There are four seats on the Lane Community College Board of Education up for election on the May ballot. The seven-member board is responsible for college policies, budget, and oversees programs and services at Lane.
Kat Tabor has been covering the LCC Board election for LCC’s student newspaper The Torch. She spoke with KLCC’s Rachael McDonald:
McDonald: So let's first go over which seats are on the ballot.
Kat Tabor: As you mentioned, we have those 4 seats available.
We have Zone 1, which covers Western Lane County, Zone 3, which covers Springfield, Zone 4, eastern Lane County, and Zone 7, which is an at-large position and is not the 4 year, but the 2-year term.
McDonald: So one of the seats that doesn't have an incumbent running again is Zone 1. Let’s start by talking about the two candidates for that seat.
Tabor: So, there are two running for it. Jerry Rust is a former Lane County Commissioner who's prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion. He's made it clear that he wants to protect immigrants and transgender students and says that he will fight for them directly.
Jeffrey Cooper is another candidate that is going against him. And he is the chief operating officer at Paramount Iron Works. He brings a background in the trades and wants to focus on job readiness and high school outreach. He says he supports equal opportunities for students but doesn't believe that DEI should be a prioritized policy.
McDonald: Well, let's talk about Zones 3 and 4, which do have incumbents running. So who are the incumbents and their challengers?
Tabor: In Zone 3, the incumbent is Julie Weismann. She was appointed last year and focuses on equity, student support, and community partnerships, and she's being challenged by a student, Devon Lawson. His Leadership is very much strong protection of DEI. He has an endorsements from many different politicians and groups across Lane County, and he's directly making a campaign against Julie, which is an interesting take on all of this.
McDonald: And how long has Julie been on the board?
Tabor: Yeah, I think she's been on the board since July. So it's a newer role for her.
McDonald: So and then Zone 4?
Tabor: In Zone 4 the incumbent is Austin Fölnagy. He is running for re-election. He's known for his work with student engagement, workforce training, and he's also the OCCA president, and he's a very vocal community member and he just loves to see student success.
His challenger is Richard Vasquez, and he is a former college trustee from California who focuses on cultural inclusion and equitable access in education, and he works with Singing Creek Education Center, which they do pioneer camps and stuff, so he's on the board for that.
McDonald: So, Zone 7 is interesting because that seat was held by Lisa Fragala, but it sat vacant since she was elected to the state legislature, and there's just one candidate running for that seat. So tell us about him.
Tabor: Yeah, that would be Jesse Maldonado. He was actually the first candidate I interviewed, and he's running as an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon. He's a first generation college graduate and is running for that Zone 7 seat which is only a 2-year term versus all the other positions are 4-year. What makes this race unusual is that Maldonado is now running unopposed. Another candidate, Bob Brew, had initially filed and ran, but officially withdrew just before the deadline and notified The Torch directly on March 8. Both Maldonado and Brew had previously applied to the seat through the board's appointment process after Fragala stepped down.
McDonald: Why was it that the board wasn't able to agree on someone to appoint for that seat when they had the opportunity?
Tabor: Yeah, so it really came down to internal conflict and just some huge breakdowns in the process. The board had agreed on an appointment process, but when it came to time to vote, three members didn't follow through with what they had originally approved. Julie Wiesmann abstained, saying that she believed the decision needed to be left to the voters.
Vice Chair Kevin Alltucker and Zone 5 Representative Steve Mital refused to vote for anyone other than Bob Brew, which is especially interesting now since Brew has officially dropped out of the race.
