Designed to promote new direction, accountability, and support for California's community colleges, this concept paper outlines six major legislative initiatives that should be integrated into the Community College Reform Act of 1986. The paper urges that: (1) the mission of community colleges must be given focus, and, for the first time, priorities within the mission must be established; (2) accountability between the student and the college must be strengthened, and the concept of open access must be given new meaning through enactment of matriculation reform; (3) responsibilities must be assigned for numerous other academic, student, and personnel reforms to be implemented by agencies other than the legislature; (4) governance responsibilities of the Board of Governors and local districts must be clarified, and lines of accountability must be established through the creation of a postsecondary community college system; (5) policies pertaining to the employment of academic and administrative staff in the colleges must be reformed to make them more postsecondary in nature, by such changes as eliminating credentials, lengthening the probationary period for tenure, and establishing new policies for the employment of part-time instructors; and (6) a more accountable and flexible method for financing community colleges must be provided. The paper concludes that the state representatives must fuel the good intentions of the community colleges with a package of unmistakably clear directions so that the colleges can proceed with clarity of mission and quality programs. (RO)