Fred Williams’ retirement as Vice Chancellor of Finance and Facilities at North Orange County Community College District (NOCCCD) closes the book on a tenure that exposes how easily conflicts of interest can hide in plain sight.
In 2014 voters in the NOCCCD passed the $574 Measure J bond to provide “significant upgrades to technical job training facilities, aging classrooms, and veteran amenities” at Fullerton College and Cypress College.
Under Williams’ oversight, bond construction insurance from Measure J was handled by Captive Insurance for Public Agencies (CIPA). Voters, the elected NOCCCD board and the bond’s oversight committee were never fully informed that Williams sat on CIPA’s board as the bond funds were being spent.
NOCCCD expended $3.8 million on bond construction insurance between March 2019 and April 2022.
In late 2022 Williams still had not disclosed his full relationship with CIPA and recommended that the NOCCCD board procure insurance coverage in cooperation with CIPA.
Then there were Williams’ trips as a CIPA director to luxury resorts in Hawaii like the Fairmont Orchid and the Aulani Disney Resort. Who was being served—the public or an entity intertwined with a public official?
Williams failed to report his trips to Hawaii courtesy of CIPA while it was doing business with NOCCCD.
Recently, an investigation into the employment of Anaheim’s City Manager was triggered by one unreported trip to Lake Havasu.
Why didn’t the NOCCCD Chancellor or the seven elected trustees provide the necessary oversight of Williams, who, in his position, was entrusted with over half a billion dollars of taxpayer funds?
Bond measures depend on trust. When conflicts are concealed, there is no trust. Until transparency is the rule rather than the exception, taxpayers are justified in voting “no” on any school bond.
Let NOCCCD’s Fred Williams and Measure J be a warning to any public school district contemplating a bond.
Dr. Barry Resnick retired in 2022 after 42 years as a professor of counseling with the Rancho Santiago CCD. He has resided withhis family in Orange for 38 years.
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