Union-Backed College Board Charts Its Course

Three new members of the Los Angeles Community College District’s Board of Trustees whose election victories this year were strongly aided by the district’s sharpest critic, the faculty union, took office Wednesday.

In its first official act, the new board unanimously chose Harold Garvin, a former Harbor College professor who started his fourth term Wednesday, as its president. Of the three incumbents who ran for reelection this year on the seven-member board, only Garvin was returned to office. He was backed by the faculty union, while the other two incumbents were not.

The three new trustees--Wallace Knox, Julia Wu and David Lopez-Lee--who also received a strong boost from the union, and Garvin are expected to move the board toward a more critical examination of the financially struggling district’s administration.

Optimistic Outlook

In a statement to the board after his election to the presidency, Garvin tried to strike an optimistic tone in noting that the district--which has begun to recover from a devastating loss of students and of state funds tied to enrollment--is “back on its feet financially.” The district began the fiscal year July 1 without having to resort to the deep budget-slashing that the board undertook in the last few years.

“We are solvent,” Garvin said, “but we are not rich. And we have a multiplicity of demands upon us.”

Although an 11% enrollment gain recorded last fall began to reverse the long decline, the district still faces severe under-funding because the state pays for only a small portion of new enrollment in community colleges. The district, which relies on the state for almost all of its money, received state dollars for only 1,000 of the 100,000 new students it gained last year.

Faculty union President Hal Fox sternly lectured the board after the new members took office Wednesday, telling them that they must stop blaming Sacramento for the district’s financial woes and start looking for other sources of revenue. He also told the trustees that they will be closely monitored, in part through a series of radio spots that the union plans to sponsor to keep the public informed of board actions.

Pay Increase Asked

Trustee Lindsay Conner, who was elected board vice president, said the first matter for the panel to consider is a pay increase for district employees, who have not received a raise for three years. “That is probably the most important priority,” he said in an interview, “but the big question is what size the pay raise should be.”

The faculty union, which represents about 3,000 instructors, is asking for a 10% raise retroactive to last July. According to union calculations, it would cost the district $800,000. The district has not made a counteroffer, and board members say it cannot afford a raise that large.

Los Angeles ranks seventh in faculty salaries out of the state’s 10 largest community college districts, but ranks first in the amount paid to a district chancellor. Chancellor Leslie Koltai earns $104,000. Union officials have urged the board to cut administrative costs and put more dollars into faculty salaries, filling clerical vacancies and beefing up programs.

Another issue board members say they will have to address as soon as possible is the renewal of Koltai’s contract, which expires in June. Koltai has been the target of much of the criticism hurled at the district by instructors and students. His recommendation last year to lay off 157 instructors who taught in areas that he said were in low demand contributed to calls for his removal.

Call for Evaluation

Knox, who attacked top district management in his campaign, said he wants the board to carefully evaluate Koltai’s performance, but would not specify what outcome he would like to see.

“There was really a mandate for change from the electorate,” he said, referring to the defeat of two of the three incumbent trustees. “That is the context in which everything is going to happen. The voters clearly said to me they wanted a change in the district.”

Koltai, who has served as chancellor for 15 years, said he is not worried about keeping his job. “I had an excellent evaluation by the old board, and I am really looking forward to working with the new board.” He takes credit for helping persuade Gov. George Deukmejian to increase overall funding of the state’s two-year college system this year.

Both Knox and Garvin said they believe the most immediate task before the board is to try to reverse the faculty transfers that resulted from the layoffs Koltai recommended.

Teachers Reassigned

The majority of the 157 instructors who received layoff notices were eventually reassigned to “high-demand” areas, such as basic English and mathematics courses. Although all of the instructors were technically qualified to teach the other subjects, some had never taught them and most did not want to teach them. Although the faculty disputes the merits of that action, Koltai said the transfers helped the district attract hundreds of new students.

Garvin, the only trustee on the old board who opposed the layoffs and reassignments, said the action “created chaos on the campuses” and alienated students who felt they “didn’t have the teachers they deserved.” He said his chief goal in the next few months will be to transfer as many as possible of the reassigned instructors back to their original fields.

District spokesman Norman Schneider noted, however, that such a move might cost the district several million dollars in additional salaries for new instructors.