More than a month after being placed on paid administrative leave, Rancho Santiago Community College District Chancellor Marvin Martinez has retired from his leadership role.
During the transition period, the district will continue to be led by Vice Chancellor Iris Ingram, who has served as acting chancellor since Martinez was placed on leave in September, officials said. The district includes Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College in Orange.
Ingram will remain in the role while the board “determines next steps for district leadership,” said a district announcement of Martinez’s decision to retire as of Friday, Oct. 16.
“We wish Chancellor Martinez well in his retirement,” Ingram said in an email sent to district staff last week, adding that she remains “committed to providing steady leadership and ensuring continuity across the district during this transition.”
The district’s Board of Trustees voted Sept. 2 to place Martinez on temporary paid administrative leave “pending an investigation into recently made allegations concerning the chancellor,” without offering more information at the time.
Trustees John Hanna, Zeke Hernandez, David Crockett, Daisy Tong and Arias Miller voted in favor of the administrative leave, and Trustee Cecilia Iglesias voted against.
Trustee Phil Yarbrough did not participate in that vote; he had been temporarily stripped of his title as board president in August, pending completion of separate investigations into complaints filed by Martinez and a vice chancellor against Yarbrough — among other concerns. Yarbrough retains his publicly elected trustee seat.
The complaint filed by Martinez came just a few weeks after the board voted to form an ad hoc committee to evaluate the chancellor’s performance, following a second closed-session meeting to discuss possible disciplinary actions.
Martinez could not be immediately reached on Wednesday.
He joined the district as chancellor in 2019 and in his more than 30 years in community college education previously served as president of East Los Angeles College and Los Angeles Harbor College.