Associated Students of North Peralta Community College v. Board of Trustees of Peralta Community College District

This is an appeal from a judgment denying a petition for a writ of mandate which sought to compel the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees (Trustees) to keep open the Grove Street college campus, and to adopt a plan for repayment of at least $10 million in bond initiative revenues for construction of a degree-granting college on the Grove Street college site.

In salient part the background of the case is as follows.

The Peralta Community College District (District) was formed in 1963, embracing the area of Alameda, Albany-Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Piedmont. A year later the Trustees created a 72-member Citizens Advisory Committee, which in 1965 made recommendations including the scheduling of a bond election to issue $47 million in bonds. Our perusal of the recommendations convinces us, as appellants argue, that all interested parties fully expected that four campuses would be built, one of them in the Berkeley-Albany area.

While the minutes of the July 12, 1965, meeting of the Trustees at which a resolution calling for the bond election was adopted do not reflect official adoption of the advisory committee’s recommendations, the record below…