MISSION VIEJO : Highest Pay Goes Even Higher at Saddleback

By JEFF BEAN

Oct. 4, 1994 12 AM PT

Faculty of the Saddleback Community College District, which already has the highest average pay in the state, has been given a 4% yearly raise.

The increase, approved Sept. 19 in closed session by district trustees, comes before a Nov. 8 election in which all three board incumbents seeking reelection have won endorsements from the faculty’s union.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. Oct. 8, 1994 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday October 8, 1994 Orange County Edition Metro Part B Page 2 Column 6 Orange County Focus Desk 2 inches; 36 words Type of Material: Correction
Saddleback College--A story Oct. 4 reported that the Saddleback Community College District board had approved a 4% yearly pay raise for the faculty, but it did not include the vote. The pay hike was approved 6 to 0, with board member Teddi Jo Lorch abstaining.

The raise, retroactive to July 1, affects both full- and part-time faculty.

“We felt that they do an outstanding job, so they deserve a raise,” trustee Joan J. Hueter said.

But a challenger vying for one of the three open seats on the seven-member board called the salary boost an affront to taxpayers during the state’s economic woes.

“I think that the union is--I would almost use a very bad word--rapacious,” Juel Andersen said.

The college district’s new salary schedule for the full-time faculty ranges from $30,211 to $75,527, based on education and experience. (One person grandfathered in under an earlier contract pay scale earns $83,080.)

According to the most recent figures available from the Chancellor’s Office of California Community Colleges, Saddleback has the highest average faculty salary statewide. The full-time Saddleback faculty averaged $60,877 during the 1993-94 school year, the figures show.

In adopting the pay increase, trustees approved a three-year contract that expires June 30, 1997, but leaves open how much, if any, instructors’ salaries will increase for the 1995-96 and 1996-97 school years.

The district has 312 full-time faculty members and 710 people on the part-time faculty, said district spokeswoman Diane Riopka.

Of the full-time faculty, about 60 members are at the top of the pay scale, Riopka said.