Enholm, Cleveland take seats

Beginning Dec. 12, the Contra Costa Community College District Governing Board will welcome two fresh faces as trustees.

Governing Board trustee-elects Greg Enholm and Tom Cleveland will represent Ward 5 and Ward 2 respectively.

The new members replace former trustees Tomi Van de Brooke and Robert Calone.

 Governing Board Trustee John Marquez said, “I worked well with Tomi (and Robert) but I am also excited at the fact that (the new trustees and I will) work together.”

Van de Brooke, who was beaten by Cleveland in Ward 2, served on the board since 2005 and is presently the board’s president.

Ward 2 is located in Diablo Valley College’s area and Ward 5 in Los Medanos College’s area.

Cleveland won the three-way race against Van de Brooke and Vicki Gordon, winning 33.7 percent of the votes while Gordon finished with 33.4 percent and Van de Brooke with 32.5.

Van de Brooke was unavailable for comment.

Cleveland, who had never run for office before, previously served as a partner of the Deloitte & Touche CPA firm and is now a professor at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga.

“Running for the position was the easy part for me,” Cleveland said. “Community colleges in California are facing a crisis in meeting their own demands.”

While Cleveland is a new face on the board, Enholm, who previously ran against Sheila Grilli for Ward 3 in 2010, has been a familiar face in the district since 2006.

Having also run for Ward 3 in 2006, Enholm failed to win both elections, losing to Grilli.

Enholm said that while he was initially planning on running for Ward 3 in 2014, he decided instead to run for Ward 5 in 2012.

Current Trustee Calone, is finishing his run as interim Ward 5 trustee. Calone took the reins due to the death of former trustee Jess Reyes. Reyes died of pneumonia on Jan. 31, 2011.

Due to Calone being an interim trustee, the position was left vacant for the 2012 election.

Enholm ran against Daniel Borsuk and De’Shawn Woolridge for the Ward 5 trustee position and won 50.8 percent of the votes while Woolridge finished with 39.2 percent and Borsuk with 9.3 percent.

“Since 2006 I’ve thought of plans to improve the district,” Enholm said.

Enholm said that he plans to bring a community college to the far East County in hopes of replacing the current LMC-Brentwood Center.

Marquez said that while he is skeptical about Enholm’s plan of creating a new college in East County, he is still optimistic as to what ideas both new trustees have.

“I’m looking forward to our new district board,” Marquez said.