on a permanent basis, it is said that Dr. Joyce, whose first name also is Interim, soon may attract a similar rooting section.
Well-coiffed in stylish gray, psychologically snug, direct, no-nonsense and no excess, she looks her questioner in the eye and responds without a single letter of amplification. Elaboration is for long-termers fishing for favor and a new contract. Her term, until the end of next spring, is framed in immutable steel. She has been a community college president before, and it shows. The lady knows how to play president, and make no mistake, the accent only is on the second word.
Was it just a coincidence that an increasingly acrimonious dispute with City Hall and an array of homeowners over construction behavior and not-so-frilly surrounding details were accommodatingly resolved not long after she took office?
“I think there were several factors,” Dr. Joyce said. “There was a new City Manager (John Nachbar) looking at things a little differently. And it was important to incorporate the homeowners’ (groups) with the city instead of having the homeowners negotiate directly (or separately),” getting better organized instead of meeting disparately.
“When there are so many layers, so many interests, and you are trying to find common ground, it is harder if you have representative bodies.
“The second factor was the homeowners. They recognized there were so many diverse interests, even among themselves, that good would come from coming together and working with the city. Certainly the city could leverage and influence more than any one homeowner group.
“Another factor was that I was new. New people can start looking at things differently. It’s not better. It’s just open-up-thinking kind of thing.
“At that point (early to mid-September), too, everyone wanted to settle it. There was a preliminary agreement between the college and the city, but we had not gotten a signoff from the owners. City Council people, of course, are very responsive to their constituents. Council members just wanted to make sure they had been heard. And I think they didn’t think that.”
Even though you may have been headed toward agreement, what about the lawsuit that City Hall filed on the last day allowed by law to declare its protest of the environmental impact report the community college board of trustees had certified? Was the filing just a technicality?
“I think the final factor was the city does not want to spend money on attorneys’ fees. Yes, we had money, but we wanted to use the money to build buildings, not on attorneys. That was also a motivating factor. I talked to the City Manager about it. I told him how we felt about it. He felt the same. I think we were motivated.
“Also, I believe agreement was 95 percent there (when the new leadership entered negotiations). We did not start all over. There were no takebacks. It was really a final finetuning. The document was 95 percent there. The hard work already had been done.”
Was the filing of the lawsuit a legal technicality rather than a full-blown threat or generally divisive matter?
“I don’t think it was a threat. I think the City Council took their action very seriously. Of course they knew it would get our attention. But they had told us before how strongly they felt. I think it was their way of having a backup plan. There was a time deadline. If they didn’t file, they were going to lose any leverage they had, even on that 95 percent document.”
(To be continued)
