The head of one of Orange County’s largest community college districts is locked out of the office amid an investigation into his conduct after months of closed door meetings.  

The decision was announced on Tuesday night that trustees of the Rancho Santiago Community College were placing their Chancellor Marvin Martinez on administrative leave “pending completion of an investigation.” 

It’s unclear what Martinez is being placed on leave for, but it comes after board members talked repeatedly behind closed doors earlier this year about firing him, but ultimately couldn’t reach consensus. 

Martinez claimed earlier this year he was being harassed by former board President Phil Yarbrough, who’s been removed as board president by his fellow trustees but remains on the board and has frequently questioned if Martinez should remain as the district’s chancellor.

Martinez couldn’t be reached for comment, and district staff declined to comment when asked why he was placed on leave.

In a Wednesday interview, Yarbrough said he was unaware of why Martinez was being placed on leave, saying the board members improperly kicked him out of closed session. 

“Something’s going on and I don’t know what it is,” Yarbrough said. “I have a right to know and my constituents have a right to know.”  

Yarbrough said he’d previously brought up complaints with the way Martinez handled a hidden fund between the district and their health insurance provider, the Alliance of Schools for Cooperative Insurance Programs which held around $8 million worth of rebates in accounts hidden from the trustees for decades. 

Yarbrough said that he previously asked the Rancho Santiago board to hold people accountable for that mistake, but that none of the trustees joined him. 

The Alliance has faced repeated questions over the years about conflict of interest and cost, with a Voice of OC investigation in 2023 finding that multiple former district executives went to work for the insurance company after they retired and a series of conflicts of interest.

[Read:  These Community College Retirees Say Bad District Leadership Put Their Healthcare in Peril]

Despite those questions, the Rancho Santiago district has continued to contract with the Alliance, approving a renewal for their healthcare program at their Sept. 1 meeting despite the fact they could’ve saved over $1.7 million by switching to a different provider with a nearly identical program.  

Barry Resnick, a former district employee who’s repeatedly questioned district leaders connections with the Alliance, noted that for years board members tried to leave but couldn’t because the Alliance’s bids were the cheapest. 

“They said Anthem was not competitive because it was 17% higher than their current rate,” Resnick said in a Thursday interview. “Well, ASCIP this year was about that much higher too.” 

“This year, it wasn’t too expensive (to leave)” he continued. “Maybe they’ll claim ‘we found the money.’” 

Martinez’s suspension also comes after Jeannie Kim, president of Santiago Canyon College submitted a complaint raising a series of questions about Martinez’s conduct in April, as well as the conduct of Vice Chancellor Enrqiue Perez. 

That complaint has not been released publicly, and was only mentioned briefly on the board’s closed session agenda in April. 

Kim, who was hired in 2023 and is currently on leave, is facing strong pushback from faculty after they issued a vote of no confidence in her last November. 

The statement of no confidence, which received 24 yes votes from the Academic Senate with one vote against and one abstention, blasted Kim for a series of ethics and management violations including “failure to ensure transparent, ethical, and equitable hiring/appointments, budget, and planning processes,” and “persistent disregard for professional, ethical, and participatory standards of conduct.”

The district’s Vice Chancellor of Business Services Iris Ingram is filling in for Martinez, while Perez is filling in as president of Santiago Canyon College in Kim’s absence.