Features

Peralta Trustees Spar Over Planning Proposals By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday January 28, 2005

A sharply-divided Peralta Community College Trustee board this week narrowly approved Chancellor Elihu Harris’ request to authorize a Facility Land Use Plan. The decision followed a contentious debate. 

By a four-three vote (Cy Gulassa, Bill Withrow, and Nicky Gonzáles Yuen, no) trustees authorized Harris to enter into a six-month, $45,000 no-bid contract with Scala Design & Development company of Oakland to complete a Land Use Report for the district. 

The board had tabled approval of the proposed contract at its Dec. 14 meeting after Trustee Gonzáles Yuen requested that the proposal be first vetted through Facilities Committees from the district’s four colleges. 

Director of General Services Sadiq Ikharo told trustees that a survey of stakeholders from the district since the Dec. 14 meeting—including Facilities Committees, Academic Senates, Student Associations, and College Presidents from the four colleges—showed that “98 percent of all comments were not positive.” 

Ikharo said that the major complaints throughout the district were that the Facility Land Use Plan was being rushed through too quickly, and that the district should set some overall goals and objectives before moving forward with land-use issues. 

Trustees rejected an amendment by Trustee Gonzáles Yuen to establish a district-wide facilities committee chaired by a faculty member, as well as arguments by Trustee Gulassa that the Scala contract might conflict with a strategic planning group currently being formed by trustees, faculty, and district staff. 

Debate over the issue was sometimes bitter, with trustees interrupting each other and charges of possible racism and sexism by district employees. 

The contract negotiation approval came after Scala principal Atheria Smith asked trustees why district staff required her to submit 45 copies of her resume, and asked ethnic background and places of birth of her staff members. 

“Other vendors with much larger contracts are not asked to do this,” Smith said. While Smith did not offer any reason why her firm may have been singled out for special scrutiny, Trustee Hodge suggested that the actions might have been taken for “gender and race” reasons. Smith is African-American. 

And referring to the Scala contract controversy, Trustee Alona Clifton said that “there have been unconscionable things taking place in the past few weeks. Things that are absolutely unacceptable. Attacks on potential contractors and attacks on private citizens.” 

In answer to Smith’s complaint, Gulassa said that her firm was getting extra scrutiny “because we’re in a very sensitive area after the controversy over the Dones contract.” 

The Dones reference was to a proposed one-year contract with Oakland developer Alan Dones’ Strategic Urban Development Alliance (SUDA) to produce a development plan for certain Laney College properties and the adjacent Peralta administrative offices. Over the objections of some incoming board trustees and Laney College representatives who said they had not been consulted, the outgoing board at its final meeting last November authorized Chancellor Harris to negotiate the contract with SUDA. Last month, Harris announced that he had not moved forward with the SUDA contract negotiations because of the controversy, and because he thought such negotiations “premature.” 

At Tuesday’s trustee meeting, SUDA representatives said they were working to repair the damage caused by the controversy and to get the contract back on track. 

SUDA associate James Collier said that SUDA representatives was making contact with administration, faculty and staff, and student body representatives from Laney, and would soon be “making presentations looking for feedback” concerning the land development proposal. 

“Our development team’s proposal does not involve development of any of the athletic fields at Laney College,” he explained, stating that the proposal was limited to the Laney parking lot and maintenance facilities as well as the nearby Peralta District headquarters. 

Speakers at the November trustee meeting had focused most of their complaints about the proposed Laney College athletic field development portion of the plan. 

In a telephone interview following the meeting, SUDA principal Dones said that, in fact, he never intended to develop the Laney athletic fields since the fields are “constrained by a BART tunnel that runs underneath.” 

Dones also took responsibility for failing to consult Laney representatives about the proposal before it was introduced at the November trustee meeting. 

“That was an oversight on my part,” he said. “I was involved in some other meetings and activities, and did not get it done. But it’s very important—from my perspective—that the Laney College family be informed and completely engaged in any development plan at Laney. I’m not so arrogant than I think I know more than Laney people about what should be done at their college.” 

In his interview, Dones took issue with recent newspaper reports—one of them published in the Daily Planet—linking his proposal with State Senate Majority Leader Don Perata (D-Oakland). A Dec. 17 Daily Planet article revealed that SUDA principal Calvin Grigsby of San Francisco had close ties with the Senator. Dones called those references “ironic and unfortunate.” 

“Although I know Senator Perata and I like him, I’m not one of Don’s everyday people,” Dones said. “I don’t think any relationship between us is relevant to this contract. I’d like to be able to argue the merits of our proposal, without people getting distracted by all these other aspects.”