Field Narrowed to 4 in Search for Chancellor of L.A. College System

The six-month search for a new chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, which has the most campuses of any in the nation, is down to four candidates and only one of them is from California.

The district’s Board of Trustees is expected to announce its final choice within two weeks.

Among the four is John D. Randall, the acting chancellor of California community college system who, if not chosen for the Los Angeles post, is supposed to return to his job as president of the Mt. San Antonio Community College District in Walnut next month.

Experience Cited

Randall’s experience in working with the Legislature and governor may appeal to the trustees who govern the nine campuses of the Los Angeles district, according to people close to the selection process.

The other three names presented recently to the trustees by a so-called blue-ribbon search committee of educators and prominent residents are:

- Salvatore G. Rotella, chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, a district with eight campuses. Observers said his experience with multi-ethnic, big-city schools and Chicago’s tough politics is attractive.

- Donald G. Phelps, chancellor of the Seattle Community College District, a three-college system. Phelps reportedly impressed interviewers with his forceful personality, managerial skills and concern for students.

- Nolen M. Ellison, president of the Cuyahoga Community College District, which has three campuses in Cleveland, Ohio, and its suburbs. Search committee members said his work in linking vocational education with local industry was very strong.

The seven-member Board of Trustees met Wednesday in closed session for more than eight hours to discuss the candidates and possibly narrow the list further, but board President Hal Garvin, citing pledges of confidentiality, declined to say which way the discussions had gone or to even confirm the four names. However, Garvin said he was very pleased with the selection process that began in December with the hiring of a search firm.

“We have a very tough choice because we have excellent candidates,” Garvin said.

Forced Out of Office

The previous Los Angeles district chancellor, Leslie Koltai, served for 15 years but was forced out of office last fall by a newly elected board majority supported by the teachers union. The trustees and union were unhappy with Koltai’s handling of a budget crisis and his proposals, never fully carried through, to lay off teachers two years ago.

Most observers agreed a new chancellor faces a difficult job. District enrollment--the key to state money--is about 103,000, larger than it was three years ago but well below the 139,000 students it had in 1981. Physical facilities need repair and teacher morale is reportedly low, they said. At the same time, trustees are pledged to decentralize to the campuses some of the power wielded by district headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

Judge Harry Pregerson of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, who was chairman of the 11-member search committee, said the finalists are all aware of the district’s problems but not deterred by them.

‘These are all high achievers looking for challenges and looking to improve a system,” he said. “They want to come here since this is Los Angeles. This is the biggest system in the world.”

Another committee member, who asked not to be identified, said of the four: “All of these players have seen big budgets, organizations with thousands of employees and big unions. We are not talking about anybody who will cut his teeth on Los Angeles.”

Randall, reached by telephone Wednesday at his Sacramento office, declined comment on his Los Angeles candidacy. Next month, David Mertes, head of the Los Rios district in the Sacramento area, is to become statewide chancellor, and Randall has a contract to return to Mt. San Antonio, which has one campus.

Ruled Himself Out

In taking the interim statewide job last September after the resignation of Joshua Smith, Randall ruled himself out as a candidate to fill that state job permanently.

Rotella, the Chicago chancellor, was out of town and could not be reached for comment, according to a spokesman. Telephoned messages requesting interviews were left for Phelps and Ellison but were unanswered Wednesday.

The Los Angeles district includes wide portions of the San Gabriel Valley and southern and central parts of the county not in the city of Los Angeles. Nearly 60% of its students are black, Latino or Asian, and the trustees are under some pressure to hire a chancellor who is from an ethnic minority group. Phelps and Ellison are black; the other two candidates are white.

Ira W. Krinsky, the consultant from Korn/Ferry International executive search firm hired by the district, said he gave 23 names of potential chancellors to the committee. That group then interviewed nine of those candidates last month in Los Angeles and gave the trustees the names of the four top contenders. More recently, trustees traveled to the home districts of the four to interview them, their staffs and other local leaders.

Salary Close to $103,000

Officials close to the decision said that no formal announcement of a decision will be made until all negotiations are over and a contract is signed.

Koltai earned $103,000 a year, and officials expect the next chancellor’s salary to be close to that. However, some are concerned that the high price of housing in Los Angeles may cause the out-of-town candidates to demand extra allowances.

The nine colleges in the district are Los Angeles City College, East Los Angeles College, Harbor College, Mission College, Pierce College, Southwest College, Trade-Technical College, Valley College, and West Los Angeles College.