‘Golden Handshake’ Protest : Chancellor’s Benefits Pared After Upheaval

Stung by an outcry from teachers and the general public against a retirement package given Chancellor David A. Brownell earlier this summer, the governing board of Coast Community College District early Thursday voted major reductions in the arrangement.

The initial contract, when made public, prompted one teacher to call it “a golden handshake that was platinum-plated.”

After weeks of employee discontent and news media criticism of the deal, the district trustees held a marathon meeting throughout Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning. The meeting resulted in a 4-0 vote to cut back the Brownell retirement package.

Brownell agreed to the changes and issued this statement Thursday: “I both appreciate and value honest dissent. I am grateful to trustees who continue to serve their constituencies well. They have listened carefully. They have been responsive, and they have acted fairly.”

Under the new contract, Brownell’s pay for the next school year, the last of his employment, will increase 4% instead of the 53% provided in the initial agreement. Brownell also loses four months of his six-month paid administrative leave and loses a consulting contract that would have paid him about $72,000 for a year after his retirement.

The initial retirement contract, approved by the board June 3, increased Brownell’s final-year pay from $93,756 to about $144,000. The trustees said the $50,244 increase reflected about 80 unused vacation days Brownell was owed.

But under the new contract, Brownell gets a one-time-only payment of $27,246 for his unused vacation days. His regular pay, under the new contract, increases from $93,756 to $97,506, retroactive to July 1 and continuing through his retirement date of Oct. 5, 1988.

The reduced pay for Brownell’s final year will also reduce the retirement checks he will receive from the State Teachers’ Retirement System, but no figures were immediately available. The system, which pays state retirement benefits to both teachers and administrators, gears retirement pay to the highest three years of an employee’s earnings. Brownell stood to receive considerably more under a final-year salary of $144,000 than he now does under a $97,506 final pay.

However, the new contract adds a pay-supplement feature for Brownell that was not in the initial document. The new contract commits the district to buy an annuity for Brownell that will give him about $1,200 a month, starting at age 55. That money will be in addition to his retirement pay from the state.

Vice Chancellor Phillis Basile said annuities have been added to the retirement packages of all other administrators in the district since June, 1984. She said the annuities were also used two years ago to encourage early retirement of some teachers.

Brownell retains in the revised contract the guarantee of lifetime medical and dental benefits for him and his wife. That was among the features causing an outcry from teachers and support workers in the college district when the retirement package became publicized.

Teachers and support workers received no pay increase last year because of a strained budget.

The district governs Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Coastline Community College, with headquarters in Fountain Valley. The district has been getting less state money for the last six years because of declining enrollment.

Leaders of the Coast Federation of Employees, American Federation of Teachers, Local 1911, which jointly represents the 650 teachers and 765 support workers in the district, on Thursday praised the board for revising the contract. The union leaders also credited news articles in The Times with producing public pressure for the changed contract.

“I was certainly delighted that the board took that action,” said Helen Evers, president of the support workers’ unit of the union.

“I think the union had a big role in this, and I also think the articles . . . truly reflected the feelings of the employees and the taxpayers about the (initial) contract.”

Dave Jarman, president of the teachers’ branch, said: “I’m grateful that the Board of Trustees, by acting on the contract, wrested back control of its destiny. The board brought the new contract into line. I think the union showed the taxpayers that we are a moderate organization, concerned with saving tax dollars.” “ David Warfield, executive director of the union, said he believes the board “acted responsibly” in changing the Brownell contract.

In a joint prepared statement, Brownell and Board of Trustees President Walter Howald said changes in the contract were necessary because “there were several areas in which the retirement agreement language did not make clear the board’s intent.”

The joint statement added: “We look forward to a successful conclusion of Chancellor Brownell’s guidance and assistance to Coast Community College District.”

Brownell will continue as chancellor until a successor is picked by the board early next year. After the new chancellor arrives, Brownell will remain as an adviser until Oct. 5, 1988, when he will retire at age 55.

Brownell’s request for early retirement came as a surprise to the board at its June 3 meeting. That same night the board unanimously approved the original retirement contract for Brownell, who has been chancellor since 1984 and has held other posts in the district since 1976.

There are five members on the Board of Trustees. Board member Sherry Baum of Seal Beach left the meeting about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday because she had to catch a flight to Chicago. In a telephone interview from Chicago on Thursday, Baum said she disagreed with giving Brownell lifetime fringe benefits in the new contract “and so I would have voted against the contract had I been there.”