The leadership at College of the Canyons is once again being faced with discussion of possible litigation and an employment update for its interim superintendent, less than two weeks after termination proceedings were started against its previous CEO with nearly a year left on his contract.
A special board of trustees meeting announced online Monday afternoon calls for a closed session meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday and then the board is to reconvene in open session at 5 p.m.
The two topics in closed session Tuesday are ones that have dominated news reports from the campus in recent weeks: potential lawsuits facing the college and the future of its top executive.
The closed session items include conference with the district’s legal counsel over “significant exposure to litigation,” specifically, anticipated litigation; and “public employment title: acting/interim superintendent.”
The topics are similar to the agenda for the Sept. 10 meeting, which resulted in two significant announcements: an audit looking into evidence of at least $12 million misappropriated at College of the Canyons had been turned over to the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office; and hours later, the board announced it was initiating proceedings to terminate David Andrus, the interim president who had requested the audit, for cause.
Neither Andrus, nor his replacement, interim Superintendent Jasmine Ruys, the former vice president of student services, responded to a request for comment on this story. There’s been no indication from sources at the college that there will be another sudden change at the top. Members of the college’s classified staff and faculty each issued a vote of no confidence in board member Fred Arnold and board President Sharlene Johnson in anticipation of the board’s Sept. 10 decision.
Under California’s government code, there are only a few items a governing board is required to disclose from closed session. Among them are final agreements on labor, litigation or real estate negotiations; and action taken to appoint, employ, dismiss, accept the resignation of, or otherwise affect the employment status of a public employee.
At the July meeting for COC’s governing board, the college’s superintendent-search firm, Professional Personnel Leasing, gave a timeline wrapping up the middle of next year, as far as when a new superintendent would be announced. There are two scheduled updates from PPL listed on the public session agenda for Tuesday.
Arnold has previously expressed interest in the process, asking about the firm’s sense of urgency and what happens if the board doesn’t like PPL’s options.
The firm indicated it doesn’t want a “failed search,” and it will keep going until the college is happy.
Arnold said in a phone interview Monday afternoon he did not have any details on the presentation yet or what PPL would discuss Tuesday.
Andrus was named interim president after the governing board placed Dianne Van Hook on administrative leave in July 2024.
About two months later, Andrus sent a memo calling for a 20-year forensic audit of the college’s finances and its billing practices. A presentation in November reported $12 million may have been misspent over hundreds of projects.
There’s been no publicly released report thus far regarding the findings in the audit.
In response to a Sept. 5 Public Records Act request for the audit, the DA’s Office wrote Thursday, “The records and information you request does not exist and/or is exempt from disclosure under the PRA and will not be released.” The Sept. 18 letter from Jessica Tillson, special assistant in line operations to District Attorney Nathan Hochman, also stated, “the requested record may be contained within the LADA file of a case that is pending criminal prosecution and will not be provided.”
