Long Beach Community College race has 4 candidates ruing for 2 seats

Voters on Tuesday have the opportunity to decide who will help shape the future of Long Beach City College.

Seats in District 2 and District 4 are open in the Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees. One of the biggest issues voters will face is the $850 million bond measure LBCC will have on the June 7 ballot.

Property owners would pay an estimated maximum of $25 more aually per $100,000 of assessed property value if it’s approved.

District 2

In the District 2 race, Trustee Irma Archuleta faces challenger Vivian Williams Malauulu, a part-time joualism professor at LBCC who also is a longshore worker at the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports.

Archuleta was appointed to the board in 2014 to fill the remaining term of Roberto Uranga, who was elected to the City Council. She retired last year from her role as vice president of student affairs at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose.

Her priorities include improving student access and college affordability. She has touted her efforts to help the Board of Trustees expand free tuition for eligible students from one semester to a full year, funded by LBCC’s Foundation.

She supports the $850 million bond measure.

Malauulu is ruing for seat on the Board of Trustees because she said she wants the college to succeed, saying her top priority is student achievement.

She supports the bond measure, but wants LBCC to consider an exemption for senior property owners, because they will also be faced with a 1 percent city sales tax rate increase on the June 7 ballot, and a potential bond measure out of the Long Beach Unified School District in November.

If elected, Malauulu would have to stop working as an LBCC professor to avoid a conflict of interest.

District 4

Longtime trustee and board President Doug Otto faces challenger Davina Keiser, a teacher in the Long Beach Unified School District since 1979.

The two faced off in 2012, with Otto eaing 66.7 percent of the vote, compared with 33.3 percent for Keiser.

Otto was first elected in 2004. During his term, the board created a more transparent environment and put together a facilities master plan, he said.

He supports the $850 million bond measure and mode facilities at the college that provide jobs skills for a new economy, and wants the college to focus on quicker graduation to open more seats to applicants.

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Keiser is a math teacher at Wilson High School.

She was against the Board of trustees cutting 11 vocational programs in 2013, saying it was an example of the board not serving the community.

She wants college to expand its trade programs, balance its budget and improve student access and equity.

She also supports $850 million bond measure.