In the November 2024 election, California voters approved more than 200 public school and college construction bonds totaling nearly $50 billion.
Of that total, nine bonds worth approximately $2 billion were approved for Orange County school districts: Brea Olinda Unified, Santa Ana Unified, Tustin Unified, Anaheim Union High School District, Fullerton Joint Union High School District, Buena Park School District, Fullerton School District, La Habra City School District and Lowell Joint School District.
Now, two years after voters approved these measures, the districts are moving through planning, design and other early stages of their construction programs.
Decisions being made today about how these projects are insured could involve millions of taxpayer dollars in the years ahead. Before major construction begins, school districts must decide who will provide the insurance and how the arrangements will be structured.
This decision rarely draws headlines, yet it can involve enormous sums of public money amounting to almost 2.8% of the building costs.
Orange County has not previously seen the full extent of how complex those arrangements can become when undisclosed relationships and potential conflicts of interest are involved.
Between 2002 and 2014, the Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) and the North Orange County Community College District (NOCCCD) obtained voter approval for three bond measures – Measures E, Q and J totaling $1.1 billion.
Rather than purchasing construction insurance through traditional sources, a group of public-school administrators pursued an alternative approach.
They created and then operated a private insurance company through a public agency to provide construction insurance, while continuing to serve as public-school administrators.
Captive Insurance for Public Agencies (CIPA) was formed in Hawaii in 2005 as a subsidiary of the Alliance of Schools for Cooperative Insurance Programs (ASCIP), a public joint powers authority. Around that period, Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) was carrying out projects funded by its voter-approved $337 million Measure E bond.
One of the founding directors of CIPA was RSCCD Vice Chancellor of Human Resources, John Didion. He remained employed by the RSCCD and served as a CIPA board director throughout the construction period of the college district’s Measure E bond and part of the 2012 $198 million Measure Q bond. In 2016, Didion retired and a few months later took a paid position as Managing Director of CIPA.
Peter Hardash, RSCCD Vice Chancellor of Fiscal Services, was appointed to the CIPA board as a director following Didion’s departure and remained employed by the college district through most of the remaining Measure Q construction.
NOCCCD Voters approved the $574 million Measure J bond in 2014. A few months before ground was broken on the Cypress College project in February 2019, Fred Williams, Vice Chancellor of Finance and Facilities, was appointed to the CIPA board of directors. Williams remained employed by the NOCCCD through the Measure J construction period.
While in their official capacities as school-district administrators, Didion, Hardash and Williams were involved in the moving of millions of dollars in construction-insurance premiums from the RSCCD and NOCCCD to CIPA. The arrangement placed them on both sides of the transactions while they failed to inform the elected trustees of their respective college districts about their specific responsibilities with CIPA.
Didion is now the President of CIPA. Hardash left the RSCCD in 2020, but served as a CIPA director through 2025. Williams continues to serve as a CIPA director even after his retirement from NOCCCD in December 2025. Last month he was appointed interim Vice Chancellor of Fiscal and Administrative Services at Palomar College.
Grace Dean, News Editor for the Palomar College Telescope, reported in her September 24, 2026 news article that Williams prepared agenda items recommending the NOCCCD Board approve CIPA to handle bond construction insurance for Measure J in 2019 and 2023. The agenda materials did not disclose Williams’ position with CIPA. In a statement to the Telescope, Williams claimed he had obtained Chancellor Byron Clift Breland’s approval to serve as a CIPA director. Dean noted that Breland did not respond to her inquiry about whether he was aware of Williams’ role with CIPA.
NOCCCD Chancellor Knew of Williams’ Affiliation
I posed the question of when and how Chancellor Breland learned of Williams’ affiliation with CIPA to NOCCCD Public Information Officer Kai Stearns. She responded that Breland was verbally informed of Williams’ involvement within six months of his January 2022 arrival.
In a March 2025 editorial, I wrote that NOCCCD trustee Ed Lopez was unaware of Williams’ affiliation with CIPA and could not recall any prior disclosure.
John Hanna who has served on the RSCCD board for over two decades commented in a 2024 Times/OC article that he was not aware of CIPA and did not know his administrators were serving on the board.
As the nine Orange County school districts move forward with billions of dollars in voter approved construction programs, will decisions regarding insurance for those projects be disclosed transparently at public meetings? Will the public have a meaningful opportunity to scrutinize those arrangements?
Even though Didion, Hardash, and Williams kept key decisions and personal conflicts out of public view, taxpayers and community members today should not have to wonder what is happening behind closed doors.
The public deserves nothing less than transparency and accountability.
Dr. Barry Resnick retired in 2022 after 42 years as a professor of counseling with the Rancho Santiago CCD. He has resided with his family in Orange for 39 years.
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