Palomar College President Used Vacation Club for Mexico Tech Junket Without Board Approval
The MITA TechTalks conference is known for attracting tech industry movers and shakers. It’s a summit where the nouveau riche head to scenic Punta Mita, Mexico to ruminate about big ideas, put faces to names and plant seeds for future business deals.
MITA is held annually at the Four Seasons Punta Mita Resort, a 5-star hotel owned by Bill Gates and Saudi royal family member Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. And for the 2017 variety, a trio of seemingly unlikely guests made the sojourn to MITA: Palomar College President Joi Lin Blake, flanked by two other administrators.
According to documents obtained under the California Public Records Act request, the trip cost a total of $7,404.62. The cash came from Blake’s discretionary spending account housed within the Palomar College Foundation. For 2017, according to the account ledger, Blake spent just under $25,000 via that account.
Mike Aguirre, currently a private practice attorney who worked as San Diego City Attorney from 2004 to 2008 and before that as a U.S. Assistant Attorney, expressed concerns about college foundations not being closely monitored and morphing into a “slush funds.”
“People tend to want to turn the public resources into private resources that becomes their private fiefdom,” said Aguirre. “That’s the problem with the private foundation. If the foundation is set up to raise money — for example, the University of California-Berkeley has a foundation and I used to be a member of it — but that foundation functions for the sole and exclusive purpose of raising money from people who are Cal graduates and anyone else that wants to give and then turns around and gives that money to the university.”
Exclusive Club
Blake, Kathryn Kailkole and Margie Fritch — the latter two then the Dean of Mathematics and the current Career Technical and Extended Education at the time, respectively — lodged at Casa Tierra for MITA. A resort owned by the company Inspirato, Casa Tierra sits among a legion of resorts around the world owned by the company.
Members pay a steep monthly fee — a minimum of $1,150 per month. In turn, they obtain the ability to stay with an unlimited number of guests at Inspirato resorts throughout the world.
Though Blake already paid monthly dues as an Inspirato member, she still received a $2,658.88 reimbursement through the Palomar College Foundation for the five nights of lodging—or about two and a half months of Inspirato membership dues for the lowest level plan.
Palomar College Acting Director of Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs Julie Lanthier Bandier said that in doing so, Palomar College saved $1800 per night.
International Outreach
Lanthier Bandier said that the trio went to MITA “to build cross-border technology innovation opportunities,” part of Palomar College’s plans to extend its reach beyond the borders of San Diego County. She added that the trip aimed to “directly support Palomar’s interest to develop an international technology incubator into our STEAM pathways at the Rancho Bernardo Education Center.”
In addition to Palomar, Lanthier said that other higher education institutions based in Latin America attended the MITA conference.
According to the Palomar College Educational Master Plan 2022, the school envisions the international technology incubator as sitting under the banner of a future Technology and Innovation Center. The college’s Facilities Master Plan 2019 update further outlines that the “Technology Incubator would support both the local entrepreneurial community and Palomar College students with services for technology start-up companies.”
“Faculty and students could be accessed for consultation and guidance to help in the early-stages of company development,” the Master Plan further explains. “The center would include a variety of meeting and ideation spaces, access to technology tools, presentation space, and a mock-up lab.”
For now, though, Lanthier Bandier said that the Rancho Bernardo initiative is on hiatus.
“Due to the vacancies in our Office of Instruction, the initiative to incorporate an international incubator within our programs is on hold,” she stated. “With a similar result in mind, the College pursues partnerships in other countries, such as Japan and China, so that our students can receive the education and training opportunities that lead them to become the global citizens of today and the future.”
Sans Board Approval
Though Palomar College policy dictates that international travel for administrators be voted on the Board of Governors, the Board never voted on the matter, according to Governing Board meeting minutes for 2016 and 2017 reviewed by San Diego Bulldog.
Broadly speaking, Palomar Community College District Policy provides a broad mandate for travel for the college president.
“The Governing Board authorizes the Superintendent/President to attend conferences, meetings, and other activities that are appropriate to the functions of the District,” reads the policy.
But it also explicitly reads that the travel come before the Board of Governors for a vote, dictating that “All employee travel outside the United States must be approved in advance by the Governing Board.”
Lanthier Bandier said Palomar College is examining why such a vote never took place.
“We are continuing to investigate your inquiry as to why the item in question was not an agenda item for approval by the Board of Trustees,” she stated. “At the time the administrators were considering their attendance at the MITA Tech Talks Conference, they were encouraged to attend by the Governing Board.”
FCMAT Probe
This is not the college’s first rodeo as it relates to controversial expenses of public funds. San Diego Bulldog previously reported that President Blake gave hundreds of dollars worth of gifts to Board of Governors members with public funds. “Gifts of public funds” are a violation of the California Constitution.
A dean at nearby California State University-San Marcos is also under investigation by the CSU System for extravagant spending on travel and dining with public funds, the San Diego Union-Tribune recently reported, and that dean is now on leave.
Palomar College is currently under investigation by the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), a state agency tasked with examining how and why K-12 schools and community colleges face budget crises. The college faces an $11.7 million deficit.
FCMAT performed interviews on-campus on September 26 and said at a September 24 Board of Governors meeting that it expects its report based on its investigation to go public in early-November, or in about six weeks.
