The MiraCosta College board of trustees has decided to notify the county grand jury that it will not implement recommendations the jury made in a May 27 report aimed at improving ethics at five community colleges in the county.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the community college trustees also declared they could not comment on the grand jury's recommendation seemingly most aimed at MiraCosta – a suggestion that it gave former college President Victoria Muñoz Richart too much money in a severance deal.

Richart received cash, salary and benefits amounting to almost $1.6 million in June 2007, in return for her departure that month.

The board said Tuesday that it could not comment on the deal because the issue is the subject of a lawsuit.

Resident Leon Page has sued the Oceanside-based college, saying the sum given Richart amounts to an illegal gift of public funds.

Community colleges have until Monday to respond to the jury's report, which criticized four of the five community college districts in the county for various practices. Palomar College in San Marcos was the exception.

All five districts, Palomar included, responded that most of the recommendations are “not warranted or reasonable.”

In addition, the San Diego County Board of Education replied Aug. 13 that it does not have the statutory authority to unilaterally make many of the changes requested by the grand jury.