It’s Time the Truth Be Told about Rose Marie Joyce, former superintendent of Rio Hondo College and her Forced Retirement.
I certify (or declare) under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct
03/07/18 Gary Mendez
Starting from the beginning, when first elected as president of the board of trustees we were searching for a superintendent/president of Rio Hondo College. We narrowed it down to a finalist, Rose Marie Joyce from Gavilan College in the central valley. I was part of the team that visited Gavilan College to interview board members, staff, faculty, administrators and select community members.
The interviews were 50/50 in favor and anti-Joyce. Joyce explained it before we arrived that some board members made ethnic slurs to her and she considered them ant-Latino. The people who liked her basically said the same thing which was primarily focused on her relationships with Latino groups in the community. However, some board members and staff made bold warnings about her financial management of the district including over spending and exuberant use of lawyers.
I believed Joyce that several board members treated her badly though I never confirmed it. One board member showed me an article in the local paper where Joyce accused a board member of calling her a “wet back. The paper basically took the board members side. I dismissed it. We hired Joyce.
Fast forward four years later. All the warnings the people of Gavilan College started to rear their ugly heads at Rio Hondo College. We experienced a serious drop in enrollment costing us millions of dollars. Our legal bills skyrocketed from $50,000-$100,000 a year to 1.5 million. We lost a jewel of a federal program, the Small Business Development Center of the Small Business Administration to poor oversight and we were placed on warning from the U.S. Department of Education and on the verge of losing our federal financial aid status due to the same lack of oversight and reporting. Morale on campus was at its lowest in years.
Despite the negative environment Joyce’s evaluations from the Board, staff, faculty, students and administrators was a high and on the average 4.5 of a 5 rating consistently for the four years. I thought it unusual because when you talk to people who had to work with her it wasn’t good.
Four years later, I was elected again as president of the board and just before the superintendents’ evaluation. As president of the board it was my responsibility, in practice, to bring up the evaluation with the board. The process changed a bit since the last time I broached a superintendent’s evaluation.
For the four years of Joyce’s tenure one board member volunteered every year to facilitate the superintendent evaluation. I didn’t think much of it. Who wanted the work? We were convinced every year that the lawyer board member of the board should be given the task. He just about insisted.
I went to staff to get some information about the process. What I learned was shocking. The key staff member who administered the process was under direct supervision by superintendent on a daily basis.
When I approached the staff member, in a friendly manner she explained to me that the lawyer board member helps organize the evaluation. When I asked about the campus community evaluation by key leaders she leaned in and told me how the process really works. Thinking I was like minded she begin to tell me that she sent out evaluations to staff, faculty, student and administrators with the last paragraph on the first page of the evaluation was changed around to know who it came from. “We know who turned in each evaluation”, she said. What happens if people are negative, I asked. She said, “We changed the results to keep bad people from skewing the results”. Holly Toledo! Did she just tell me they fix the evaluation? Yes!
I stayed cool and played along to not show my alarm. The next day I called a trusted friend in our state community college association. He advised me that the evaluation process needs to be taken out of the hands of the superintendents secretary and the one board member. It should be done as quietly and unsuspecting as possible. We found an independent consultant who performed superintendent’s evaluations and was a former superintendent.
I managed to get three votes to hire the independent consultant to perform the evaluation thereby taking the process away from the one board member and the superintendent’s secretary and the superintendent herself. The reaction from the one board member and his other ally was visceral.
The superintendent knew something was afoot and it wasn't good for her. However, the process was now in the hands of our independent consultant. Besides the board approving the evaluation instrument and its questions, all evaluations were sent directly to each board member, staff, faculty, student and administrators with a pre addressed stamped envelope to the consultant’s office.
No more fixed evaluations. The lawyer board member was furious.
After all the evaluations were turned in the consultant calculated the scores and added the comments uncensored. I was then sent the first copy via email. Wow. The superintendent’s evaluation scores from staff, faculty, students and administrators on the average went from 4.5 previous years to 2.1. The comments were scathing, blunt, critical and damning. The comments said she was a frequent bully, especially to staff. Her management of administrators was atrocious. It was all bad.
The board evaluation wasn’t any better. The scores went from a 4.5 to a 2.5 and would have been lower if it wasn’t for 5 rating across the board by two board members.
Now it was time to advise the board and post an agenda with the superintendent’s evaluation as a subject in closed session.
I made no mention of the corrupt evaluation practices of the past as to not start a different fight.
The evaluation was handed out in closed session and every board member had time to read and absorb the results. The air was thick of tension. Well, I said, these scores are the lowest in years and lowest of any superintendent of my tenure. We went around and everyone commented. There was only one direction that we all agreed, non renewal of the superintendents’ contract. We did discuss termination if she became an issue. There wasn’t any argument. We all agreed.
We brought in the superintendent and handed her a copy of her evaluation by the board and the staff, faculty, students and administrators. She had a stone cold face almost as though she knew what the results contained and what it meant for her contract. I calmly, diplomatically, and compassionately informed her that the board has agreed that we will not be granting her renewal of her contract.
She sat there stone cold with no reply and turned to her allies on the board and they looked away from her gaze. She had several months on her contract and we asked if she would help us prepare for the colleges search. She made a long pause and said “of course”. The manner was as though she might have the last laugh.
I called boards members at her previous college, Gavilan, because I now believe what they warned us about. I called the board member she accused of calling her racist names. He told me the whole story which became apparent and familiar. He then gave me the phone number of another board member who turned out to be a sitting Superior court judge. He told me all her tricks and deceit tactics. His advice was to minimize the damage on the college although I might sustain the brunt of her lies and damage. But the damage had already begun. Who would believe me? So, i moved forward.
Her response to what just happed was soon to come.
Two days later, Joyce called me to ask me to meet with her in her office. I said sure, thinking nothing of it. She asked me to sit down and she began screaming calling me a scumbag who had no business on a community college board. I was shocked. She continued with insults and I sat and listened. At this point it occurred to me that this person is very angry and vindictive. I need to leave, now!
She screamed to “get the hell out of her office”. I got up and walked away from more of her insults. In a deep voice she said "you don't have the votes to get rid of me". I held three fingers up. Three votes i thought. So, the next day i get a call from another board member telling me the president is accusing me of calling her a b#*ch. The board members who fixed the previous evaluation process were now on the attack.
However, the die had been cast on her fate, she had to leave. With the accusation made against me, she bargained her exit from Rio Hondo College. The two board members secured a third board as a result of the accusation.
The lawyer board member began the process of censure to punish me in public. [it’s now a practice he commits from time to time on the boards he sits on].
I sat at the censure meeting hearing the allegations from the one board member and his newly acquired lawyer friend who was now our lawyer for the district.
I took the lashings. She had to leave. She could no longer destroy our college, I thought. I've taken many physical and mental beatings. This won’t kill me. It will hurt but I did what was right and God knows my heart.
She was now able to negotiate her departure and was now allowed to retire.
This is the short of the big longer story. I will continue to offer this testimony under the penalty of perjury and with a lie detector anytime.
