As public institutions, community colleges are dependent for their survival and continuity upon favorable evaluations by the external constituencies that finance the colleges. Underscoring the resource-dependent nature of community colleges are the revenue limitations brought about by declining enrollments, the effects of high costs, and taxpayer resistence to levies. Using a resource-dependent model, four steps were taken to assess the organizational effectiveness of the Maricopa Community College District (MCCD): (1) the Arizona State Board of Directors for Community Colleges and the MCCD designated two criteria for evaluating 60 community college activities, i.e., whether the activity is important to do and whether it should be funded with tax dollars; (2) a survey instrument incorporating these criteria was sent to 90 state legislators, 21 state board members, 2,330 randomly selected registered voters, and all 38 MCCD administrators; (3) data were weighted according to the relative political influence exercised by each group as perceived by the MCCD administrators; and (4) data analyses were conducted to determine the perceptions of each group and to contrast the views of the MCCD administrators and the external groups. The study found that the majority of the differences of opinion resulted from resistence by the external groups to the use of tax monies for activities supported by the administrators, especially in the areas of special treatment for particular special student groups. (HB)