| Los Angeles County, CA | March 8, 2005 Election |
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Environmentally Sustainable Campus Buildings & Addressing Nurse ShortagesBy Mark GonzagaCandidate for Member of the Board of Trustees; Los Angeles Community College District; Office 4 |
This information is provided by the candidate | |
I have been an environmentalist since the age of 10. As a life-long environmentalist, I will ensure the 48 proposed new buildings as a result of funding from Propositions A and AA are environmentally sustainable.I will be an advocate to the people and to the environment by stopping the fraud, waste, and abuse so embedded in the awarding of contracts under Propositions A and AA. The incumbents are fiscally irresponsible. They're not managing the $1 Billion entrusted to their care, or the $3 Billion they oversee for construction contracts. According to the association of Certified Fraud Examiners, organizations lose 6% of their annual revenues to operational fraud and abuse + 6% of Proposition A and AA funds equal $120,000,000. Fraud and abuse occurs because the trustees aren't paying attention to what's happening at the community colleges. The union complains that contractors are using classified staff to do the work contracted under Propositions A and AA, preventing classified staff from doing their regular work, leaving classrooms and offices unsanitary and unsafe for students and employees. Why is this happening? Because the incumbents are part-time administrators who lack the power, the passion, and the know-how to protect our community colleges. These part-time administrators fail to create effective strategic alliances with business executives or unions, even though past budget cuts have given them ample warning about their weak political standing. Community colleges hung a big "kick me" sign on their backs years ago and, judging from the governor's actions, it's still there. I have inspected all nine of the Los Angeles Community College campuses and interviewed most of the presidents. Most of the staff, teachers and students at the Los Angeles Community Colleges have never seen nor met the current Board of Trustees yet they have met and spoken to me. As a fresh voice on the board and because I am competent, qualified and dedicated, I will continue to be visible and accessible to staff, teachers and most importantly, the students whom we serve. LA County desperately needs nurses and the community colleges, our greatest source of training for professions sorely needed in our community, can provide them. Already the Community Colleges employ 70,000 people, contribute an income of $3 Billion back to communities and educate 75% of all college students in California. The community colleges provide the bulk of nurses to an already devastated health community. As a trustee, I will work to ensure our community colleges produce quality nurses to relieve the immense nurse shortage and reduce nurse to patient ratio in our public and private hospitals. Already nurses are overwhelmed by a 5 to 1 patient to nurse ratio and in fact, California Law states the ratio must not be more than 4 to 1 but our governor has chosen to ignore that law resulting in forced inferior care to patients. I believe the shortages of nurses specifically contributed to the problems at the King Drew Medical Center where the prized trauma center is to be closed as well as the neonatal unit and the geriatric center. These units would have a chance to survive and help the people in the most disadvantaged area of Los Angeles flourish if we had qualified nurses. The community colleges can produce those qualified nurses and have done so for the past 20 years. |
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Created from information supplied by the candidate: February 28, 2005 14:53
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