Delta no-go

Written by Jennifer Wadsworth
Friday, 08 August 2008

The city of Tracy still wants to host Delta College’s south county campus, but the school’s president says that’s just not possible.


Delta College again rejected an offer by the city of Tracy to locate a south county satellite campus on this parcel of land just east of town. Press file photo
San Joaquin Delta College has rejected an offer from City Manager Leon Churchill to reconsider setting up a satellite campus in eastern Tracy instead of in Mountain House.

In a letter sent mid-July, Churchill asked Delta president Raul Rodriguez to sign on as part of a multi-college complex proposed for city land near 11th Street and Chrisman Road.

"I’m disappointed," Churchill said Friday of the college’s refusal. "I think the college has a unique opportunity to correct what we think is a wrong decision, and I would hope that they have better quantitative skills, because we think we offered a superior option."

It wasn’t the first time the city has asked to partner with the Stockton-based community college. Three years ago, the city offered to give the college 108 acres and promised to cover the costs for fees and roads.

City officials and some council members said they weren’t surprised the college rebuffed the offer.

"It’s more political than anything," said Amie Parker of the city’s development and engineering department. "They’ve never been really open to the idea."

Tracy has yet to secure anything more than spoken interest from a few colleges for the planned east Tracy campuses, Churchill wrote in the letter, so plans are still open for an east Tracy Delta campus.

Churchill touted the city’s commitment to higher education and urged Rodriguez to look into the benefits of the Tracy site before finalizing plans for a south county campus.

Electricity, plumbing and other work to get the Tracy land ready for an 85,000-square-foot college building would cost about $3.2 million, according to the city.

The city offered to sell the land directly to Delta or to a private, already contracted company, which would take over building and sell the finished campus back to the school after construction.

In the meantime, the college would also be welcome to set up its already-ordered portable classrooms at the Tracy site, the letter invited.

"At this point, many options are available," Churchill offered.

He asked, if anything, that the college place the offer on the next Delta board of trustees agenda as a discussion item.

The college refused that, too.

Rodriguez wrote that the Measure L bond team decided that "it is not feasible from just about any perspective to consider scrapping the plans at Mountain House for another location," Rodriguez wrote back two weeks later. "The college has simply too much invested in planning, infrastructure and partnerships to consider any other options."

The college has $64 million to spend on satellite campuses in Lodi, Manteca and Mountain House. A few months ago, the Mountain House campus alone was slated to cost $94 million.

Tracy also offered to build a place to house Delta’s heavy equipment and diesel technology department, which the college planned to build in Manteca.

Rodriguez wrote that Delta will consider renovating the existing Stockton department instead. But he said the college is still unsure if it even has enough money to do that.

To pull out of Mountain House would send the public a mixed message, Rodriguez continued, and would oppose the direction given by both the college’s administrative staff and governing board.

Councilman Steve Abercrombie echoed city officials’ lack of surprise.

"There’s more stuff going on behind the scenes that we’re not privy to," he said. "You have to wonder if maybe they ought to stop and take a good look at what the actual bottom line is."
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