A member of the Ventura County Community College District governing board publicly apologized on Dec. 16 for trying to get district employees fired for alleged improper political advocacy.
The apology by Trustee Joe Piechowski, who represents the Simi Valley and Moorpark areas on the board, was related to a series of public records requests he made to the district office in August, and a social media post in which he appeared to urge people to attend a board meeting and call for certain employees “to be terminated.”
“Despite my best efforts to be fair and bipartisan, I understand how my actions could cause concern and fear of retaliation among district employees,” Piechowski said during the board’s Dec. 16 meeting, reading from prepared remarks. “Regardless of my intentions, I recognize that the impact of my actions is what matters. I take responsibility for my actions, and I sincerely apologize.”
In his public records requests, Piechowski asked for emails to and from the account for the Ventura College Classified Senate. The Classified Senate is the leadership group for non-teaching staff members, referred to as “classified” employees.
Piechowski was looking for emails sent in response to a message that went out July 14 from the Ventura College Classified Senate to all classified staff members at the college. It was sent a few days after the immigration raid on Glass House Farms near Camarillo, with the subject line “A Call to Action: Supporting Our Community in Challenging Times.”
The message was posted online a month later, as part of the Classified Senate’s routine report to the district board. It included links to seven organizations that it said “provide essential support to families in need,” and urged recipients to donate or volunteer.
At the top of the list was a link to the Ventura County Democratic Party. The list also included immigrant-focused nonprofits such as VC Defensa and 805 UndocuFund.
Piechowski, a conservative Republican who has been executive director of the Ventura County Republican Party, considered the local Democratic Party’s presence on the list to be a violation of a district policy that prohibits “political activity during an employee’s working hours.”
Piechowski requested emails sent in response to the “Call to Action” message, as well as emails from other faculty and staff leaders that included the terms “Democrat” and “Republican” and variations like “VCDems” and “VCGOP.”
Trustee’s call to ‘terminate’ district employees
Employee emails at government agencies like the college district are available to the public under the California Public Records Act, and the district provided scores of emails in response to Piechowski’s requests.
The Community College District also provided Piechowski’s requests to The Star, along with the emails he received in response.
The “Call to Action” received only a few direct responses. The other emails with terms like “Republican” and “Democrat” were mostly newsletter articles, or updates from college administrators on political topics such as President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut certain research and education grant funding, or the effects of immigration enforcement on colleges.
After Piechowski made his public records requests, but before the district provided the records, he made a post on the social media site Nextdoor. Screenshots of his post were included in a joint statement from the academic senates of all three of the district’s colleges, condemning Piechowski’s actions.
“CAUGHT!!!” he posted. “Ventura College employee used District email to solicit funds for the Ventura County Democratic Party.”
Piechowski wrote that this was “a brazen violation” of the district’s policy against using district resources or employee time for political activity. He urged “everyone who can come” to attend the board’s Aug. 12 meeting to call for the Ventura College Classified Senate president and other senate board members “to be terminated.”
The topic did not come up at the Aug. 12 meeting.
Policy violations alleged
The academic senates statement said that Piechowski had violated a number of district policies as well as the board’s code of ethics. The district’s policies state that the board delegates to the district chancellor all authority over personnel actions, and that the chancellor is answerable only to the board as a whole, during public meetings, not to individual board members.
Piechowski did not directly admit to violating board policies, but he did say “I understand how my actions could be construed as being in contrary” to those policies.
“While the law provides that I have the same rights as any citizen to request public records, I would not use information obtained from district records to target, intimidate, investigate or retaliate against district employees,” he said.
Piechowski also said he would participate in training from the Community College League of California regarding the proper role of an elected trustee, and would work collaboratively with his fellow trustees, “respecting the collective decision-making process.”
Piechowski did not respond to an interview request. Other trustees and district officials would not speak with The Star about his apology. Leaders of the union that represents the district’s classified workers also declined to comment.
Lisa Putnam, the district’s executive director for operations, said in an email interview that the board and its attorney discussed Piechowski’s statement in a closed board session, without any district administrators present.
‘This is why we have unions’
Erin Marquez-Lawley, a professor of health and kinesiology at Oxnard College, attended the Dec. 16 meeting and said the next day that she didn’t think Piechowski’s apology was genuine. She is a member of the Oxnard College Academic Senate but is on sabbatical this year and stressed that she was speaking only on her own behalf.
“He essentially doubles down in his, quote-unquote, apology,” she said. “He’s saying, ‘I would not use information from district records to target anyone,’ but that’s exactly what he did do.”
If Piechowski suspected employees of violating district policy regarding political advocacy, there are procedures to investigate that, Marquez-Lawley said, and they don’t involve trying to get the employees fired.
“This is why we have unions,” she said. “This is why we have reviews and things like that. There’s a system in place.”
Putnam would not comment on whether the Classified Senate email might have violated the district’s policy on political advocacy. The policy, she said in an email, “is grounded in state law,” which forbids the use of public resources for campaign purposes.
“When a concern is raised regarding potential political activity in the workplace, it is reviewed by the appropriate district administrator to determine whether further inquiry is warranted, consistent with board policy, applicable law, and employee due process rights,” Putnam wrote.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: College trustee apologizes for trying to get employees fired
Reporting by Tony Biasotti, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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