Budget, land usage, technology and communication.

These are the four issues that are going to be the most important for the San José/Evergreen Community College District Board of Trustees over the next four years.

Any consideration of the five candidates running for the three open spots will need to consider these four issues foremost.

The budget is going to be the biggest issue over the length of the current term. We are in a recession, a recession that might last a while.

There is no reason that government in general, and school systems in particular, should be recession proof.

If the recession hurts your household budget, should it be a shock to anyone that it also hurts the school budget?

We need trustees that will stop whining about their declining budgets and start figuring out better ways to make do with what they get.

The key to the immediate future is to do more with less -- efficiency. Unfortunately, all of the candidates would be considered tax and spend liberals.

They all want more.

But reality is going to hit soon enough. Taxpayers are going to get pickier about where their hard-earned money is going.

The defeat of Measure E in the West Valley/Mission District last March could be a sign of taxpayer limits to come.

Land usage is tied to the budget issue. There are many that want to lease off the excess land at EVC to get through the current budget crunch.

We’d like a board that would look beyond the current problems and plan for the future.

Vice Chancellor Mike Hill is a sharp guy, with plenty of wonderful ideas, but we need trustees who will do their homework and challenge him on some of the land use issues.

Are we selling off a great asset for short-term gain?

Technology could also have an influence on the current budget crunch.

We live in the heart of Silicon Valley, with some of the best high-tech minds in the world at our disposal, and our web sites are nothing more that brochures.

Technology can help us to do things better, cheaper and faster, but we need trustees willing to learn about newer technologies and not rubber stamp everything coming out of the chancellor’s office.

And the final critical issue is communication.

The board members have relied too long on the chancellor telling them the issues. It needs to get out and talk to students, faculty and administrators and find out about college issues.

There’s a need for organized student forums and better communication with the college staffs.

Stop waiting for your constituency to come to you at the board meetings and get out and meet them on their turf.

Above all, they need to be more easily accessible, with available contact information. There is no reason we should be able to send email to the President, governors, senators, congress, the assembly and mayors but not to our board.

District Two

His opponenet Bud LoMonaco is active in the community and has some big ideas, but he also doesn’t have an email address. The lack of access to email worries us with both the communication and technology issues.

Besides, Tovar is a former EVC student and if the board is going to remain unwilling to come listen to the students, we might as well start by sending one of our own to the board.

We are concerned that Tovar demurs to Trustee Richard Hobbs far to often, but hopefully once elected he will find his own voice.

District Four

While 16 years in office is a long time in these days of most elected officials being subject to term limits, we think Fuentes is one of the few shinning lights on the board.

She is the only one we’ve seen on campus, talking to faculty and students when not running for office.

After seeing her at a student forum, she even became an advocate for some of their concerns at the next board meeting.

Districy Six

We are concerned that Hobbs is creating a voting block that will support all of his liberal ideas.

Hobbs is the most liberal member of the board, and with Tovar added to the group of Fuentes, Dawn Wright and Ron Lind, they will be able to dominate any board vote over the next two years.

There’s a reason there are seven members of the board and we’d like to see all members having an equal voice in the decisions.

There is very little to separate Hobbs and Fedor politically. They agree on much more than they disagree, especially about the four key issues.

It came down to who would better challenge the chancellor’s office over the next few years, and Hobbs is starting to understand that sometimes the board will need to go around the chancellor’s office to find out the issues or get things done.

We’re willing to give Hobbs one more term to see if he has learned.