Recall campaign at district falters

Opponents of college trustee fail to gather enough signatures before deadline but vow to try again.The campaign to recall Coast Community College District trustee Armando Ruiz hit a stumbling block Monday, as the petitioners failed to gather enough signatures to force a special election.

However, those in charge of the campaign said they are ready to start round two.

In May, a group of 20 community members -- including fellow trustee Jerry Patterson, political consultant David Kidd and Share Our Selves founder Jean Forbath -- began circulating a petition to remove Ruiz from the board. Ruiz offended many last year when he retired from the board of trustees and then ran again as an incumbent, a move that reportedly boosted his retirement pension.

The petitioners, who have dubbed their campaign Recall Ruiz, needed about 36,000 signatures by Monday to force the special election. They came up short, although Kidd would not say by how much. Brett Rowley, a spokesman for the Orange County Registrar of Voters, said no signatures had been turned in to him by Monday.

Kidd, who is spearheading the campaign, said his group would start the process again.

“This is like day one,” said Kidd, who noted that he was on his way to the Registrar of Voters to obtain the necessary paperwork.

Ruiz, a Coast district trustee since 1984, denounced the campaigners’ efforts and said he did not expect to be recalled even in the event of a special election.

“I really have no comment,” he said. “I think it’s ridiculous that they want to spend $800,000 of taxpayers’ money on a special election. It’s just harassment by Jerry Patterson and his group.”

Patterson did not return calls seeking comment. The new signature campaign against Ruiz will follow the same format as the first one, except that Kidd and the other petitioners will enlist paid signature gatherers rather than volunteers. The campaigners will still be able to solicit signatures only in the area covered by the Coast district, but they may accept money from outside sources.

“I expect the same body of support, only amplified dramatically,” Kidd said.

Last October, Ruiz retired from two jobs on the same day -- one his part-time post on the board of trustees, the other a full-time counseling position in the South Orange County Community College District -- and, through a legal technicality, secured a full-time pension for both jobs. Four days later, he won reelection to the board of trustees, listed on the ballot as an incumbent.

Ruiz’s pension for both jobs reportedly totals more than $100,000, in addition to his ongoing salary as a trustee.

Although his opponents have been vocal over the last few months, Ruiz does have supporters in the Coast district community. Kevin Parker, the academic senate president of Orange Coast College, said he believed Ruiz’s transgressions were too minor to warrant a recall.

“While I think he was negligent in not making more public his actions, I didn’t see how doing what he did was unethical since it was perfectly legal,” Parker said. “I’ve seen some fairly expensive things done by this board that are far more serious to my mind.”

As an example, Parker cited the sale of KOCE-TV to the station’s foundation, an action that has led to an ongoing court battle. Parker believed the district should have sold the station to the Daystar Television Network, which made a higher cash bid.