Sunny Zia

Board of Trustees, Area 3

Long Beach Community College District

August 23, 2019

Superintendent President Dr. Romali,

This letter serves as a response to Ms. Malauulu’s August 22, 2019 complaint letter. While the broad based
allegations made by Ms. Malauulu’s are void of evidence or merit, I would like to address the specific allegation
of reference to religion. None of the comments I made were made with pejorative intent and clearly taken out of
context, one in which Ms. Malauulu fails to mention in her letter. As indicated by the attached meeting transcripts
minute 3:31:41 on the relevant agenda item, the Community Student Workforce Agreement, Ms. Malauulu
resorted to name calling and publicly mocking me by insinuating that I like to antagonize when I was merely
pointing to the fact that the motion that Mr. Ntuk had initiated was going to fail. While I regret that Ms. Malauulu
feels offended by anything I may have said, I disagree with her interpretation that it was intended to mock her.

Ms. Malauulu’s allegations and letter is bankrupt of merit and fraught with derisive name calling such as calling
me blasphemous, callous, passive aggressive, and accusing me of bullying. Over the years, I have been and
continue to be the victim of anti-Semitism, defamation, name calling, bullying and discrimination by members of
this board including Ms. Malauulu. Her behavior as displayed in her letter is intended to chide, threaten and
publicly flog me for political purposes and her latest attempt is to threaten me by going after my job and
employment.

During a call on August 22, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. with her designated partial party, Mr. Ntuk, I offered to personally
apologize to Ms. Malauulu and resolve the issue, a public apology, take any seminar or courses to her liking and
a Board retreat to work on our board relations, none of which she accepted. If Ms. Malauulu was committed to
resolving the issue in good faith, she would not designate a partial party such as Mr. Ntuk to address the issue, or
reject the solutions of public apology and courses offered to her.

There’s only one reason why Ms. Malauulu would want to pursue such a severe punishment of censorship and not
be content with a public apology or progressive remedy of the situation and that is her preference to weaponize
the Board of Trustees’ Code of Ethics Standards of Practice designed to resolve issues amicably. It is clear that
she would rather publically shame and score political points.
Regarding the lack of fairness of the process she has followed and why I believe Mr. Ntuk is not an impartial
arbiter:
 In June 2018 prior to my assuming the role of Chair, both Mr. Ntuk and Ms. Malauulu contacted me to
terminate/demote an employee of the District, alleging that the employee has made unflattering remarks
about Mr. Ntuk. When I expressed my objection about how unethical I felt the request was and that it is
not our purview to target any employee of the district, they did not like it. I advised them that I am not on
the Board to push anyone’s agenda or settle political scores. Both did not like that and Ms. Malauulu said
that she viewed it as extending an “olive branch” to me, one in which I had a strong reaction that getting
an employee fired to appease Mr. Ntuk is not extending an olive branch and is unethical. I further requested
that Mr. Ntuk attend a new trustee orientation to learn trustee roles and responsibilities and ethics
standards.
  Shortly after June 2018 and on repeated occasions, Mr. Ntuk attempted to heavily advocate and steer a
development in North Long Beach for a satellite office of the College by a developer. I received multiple
complaints that staff felt strong armed and directed by Mr. Ntuk. I then advised Mr. Ntuk that his efforts
to direct staff are inappropriate and it is a decision the Board needs to uptake based on a thorough review.
My constructive attempts made him very upset and painted me as someone who’s not supportive of his
agenda.
 Few months later, Mr. Ntuk sought support for his wife’s candidacy for City Council against the area
incumbent, which I refused to give.

These are among some specific examples of why Mr. Ntuk and Ms. Malauulu have unclean hands in their
arbitration and complaint efforts and have been viewing me as a political foe because I have refused to aid and
abed their political agenda. This is nothing but a political witch hunt, one in which is shared by Mr. Otto who has
past political and personal animus due to my efforts of bringing transparency to the Board and the embarrassment
it caused for him in rejecting these efforts.

Regarding Ms. Malauulu’s allegations about my recognition of the Port for their leadership in Education and hiring
our students. I stand by my remarks and am proud to work for such an organization that supports educating and
employing our students. As mentioned in my remarks, the Port was our first industry partner that paved the way
for 60 other partners that joined and had equal opportunity to be recognized by way of our April 23, 2019 press
conference. I did not and have not received any financial gain or “promotion” by recognizing the Port for their
support of our students. This allegation is not only void of evidence but unethical, offensive and demonstrates
examples of her escalating bullying efforts and threatening against my job and employment. Furthermore, it is
unethical for her to school my employer at the podium on automation policies that would directly benefit her union
and employer, which is fraught with impropriety and poses potential conflict of interest on her part.

As far as her remarks about being an immigrant, not only am I also a first generation immigrant but the only
religious minority on the Board who has been subjected to anti-Semitism and discrimination. I feel threatened
every day as a member of the Jewish community, a sector of the population which continues to see the highest
levels of hate crimes, desecration of our cemeteries or terrorizing of our places of worship. Knowing this deep
pain, I would never inflict such a wound on anyone nor would I resort to threatening or assassinating anyone’s
character including Ms. Malauulu’s.

Lastly it is inappropriate that Ms. Malauulu has decided to use District resources such as our letterhead for her
personal allegations postulating that it is perhaps a pronouncement by the District. Her pronouncements are so
inscrutable that it has compelled me to offer this letter addressing each point. While she along with some other
members of my Board are busy with petty political fights and scoring political points, I have been and will continue
to focus on our students and addressing more than 2,000 homeless students since 2015. I encourage my colleagues
to do the same and refrain from hurting our institution with waging acrimonious political wars. In conclusion, her
complaint letter is a clear effort to weaponize the Board of Trustees Code of Ethics/Standards of Practice and
should be rejected. Our institution’s accreditation holds utmost value and our students deserve better.

Sincerely,

Sunny Zia, P.E.

Long Beach Community College District
Board of Trustees Member Area 3; Email: info@SunnyZia.com, Tel: (562) 270-5017 (cell)
Paid for by Re-Elect Sunny Zia to Long Beach Community College Board 2018 (#1361694)