r/Watsonville

Between this and learning PG&E is a major donor to his campaign. Not his day.

Cabrillo College’s dental hygiene program was put on a three-year probation by state regulators last month and the threat of losing its accreditation looms over its teachers and students.

An investigation by the Dental Hygiene Board of California, which oversees statewide consumer safety, regulations and licensing for the industry, found eight violations of state law during a Feb. 12 visit to the college’s dental hygiene clinic. 

At meetings March 27 and 28, board members were outraged by the violations and suggested the program should lose its accreditation outright. Instead, the board gave the program an opportunity to improve during the probationary period and levied the maximum fine of $5,000.

“I was stunned, I just want to say that,” Dental Hygiene Board member Dr. Julie Elginer said at the meeting. “This is unacceptable — absolutely, categorically, for public protection purposes, unacceptable.” 

According to a letter from the state board, violations included staff ratios below the minimum, administrators changing students’ grades to advance them to the next course, students accessing the clinic without supervision and students lacking the minimum clinical hours required.

The school’s clinic offers low cost dental care to the public, where student hygienists work with patients under faculty supervision. 

“I am uneasy about letting a program like this continue because I think it really does endanger our consumers,” said Nicolas Kiet Quach, another member of the dental board.

The college is now required to file quarterly reports with the board and may have surprise visits from board representatives during the probation period.

Travaris Harris, vice president of instruction at Cabrillo, said the current cohort of students are on track to graduate in May, and the program extended the clinic’s hours to make time for students to complete missing hours. He added that they’re working to address some of the violations, including hiring a second full-time employee and another administrator.

“I am confident that, as we go through the process and do our due diligence with reporting, that they’ll see that we address all of the concerns they had, and our program is on track,” Harris said in an interview on Monday.

Read the rest of the story from Santa Cruz Local.

Steve Trujillo, a trustee at Cabrillo College, has been censured twice for offensive and harmful behavior—and he shows no sign of stopping.

In 2023, he was censured for misogynistic and profanity-filled social media posts. Then in May 2026, he was censured again for singling out a Black employee during a board meeting to comment on racist comparisons. Since then, he's continued posting profane messages online. This isn't just about bad judgment—it's about creating a toxic, threatening environment on the board itself. Fellow trustees and even the student trustee have been threatened.

I started a petition calling on Trustee Trujillo to resign. Multiple censures, continued harmful behavior, and no accountability or remorse—that's not leadership. That's someone who's lost the trust and respect needed to serve.

If you think elected officials should be held to a basic standard of respect and professionalism, this matters. Anyone else tired of seeing this play out? If this resonates with you, consider signing and sharing the petition.

“Railroad tracks cover miles of ground in Santa Cruz County. The Regional Transportation Commission has plans to put a commuter train on them but Santa Cruz County Greenway is pushing another idea.
“That is a safe affordable and connected pathway where people could transport between Santa Cruz and Watsonville by bike by foot,” said Santa Cruz County Greenway board member Bud Colligan, “Not just for transit but also for recreation.””

Does Bud Colligan have your best interest at heart? Same guy who founded a predictive policing company, PredPol, with Ryan Coonerty and Zach Friend.

And now it’s clear from Tony’s endorsements page filled with Greenway luminaries like Gayle’s Bakery and Manu Koenig the former ED of Greenway, that Bud has his eyes on District 4 in the form of Tony Nunez.

Do you trust Bud Colligan with your future?

Surveillance and greed - at the same time!

This clip is from a community meeting to oppose the proposed lithium Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at 90 Minto Road.

Recorded: Sunday, April 26, 2026, at Pinto Lake City Park.

A longer clip with questions from the audience can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVs7gUWtx8c