New president for L.A. Community College District

The board of the Los Angeles Community College District has elected a new president and sworn in two new members.

Miguel Santiago was elected by his peers Wednesday as president of the board he has been a member of since 2008. He replaces Georgia Mercer, who retired last month. Wednesday's meeting was also the first for Scott Svonkin and Steve Veres, who joined the seven-member board that oversees the nine community college campuses that make up the district.

Svonkin had previously been a senior advisor to Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and a member of the San Gabriel Unified School District board; he won the college district position in a May runoff. Veres served two terms on the San Fernando City Council.

The board has been under scrutiny in recent months after a Times series found that millions of dollars in the district’s $5.7-billion bond-funded rebuilding program had been wasted due to poor planning, faulty construction work and frivolous spending.

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-- Rick Rojas

Photo: Miguel Santiago. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times