The former president-superintendent of the Long Beach City College District is seeking $10 million in damages from the college after she was fired by the board in March 2020 amid dueling accusations of wrongdoing, corruption and misuse of public funds.
Regan Romali filed a claim against the college district in February 2021 for what her lawyer characterizes as a retaliatory firing due to her filing a whistleblower complaint against members of the LBCC Board of Trustees.
Her firing, and an alleged ongoing campaign to damage her reputation, have made it impossible for her to attain her previous level of employment as the head of a college, according to Louis Cohen, an attorney representing Romali.
“And she’ll never be one again because they blackballed her,” Cohen said.
The legal filing, released to the Post on Monday through a public records request, lists defamation, retaliation and gender discrimination as causes for the claim. In addition to the college, it names trustees Uduak-Joe Ntuck and Vivian Malauulu as individual respondents.
Stacey Toda, a spokesperson for LBCC, said the college does not comment on pending legal matters.
Both Ntuk and Malauulu have previously denied wrongdoing related to the whistleblower complaint. In a statement on Monday, Ntuk said there is no basis for Romali’s allegations or legal claim.
Her allegations “were independently investigated two years ago and found to have no merit,” he said in his statement.
Malauulu could not be reached for comment Monday.
The board has met for the past two years with “anticipated” or “significant exposure to litigation” appearing on its closed session numerous times since Romali’s firing, but Wednesday’s meeting is the first time that Romali’s name has appeared on the agenda.
Cohen said Romali’s notice of claims was filed with the college in February 2021, and the college responded with a letter from an outside law firm that said Romali had engaged in a pattern of dishonesty and misused district resources, among other things.
According to Romali’s contract, if there were a dispute, she would need to file a claim within a year of the alleged wrongdoing. The contract also called for any disputes between Romali and the college to be settled through arbitration.
Toda did not respond to questions about why the board has not disclosed on meeting agendas that Romali was taking legal action against the college.
Romali was given a four-year contract in July 2018 that paid her $275,000 annually in addition to other fringe benefits. She began to look for jobs out of state and was named a finalist for openings at other colleges while she compiled a ledger detailing alleged unethical behavior by trustees Ntuk and Malauulu.
The 19-page ledger was obtained by the Post in 2020. It included meetings with board members dating back to October 2018 in which Romali alleged violations of public meeting laws, sexist and racist remarks and accusations that she and her family were being surveilled—all of which college officials have denied.
Romali was fired two days after publication of the story about the ledger and Romali’s 1,000-page whistleblower complaint.
The college also launched a costly investigation into Romali that was initiated before her termination. The college has refused to make the investigation public, citing attorney-client privilege.
The cost of the investigation has grown from $20,000 to $602,000, with $335,000 of the contract paid out as of November, according to the college.
The board of trustees is scheduled to meet in closed session Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in its first in-person meeting since it fired Romali during a March 4 Saturday afternoon special meeting, shortly before pandemic precautions were enacted.
Attendees on Wednesday will be asked to show proof of vaccination, and those who do not provide proof will be provided with a mask to wear inside the meeting, according to the school’s site.
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