College District and Teachers Reach Pact : Education: Tentative agreement would give staffs at three county campuses a 1% raise starting in July. Final board OK is expected.

Negotiators for Ventura County’s three junior colleges and the teachers who staff them have reached a tentative agreement on a salary package that will end a lengthy impasse.

Barbara Hoffman, president of the union that represents about 900 teachers at Oxnard, Ventura and Moorpark colleges, said the bargaining representatives agreed to a 1% salary increase beginning July 1.

“It also includes a formula that determines possible raises for faculty, depending on the income if there’s an increase from the state,” said Hoffman, who works as a counselor at Ventura College.

“It’s certainly not as much as we’d hoped, but we’ve been in negotiations for over a year,” said Hoffman, who added that the rank-and-file members would vote on the recommendation within weeks.

If approved by teachers and district trustees, the contract would be the first for Ventura County Community College District teachers in almost three years.

The four-year pact covers fiscal years 1993-94 through 1996-97, Hoffman said. It includes language that would allow union negotiators to request further talks if the district receives more money from the state than anticipated, she said.

The often-bitter negotiations included demonstrations, informational pickets, and harsh exchanges between faculty and district officials at meetings of the governing board.

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Chancellor Thomas Lakin said he was pleased that the lengthy process was seemingly coming to a close.

“I’m hopeful that both the board and the teachers will accept what has taken us almost three years to negotiate,” Lakin said.

“It was kind of painful at times,” he said. “But it was necessary because of the financial situation of the district and the position that was taken by the teachers union.”

The teachers opened negotiations last year by requesting a 3% pay hike and an annual cost-of-living adjustment.

District negotiators scoffed at the request, saying the colleges could not afford such raises when they were forced to cut classes and other services to keep afloat.

The talks dragged on through much of last year before a mediator was brought in to help reach an accord. But that did little good, and an impasse was declared late in the year.

After three months without any bargaining talks, trustees in February ordered the district negotiators to resume discussion with the union representatives.

“It’s been very difficult, but once the district came back to the bargaining table, then the process really began in earnest,” Hoffman said of the negotiations.

Hoffman said Monday that 1% would likely be approved by the rank-and-file members, considering the terms the district first proposed.

“They came in a year ago wanting to cut a bunch--salaries, benefits, everything,” she said. “So this is definitely an improvement.”

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Trustee Timothy Hirschberg said the tentative pact would help improve relations between teachers and district officials.

“It’s a start,” he said. “I know this is a modest package.

“We all would like to have done better, and offered more. But the fiscal situation has been so bleak that we just can’t commit to more.”

The board of trustees will consider the salary package at its May 3 meeting or possibly at its June meeting, Lakin said.