Letter to the Editor: In Support of Citrus College Trustee Gary Woods

In response to the campaign that has been mounted to disparage him and remove him from his elected office, I am providing you with this letter of support of Citrus Community College District (CCCD) Trustee Gary Woods. 

In 2009 and 2010, in my capacity as the CCCD’s Chief Institutional Advancement Officer, I worked closely with Trustee Woods, Trustee Edward Ortell, Trustee Joanne Montgomery, Trustee Susan Keith and Trustee Patricia Rasmussen.  During my tenure as the CCCD’s Executive Director of Development and External Relations, I admired Trustee Woods for his decades of dedication to Citrus College and its many stakeholders. 

I believed then and I believe now that Trustee Woods is a public-service-focused, law-abiding elected official who is honest and trustworthy and a person of great integrity who always pursues his duties ethically and fairly, with great propriety and decency.  

After my leadership tenure with the CCCD ended in 2010, I went on to complete my doctorate in Educational Leadership and serve as a Vice President of Student Services at an ACCJC-accredited community college, as a Vice President of Planning and Institutional Development at an ACCJC-accredited community college and as President and Chief Executive Officer of an accredited community college. 

Because of my educational and professional training, my decades of leadership experience in higher education, and the challenge to my leadership that I faced during my tenure as the CCCD’s Chief Institutional Advancement Officer, I believe I understand the context for the campaign that is being waged against Trustee Woods and I am well qualified to shed additional light on the motivations for the current orchestrated effort to challenge the legitimacy of his elected office.  

Based on my professional experience and understanding of applicable laws, as well as advice from legal counsel, I took two particular positions during my CCCD leadership tenure that I believe displeased the current (and then) CCCD Board of Trustees majority and the CCCD’s Chief Executive Officer, which ultimately resulted in my departure from the CCCD.  In response to positions he has taken,

I believe Trustee Woods is being faced with departure-goal-focused opposition motivated by the same inability to accept opposing perspective I faced during my CCCD leadership tenure.  Instead of governing through collegiality and by collaboration, I believe this is governance through domination and by fracture.  

To summarize two attenuated fact patterns, during my CCCD leadership tenure, on legal and ethical grounds, I opposed and strongly advised against a fund-raising and 50-50 profit-sharing initiative an elected CCCD Board of Trustees member wished to pursue through the Citrus College Foundation, an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) body, and based on my understanding that it is a violation of IRS non-profit organization autonomy requirements, I strongly advised that the Citrus College Foundation’s Board of Directors no longer include a large number of paid CCCD employees, including an elected Board of Trustees member, as voting Board members.  

As someone who knows the CCCD and the context well, I believe Trustee Gary Woods is a public-service-focused elected official who is honest and who always upholds his responsibilities and pursues his duties to the CCCD ethically and legally. 

I believe the campaign to remove Trustee Woods from his elected office is motivated by people who disagree with the positions he has taken as a CCCD Board of Trustees member—and that is just wrong. 

If you disagree with Trustee Woods, do not vote with him or do not vote for him, but please do not challenge his integrity, his ethics, or his adherence to the law.  The record and Trustee Woods’ record of exemplary service to the Citrus Community College District speak for themselves.  

Sincerely,

Rafe Edward Trickey, Jr., Ed.D.