The Decision Makers

The seven members of the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees oversee a district with nine campuses and 102,000 students. They are elected to four-year terms in at-large balloting across the city, rather than by geographical district.

Membership on the board is a well-plowed road to higher office. Alumni include former Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr., City Controller Rick Tuttle, former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, county Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles).

Typically, winning candidates enjoy the financial backing of the district’s powerful teachers union. Trustees deny critics’ contentions that such backing has given the union too much control over district matters.

Here is a look at trustees and their campaign contributions from the faculty union:

Elizabeth Garfield, 45, president of the board. An attorney specializing in representing unions and employee benefits plans, Garfield is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Stanford University, where she co-founded the university’s Institute for Research and Gender. Last spring, Garfield led a coup to unseat then-board President Althea Baker for what opponents called a resistance to change. Garfield is married to Assemblyman Wally Knox, a former trustee. She received $74,685 from the teachers union in her two board campaigns.

Gloria Romero, 43, vice president of the board. Romero holds a doctorate in psychology from the University of California and teaches psychology at Cal State Los Angeles. In 1995, she became the first Latina elected to the board--winning without faculty union backing. She did receive $4,000 in campaign donations from the district’s office workers union. She probably will not remain on the college board, having won a state Assembly primary race in June with the backing of the college teachers union. She is expected to win the legislative seat in the November election.

Althea R. Baker, 48. An attorney, mediator and juvenile court referee, Baker, who has a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University, was a longtime employee of the district, working as a teacher, counselor and administrator. In 1985, she served as chief negotiator for the faculty union in its contract talks with the district, going on to win a seat on the board in 1989. The faculty union contributed a total of $114,323 to her last two campaigns.

Kelly G. Candaele, 44. First elected in 1997, Candaele came to the board with a background in teaching and labor. With a master’s degree in counseling and psychology from Cal State Chico, Candaele has taught community college in Nebraska and Los Angeles. An expert in labor relations, Candaele was policy director for the L.A. County Federation of Labor. He is also a writer and documentary filmmaker. One of his films, about his baseball-playing mom, was made into the feature, “A League of Their Own.” The union gave Candaele a total of $72,409 in 1996 and 1997.

David Lopez-Lee, 55. A three-time president of the board of trustees, Lopez-Lee holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cal State Los Angeles and a doctorate from UCLA. Lopez-Lee is a professor of public administration at USC, where he has also been an administrator, and co-founded the Journal of Comparative Cultures. He is president of the board of the statewide organization of community college trustees. In 1995, the faculty union donated $30,420 to Lopez-Lee.

Georgia Mercer, 56. Mercer was appointed by the board in June to fill out the term of the late Kenneth Washington, a controversial move because Althea Baker and other African Americans wanted another black appointed to replace Washington. Mercer, the only San Fernando Valley resident on the board, graduated from Cal State Los Angeles and the UCLA Anderson School of Management executive program. A former teacher, she lost a Los Angeles City Council race last year. The community college teachers union gave Mercer $500 for that contest.

Julia L. Wu, 60. A native of China, Wu has master’s degrees in library science from Immaculate Heart College and in education from Cal State Los Angeles. She was an English teacher at Los Angeles City College and a regional librarian for the county. Wu recently completed a term on the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, an appointment that Wu, a Republican, won from Gov. Pete Wilson. She is active in numerous educational and Asian American groups. She received $30,310 from the faculty union for her 1995 reelection campaign.

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Compiled by Nancy Hill-Holtzman.

Sources: Los Angeles Community College District, state campaign records.