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By Christine Michaels

Only two of six elected Board of Trustees members agreed to make a public comment about the bribery scandal involving two campus officials despite repeated attempts by the Courier to contact them.

Trustee Linda Wah of Area 5 and Trustee Bill Thomson of Area 4 responded after two phone calls and three emails asking for their reactions to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s criminal investigation of Vice President of Administrative Services Richard Van Pelt and Facilities Supervisor Alfred Hutchings.

In the last two days, a Courier reporter sent 17 e-mail requests for comments and made 11 phone calls attempting to get Board members to talk about the campus scandal. Four board members ignored all of the requests for comment.

At deadline Tuesday, a final urgent email was sent to board members urging them again to make a public statement about the crisis.

Board President Geoffrey Baum of Area 1 and Board Vice President John Martin of Area 6 along with Trustees Jeanette Mann of Area 2, Berlinda Brown of Area 3, and Anthony Fellow of Area 7 chose to stay silent.

Late Tuesday afternoon, a Courier reporter spotted Mann in the staff parking lot minutes before deadline and rushed out to get a quote on the crisis. Mann would make no comment on the bribery charges.

“The press release clearly stated that all questions on this matter were to be directed to Director of Public Relations Juan Gutierrez,” she said.

When the reporter asked if she had gotten any of the reporter’s phone messages or emails requesting a statement, Mann said yes and walked away.

“[The Board members] were all quite shocked to hear of the investigation and the allegations,” Wah said via email. “I was personally saddened to hear that search warrants were being served. My experience with both Dr. Van Pelt and Mr. Hutchings has been positive and professional.”

Less than 15 minutes later, Wah sent another email explaining all responses were to be handled by the Director of Public Relations Juan Gutierrez. “I just happened to see your email before I saw Juan’s email,” she said.

Gutierrez had sent a staff-wide email explaining that no response should go directly to any media request before it was submitted to him first.

“All inquiries from the press, including the Courier, should be routed to me . . . it is especially important at this time given the very serious nature of the District Attorney’s ongoing investigation,” he said.

Trustee Thomson, who is also an attorney, responded an hour before deadline, by phone. Thomson said he was at the Quarter Finals for the French Open during the press conference last week. He received an email on his blackberry on June 5 about the search warrants.

“I am just extremely disappointed any employees would do something like this if the allegations are true. If they are true, this would definitely be a 180-degree turn for the college,” said Thomson.

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