Martin Files Grievance Over CSUN Contract : College basketball: Former women’s coach who claims she was pressured to resign in December seeks salary through June.

Janet Martin, the former Cal State Northridge women’s basketball coach who says she was pressured into resigning in December, has filed a contract grievance against the university over salary money she claims is owed to her.

The grievance, filed late last month, is scheduled to be heard Thursday in a meeting among Martin, her faculty-union representative and Donald Cameron, the school’s executive assistant to the vice president for academic affairs.

“All I want is what is due me,” said Martin, who was in her second season at Northridge at the time of her resignation. “I don’t want a messy situation. (But) at least I’m owed what they were supposed to give me. . . . We’re talking over $10,000.”

A central issue of the grievance involves Martin’s contract as it applies to the collective-bargaining agreement between the faculty union and the Cal State University system.

Martin contends that she signed an illegal contract when her position was extended through the 1991-92 basketball season and not the entire ‘91-92 school year.

Martin’s contract with Northridge expires with the conclusion of the Matador season later this month. The school year ends in June.

“Our position is that she should be paid for the entire (1991-92) school year,” said Don DeMoro, Martin’s representative from the California Faculty Assn. “It’s a disagreement about what the language of the (collective-bargaining) agreement says.”

Cameron would say only that Northridge places coaches in a variety of categories that determine length of contract.

“Coaches are normally appointed for a year, but it can be for a shorter period of time,” he said.

While the grievance centers on Martin’s contract, the issue of her controversial resignation also might be raised.

“We’re not ruling anything off the table or on the table,” DeMoro said.

Martin came to Northridge in September, 1990, to lead the Matadors’ transition to Division I basketball. She coached the team to a 10-17 record in ‘90-91 but resigned her position Dec. 12 after Northridge lost its first nine games of this season.

One day after the university announced the resignation in a media release, Martin said that she never intended to leave the team and was instead forced to quit when Northridge athletic officials--particularly associate athletic director Judy Brame--gave her an ultimatum to quit or face “disassociation from the program.”

“They told me I had a choice, ‘We can fire you or you can resign,’ ” Martin said at the time. “There was no way I was going to give up on those kids. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t (agreed to resign).”

Northridge officials deny that an ultimatum was given. Athletic Director Bob Hiegert said the recommendation for Martin to resign was based on a concern that the basketball program needed to be “handled properly.”

Although Hiegert did not give specific examples, he said the areas of concern involved recruiting, the handling of the team when traveling and administrative coaching duties.

When Martin was asked if she will use the grievance hearing to address the grounds for her resignation, she said: “(DeMoro) doesn’t want to come out with specific details before we have our initial meeting. We don’t know where they stand.”

If the case is not resolved by the Northridge administration, it can be taken before an arbitrator.