Since Dec. 2025, the board of trustees and President Garcia have faced backlash for decisions to not renew contracts, space reallocation for the library and a lack of response for a vote of no confidence.

April 8 Meeting

The Mt. SAC board of trustees met on April 8 for their regularly scheduled meeting, where they once again heard public comment related to the vote of no confidence cast on March 11 by the counseling faculty.

As of the April 8 meeting, the counseling faculty had not received a response from Mt. SAC leadership related to their vote of no confidence.

“Frustrated … Disappointed … Pissed off,” were words used by Luis Echeveria, a counselor with the Veterans Center, to describe how he was feeling after the meeting in April.

During the meeting, a statement was read on behalf of Eddie Lee, the Dean of counseling, by Echeveria.

“The continuous silence leaves us with the impression that the president is not treating this with the urgency and seriousness it deserves,” Lee wrote.

Other public comments during the meeting were from other faculty expressing their thoughts on the lack of response.

“[Counseling faculty] were ignored by their vice president who, to this day, has not engaged in conversation about this vote of no confidence with them. And it seems that they’re being ignored by the college president, who has similarly gone unresponsive to this serious action taken by counseling discipline, with a 95% support vote,” Joshua Christ, the vice president of the Mt. SAC Faculty Association, said at the meeting during public comment. “You, the board of trustees, have also seemingly done nothing to address or learn more about the concerns that were raised last month.”

President’s response to the April 8 meeting

“I value the perspectives and input shared during recent Board meetings and appreciate the engagement of our campus community,” President Martha Garcia stated to SAC Media via email. “At the same time, out of respect for established processes and confidentiality, I am not able to comment or make statements regarding personnel matters. I remain committed to listening, supporting our campus community, and continuing to move forward together with care, professionalism, and a shared focus on our students.”

Trustee response to the April 8 meeting

“As a member of the board of trustees, you know, we’re supposed to handle finance and policy, and kind of stay away from day to day operations,” Laura Santos, board of trustees vice president, said.

Typically, the board of trustees is meant to offer legal and financial advice to a community college, and act as the policy-makers for institutional direction. Issues like a no confidence vote, when not directed at a board member, are traditionally under the purview of the president of the college.

“That’s not something that a board normally gives a response to, especially out in public, you know, regarding a vote of no confidence for any employee,” Robert Hidalgo, board of trustee president, said. “I’m not aware of boards that respond back to the public. There certainly should be conversations had within the president’s office and potentially some of those other groups that are voicing their concerns. And I know some of those have happened.”

Trustee Gary Chow shared that public comments expressing frustration “had merit, all right … Let me assure you … since [those] comment[s] in April, the board heard that. I just want to reassure you. The board heard it, and things are going to happen.”

Overall

There have been multiple, ongoing issues that Mt. SAC community members have brought to the board of trustees and President Garcia. In SAC Media’s reporting, it’s been found that Mt. SAC employees have expressed a lack of feeling a culture of care, fearing retaliation and experiencing a lack of transparency from the board of trustees and President Martha Garcia.

Culture of Care

One of Mt. SAC’s “Institutional Goals + Commitments,” based on the Mt. SAC 2035 Plan, which is the college’s “shared strategic blueprint, driving efforts to serve our students for the next ten years,” is to have a culture of care.

“We talk about this culture of care, but the employees on this campus right now are suffering,” Jessica Draper, an astronomy lab technician, said during public comment at the April meeting.

It has repeatedly been expressed during public comment, on the record and anonymously to SAC Media that staff and faculty do not feel they are experiencing a culture of care.

“One of the best ways that you can show us that you care is by being off your phones, by being present,” Elizabeth Estevez, the Mt. SAC California School Employees Association chapter secretary, said during public comment at the April meeting. “ … by communicating with us that you are listening to us, that you are listening to my counselors over here, to my colleagues, to our students… that you are engaged in this process and that you care.”

Trustee response to a lack in a culture of care

“From my perspective, I think that those concerns are valid,” Michelle Obasi, student trustee said. “Whenever I give reports to the Associated Students, I inform them ‘Hey, there are faculty and there’s staff and employees that don’t feel that culture of care’ … we need to make sure that everyone feels that, not just certain people.”

Outside of intangible factors, “I think the biggest factor that impacts the feeling of ‘culture of care’ is compensation … That’s a big part of it … I don’t think it’s all, but it’s a significant part of it,” trustee Chow said.

On the topic of compensation, trustee Gary Chow explained how the state of California will only pay for a maximum number of students. Since Mt. SAC has succeeded in growing their student base, there are roughly 400 full time equivalent students for whom Mt. SAC does not receive funding for, but who still costs the college money.

“That, as a trustee for me, that is a financial dilemma,” trustee Chow said.

A practical action that board members talked about was listening.

“So I think I have to do a lot of listening and so that’s something that’s really important to me,” trustee president Hidalgo said. “And I think that aligns with, you know, that culture of care … ”

Trustee Santos said that she would “probably let [president] Garcia respond” specifically to people who expressed that they don’t feel a culture of care, and that she would try to listen. I would probably take that to Garcia, and ask her to do something about it.”

Lack of transparency

Community colleges are typically governed by a system called shared governance, and Mt. SAC “embraces shared governance with campus committees” to help steer the direction of the college.

Shared governance necessitates that relevant stakeholders are involved in the decision making processes.

“Lack of transparency,” describes how Herschel Greenberg, the lead negotiator for the Mt. SAC faculty association, views the Faculty Association’s relationship with the board of trustees.

Faculty on campus feel they are often left in the dark, and excluded from the shared governance process.

“The feeling from the Faculty Association is that we don’t understand the decision making process,” Greenberg said.

Trustee response to a lack of transparency

While the definition of transparency can range, for trustee Chow “transparency is all part of the shared governance.”

For trustee Santos, transparency is related to communication.

“We’re supposed to have shared governance … So transparency, to me, is communication,” trustee Santos said. “Letting people know what’s going on and getting their point of view about it. And really considering what others are saying, and doing that before big decisions are made.”

Trustee Chow noted that while transparency sometimes is moved to the backburner in pursuit of efficiency, that does not mean it should disappear entirely.

“Sometimes we don’t do as good a job as we should, all right?” trustee Chow said. “And so I think that is something that has been impressed from the public meetings. That we are sometimes putting shared governance on the backburner, okay? It needs to become – It needs to be part of the process as we move forward.”

Another consideration when dealing with transparency is the issue of privacy.

“If there are concerns about certain employees, employees have rights too,” trustee president Hidalgo said. “And so, you know, we have to be very cautious and careful about … those employee rights and how we want to honor those and be respectful of those.”

All three trustees SAC Media interviewed affirmed their confidence in President Garcia, and her commitment to transparency.

Fear of retaliation

The counseling department is union protected, but that is not the case for managers and classified staff. The counseling department spoke to both classified and managerial staff under student services before casting their vote of no confidence.

“Those two groups … classified hasn’t stepped up out of fear … of retaliation against them,” Echeveria said. “And then managers, obviously, are at will. If it was an open surface … it would have been 95% [in favor of a vote of no confidence] as well. We felt we were the only group who could step up, say something – keep saying something.”

Counseling felt that they were the only group who could not be retaliated against.

“[Classified and managers] could lose their jobs,” Patricia Maestro, a counselor, said. “And growth into future positions.”

Gabria Sesma, the previous director of accounting and fiscal services, was put on administrative leave on March 27.

“I also observed and experienced practices that appear inconsistent with the college’s stated values,” Sesma said during the April meeting, in reference to her being put on administrative leave.

Even after she had been let go, she was still hesitant to address the board.

“It’s fear of retaliation,” Sesma said. “Fear of not being able to find a job somewhere else, because people talk.”

She had been with Mt. SAC for 18 years, starting as a clerk and working her way up to director.

Trustee response to a fear of retaliation

The trustees express a range of responses to the idea of retaliation on Mt. SAC’s campus.

“I want to applaud those faculty members, those counselors that came and stood in front of the board and stated they had their issues,” trustee Chow said.

The bravery the counseling department had did not go unnoticed.

“Let me tell you, for those employees, it’s very significant that they were willing to stick their neck out and risk retaliation to speak out,” trustee Santos said. “It was that important to them.”

While members of the board offered encouragement, they also emphasized on-campus resources to deal with those fears.

“There are resources available for the employees, and they should use those avenues for recourse,” trustee Chow said. “And ultimately, if they don’t meet the employee’s satisfaction, they always have a right to come to the board.”

Between public comment and institutional safeguards, trustee Santos reaffirmed faith in the system.

“There’s other things they can do. They can file a complaint, a written complaint,” trustee Santos said. “I think we have safeguards.”

Trustee Santos also questioned if Mt. SAC had issues related to retaliation that needed fixing.

“I don’t really know if we have something that needs to be fixed … I think that’s kind of the nature of things,” trustee Santos said. “Do we really have a problem with fear of retaliation?”

Trustee Chow also suggested that employees have faith in the systems and safeguards Mt. SAC has in place.

“They define faith as believing without proof, right? … And so do we have to ask the employees to have that type of faith?” trustee Chow said, in response to hearing that some Mt. SAC faculty have lost faith in that system.

The board of trustees is aware of the concerns around retaliation.

“We never want that to be, you know, the culture or environment on campus,” trustee president Hidalgo said. “Our president, yes, is aware of those comments that were made in public session. We do have an obligation to look into those further, through our president … We have given direction to our president with any claim that’s made like that, to examine further to see if there’s any merit to those complaints.”

What’s next?

The next board of trustees meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 13.

“I think they should also continue standing together and continuing having hope,” student trustee Obasi said.

The unity that the counseling staff has displayed has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the campus.

“We want them to work with us. I mean, that’s what really started this whole process … ,” Julie Perez-Garcia, a counselor, said.

SAC Media spoke to board of trustees president Robert Hidalgo, vice president Laura Santos, trustee Gary Chow and student trustee Michelle Obasi.

SAC Media reached out to trustees Manuel Baca and Peter Hidalgo via email and in person, but never received a response.

SAC Media reached out to trustees Jay Chen and Judy Chen Haggerty via email, but heard no response.

SAC Media received a written statement from President Martha Garcia.