College district raises tainted by controversy

Amy R. Spurgeon

COSTA MESA -- While most college district employees say they are

satisfied with a recently approved 3.5% salary increase, a small

controversy is brewing over whether the district’s chancellor should have

been included.

“He took advantage of the blanket 3.5% increase,” said Michael Leigh, a

professor at OCC for 25 years. “It’s a bad symbol for the underpaid

teachers and staff. It’s disappointing. But it’s not just the chancellor.

The board allowed it to happen.”

The controversy over William M. Vega’s raise, which boosted his salary to

more than $155,000, stems from an employment contract the chancellor

signed last year.

According to the terms of the contract, Vega was given an 8.25% increase

in 1999, raising his salary from $138,570 to $150,000.

District board president Jerry Patterson insists the language in that new

contract was written to exclude the chancellor from across-the-board

increases in the future.

In fact, Vega’s new contract omitted a long-standing clause that would

have guaranteed he receive “the same percentage increase of salary as is

received by other members of the district’s certificated management.”

Vega could not be reached for comment.

The board voted 4-1 to include Vega in the 2000-01 cost-of-living increase. Patterson dissented, saying administrators have individually

negotiated contracts, which should not be tied to salary increases

negotiated by employee unions.

“I don’t think it’s proper for the management negotiating the salaries to

get it themselves,” Patterson said. “He got a substantial pay raise last

time and the faculty did not.”

But board member Paul Berger defended Vega’s pay raise.

“I wanted to include him,” he said, acknowledging that faculty members

might be upset over the issue.

Berger said the belief that Vega’s current contract omits him from

across-the-board raises, “is a matter of interpretation.”

Paul Jordan, executive director of the district’s teachers union,

applauded Patterson’s actions Wednesday.

“He was taking a stance,” Jordan said. “I think he took the right

position. In view of the 8.25% Vega got a year ago, I think many faculty

members will find this insulting.”

John Renley, vice chancellor of human resources, said Vega’s salary ranks

among the top three in the county compared to other chancellors of

community college districts.