Pressured Colleges Chief Accepts Early Retirement

Facing imminent firing, Leslie Koltai announced Wednesday that he will leave his job as chancellor of the nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District no later than December, four and a half years sooner than he wanted to.

Koltai and the district’s Board of Trustees announced that they had agreed that the chancellor would retire from his duties at least six months before the end of his contract. But Koltai’s supporters said he was forced to leave by a hostile majority on the seven-member board.

Four trustees won election with help of the teachers’ union and Koltai supporters attributed his downfall to union anger over his recommending faculty layoffs last year and this year.

“I could not disagree more with what happened here today,” trustee Lindsay Conner said. “I think it is a serious mistake and one which will have serious consequences for the district for many years to come.”

“It was not his choice,” trustee Wallace Albertson said of Koltai’s retirement. She and Conner, along with Arthur Bronson, wanted Koltai to stay.

Koltai, 56, who has been chancellor for 15 years, said: “The union succeeded in producing four candidates to very ably represent the union’s point of view.” He joked that he might write a book called “The Fourth Vote.”

Koltai, who earns $103,000 a year, will keep his title through June and then become chancellor emeritus. District officials said an interim chancellor would probably be found within the system, but that a permanent successor might not be found for six months. No names were mentioned.

There was no formal vote on Koltai’s contract, officials said. But trustees met in closed session for about five hours and voted 4 to 3 to accept a financial settlement with Koltai. Officials said details would be revealed next week and several implied the settlement would be generous.

The settlement, according to Conner, “reflects a feeling of guilt at having taken the decision they have made.”

The four trustees who supported the ouster of Koltai--Harold Garvin, David Lopez-Lee, Wallace Knox and Julia Wu--received substantial campaign support from the faculty union. Defeated were incumbents Monroe F. Richman and Marguerite Archie-Hudson, whom the union opposed.

Knox said the union “played absolutely no role” in Koltai’s departure. Knox said the election showed voters wanted a change.

Koltai said he would do some work without pay for the National Center for the Development of Education, a newly formed Century City-based think tank.

The board also unanimously approved a new contract with the teachers’ union which calls for a 7% pay raise; the faculty overwhelmingly approved the pact Monday.