Three candidates are vying for the District 5 seat on the Governing Board of Pima Community College, which has been under accreditation sanctions since 2013 due to problems meeting quality standards.
The main point on which the candidates differ is whether the college is in good hands under the leadership of Chancellor Lee Lambert.
Martha Durkin, a Lambert supporter, is a former attorney for Tucson Unified School District and a retired deputy city manager for the city of Tucson. She was appointed to the District 5 seat last year to fill it temporarily after a previous board member resigned.
She said sheâs impressed by what sheâs seen so far. âI see a lot of people who are working very, very hard,â to fix things, she said. But âthe amount of work and the complexity make it difficult.â
Durkin is the favorite of the PCC boardâs other members, who also support the chancellor. Most of them have donated to her campaign. Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and former Mayor Bob Walkup also are among her backers.
Challenger Luis A. Gonzales is being backed by a citizensâ group that sees Lambert as ill-qualified â he has no prior experience running a large educational institution â and his administration as prone to secrecy.
Gonzales, a former state senator who spent eight years on the Legislatureâs education committee, also is a former director of government operations for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and worked briefly as city manager for the city of South Tucson before his retirement.
Gonzales said Durkin is part of âa rubber-stamp board that doesnât ask tough questionsâ of the Lambert administration.
His financial supporters include Ted Maxwell, vice president of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, and two highly regarded community-college experts: Augustine Gallego, a past chairman of several national higher education groups and Zelema Harris, a former commissioner with PCCâs accreditor who worked at the school before and after Lambertâs 2013 arrival.
A third contender, Francis Saitta, is on the ballot but doesnât appear to have a campaign website and did not provide a campaign statement to the Arizona Daily Star. Saitta, a former adjunct instructor of math and biology at PCC, sought the same seat in 2012, when he finished last with less than 20 percent of the vote.
None of the candidates stands to gain financially if elected. PCC board seats are unpaid positions with a term of six years.
Durkin said Lambert has made notable strides in areas such as workforce training and classroom upgrades and said sheâll push to keep improvements on track if elected.
Gonzales said it is hard to trust an administration that doesnât always follow laws that protect the publicâs right to know. For example, PCC officials have discussed a number of contentious topics â such as recent problems with the schoolâs aviation program â without providing advance notice to taxpayers as required by law.
District 5, which encompasses central Tucson and a large swath of the cityâs west side, is the only district with a PCC election race this year. Two other board seats up for grabs will each be filled by acclamation because no other qualified candidates signed up.
The District 2 seat will be filled by Demion Clinco, a former state lawmaker and past president of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, who was appointed temporarily last year when a former PCC board member resigned.
In District 4, the seat being vacated by incumbent Scott Stewart will be occupied by former University of Arizona Provost Meredith Hay.
The election is Nov. 8.
