OC opinion writer questions college officials’ construction insurer roles

A retired community college professor is questioning whether three Orange County college administrators adequately disclosed their roles with a construction insurer that did business with their districts. Barry Resnick raised the concerns in a community opinion piece published Wednesday by Voice of OC.

Resnick connects those concerns to insurance decisions facing nine Orange County school districts with approximately $2 billion in construction bonds approved by voters in November 2024. His piece argues that overlapping district and insurer responsibilities warrant scrutiny; Voice of OC identifies the article as opinion belonging to its author.

According to Resnick’s Voice of OC piece, CIPA was established in Hawaii in 2005 under the Alliance of Schools for Cooperative Insurance Programs, a public joint powers authority, to provide construction insurance. Resnick alleges that administrators helped direct their districts’ insurance spending to CIPA while serving as its directors without disclosing their specific insurer responsibilities to elected trustees.

The piece identifies John Didion and Peter Hardash as former vice chancellors at Rancho Santiago Community College District. Didion served on CIPA’s board while employed by the district, retired in 2016 and later became its paid managing director, according to Resnick, who identifies him as CIPA’s current president. Hardash succeeded Didion on the board, left the district in 2020 and remained a CIPA director through 2025.

Fred Williams, a former vice chancellor at NOCCCD, joined CIPA’s board before construction started on the Cypress College project in February 2019, according to the opinion piece. Resnick said Williams continued as a director after retiring from the district in December 2025.

Resnick cites a Sept. 24 report by Palomar College Telescope News Editor Grace Dean that Williams prepared recommendations for CIPA to insure Measure J projects in 2019 and 2023. According to that account, the agenda materials did not disclose his CIPA role. The opinion piece also cites earlier reporting that trustees Ed Lopez and John Hanna were unaware of the relevant administrators’ affiliations with the insurer.

The piece includes Williams’ account to the Telescope that he had obtained approval from NOCCCD Chancellor Byron Clift Breland to serve on CIPA’s board. NOCCCD Public Information Officer Kai Stearns told Resnick that Breland received verbal notice of Williams’ involvement within six months of the chancellor’s January 2022 arrival.

Resnick’s call for disclosure extends to the next round of school construction spending. He argues that the nine Orange County districts proceeding with voter-approved bond projects should make their insurance decisions transparent to the public.