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.