Ohlone College’s annual Earth Week starts today, with a variety of events including tree and flower planting this afternoon, e-waste recycling Tuesday and a campus hike Wednesday.

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, the grand finale is a Rock the Hill concert with a special performance by Frenchie Davis of American Idol fame. Ooh-la-la!

This afternoon’s board of trustees meeting at Ohlone College is in the Jackson Theatre in the Smith Center, not the usual Child Development Center room, on the Mission Boulevard campus.

After the 3 p.m. meeting, officials and anyone else who shows up can tour the Fremont “facilities” and find out just what shape the buildings are in.

Board members and staff have complained that structures are in worsening shape even as money to maintain them dries up. Come see for yourself.

Because of a Web glitch, our story in today’s paper on the search for a new top dog at Ohlone College didn’t initially post to our site.

It is now up for the world to see. So no, we didn’t get scooped by the East Bay Business Times. This time.

East Bay Business Times is reporting that Ohlone College is down to three candidates to replace Doug Treadway as president.

Here’s the story:

Three finalists for the position of president/superintendent of the Ohlone Community College District in Fremont have been announced by the Fremont college district’s board of trustees.

The final three candidates are Cecilia Cervantes, president of the College of Alameda; Gari Browning, who is currently vice president of instruction for the College of the Desert in Palm Desert; and Laurence Spraggs, president of Broome Community College in Binghamton, N.Y.

“We are extremely pleased with the high caliber of candidates that applied to be president of Ohlone College,” Garrett Yee, president of the district board of trustees, said in a statement. “Ohlone College has a great reputation as an academic institution and is recognized as one of the top community colleges in California.”

All three are expected to meet with Ohlone students, faculty and staff during campus forums April 14. The hour-long meetings, which will also be the subject of live webcasts, will be held at 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. in Classroom 2133 of Ohlone’s Fremont campus.

You can’t say The Argus stifles debate when it comes to our own community coverage.

Members of the Ohlone College board took their potshots at the newspaper for how it covered criticism of the trustees by an accreditation team — and we printed them.

One tidbit we didn’t include in today’s follow-up article, however, was some advice they got from their presidential search consultant, Pamila Fisher, about shooting the messenger:

Her suggestion, paraphrasing Ben Franklin: “Don’t get into an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrelful.”

The fellow pictured on the right is our city editor, Rob Dennis. Sadly for the seven or so editorial folks still left at The Argus, this is his last day on the job.

Loyal Tri-City Beat readers might remember Rob as the angry guy whose lone venomous post about a bogus BART parking ticket triggered an avalanche of anti-BART rants.

But Rob is more than just a hater. He’s our best investigator, most seasoned reporter and sharpest editorial writer. He’s also our resident beer guzzler, chain smoker and card shark.

Rob has shared major awards for a series about mortgage lenders discriminating against minorities, and coverage of the Rodney Blach trial. Later this month, we’ll print a four-part series that is mostly his work.

Rob came to The Argus eight years ago after a distinguished tenure as a Wal-Mart sales associate and several years living off the dole in his native Ireland.

Starting Wednesday, he returns to his roots — mooching off other people’s tax dollars.

Rob was one of about 100 MediaNews-East Bay (our parent company) employees who took a buyout last week as our newsroom continues to shrink.

He’ll collect unemployment, freelance a little and eventually head over to Prague to work on a documentary film. He says it’ll be about Eastern Europe 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but word on the street is that it’s really a first-person piece on how former Communist bloc countries have kept beer prices under $1 a pint.

We might have to start a liver transplant fund for him.

In case anyone cared, Rob never did pay that parking ticket. BART backed down in the face of Rob’s irrefutable evidence and exasperated sighs. It was a big pain in the butt, but in the end, it was worth it. We hope that’s how Rob will come to look back on his time at The Argus.

Hey, Rob! Take care, buddy. We’ll miss you.

“Selfish” may have been the key word in a discussion Wednesday on the Ohlone College board’s unique election system, which seems to favor incumbents through the use of numbered seats.

Ironically, the arrangement was put in place 28 years ago to oust a controversial trustee but then backfired against the board member who proposed it.

Sound confusing? That’s why the League of Women Voters of Fremont, Newark and Union City asked the board to return to a top-vote-getter system of the kind Americans are more familiar with.

The majority of trustees, though, said they prefer to maintain a non-competitive atmosphere through numbered seating, which guarantees that no incumbents ever face off against each other.

They can only be individually challenged by non-board members, which has resulted in some incumbents facing several candidates and others facing none.

“I think it’s a very selfish perspective as an incumbent,” said Trustee Richard Watters, noting that he got nearly three-quarters of the vote when he ran for a seat. “Who’s going to run against that?

“It’s not fair. It’s intimidating to have to pick someone out to run against. It’s very confrontational.”

On the other hand, interim Trustee Trisha Tahmasbi said she believes numbered seats mean greater responsibility among board members who will have to answer for their actions.

“I’m anticipating  a tough campaign in November,” she said, noting that she expects several challengers to target her for removal. “You can take take me on head to head. There’s more of an accountability level.”

Trustee Nick Nardolillo threw down a gauntlet in his support of numbered seats, saying: “You can focus on an individual you think is not doing a very good job. If you’re too chicken to take on somebody … I don’t think you’re going to have what it takes to serve on the board.”

Board President Garrett Yee disagreed with the system, which has allowed him to run unchallenged as a trustee.

“We’ve all been talking about how we feel,” he said, as opposed to how Tri-City area voters feel. “It’s very frustrating that your top two candidates (can) align with one seat. It gives less choice.”

In the end, Trusteee John Weed agreed with Watters and Yee, but Trustees Bob Brunton and Bill McMillin sided with Nardolillo and Tahmasbi, so the board decided to keep the current system.

Originally, Weed explained that Trustee Ray Snow suggested numbered seats 28 years ago. That allowed voters to target controversial board member Marilyn Blawie for removal, but then Snow himself was ousted by Dan Archer.