COD Trustees Schooled in Civility

COD Trustees Schooled During Study Session

PALM DESERT — When Area 1 Trustee Rubén Pérez was given a verbal warning in February for violating the board’s ethics policy, Board Chair Bonnie Stefan put the entire board on notice about treating colleagues with respect.

“As board chair, I will be asking President Hope to schedule another study session for the board to address the role of the board in civility and decorum issues,” Chair Bonnie Stefan said.

She was undoubtedly referring to the cringe-worthy heated exchanges that sometimes erupt between some members of the Board of Trustees. Stefan could also have been referring to the icy, if-look-could-kill- stares some Trustees shoot at their fellow colleagues. She might have been referring to the crosstalk that sometimes occurs on the dais.

It’s difficult to tell. Stefan did not say. She did, however, make good on her word.

During the April 19 study session, General Counsel, Jake Knapp, delivered the following presentation, Nicholas Robles, public information officer, office of the president, told Uken Report. The presentation was billed as: “Board Governance, Accreditation Standards, Goal Setting, and Collaboration.”

Sprinkled in the presentation were nuggets of information pertaining specifically to civility such as, under the heading, “Responsibilities of an Individual Trustee,” there is this mandate: “Work with colleagues in a spirit of civility and cooperation in spite of differences of opinion.”

You may watch the presentation here:

Neither Trustee Pérez nor Trustee Joel Kinnamon attended the study session, Robles said.

That is how trustees were schooled in civility.