Coast College Administrators Deny Union’s Charge on Pay, Allowances

Frustrated by their inability to reach a salary agreement, about 760 non-teaching workers in the Coast Community College District have accused administrators of feathering their own nests while not offering employees a pay raise.

College administrators, in rebuttal, have responded that they also are not getting raises this year and that their salaries are staying the same.

But union officials representing the non-teaching workers expressed bitterness this week about the gap between “high-paid” administrators and “underpaid” support workers. The union, Coast Federation of Employees, American Federation of Teachers, Local 1911, leveled its criticism after contract negotiations broke down in mid-December.

Letter to Workers

Meanwhile, the union’s negotiating team has mailed out a letter charging that college district administrators are getting big salaries and fringe benefits, while lesser workers are being ignored.

The union noted that district Chancellor David Brownell makes $90,276 a year and gets a $400-a-month mileage allowance. “The governor of the great state of California is poorly paid in comparison,” said the union letter sent out last month.

The union also criticized the district’s administrative leave policy and mileage allowances for other district administrators, saying, “as taxpayers, we are appalled. . . .”

But district administrators have responded that they are not overpaid and regret that no money is available for the college teachers and support workers but that the district is hard-pressed by recent state budget cuts.

Chancellor’s Letter

“Given our hard treatment by state officialdom in recent years, we must collectively accept the responsibility of protecting minimal ending balances and reserves,” Brownell said in a Dec. 30 letter to district employees.

The non-teaching workers, however, have said they are not convinced that the district is playing fair, and their negotiating team refused the last offer of district contract negotiators. Both sides have asked state mediators to intervene, and a meeting is scheduled later this month.

Paradoxically, the labor tension comes in a district that has seen a total overhaul of its governing board since 1983 because of previous labor disputes.

Coast Community College District, based in Costa Mesa, governs three community colleges: Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa; Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Coastline Community College, a “college without a campus” based in Fountain Valley.

Representation Told

Both the 760 support workers and the 600 full-time teachers in the district are represented by the same union, Coast Federation of Employees.

District administrators told all employees that no pay raise could be offered this year because of a combination of events at the state level, including a gubernatorial veto of one funding bill. Teachers last month agreed, albeit unhappily, to do without a raise this school year.

“We’ve been quite consistent: no one this year has been given a pay raise, and that includes the administrators and the teachers,” said district Vice Chancellor Phillis Basile. She said the district will receive about $1.8 million less in state money, including lottery funds, than originally was forecast. Had all the money been forthcoming, she said, the district could have given a small raise to both teachers and support workers. The support staff, who range from cafeteria helpers to data processors, generically are called “classified workers.”

Walter Howald, a Newport Beach lawyer who is president of the five-member governing board of the community college district, said this week that the teaching faculty realized the district’s financial bind and accepted a year without a pay raise.

‘Don’t Understand’

“The classified workers don’t seem to understand our problem,” Howald said. “In their letter, they criticize the Pacific Rim Academy, and that is something that we started that will bring in more revenue to the district.”

The controversial Pacific Rim Academy is a new program based at Orange Coast College that provides--for a fee--tailor-made instruction to firms doing business overseas. College administrators have said the academy is visionary and will more than pay its way; campus critics have called it a needless expenditure.

The classified (non-teaching workers’) negotiating team also criticized the college district for continuing its support of KOCE, a public television station based at Golden West College. And in its letter to workers, the classified negotiating team charged that five board members have increased their own pay from $80 a month to $750 a month, while also getting $110 a month in mileage allowance.

But Basile and Howald responded that the monthly pay of district board members was raised about 1 1/2 years ago, under a new state law that allowed such an increase.

Allowance Defended

Chancellor Brownell, in his recent letter to college employees, defended the district’s travel allowance. “The amount granted the chancellor and other executive managers includes a reasonable allocation for such mileage and additional compensation that came in lieu of salary increase several years ago,” Brownell said.

Although they question administrative expenditures, union officials said they are aware that state budget shortfalls have hurt the district. “We know the district has financial problems, and that is why we are not demanding a pay raise that would be continued and compounded every year,” said Alice Clement, executive director of Coast Federation of Employees. “We asked for an off-schedule (one-time-only) payment of $300, and the district would only offer $100.”

Basile confirmed that the impasse basically hinges on differing views of how much the district can afford as a one-time payment to the workers.

Basile and Clement said the administration and union also differ on how many days off, in lieu of pay, might be given support workers this year. The union seeks four extra days for the support workers; the district has offered two days.

A state mediator is scheduled to meet with union and college district negotiators later this month.

In 1983, there was a major political upheaval in the Coast Community College District when the old governing board--also faced with making budget cuts--proposed laying off about 100 teachers. The union backed an unsuccessful recall effort against the board, but eventually all the then-incumbents were replaced by union-backed candidates in subsequent elections.

A major complaint of both teachers and support workers raised in the 1983 election was the alleged “waste of money” by board members and administrators.