Prominent Billboard Shames Trustee Bea Gonzalez

Prominent Billboard Humiliates COD Trustee Bea Gonzalez

College of the Desert Area 2 Trustee Bea Gonzalez has become the poster child for betraying students in her Area. Her face is on a high-profile billboard on Indian Canyon that states, “Shame on you for voting against COD students!”

That’s quite a fall for the woman who was in 2019 named Woman of the Year for the 56th Assembly District.

The 10-foot, 6-inch by 22-foot, 9-inch stunner was purchased by the self-described “watchdog group” called Promises Made, Promises Broken, which has a Los Angeles address. The billboard is located on Indian Avenue just south of the freeway and you see it driving north. It is scheduled to be up through at least through May 7, according to the contract. The contract could be renewed and moved to Palm Drive.

The $1,375.00 billboard of humiliation has been erected amid rumors of a recall and is in response to Gonzalez’s vote in February against the Palm Springs campus.

Included in Trustee Joel Kinnamon’s motion to approve was the restoration of the original plan for funding the project, which was $40 Million from Bond Measure B, $346 Million from Bond Measure CC, $14 Million Redevelopment Agency funds and $5.6 Million from selling the land donated by the city of Palm Springs.

“This is such an important victory as under the former 2022 Trustee’s votes, Measure B and CC Bond monies that were originally dedicated for the project had somehow been re-directed to facilities not located in the West Valley,” Bruce Hoban, spokesperson for Promises Made, Promises Broken wrote in the group’s February newsletter.

The only unfortunate part of this incredible victory is that it was not a unanimous vote to approve, according to the group. The 3-2 vote to approve included Joel Kinnamon, newly elected Trustee for Area 3; Vice Chair Fred Jandt Trustee for Area 4; and Board Chair Bonnie Stefan Trustee for Area 5.

“Continuing their opposition to the importance of the education of the students in the West Valley, Trustee Rubén Pérez and Trustee Bea Gonzalez voted no,” Hoban said. The ‘no’ vote from Trustee Gonzalez was especially disturbing in that part of her Trustee area is Desert Hot Springs (DHS). A campus in Palm Springs would certainly be beneficial to students from DHS who currently have to travel over an hour by bus to get to closest campus which is located in Palm Desert.”

Finally, our voices on behalf of the students are being heard and we are not finished yet, Hoban added. “We will stay vigilant to make sure a newly established Brown Act Committee (public meetings) assigned to oversee this project progresses with input from the public and in a timely manner. Our students deserve a quality education and as taxpayers we deserve an honest accounting of how tax dollars are being spent. With your help continued help we will make it happen.”