My perspective on Butte College service to Willows, Orland, Hamilton City, Artois, Princeton and all of Glenn County.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
A message from David Vodden, candidate and incumbent to the Butte College Board of Trustees.
The hot button in Willows in this election is the belief that Butte College has neglected and even rejected Willows when it comes to providing educational opportunities. This is so not true. The college IS looking out for Willows but at a level that accurately represents the need, demand and bigger picture of education for the people of Willows and all of Glenn County. Everyone will nod when they are told that Glenn County isn't getting its money's worth for the $2.1 million dollars in property taxes that go through the State to the college. How would one know or accurately evaluate such a claim? Relating the $2.1 million to the $317,000 the college identifies as the "cost" of operations in Glenn County is misleading and inaccurate. This amount, referring to rental fees, will be increase to over $500k in 2013. Any suggestion that Butte College has failed to live up to its promise to bring more educational opportunities to students, particularly in the Willows area, implies that a moral commitment has been breached. The effect of this suggestion impacts the emotions of a passionate Willows public.
Butte College leadership does think outside the box! It is the ONLY community college with 25,000 solar panels, no PG&E bill and a private bus system to enhance student access to the campus. Included in the bus system are partnerships with Glenn Ride and others to expand this one-of-a-kind service. Outside the box? Absolutely and I agree with this strategy.
It has been suggested that now is a good time for Butte College to find a way to provide more services in Glenn County." No it's not! But who would disagree with such a motherhood and apple pie statement? It has also been suggested that Butte College does not provide the classes Willows and Glenn County students need. What does this mean? We have classes in Willows. We have classes in Glenn County at the Glenn Center. We are adding more classes despite the likely prospect that we will not have the funding to add anything anywhere if Proposition 30 fails. In fact, we will likely be cutting back. But the people who only hear that we have no classes in their home town will simply be upset. This is even worse when the reason given is that the current Butte College Board of Trustees does not want to have classes in Willows. Not true.
I do want to bring more services to Willows, Orland, Hamilton City and Princeton but only based on an intelligent and objective analysis as to the needs and sacrifices that will have to be made to make it happen. It would be nice to have college classes in every town at whatever level makes a small segment of the population happy. But that would be poor decision making and bad management at this time. No one is happy with what they have now. Things can always be better but seeking to make everyone happy can only result in making no one happy and a college that cannot survive. People always want more and they want it their way and they will press their agendas. It is human nature.
One of the reasons some of the other community colleges are on the ropes is that they have fallen victim to the "accommodate everyone" mentality and failed to make the tough decisions. Bad decisions are putting classes on the curriculum that are not well attended, spending resources and time where there is little or no return to the greater needs of the students and acting based on emotion and not good sense, and lacking the ability and willingness to do what is right versus what some noisy small contingent insists upon.
I am disappointed in the use of simplistic emotional appeals absent real life analysis to sell the idea that Butte College is somehow going to rush classes to Willows and create a plethora of on-line classes and do all this in the face of million dollar budget short falls with or without Proposition 30 passing. It's not accurate and it is not going to happen no matter what anyone says. Suggesting that it will and that the only thing preventing this from happening is the Butte College Board of Trustees, is not true.
For the record: the $2.1 million paid in property taxes by the citizens of GLENN COUNTY, not just Willows, is part of the funding of the WHOLE college which provides benefits to people in Willows and the WHOLE COUNTY. The $317,000 identified as the expenses associated with Willows does not include teacher salaries or any portion of the significant overheads that make the WHOLE college possible. This cost will increase to $500,000 + in 2013 without any increase in cost to the citizens of Willows!
Promising the voters solutions that are not on the table in the short run lacks merit. I have said, over and over, that I will seek out these opportunities when they are possible and in the best interests of all who seek an education through Butte College. Can I help create these opportunities? I think so but I am not going to promise that which is not going to happen any time soon just to get votes. I am not willing to do that.
I stand for solid business management of Butte College, focusing on all that the college can do for Butte and Glenn Counties and not capitulating to the tyranny of the minority. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," Spock.
Butte College is well run and has an outstanding administration and Board of Trustees. It is not broken! Making Willows a divisive issue in these times of great need for leadership, vision and hard decision making is the worst thing that could happen. I have never known anyone who was motivated to build a better life through education, who could not get in their car and drive to where ever they had to go in order to achieve their educational goals. I did. And so have many others from Willows and all parts of Glenn County. All who have done so were none the worse for this effort. I would say quite the contrary in fact.
I hope you will vote for me for the Butte College Board of Trustees. I am.
David B. Vodden
President and CEO
Thunderhill Raceway Park
530-934-5588 X-101
| 
