‘Concerned Students and Faculty’ File Complaint With DA’s Public Integrity Division Regarding Pasadena City College

The complaint against PCC address copious and severe concerns and allegations.- Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News

By Terry Miller

In the newspaper business, we routinely get anonymous letters complaining this and that or whatever is on the writer’s mind. As a rule, we will not publish or even acknowledge mysterious diatribes unless there is sufficient cause for public concern or the facts seem viable beyond a reasonable doubt.

This week, we received another in a series of letters complaining about Pasadena City College and many alleged, potentially illegal activities.

The unknown citizens (thanks, W.H. Auden) address copious and severe concerns and allegations ranging from discriminatory practices, improper handling of public funds, conflict of interests, lack of transparency, payroll tampering and more.

The complaint also alleges lack of diversity, illegal practice of law, misuse of public funds and discrimination as well as abuse of power, incorrect record keeping (HRIS System) and incorrect pay among other things.

The author(s) of the letter filed an official complaint with the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Division on Jan. 18. Had anything been wrong, we most certainly would have heard.

Therefore, we contacted the District Attorney’s Office and spoke with Greg Risling in Media Relations, who confirmed the complaint was, in fact, received Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019 by the DA’s Public Integrity Division.

Here, in part, is the letter we received:

January 18, 2019
Los Angeles County
District Attorney’s Office
Public Integrity Division
Alan Yochelson, Deputy DA
211 West Temple Street Ste 1000 Los Angeles, CA 90012
cc: Shiara Davilla-Morales, LA County DA’s Office, Chief Media Relations Teresa Watanabe,

Mr. Yochelsoñ,

We are writing to you with a formal public complaint for a LA County Public Entity: Pasadena City College (PCC).

As a public entity, the revered 95-year-old educational institution is on the precipice of a new president, Dr. Erika Endrijonas starting on Jan. 22, 2019, however we would like to bring to your attention serious concerns about violations of public trust/conflict of interest in order to ensure the institution has a clean start and rids itself of the toxic behavior of its public employees and the associated negative impact on public education.

Over the past 10 years, PCC’s human resources department has unfortunately been operating outside of its neutral purview to instead operate with clear conflicts of interest which impact hiring of employees; promotions (or lack thereof) of diverse faculty / employees; and the effective & neutral processing of student I employee complaints.

• No General Counsel.
• Instead a PCC ‘Employee Relations Officer,’ Charlotte Moore, intakes employee and student complaints and determines next steps. Said employee has a JD and is acting as the campus de facto attorney writing complaint responses for the college despite not being a licensed California attorney nor a neutral party for PCC employee & student complaints (conflict of interest), unauthorized practice of law in violation of California Business & Professions Code 6125 & 6126.
• Ms. Moore befriends student & employees, intakes their complaints, and later takes no action on the matter (s). Despite having her sex life discussed in an Executive Committee by Dr. Rajen Vurdien, Ms. Moore is not a neutral party for student / employee complaints.
• Alternatively, several complaints have been legitimately lodged with the retiring president and Linda Beam regarding Charlotte Moore but no action was taken.
• Other complaints: https://takebackpcc.wordpress.comlintimidation
• No Ombudsman.

On August 2015, PCC was placed on probation and one of the directives from the ACCJC was PCC to install an ombudsman, a neutral party to investigate complaints. According to campus climate surveys released by the PCC Instructional Effectiveness department, over several years PCC’s campus morale was significantly negative due to the inability for campus community I have a neutral party to address valid concerns [sic].

• Concerns about Financial Use of Public Funds.
• Sarah Flores, facilities supervisor, was suspected of using campus public fund specifically the cash ($50,000) collected when recycling campus recyclables; however despite complaints provided to Yuri Perez, human resources (friend [of] Sarah Flores), no action was taken regarding the matter.

Human Resources received several complaints from facilities applicants and current employees regarding Ms. Flores discriminatory hiring practices …

The complaint goes on into considerable detail.

We contacted PCC for comment on the matter:

“Pasadena City College takes these allegations very seriously, and we are committed to investigate any unlawful activity in accordance with law and college policy. Until more information is received about the specifics of these circumstances, we will be unable to comment further,” Alex Boekelheide, PCC spokesperson said in a written statement.

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