Sierra College analysis makes a case for funds

Not since Sierra College was built 46 years ago in the tranquil Sierra foothills have residents of Placer County voted in favor of a bond to maintain or expand it.

The community college district has successfully floated bonds to improve the Grass Valley campus and build a permanent facility in Truckee. But two times in recent years the district has tried to get a bond passed to take care of the mother-ship campus, and the voters keep turning them down.

In a 40-page document that he calls "Sierra College: Community Impact and Funding Shortfall," Sierra board member Bill Martin spells out just how much money he figures the college district could have gotten over the years and just how tattered the campus has become without it.

He concludes that money is needed desperately but that the college has no immediate plans to ask voters to approve bonds to fix up the campus.

"The Board of Trustees and other community leaders must do a better job in making the case for support before we ask for funding again," he writes. "I hope this report will be a contribution to that goal."

This all matters because the college district not only has to improve the main Rocklin campus, it might well have to build another one, given all the students expected in the near future.

By Martin's analysis, Sierra College generates $5 in tax revenue for every $1 spent on its operation. He estimates that with an annual total cost of $100 million to run Sierra, $520 million returns to the public as tax payments.

The taxes are generated by a variety of sources, including the salaries of faculty and staff, student spending and higher earnings of alumni compared with what they would have earned if they had not gone to college.

Sierra does this, by Martin's reckoning, even though it has received about $300 million less over the past dozen years than the average community college district.

Martin writes that Sierra has faced deficits in three kinds of funding: lower-than-average per-student allocations from the state, a paucity of local bond issues and an inability to come up with money to match funds from the state for construction.

"The college functions with an effective faculty that educates students, but it could be so much better," he said in an interview.

On the horizon, he warns, is an even greater challenge: a tidal wave of students in burgeoning western Placer County who will want to attend community college.

Last month, Martin presented his Sierra College study to the board as an informational item.

"It was a very good report," said Sierra Joint Community College District Board President Nancy Palmer. "He has compiled information that has been out there for years."

She said in the 13 years she has been on the board "we have been patching and repairing."

Martin, a retired engineer, spent three months researching and writing his report. He undertook the project because he had the time, analytical training, report-writing experience and a desire to increase public awareness.

"I spent a lot of my life managing technical proposals in industry," he said. "I enjoy doing this work, working with spread sheets and numbers. I want to increase awareness of Sierra's importance so that the next time we ask for support for a bond measure, we have a better chance to pass it."

Elected last November, Martin earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford in electrical engineering, and the equivalent of an MBA from MIT in 1974. A former corporate manager, he is oriented toward gathering data and writing reports.

Retired to the foothills nine years ago from the Bay Area, Martin, 67, attends Sierra College football games and is an ardent follower of Stanford athletics.

He served on the Placer County grand jury in 2006, and during his term the jury prepared a report on Sierra College.

The 20,000-student Sierra College has been battered in recent years by infighting, accusations of money laundering, recall efforts and the ouster of the college president.

About the writer:

• The Bee's Bill Lindelof can be reached at (916) 321-1079 or blindelof@sacbee.com.