Candidate Name: Tom Temprano
Phone Number: 917.450.5888
Web site: tomtemprano.com
Email: info@tomtemprano.com
Name of Campaign Manager : Leo Herrera
Signed voluntary spending limit: n/a
Major Endorsements: See End of Document
Favorite Incumbent College Board Member:
Least favorite:
1. Could the accreditation crisis have been foreseen and potentially averted? How could the board have done better?
While some issues cited by the ACCJC like an inequitable distribution of student support
resources, merited correction the attack on CCSF's accreditation was politically motivated and
manufactured by the accreditor. The Board of Trustees still needs to remain focused on moving
through restoration status and addressing the remaining areas of noncompliance.
Thanks to
the ACCJC's attack, City College is now also dealing with a very real enrollment crisis. It is
important that we not lose sight of this crisis as the College is heading toward an enrollment cliff
in 2017 which will have very serious funding repercussions. Leading the school through our
enrollment crisis would be my top priority as trustee.
We have much, much room for improvement. As trustee, my top priorities are:
Create a common sense budget. I will cut spending on highpriced
consultants and bloated
salaries for middle management, and invest the savings to prevent necessary classes from
being cut and provide a living wage to our workers and faculty.
Get San Francisco students into City College. I will focus on rebuilding the relationship between
San Francisco Unified School District and City College to build an enrollment bridge for
students.
Resto re Confidence in City College. I will use my experience to create a vigorous community
outreach campaign to undo the damage the accreditation crisis has done to student enrollment.
2. What is your stance on public and private partnerships within the College?
As the son of a public school educator who attended public schools from kindergarten through
college, I am strongly opposed to the privatization of our education system and am strongly
opposed to charter schools. I oppose the privatization of services that can and should be
provided by union workers in the public sector.
3. What is your position on tuition and fees, for in-state students and for international/out-of-state students? Will you actively campaign against tuition increases on the state level?
I am absolutely against tuition increases, which is why I am a vehement supporter of Free City.
It frustrates me to hear the administration and members of the Board of Trustees seemingly
accept that we will never be able to recover our enrollment. Free City is exactly the type of
positive, proactive approach to increasing our enrollment that the City and the College should
be taking. It was especially exciting for me to be able to make the motion for the Harvey Milk
LGBT Democratic Club to become the first community organization to sign on as an endorser of
Free City. As I've been out campaigning and speaking to the community, I've been actively
spreading the word and encouraging people to support Free City. I will be doing this throughout
my campaign.
4. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that you and the public would receive the college's draft budget with a sufficient time to review it thoroughly before adopting it?
I believe there should be a month long
public period to review the budget. The lack of
transparency around our budget process is truly troubling.
5. What is your position on selling campus properties?
It has become clear that one of the biggest issues facing City College in the future will be
attempts to sell off properties to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, there are those who would
rather use City College's land to make windfall profits for developers than to provide a quality,
affordable education for our students. 33 Gough was the first of what could be many land use
battles involving City College and as trustee I will always fight to make sure that City College's
properties are used for the benefit of our students and teachers - not to pad the wallets of the
wealthy.
6. Do you feel there is enough transparency or public disclosure of the Board and the college? How would you change things?
I believe we could be doing a better job providing public access to BOT decisions. The board
spends too much time in closed sessions and as Trustee I will advocate for making all of our
sessions open to the public.
We should also be looking into opportunities to hold meetings at other neighborhood centers as
well, so the people directly affected by decisions made in these meetings could witness and
voice their opinions.
7. Have you attended the Community College Board meeting? Would you change public comment policy at the meetings? If so, how?
Yes, I have attended many board meetings. As stated above, I would like all of our board
sessions to be open to the public to provide additional opportunity for comment and feedback.
8. How will you improve outreach and increase access to San Francisco Community College to low income people, people of color, people with disabilities and students with prior drug felony convictions who are not eligible for financial aid?:
We know that access to education is one of the key contributing factors to civic engagement
and City College should be one of our city's biggest tools for getting marginalized San
Franciscans involved in their communities. Our Community College needs to be, first and
foremost, for the community. The affordability crisis is impacting everyone in San Francisco,
particularly those who need City College the most. Community College should provide
opportunities for everyone to access quality education - that's what it was created to do! Trying
to turn City College into a onesize
fits all junior college is not going to solve our enrollment
crisis and it's going to make our City's affordability crisis worse.
It doesn't make sense to be cutting classes and services at City College - right now we should
be adding additional CTE programs and other offerings that will help San Franciscans get
through the affordability crisis in addition to get into 4 year colleges and careers that will pay
them livingwage
jobs. As trustee I will fight against class cuts and work to make sure that the
classes that our students need and want aren't put on the chopping block.
One of the biggest reasons that City College has been able to serve so many diverse
communities across our city is the focus on neighborhood learning provided at our nine centers.
Having campuses that serve residents in Chinatown, Bayview and the Tenderloin makes City
College accessible to people who would otherwise have geographic barriers to accessing
education. As trustee I will protect the facilities in our neighborhoods and ensure that we don't
close campuses.
9. How would you eliminate the barriers to full access to noncitizens to all classes offered by City College?
It is completely unacceptable that noncitizens and undocumented students have to pay out of
state tuition to attend City College. It is my belief that City College should be free for everyone
that lives and works in San Francisco, including noncitizens. I will advocate for policy changes
at the state level that require noncitizens to pay out of state tuition.
10. What is your stance on gender inequity and how would you ensure that transgendered students feel safe and supported on campus? How will you make positive changes to serve this growing community?
San Francisco has been a leader in the fight for the rights of the transgender community,
especially in our schools. Our education institutions should be commended for the work they've
already done in this area. We know that campuses are at the forefront of trans rights nationwide
so schools have a particular onus in making sure that places of education and learning are safe
for people who transgender and gender nonconforming.
This does not include only bathrooms.
As trustee I want to be sure that these three things are implemented at City College:
1) Sensitivity training about transgender and gender nonconforming
issues for faculty and
staff.
2) Ensuring that all facilities have transinclusive
bathrooms and locker rooms.
3) Curriculum that highlights the importance of transgender history as part of the LGBTQ
movement.
11. How will you increase quality child care at ALL campuses?
Increasing access to child care for City College students across our campuses is a critical issue.
Statistics from the American Association of University Women show that one quarter of women
who attend community colleges are mothers. Unfortunately, the current board and
administration have not provided the necessary oversight to ensure that the needs of our
students with children are being met. In fact, the Child Care Center at our Ocean Campus has
been closed due to deferred maintenance and a lack of permits.
As Trustee I will reduce spending on things like overpriced
consultants, to spend that money on
services that our students need - like child care. In addition to finding a new, safe home for our
Child Care Center I will push to provide additional child care facilities at our neighborhood
campuses.
12. How will you create more campus work opportunities for students? What is your position on having the college provide health insurance for students?
The most pertinent issue the college needs to address is enrollment outreach and this could and
should done by the students themselves, providing them with work opportunities as they attend
the college.
13. How will you work to counter and prevent profiling and police
harassment on campus? What is your position on police firearms on
Campus?
Presently, SFCCD Police officers do not carry firearms but do carry batons and pepper spray
and I'd like to keep it that way. It is the responsibility of the board and administration to ensure
that our students and staff are as safe as possible on campus, but there is little evidence to
show that providing campus police with firearms actually increases safety. What we do know is
that having a strong relationship with local police departments, making sure that they are
intimately familiar with campus layouts and details, can have a big impact in these tragic
situations. We must prioritize building relationships and familiarity with our campuses with the
leadership and officers at Ingleside Station, Central Station, Mission State, Southern Station,
Bayview Station, Park Station and other stations that are closely located to City College
Campuses.
14. What is your position on allowing noncitizens the right to vote in
College Board and School Board elections?
I fully support allowing noncitizens
the right to vote in College Board and School Board
elections.
15. What is your position on giving the student trustee full Board
Membership and voice?
I fully support giving student trustee a voice since they are the ones who are directly affected
and benefit from the decisions of the board.
16. What are your views of transportation and pedestrian safety to,
from and around City College campuses? What, if anything, would
you change, and how would you go about making those changes?
In order to make sound transportation policy decisions, City College needs to study where our
students and staff are coming from. Once we have this data direct mass public transit should be
advocated for and implemented based on our student and staff needs. The best way to
promote public transit use to our City College campuses is to reduce the cost burden to our
students, many of whom are lowincome
and for whom commute costs can be a real hardship.
Many of our campuses, including our Ocean Campus, are located within walking distance of
BART. As Trustee I would work with the BART Board of Directors to extend a proposal to
reduce student transit rates at San Francisco State University to City College students as well.
This program could reduce the cost of BART fares for students between 2550%.
Additionally, I
would advocate for the creation of a Free MUNI for CCSF Students program that would provide
lowincome
students with free MUNI passes.
17. What is your position of recruiting for the military on campus?
Military recruiters have a well documented
history of using dishonest and aggressive tactics,
especially during times when military enrollment is low. What we need to do is address this
dishonesty and aggression, so that students that considering military involvement are actually
given full information. I would advocate for additional student services so that students can
receive full information about military service and can report any infractions or invasions of
privacy.
18. What criteria will you use in deciding whether new cell phone
antennas will be installed on top of City College buildings?
I'm not familiar with this issue. l would love to see research and studies about the environmental
and health impact this would have on anyone that attends City College.
19. Please describe how you make your political decisions. What is
the main basis for your decision making (e.g., consultation with
your constituents, political consultants, colleagues, unions,
businesses, donors, or your gut feelings)?
The biggest role that a College Board member can play is ensuring that the interests of all of the
college's stakeholders are represented at the board.
As Trustee my first concern is with our students. It is the board' responsibility to ensure student
success. This means making sure that we have enough sessions of the classes our students
need to obtain their degrees and that investing in certificates and programs in growth industries
that will help our students get good jobs to support them and their families. We must also be
sure that we adequately staff our enrollment office so that our students have easy access to
staff to get them into our college and into the classes they need.
As Trustee it will also be my responsibility to ensure that needs of our two sets of workers -
classified staff and faculty - are heard and taken care of by our board.
I have had the honor of serving on many diverse boards and I believe that the way to govern
effectively is to run an institution as a democracy. A well-run
college must have active input from
students, staff and faculty and it is incumbent upon the trustees to ensure that that happens. A
good trustee is advocate for students, staff and faculty above all else.
ENDORSEMENTS
The San Francisco Democratic Party
AFT 2121 City College of San Francisco Faculty Union
SEIU Local 1021 City College of San Francisco Classified Staff Union
Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club
San Francisco Tenants Union
League of Pissed Off Voters
District 8 Progressive Democrats
San Francisco Young Democrats
AFT 2121 City College of San Francisco Faculty Union
SEIU Local 1021 City College of San Francisco Classified Staff Union
California Nurses Association
National Union of Healthcare Workers
San Francisco Labor Council
Teamsters Joint Council 7
Teamsters Local 856
UNITE HERE Local 2
Citywide Elected Officials
Mark Leno, State Senator
Phil Ting, Assemblymember
Fiona Ma, Board of Equalization Chair
Jeff Adachi, Public Defender
Tom Ammiano, Former Assemblymember
Carole Migden, Former State Senator
Art Agnos, Former Mayor
SF Board of Supervisors
John Avalos
David Campos
Malia Cohen
Jane Kim
Mark Farrell
Eric Mar
Aaron Peskin
Norman Yee
City College Board of Trustees
President Rafael Mandelman
VicePresident
Thea Selby
Brigitte Davila
Steve Ngo
Alex Randolph
John Rizzo
SF Board of Education
President Matt Haney
Sandra Lee Fewer
Rachel Norton