Candidate for
Trustee; Miracosta Community College District; Trustee Area 3

North County Times, August 29, 2003

MiraCosta trustees choose Mauro for board

By: BRUCE KAUFFMAN - Staff Writer

OCEANSIDE ---- Andrew A. Mauro, a retired manager for the Del Mar Fairgrounds who once wrote sports for the MiraCosta College student newspaper, will return to the campus to fill a seat on the college board vacated recently by 27-year board veteran Jean Moreno.

Mauro, 59, won out over nine other candidates to fill the unexpired term of Moreno, who resigned in June. Mauro said he intends to run for the seat in November 2004, when the term ends.

"I'm not going in there with any agenda," Mauro said Thursday, from his Encinitas home. "I'm there to learn and participate as a hardworking member of this board. I don't want to come off as someone coming in there all set to make a lot of changes. I'm coming in very humbly as someone who's ready to learn."

The board made its choice late Wednesday after two evenings of interviews with all the candidates. It decided to fill the vacancy by appointment rather than spend an estimated $40,000 to hold an election. Candidates ranged from a former president of MiraCosta's Associated Student Government to a professor of periodontics at Loma Linda University.

Mauro is set to be sworn in at the board's next regularly scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on the Barnard Drive campus in Oceanside.

He said he brings no program of his own to the office, but wants to observe and learn so he can help out with the two biggest tasks facing the board right now: adoption of a permanent budget for the 2003-04 school year and the selection of a new president.

Tim Dong, who is resigning next June after 10 years at the helm of the two-year community college, said the choice of his successor is the board's most important job. MiraCosta College serves about 8,000 students on two campuses, one in Oceanside and one in Encinitas.

As far as the qualities he seeks in a new president, Mauro said he wants someone who's like Tim Dong.

"That enthusiasm is what I'd be looking for, someone with that same commitment he has to the ideals of what education can do for the community," Mauro said.

In a statement, board President Rudy Fernandez said, "We are very pleased that Andy Mauro will be joining the MiraCosta College Board of Trustees. Mr. Mauro brings to the board the perspectives of a long-time Encinitas resident who has been involved in many community organizations. His business, administrative and community activism experiences will add much to the college board of trustees."

Mauro came to North County in 1972 and started a chrysanthemum business in Encinitas. After he sold Mauro Flowers Inc. in 1981, he enrolled at MiraCosta to study journalism. He became sports editor for the Chariot, the student paper, and went on to write for the erstwhile Vista Morning Press. Among his beats was community college sports, which he was covering when MiraCosta dropped its football program.

Mauro, who holds a bachelor's degree in English from University of Redlands, was lured away from journalism by an offer to run the annual flower show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. He then became deputy general manager of the fairgrounds, a job from which he retired in 1995.

A former board member of the Cardiff Town Council and past chair of the San Dieguito Citizens Planning Group, Mauro serves on the boards of the San Elijo Lagoon Conservatory, the Buena Vista Audobon Club and the San Diego Field Ornithologists birding group.

The vacant seat represents areas of south Carlsbad and Encinitas that lie within the San Dieguito High School District. Board members are paid $240 a month.

Mauro and his wife, Kathleen, are the parents of twins and grandparents of two girls.

Contact staff writer Bruce Kauffman at (760) 761-4410 or bkauffman@nctimes.com.