The Galatolo contract

Mar 8, 2021
Mar 8, 2021 Updated Apr 13, 2025
3

Editor,

One needs a script to follow the drama surrounding the San Mateo County Community College District and Ron Galatolo.

(3) comments

JustMike650 Mar 8, 2021 6:20am

Michael B. Reiner, Ph.D.- as always, thank you.

Ray Fowler Mar 8, 2021 4:18pm

Dr. Reiner

I concur with Just Mike... thanks for staying on top of this issue.

Even if the Office of the District Attorney had no interest in the district's business, this sweetheart deal to give a fired employee $50,000 a month... that's not a typo... $50,000 a month to work at the district with a made-up job title is wrong.

Can anyone on the district's board explain what a Chancellor Emeritus does to warrant $50,000 per month in salary? Voters in the district deserve to have that question answered.

Michael B. Reiner, PhD Mar 9, 2021 5:27am

Mr. Fowler, you are absolutely correct that voters and taxpayers deserve to know why the old Board, Trustees Schwarz, Mandelkern, Goodman, Holober, and Nuris, agreed to what you called a "sweetheart" deal to create the new job of chancellor emeritus for Mr. Galatolo, one that was not in the budget nor organizational chart.

While they claim it was to establish CSU Cañada, there was no job description, no timeline, no deliverables. In fact, state Senator Hill and assemblymember Mullin had yet to secure funding to conduct a feasibility study. When I queried, they made clear that the District would not be involved in the process due to its "enthusiasm for a four year school that might override more practical matters." In the end, CSU decided that Cañada was too small to establish a full fledged university; also, political considerations favored Stockton or Southern California.

I've been in higher ed for 35 years and things are not done this way. To really explore the possibility of establishing CSU Cañada, a consultant would be hired with a limited scope and specific deliverables, not create a new job of Chancellor Emeritus, which is only a ceremonial and honorary post (no salary).

I interviewed Mr. Galatolo while he was on paid administrative leave. He told me the Board was so eager to get him out as chancellor that they gave him whatever he wanted. Indeed they did.

As you noted, the public deserves to know from District elected officials, three of whom still serve on the SMCCCD Board, what took place "in the room where it happened." This was not just a private personnel matter, as Galatolo was not sanctioned or terminated by the Board back in 2019, but a District policy issue about expansion of a campus. Did the public advocate for a CSU at Cañada?

Michael B. Reiner, PhD, is a higher education consultant and educational researcher. Previously, he was a professor of psychology and college administrator at City University of New York (CUNY), Miami Dade College, the Riverside Community College District, and the San Mateo County Community College District. mreiner32205@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-b-reiner-phd-14057551/

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