CCSF chancellor hopeful had misused funds
City College of San Francisco trustees were expected to appoint the school’s 10th chancellor in 12 years on Thursday night, and one of the three contenders for the interim position was a former chancellor who pleaded guilty to felony misuse of funds in 2011, the Chronicle has learned.
The former chancellor, Philip Day, could not immediately be reached for comment. City College trustees did not comment because they don’t discuss search processes as a matter of policy.
As of Friday, the trustees had not announced their selection.
Also under consideration for the job were Mitchell Bailey and Rosa Perez, who are both education consultants. Bailey served from 2016 to 2022 as a vice chancellor in the San Mateo Community College District, which oversees three colleges. Perez served as chancellor of the San Jose-Evergreen Community College District from 2005 to 2010.
Sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed the candidates’ names to the Chronicle but asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak. The newspaper granted them anonymity under its confidential sources policy.
Bailey also served as the chief of staff to Ron Galatolo, the exchancellor of the San Mateo Community College District, who is battling multiple felony counts of misusing public funds. During her tenure in San Jose, Perez came under scrutiny over some of her expenses, but an investigation by an independent law firm found them to be legitimate.
City College is seeking a new leader because Chancellor David Martin, although embraced by the fiscally pragmatic trustees who hired him, found opposition in the newer, union-backed majority that opposes the faculty and class cuts Martin imposed. He expects to leave when his contract expires on June 30 and has lined up a new job in Placer County.
Thursday night’s agenda listed two actions for the trustees’ closed session: appointing an interim chancellor and “public employee dismissal/discipline/release.” It’s unclear whether the trustees voted to fire Martin and pay him severance as required under his contract, or allow him to serve out his contract.
The trustees’ pushback against the chancellor’s efforts to keep college spending in line with revenue led the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges to sanction City College in January. The school’s financial outlook is also expected to get worse next year without a significant enrollment boost.
The scenario makes it difficult to attract a new, permanent leader, the sources said. On April 25, the trustees approved hiring a Washington, D.C., search firm, ABG, but authorized no budget for it. Board President Alan Wong did not respond to a request for comment about the expected cost of the search.
Sources said the search for a permanent chancellor could take at least a year and that the trustees identified interim candidates without help from a search firm. The new interim chancellor will be the college’s sixth temporary leader since 2012.
Day was chancellor of City College from 1998 to 2008. In 2011, he admitted that he had diverted $100,000 intended for the college into campaigns for bond measures. As part of a legal deal, Day pleaded guilty to three felony counts, paid $30,000 in fines and was sentenced to five years of probation. State law prohibits using public funds for political purposes.
Day’s lawyer, Cris Arguedas, said at the time that the charges against Day would be reduced to misdemeanors after the former chancellor paid the fines and restitution to City College.
As for the crime itself, “no money was used for the benefit of Phil Day,” she said. “It was all used for the benefit of City College.”
During Bailey’s tenure with the San Mateo district, he served under Galatolo, who has pleaded not guilty to more than 20 felony counts of misusing public funds, including allegations that he awarded construction contracts in exchange for gifts, benefits and free work on his personal properties.
There have been no allegations of wrongdoing against Bailey. His boss was placed on administrative leave in 2019 and was fired in 2021. The case is making its way through San Mateo County Superior Court.
Bailey did not return requests for comment.
Perez stepped away from her duties with the San Jose-Evergreen district in 2009, citing her health, according to coverage at the time in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
A 2009 story in the San Jose Mercury News reported that the college district had hired a law firm for an independent investigation because Perez had “charged the district and its foundation for lavish perks that included overnight stays at San Jose’s luxury Fairmont Hotel, a tour of El Salvador and airfare to Scotland.”
The newspaper also found that in the four years after Perez took over, “her salary has jumped 48 percent to $293,000 a year.” The salary of Perez’s partner, a district administrator hired two months after Perez got the top job, rose by 35%.
The Business Journal reported in May 2010 that the investigation had “largely cleared” her of allegations of financial improprieties. But the firm that conducted the probe expressed concerns that Perez’s joint ownership of a home with an employee under her supervision “potentially violated conflict of interest laws.”
Perez said she believes the allegations against her were “racist and homophobic,” as she is a lesbian. She said she paid out of her own pocket to visit El Salvador, in order to learn more about students who were deported there. Although she did not personally pay for the Scotland trip, she said it was educational in nature because low-income youngsters were connected with social services that enabled them to succeed in the long run.
Regarding the shared property with an employee, Perez said that, although the rules have changed, “it was not considered illegal.”