It was supposed to have been a triumphal evening Wednesday for the Los Angeles Community College District, with the inauguration of three board members and the first woman board president in years.

Instead, it turned into a tense public debate on the moral character of former Board of Trustees President Scott J. Svonkin — whether he was a bully who had engaged in a pattern of verbal harassment against a fellow trustee and other district employees, as some alleged. Or whether he was a good family man and fair public servant, as others said.

After much debate, the seven-member college board voted 4-3 to table a decision on whether to hold a sanction hearing for the former three-term president. Instead, they chose to place the dispute in the hands of a special ad hoc committee until further notice.

“These motions are serious, dealing primarily with one board member to another,” said Sydney K. Kamlager, the newly named president of the LACCD Board of Trustees, to a standing-room crowd of more than 100 spectators at the district headquarters downtown. “And they are contentious. And painful.

“This should be a celebratory day … not a return to spectacle.”

The decision followed an unprecedented resolution by Trustee Andra Hoffman to initiate a motion of sanction against Svonkin, who she claimed had engaged in a pattern of verbal threats and written harassment since she was elected to the board two years ago.

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During a closed session meeting in the spring, she claimed that Svonkin had yelled at her in a threatening manner.

During a board meeting last month, she alleged he had leaned into her face and unleashed a verbal tirade about her board votes and political career, forcing the district chancellor to pull him away. She said she’s compiled years of text messages and voicemails as evidence.

Svonkin has denied the allegations, saying he was the target of a politically charged smear attack.

Though he didn’t speak during the debate, he said he had issued an apology during the inauguration of newly elected trustees Steve Veres and Gabriel Buelna and of re-elected trustee Ernest Moreno, as well as the naming of the new district president.

“I sincerely regret if I was too passionate or made anyone feel uncomfortable,” he recalled saying, in a written speech given to the Daily News. “My goal was to just uphold my oath of office. Andra, my intention was never to make you or anyone else feel personally uncomfortable. I hope we can put this behind us and work together for the students we both care about.”

In a motion brought by re-elected Trustee Ernest Moreno, Kamlager will select an ad hoc committee to investigate the dispute between board members, then bring back a recommendation for action. Voting against the committee were Veres, Buelna and Hoffman.

“Either we deal with it today, or it comes back to this board ad nauseum,” Buelna said.

Hoffman strenuously objected to postponing a sanction hearing vote, and accused the district of breaking its own rules and procedures.

“I still don’t understand how we ignore a board rule. This is a motion to see whether there’s enough evidence to sanction,” she said. “This is another form of trying to silence me and to bully me.”

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Svonkin is now running for a seat on the California Board of Equalization.

Nineteen people weighed in on whether to sanction Svonkin, including a dozen family, friends and labor leaders who spoke on the trustee’s behalf. They described him as fair, honest and just, adding it would be better instead to discuss serious educational issues like homeless students.

“The allegations do not strike me as related to governing and seem best suited for mediation,” said Annie Reed, a district employee for 22 years and a representative of Teamsters Local 911. “I don’t ever recall a time, or a place, where he has treated his colleagues poorly.”

Others disagreed, including two former women board members who did not speak at the downtown meeting.

They said Hoffman’s critics — who they said weren’t present during the abuse — had a tendency to blame the victim, while ignoring Svonkin’s allegedly brusque treatment of employees.

“As a student leader in community college, I have witnessed firsthand Scott’s unnecessary arrogant behavior,” said John Nayala, a former LACCD board student trustee. “By voting no (on this resolution), you are complicit in the bullying and violence against women.”