Backers of College President Assail 1-Year Contract, Criticize Trustees : Education: Officials won’t say why Warren A. Washington was only offered a one-year pact.

Supporters of Compton College President Warren A. Washington have threatened to launch a recall effort against three college board trustees who voted this week to extend his contract for only one year rather than the usual three years.

“You’re making a terrible political and social mistake,” Lonnie Dawson, president of the Southern Area Clergy Council, told the board. Trustees voted 3-2 for the one-year extension after a raucous 6 1/2-hour meeting Tuesday night. About 300 people, many of whom protested the board’s action, attended the session.

“I assure you . . . that you’ll have to take personal responsibility for your actions,” Dawson warned.

Dawson said the council, which represents 25,000 Compton churchgoers, would begin circulating petitions to recall board President Emily Hart-Holifield and recently elected members Ignacio Pena and Kent Swift.

Trustees Legrand H. Clegg and James E. Carter favored a three-year contract extension for Washington, who took over as the college’s top administrator 2 1/2 years ago.

Washington said he was disappointed about the decision. “I feel I have performed in an exceptional manner, and I should have been given another three-year contract,” he said. “I’m not sure what they want me to accomplish.”

Washington’s future had been in doubt since December when the board, acting in executive session, delayed extending his contract. Later, Hart-Holifield sent Washington a letter informing him that he may not be rehired when his contract expires June 30.

She would not discuss specific reasons for the board’s actions. “Some things I would like to see . . . I can’t tell what they are. Some are personnel matters (and) I cannot comment,” she said in an interview after the meeting.

Pena, elected two months ago, said he favored a one-year extension because “my constituents want to see more educational services to the community, and we want to be able to work with (Washington) more closely. (A one-year contract) will let us know in the short run whether those services will be provided rather than in the long run.”

Compton College, with an enrollment of 5,600, serves many low-income students from Compton, Paramount, Lynwood and the Willowbrook area.

Washington supporters speculated that the action may have been politically motivated. They said Hart-Holifield has been discussed as a possible candidate for the state Assembly and could shore up Latino support by replacing Washington, who is black, with a Latino administrator. Hart-Holifield denied that her vote was politically motivated.

At Tuesday’s meeting, speaker after speaker, including Compton’s mayor and the other four City Council members, passionately defended Washington’s record, describing him as a stellar administrator who has been responsive to student needs and has enhanced the college’s reputation.

“There should be one criterion in this decision--interest in the students,” Mayor Walter R. Tucker III said. “We all want Washington to stay.”

Netfa Pambeli, the student government’s commissioner of activities and one of about 25 students who picketed the meeting in support of Washington, credited the superintendent with opening the lines of communication between students and the administration.

“He supports student activities and participates in our activities,” Pambeli said. “He gives us an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process. His doors are always open.”