Palmer looks for fourth term on Sierra College board

For the past 12 years, Nancy Palmer has made a full-time job out of being a Sierra College trustee.She's asking voters to send her back for four more years.Palmer, 68, is the incumbent trustee for area 6 of the Sierra Joint Community College District board of trustees and hopes to represent Nevada County for a fourth term. Palmer is a member of a number of community groups and involved with organizations including the Grass Valley Rotary, the Placer County School Board Association and the Nevada County Campus coordinating council. Palmer, a retired accountant, said she's a good candidate for re-election because retirement makes way for plenty of time to dedicate to the college."I have the time and if you're going to be a trustee you need to put your heart and soul into it if you're going to do a good job, and it's difficult if you work full time," she said. "I'm what you call a full-time trustee."Palmer and her husband Gary, a retired Navy captain, have lived in Grass Valley since 1973. "When we moved to Grass Valley, they were talking that we might get a college there, and I thought, 'How exciting,'" she said Monday. "I was so excited, I thought, I'm going to be a part of this. We were really excited about getting a college in little Grass Valley."Palmer said she's running for another term because of unfinished college business and expansion of the Nevada County Campus, or NCC, which opened 10 years ago this fall."I want to make sure the voters get what they voted for," Palmer said of Measure G, a $44.4 million bond approved by voters in 2004 for campus development at the Nevada County campus. In her time as a trustee, Palmer has been witness to the construction of the NCC and an on-site child development center, the Library/Learning Resource Center in Rocklin and the acquisition of the Roseville Gateway campus. Palmer hopes to remain on the board to see projects like the completion of a permanent Tahoe/Truckee Center campus and the construction of the Math and Technology Building at the Rocklin campus."I just want to make sure what we promised happens," she said. More recently, Palmer also saw the failure of Measure B, knocked down by voters in June, which would have brought another $78.2 million to the college, for upgrades and renovations at the Rocklin campus. "I think the people of Placer County just didn't want to add anything else to their taxes," she said. "I just can't see us passing a bond for another four, five, six years, even though we dearly need it."Palmer said Measures G and H might have succeeded because of the communities they promise to accommodate. "We passed a bond in Nevada County, we passed a bond in Truckee, but those places are different - they live there, they stay there, they go to church there," she said. "In Grass Valley it's our college - in Rocklin, it's just Sierra College."Palmer believes one of the board's current strengths is its members, she said, because they represent a mix of ages and backgrounds and seem to have strong ties to the districts they represent. Palmer believes younger trustees like Scott Leslie, Aaron Klein and Jerry Simmons bring a fresh perspective to the board to contrast the deep-rooted positions of long-time area residents like herself, Ferrari and Barbara Vineyard."I have a lot of respect for Nancy Palmer," Leslie said Monday. "She's a very classy individual, somebody who's very dedicated and knowledgeable about the college and dedicated, certainly, to students. She does a good job of making sure the college spends its money wisely."Palmer also thinks the board has weaknesses, one of which is the lingering turmoil following the departure of Kevin Ramirez, former Sierra College president. "There comes a point in life where you have to grow up and move on," she said. "It comes up in conversation all the time, but see, there's no need for it to come up anymore - that was 2 ½ years ago ... if it's done, you can't un-change it, so just move on."Palmer was one of the trustees who drafted the board's response to the Placer County grand jury report, released earlier this year, which states charges of a "money laundering scheme" made by Sierra College trustee Klein against Ramirez, then the college president, was "utterly without merit."Ramirez agreed to step down as president in January 2005, accepting a retirement package estimated at $500,000. Palmer said Ramirez communicated news of his retirement with the board through trustee Dave Ferrari. "I said, if that's what he wants, than that's it," she said.Although she thinks Ramirez's departure could have been avoided, when asked if she supports the efforts of Save Sierra College, a recall group attempting to remove trustee Klein and board president Simmons, Palmer gave a firm, "No, I don't.""They're elected officials," she said. "If there are people who are upset with them, wait until their term is up and elect someone else."Rocklin Mayor George Magnuson is involved in the Save Sierra College recall effort, which continues to collect signatures in hopes that they can attempt a recall by way of special election."The election will speak for itself whether people like her or don't like her," he said of Palmer. "...I will be putting my endorsements behind (Palmer's opponent) Martin Harmon. We're trying to change the direction of the board."Palmer said she has yet to meet Harmon and that she hasn't heard much about him. Palmer's hoping name recognition and her tenure on the Sierra College board will earn her another term."I rely on my record," she said. "I figure if that's not good enough, then it's time to move on."- Loryll Nicolaisen can be reached at lorylln@goldcountrymedia.com.