December 18, 2007

Gov. makes new board appointments after confirmation fight

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the appointment of two new members of the Community College Board of Governors on Tuesday, filling open seats after Senate Republicans refused to confirm his prior nominees earlier this year.

In June, the appointments of Kay L. Albiani, Rose Castillo-Guilbault and John Koeberer stalled on the Senate floor after passing through the Rules Committee with a bipartisan 4-0 vote.

Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, voted for the trio in Rules, but afterward learned that they supported Sen. Gil Cedillo's" California Dream Act," which would make illegal immigrants eligible for state financial aid and to pay resident fees at community colleges.

He fired off a memo to the Senate GOP caucus urging his colleagues to vote down the nominees. Board appointees require a two-thirds vote of the Senate, or 27 senators, meaning at least two Republicans must support confirmation.

The nominees were never taken up. (Read more here.)

In the months since, two of those board appointees, Castillo-Guilbault, a Democrat, and Koeberer, a Republican, have had their terms expire.

Only Albiani, who serves as president of the board of governors, remains. But her term is set to end on Jan. 15, when her one-year clock on service without confirmation expires. There has been no movement toward confirmation in the Senate.

Rachel Cameron, a spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “The governor stands behind his appointments and we will have to wait and see what happens.”

Today, Schwarzenegger appointed two new members Robert V. McDonald, a Republican and executive director for the Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, as well as Alicia Perez, a manager for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Both are Republicans. (Technically, Perez is filling Koeberer’s seat, while McDonald is filling a different vacancy.)

Posted by Shane Goldmacher on December 18, 2007 12:10 PM