Whittier : Rio Hondo President Gets 2-Year Contract Extension

Rio Hondo Community College President Alex Sanchez has received a vote of confidence from the board of trustees who unanimously agreed to give him a two-year extension on his three-year contract.

In July, 1989, trustees voted 3 to 2 to hire Sanchez. Board members Bill Hernandez and Ralph Pacheco voted for another candidate.

However, Hernandez and Pacheco said Sanchez has done a good job since replacing Herbert M. Sussman, who had been president since 1982.

“This represents a vote of confidence. This gives him an opportunity to implement his goals,” Pacheco said.

Hernandez said also that Sanchez had done a good job in helping bring harmony to the board whose members who had often been at political odds with one another.

The new contract does not call for any increase in pay for Sanchez, who was hired at $91,875 a year. However, he has received two cost-of-living increases, a 3.3% and a 5% hike.

Sanchez is the college’s first Latino top administrator. More than half of the school’s 12,600 students are Latino.

Sanchez was a vice president of the University of New Mexico before taking the Rio Hondo job.