Raises proposed for college district leaders
Deirdre Newman
The president of the teachers’ union of the Coast Community
College District is outraged that a 14% raise for seven top
administrators might be automatically approved without any public
discussion Wednesday night.
The proposal is on the Board of Trustees’ consent calendar, which
is a host of items that are all approved together unless a trustee
asks that one of them be removed for discussion.
The raise would apply to the district’s three college presidents,
three vice chancellors and the president of KOCE-TV. The proposal
comes on the heels of a 3% cost-of-living adjustment given to all
district employees earlier this year.
Vice chancellor John Renley and other administrators proposed the
increases. Renley said the raise is necessary for the presidents
because the district is having difficulty finding high-caliber
candidates for the presidency of Orange Coast College.
The position, vacated by Margaret Gratton last spring, is being
filled by interim president Gene Ferrell.
“When we advertised it ... we looked at the other presidents’
positions that were open and we were the lowest paid presidency,”
Renley said.
But union President Tina Bruning contends the potential raise
illustrates the greed and arrogance of the administrators and
constitutes a breach of public trust after Measure C, the district’s
facility improvement bond, was just passed by voters in November.
“Of course, none of the bond money will be directly funneled into
administrative raises, but some of the bond money will be used for
maintenance expenses that normally come out of the district’s general
revenues,” Bruning said in a press release. “It’s really just a
financial shell game.”
For the college presidents and vice chancellors, the annual salary
range currently starts at about $127,000, Renley said. The proposed
raise would increase that figure to about $145,000.
Renley said administrators have discussed their low salaries for a
while. But it took on new urgency last year when the district began
searching for presidents for OCC and Coastline College. The Coastline
College position was filled by someone who took a pay cut.
But for OCC, out of 40 candidates who applied, the district
couldn’t even find 15 it was interested in interviewing, Renley said.
“We came to the conclusion that we had to do something,” Renley
said.
The search committee recommended putting the search on hold last
spring. When the announcement was reposted this fall, it read “salary
under consideration.” The search will close at the end of January.
Renley said that under no circumstances will the money for the
salary increase -- which will cost the district about $60,000 this
year -- come from Measure C. Instead, it will come from the general
fund.
Renley said the vice chancellors also deserve the raise because
they perform responsibilities similar to the presidents.
But Renley said he did have some misgivings about asking for the
raise in the midst of a state budget crisis after Gov. Gray Davis
proposed cutting $215 million statewide from the community college
system on Friday.
“I don’t like the idea of making a salary proposal. However, we
have a need right now of filling the OCC [presidency],” Renley said.
“We can find a president at $50,000, but they’re not going to be that
good.”
Bruning said she will ask that the item be removed from the
consent calendar so there can be some discussion on it.
* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)
574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.
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