San Joaquin Delta College, Calif., trustees yanked funding on Tuesday for a satellite campus in the north county, prompting Lodi advocates to say that after a decadelong wait the community will now seek partnerships with other colleges or universities.
"Due to the level of frustration in our group, this is our final outreach to the Delta board," former Lodi Mayor Mark Chandler said. "We are forced to look elsewhere."
North county community leaders have long argued that they were promised a campus in the Measure L bond approved by voters in 2004. The $250 million bond did contain a lengthy list of projects, which in reality likely topped $1 billion, one trustee said Tuesday.
The bond also contained caveats that some projects might not be completed if growth and enrollment numbers did not go up as expected. Indeed, Delta is struggling with low enrollment right now and would likely have difficulty getting state approval for any new campus.
Those caveats aside, Trustee Steve Castellanos acknowledged on Tuesday that the college and its previous leadership more than one decade ago oversold the bond to the public. His comments were among the most direct that Delta officials have offered on the subject.
"I think we just have to come clean and provide a reason for why we are at this point," he said shortly before Tuesday's vote. "There never was enough money."
Castellanos called the manner in which the bond was promoted more than a decade ago "unfortunate."
"It was wrong in my view. It was in many ways unethical to have done that to try to encourage bond passage, but we are where we are. Hopefully we can keep working together," he said.
Trustees on Tuesday pulled back a total of $15 million that had previously been set aside to start work on a north county campus. They also took back $3 million that had been dedicated to replacing the Clever Planetarium, a project that is now considered unlikely to qualify for additional state funding.
The money that would have gone to the new campus and planetarium will likely be used to fix problems on Delta's existing 40-year-old campus, which is showing its age and still needs work even now that most of the existing bond has been spent. Among other pressing needs are complying with fire safety regulations and improving access for the disabled.
Tuesday's action doesn't mean Delta will never build in the north county. But a campus would require the passage of another bond, which Delta officials have said they will pursue in the coming years. For now the college is offering some classes at existing schools in Galt and Lodi.
Backers of a Lodi campus didn't go down without one last fight. They suggested on Tuesday night that Delta partner with the World of Wonders Science Museum in Lodi. The museum is planning a significant expansion and Delta classes could be offered in its existing classroom during the afternoon and evening, said museum President Sally Snyde.
"We would love to be able to work with Delta and do a collaboration, a partnership because we are a science museum," Snyde said. "The potential we have for classroom space is phenomenal."
But trustees said that the last-minute proposal, while intriguing, had not yet been carefully studied. And the money is needed now on the Stockton campus. The final vote was 5-2 in favor of pulling back the funding, with trustees Carlos Huerta and Catherine Mathis opposed.
Asked about the possibility of partnering with other colleges, Chandler said the Lodi area does not intend to secede from the Delta district as Calaveras County has considered, but will work with other colleges to see if they are interested in establishing their own presence in Lodi.
