PIERCE PRESIDENT TO TRY TO KEEP OPEN SPACE.

Byline: Tony Knight Daily News Staff Writer

Pierce College President E. Bing Inocencio, taking a public position on the school's farm for the first time, says he may not be able to save the flagging agricultural programs but will work to keep the campus' 240 acres as open space.

The remarks of the president, who has been in office 15 months, come at a time when community forces are rallying to save the farm and accusing the college administration of trying to slowly strangle it out of existence.

But Inocencio, who is facing a $4.8 million operating deficit this academic year, said farm jobs are shrinking nationally, while the college's agriculture programs are running a $322,300 deficit.

``I think we can keep the open space without propping up a program that has been shrinking,'' Inocencio said in an interview late Thursday after a meeting on the subject with City Councilwoman Laura Chick.

``There is a vision for open space, but not necessarily tied to one academic program. You can have both open space and no agriculture department.''

The future of the 50-year-old Pierce College farm has been the focus of a long controversy, with the community leaders in the southwest San Fernando Valley fearing that the cash-strapped Los Angeles Community College District would sell off the coveted open space for development adjacent to Warner Center.

Inocencio said he did not have a specific plan to preserve the open space, but expressed hope that one could be developed in cooperation with college and community leaders.

He said he has not taken a position on whether to support a controversial golf driving range proposed for part of the farmland, but said he remained open to the idea, which could generate $150,000 annually in revenues for the school.

He said his immediate and highest priority is to stabilize the school's shaky financial position by finding new sources of outside revenue. Financial instability was one of the main reasons the school almost lost its accreditation last year, he said.

State funding based on enrollment in agricultural classes is only $263,000 this year, but it's costing $585,000 to run the agricultural department, he said.

``How long do we continue with this unhealthy situation in finance especially when our accreditation situation is not stable?'' Inocencio said.

Supporters of the farm said they plan to launch an all-out battle to save the it and convince the administration to seek financial aid from the agricultural industry and other outside sources.

The Coalition to Save the Farm, recently enlisted the formal aid of the Los Angeles County Farm Bureau and the Topanga-Las Virgenes Resources Conservation District in a new drive to find $5 million in private donations to establish a foundation that would support the farm.

``We want to keep working through channels and give Dr. Inocencio a chance to respond, but if he doesn't, we're going to go ahead on our own,'' said Margo Murman, chairwoman of the coalition.

Much is at stake for the surrounding community. The Pierce farm offers a broad expanse of bucolic rolling hills in the shadow of Warner Center.

The San Fernando Valley is chronically short of open space and parklands and area homeowners have vowed never to allow the Warner Center office development to cross De Soto Avenue eastward to the farmlands.

``We are demanding that none of these lands ever be used for anything other than educational uses,'' said Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Association. ``They've already made up their minds to deep-six everything, and it's going to take the public to change their minds.''

Inocencio said that at Chick's urging he has agreed to seek a community meeting to discuss the future of the farm. He said he would ask Los Angeles Community College District Board President Althea Baker to host the meeting on the college's Woodland Hills campus.

Chick, whose district includes the college and farm, said she was encouraged by the meeting with Inocencio and other college leaders as well as a separate meeting with community members fighting to save the farm.

She said she would seek to co-host a community meeting with Baker, and while acknowledging that the final decision would be in the hands of the college trustees, she said she hoped to influence the final outcome.

Baker could not be reached Friday.

``What I absolutely know is there are no done deals,'' Chick said. ``There are no final decisions about what is going to be done at Pierce College.''

Supporters of the farm maintained that the farm bureau and interests in the agricultural, veterinary and horticultural industries would lend broad support to the college to preserve the farm as a unique educational resource.

And they maintain that the college could attract hundreds of students from throughout the county to seek a two-year degree before transferring to four-year agriculture programs in Riverside, Davis and San Luis Obispo.

``They keep saying where's the money,'' Murman said. ``Hey, where's the positive attitude that I can use to go out to the community and the agricultural industry to get the money?''

George St. Johns, publisher of Woodland Hills-based American Small Farm Magazine, said the farm could be modernized and turned into a money maker if the administration has the will to do so.

``It's criminal the way that place has been handled,'' St. Johns said, noting that the college through a bidding mix-up lost the rental income from Cicero Farms, which operated a produce stand at the corner of De Soto and Victory Boulevard.

``When you're a CEO, you're supposed to get up out of your chair and make things happen,'' St. Johns said. ``They just sit around and complain that they don't have any money. ''

Farm supporters point out that 11 percent of the national gross cash receipts for farming come from California's 80,000 farms, and that there are many urban jobs in the industry with flower growers and veterinarians.

Bing cited published reports that agricultural employment is the ninth-fastest-shrinking job sector in the economy as farmland is consolidated by agribusiness and farming is modernized.

He said any plan for the farm has to be considered in this context and the fact that $4.8 million must be trimmed from the budget this year.

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Map: PIERCE COLLEGE - Woodland Hills