Former state lawmaker Demion Clinco is the newest board member at Pima Community College.

Pima County School Superintendent Linda Arzoumanian appointed Clinco to the District 2 seat formerly held by David Longoria, who resigned in October.

Clinco, who now serves as president and executive director of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, told The Skinny that he believes Pima has a key role to play in the region’s economic development because “it’s the gateway for so many people into higher paying jobs.”

The college has been through a rough patch that included claims that members of PCC’s board looked the other way rather than investigate sexual harassment claims against former chancellor Ray Flores and a host of other violations of administrative rules and procedures. After a lengthy investigation, the Higher Learning Commission announced in 2013 that Pima was on probation and in danger of losing its academic accreditation. Earlier this year, the HLC removed Pima from probationary status, although the college remains On Notice that it must continue to shape up or risk losing its accreditation.

Clinco said new Pima Chancellor Lee Lambert, who took over in 2013, has been moving PCC in the right direction “to remove those impediments that have left a cloud over the college. I’m looking forward to working with him.”

Clinco added that his legislative experience could help the college as it lobbies lawmakers on a number of issues, including efforts to adjust a spending limit could tangle up Pima’s efforts to expand in high-tech programs such as aviation training that require upfront investment by PCC.

He plans to run for a full term on Pima’s board in 2016, so Clinco is giving up plans on making a return to the Legislature next year. Clinco had been considering both Legislative District 2, where he lost his seat, and Legislative District 9, where there’s an open House seat with state Rep. Victoria Steele making a run for Congresswoman Martha McSally’s District 2 seat.

“I think it would be pretty hard to do both,” Clinco said.

Democratic state Rep. Randy Friese is seeking reelection to one of the two LD9 House seats. Democrat Pamela Powers Hannley and Republican Ana Henderson have both launched campaigns for the House in District 9.

This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2015.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

5 replies on “Former State Lawmaker Clinco Appointed to Pima College Board”

  1. Anyone who has lived in Tucson for more than a couple of years, especially those who have attended Pima Community College, know that from an institutional standpoint, the college has been broken for quite some time — and remains to have serious issues that are the result of rampant cronyism, nepotism, dysfunctional support and staff services, and too many full-time professors and teachers who in their collective heart-of-hearts want to be at the University of Arizona. What has kept this community college from completely collapsing under the weight of a bloated, back-biting, under-cutting, corporate-like administration and its leadership’s hubris is a core of over-worked, under-paid and virtually ignored adjunct educators who frequently care more for the education and future of their students than the students themselves do. Changing the PCC internal culture is going to take a lot of hard work and listening to “the little people” who actually make a difference in the lives of their students. Unfortunately, any real change will most likely be on a geological scale and the result of considerable time and pressure, e.g., wearing down and weeding out those who like things the way they have always been — after all, presidents and chancellors come and go, but the administrators and full-time staff are forever.

  2. I would like to see Clinco succeed, because PCC is extremely important to our community and to me personally. I believe he will try to be effective in the finance issues for the college in terms of legislative support. He will need lots of contact to deal with other issues such as are mentioned in the comment above. There will be an election in the fall and Clinco has to show his value to the college during this year.

  3. Did we really need another politician on the board?

    How about someone with an actual PIMA CC Associate Degree on their resume’?

    “During his tenure in the Arizona State House Clinco was the only openly LGBT member”

    Great, looks like Pima CC is about to go full Social Justice mode with special toilets for transgender mentally ill individuals.

  4. I totally agree with the previous commenters, that it is extremely important for our community. All the time we hear that education is vital and it can influence the future of our country, because all in all, it is proper development of our young generation. I speak about real education but not just some formal things like grades and accomplishing academic papers, because we know that it is quite easy to order essay online and get a desirable result. What young generation needs is special approach and motivation to develop and make this world better,

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