Delta College has big decisions ahead

By Alex Breitler
Record Staff Writer
July 15, 2008 6:00 AM

STOCKTON - The tough decisions begin tonight.

San Joaquin Delta College's $250 million voter-approved bond will not go nearly as far as officials had hoped. A majority of the projects are over budget, and the Board of Trustees must make tens of millions of dollars in cuts.

College administrators recommended Monday that 10 projects receive an infusion of $30 million to get them out of the red. That leaves less money for other improvements.

If the college's Board of Trustees approves the plan tonight, about $65 million in bond money will remain to build satellite campuses in Mountain House, Lodi and Manteca. The Mountain House campus alone, as originally designed, would cost somewhere shy of $90 million, a college consultant said Monday, meaning cuts are inevitable.

"We all agree this is what we should do," said Lee Belarmino, a Delta administrator heading a new team appointed this spring to oversee Measure L expenditures.

At a workshop in June, college trustees were told that the college is $62.5 million short of paying for all of the projects outlined in the bond. Officials blamed bad estimates, which did not account for inflation and in some cases did not include money for furniture and other necessities.

The San Joaquin County civil grand jury blasted the board last month for wasting bond money, in particular by choosing a Mountain House campus over a proposal to build in Tracy.

Administrators on Monday morning recommended funneling some of the remaining bond money into infrastructure improvements, a student services building that already is under construction, and, most significantly, a math and science center that is well over budget. The center is funded in part with about $30 million from the state, a sum the college loses if it drops the project.

Trustee Ted Simas said it appeared the Mountain House campus would be cut to bits and the Lodi campus delayed until 2013.

"When in the hell are we going to consider the students of this district?" Simas asked of administrators.

Belarmino said the recent cost estimates are not guesses and are more precise than earlier figures.

"We are all motivated, believe me, to get this done right," he said.

President Raul Rodriguez said the decision to put extra bond money into projects on the Stockton campus did not mean the college was moving away from its plan for campuses in other communities.

It may be a matter of paring down Mountain House. "We weren't going to be able to build the Taj Mahal there," he said.

And, Rodriguez said, "We don't want to completely abandon Lodi."

Administrators said they will take more time to decide how the remaining $65 million should be shared among the three proposed campuses.

At Mountain House, it is already too late to turn back on an interim campus of portables, meant to serve students there until a permanent building can be constructed. But in a new wrinkle disclosed Monday, college officials apparently never applied for a streambed alteration permit with the Department of Fish and Game.

It is unclear if this will delay the project, bond consultant Kathy Roach said. A delay of as long as three months is possible if the state requires the college to get such a permit, she said.

Meanwhile, bids to renovate the college library had to be put off because of a lack of coordination between two different designers of the building. That will delay completion about three months.

Administrators recommended one building be canceled entirely, a district support services center that would have housed police, financing and other departments. Nearly $1.5 million already has been spent on that $10 million project.

Trustee Maria Elena Serna said she was anxiously waiting to see what options administrators would suggest for Mountain House, Manteca and Lodi. She said the college has been "visionary" in trying to meet expected growth in students, by refurbishing the existing campus and then growing outward.


ON TONIGHT'S AGENDA

Delta College's Board of Trustees will decide tonight whether to beef up bond funding for the following:

• Math and science center (needs $22.9 million)

• Infrastructure (needs $2.7 million)

• Student services building (needs $1.9 million)

• Police portables (needs $1.3 million)

• Title IX compliance for sporting facilities (needs $869,000)

• District data center (needs $789,000)

• Atherton Auditorium safety (needs $476,000)

• Football, track and softball field parking (needs $275,357)

• Planetarium safety project (needs $22,000)

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the school's administration building, 5151 Pacific Ave., Stockton.

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