SPEAK UP TO SAVE MISSION COLLEGE.

Byline: TONY CARDENAS Local View

AFTER six years of unsuccessfully meeting deadlines, the Los Angeles Community College District and Mission College lost $4.7 million for the campus.

First appropriated in July 1992, the money was to be spent by June 1995. But the college missed the 1995 deadline and was given a two-year extension by the Legislature with approval from the State Chancellor's Office.

Soon after I took my oath of office for the state Assembly in 1996, I learned from sources other than the district or the college administration that the funding was about to expire. I also found out that both the State Chancellor's Office and then-Gov. Pete Wilson's staff did not favor a second extension. They argued that the college did not have it together and they had not seen any progress on this project.

So, I went to work. I was able to obtain a second extension for one year. However, the Governor's Office assured me that there would be no more extensions.

The college promised it would assign a person to work on this project and that it would begin to work with the community on a solution to the problems it had faced in the past.

In early 1998, after seeing no action from the college, again I went to the governor's and the chancellor's offices and pleaded the case for the community's need to expand the campus. I was reminded that I was told that there would be no more extensions.

After weeks of discussion and negotiations, I was able to obtain a fourth extension, which Mission College subsequently squandered. The funding was lost.

This year, knowing that we had to begin at ground zero and that it would be difficult to recapture the nearly $4.8 million through the budget process, I introduced AB 8 to appropriate the money to Mission College.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, and I have been working together to make sure that everyone in Sacramento knows how important this funding is to the people of the northeast San Fernando Valley. While other legislators have opposed our actions, we have persisted.

Last week, after a series of conversations and negotiations, I was able to win the support of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee to set aside the nearly $4.8 million for Mission College to the state budget. The Senate Budget Subcommittee, with Alarcon's direct support and encouragement, also approved the funding to Mission College.

There are still many obstacles to securing this money for the community. Many legislators would rather have the money used for their own colleges.

Mission College's lack of action, direction and community involvement in the past has severely jeopardized the opportunity to expand the campus. Currently, it is unable to meet the demand for classes that this community needs.

Mission College's lack of planning has not only left the community without funding for expansion or a new building, but may make it more difficult to gain future funds for our college.

The residents of the Northeast Valley are the ones who have the most to lose. The future of our children's access to local higher education is at stake. They should not be penalized for the mistakes of the Los Angeles Community College District and Mission College's bureaucracy.

In the next few weeks as AB 8 will be making its way through the legislative process, this community needs to let everyone know how important this college is to us.

It is time for the residents of the Northeast Valley to come together and keep the bureaucrats at the LACCD and the administrators at Mission College focused on a plan of action.

Alarcon and I were elected to fight for our constituents and we are doing what needs to be done to assure that this community does not suffer from the errors of the LACCD and the bureaucrats at Mission College.