Plan to Stop Contract Extensions for College Presidents Stalls

Originally opposed to contract extensions for campus presidents, two Ventura County community college trustees changed their minds after one of the administrators said the late Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin had promised him an extra year when he first signed a contract.

The swift reversal Tuesday night killed a proposal by newly elected Trustee John D. Tallman to stop routine annual extensions of contracts for the district’s top managers.

The vote on whether to add a year to the contracts of Ventura College President Jesus Carreon and Oxnard College President Elise D. Schneider will come up again Saturday, when trustees will gather at a morning retreat.

At that meeting, board members also will consider extending the contract of Interim Chancellor James W. Walker, who said Lakin had promised him that his contract would be extended.

Multiyear contracts for the college presidents were first proposed when Lakin arrived at the district in 1991. He convinced trustees that he needed long-term agreements to lure the best people to the most important jobs.

Since then, board members each spring routinely have extended the contracts by one year, continually rolling over the three-year deals.

During public discussion at Tuesday night’s board meeting, Trustees Norman J. Nagel and Allan W. Jacobs originally spoke against extending presidents’ contracts.

Like Tallman and board President Timothy D. Hirschberg, Nagel and Jacobs said the Ventura County Community College District should not be extending the contracts of its presidents when the search for a new chancellor is under way.

But after Walker told trustees that Lakin had promised him and Carreon 12-month extensions to their three-year contracts, both Nagel and Jacobs said they should uphold the late chancellor’s agreement.

Lakin died suddenly last November after a brief illness.

“We have to honor what was said,” Nagel said. “I have to change my mind based on (Walker’s) statement.”

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The board then voted 3 to 2 against Tallman’s motion, which would have denied extensions to the contracts, which run through June, 1997, and pay each of the three presidents about $100,000 a year.

“They’re going to be two-year contracts anyway,” Tallman said, referring to the contracts’ 1997 expirations.

Hirschberg agreed, saying that adding another year to the agreements would hamper the incoming chancellor and future trustees.

“I don’t like to have the hands of this board tied,” Hirschberg said. “I don’t think it would be fair to the chancellor we’re bringing on to have his team dictated in that manner.”

After the apparent turnaround, Hirschberg said: “The contracts spell out in black and white that no such promise was made. The other board members were just persuaded by a highly personal appeal from Dr. Walker.”

Walker, who last month was named interim chancellor until a permanent chief can be hired, made his comments while speaking “as a college president.”

“We were hired in good faith with a three-year contract with a one-year rollover,” Walker told trustees. “We accepted it in good faith and we have performed up to the expectations.”

Neither Carreon nor Schneider spoke during the public discussion.

Last year, Lakin tried to convince trustees that long-term contracts also should be offered to other top managers in the district, including the vice chancellors and a host of other officials.

But that proposal was spiked after union heads and others--including then-trustee candidate Tallman--complained that they were unnecessary.

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On Tuesday, several faculty representatives opposed the contract extensions for the college presidents, citing the incoming chancellor and a sketchy budget scenario.

“Managers serve at the pleasure of the board,” said Barbara Hoffman, president of the local teachers union. “Managers should not be insulated from the board through multiyear contracts.”

Deborah Ventura, president of a Ventura College faculty group called the Academic Senate, said it would be prudent to see what future budgets look like before extending contracts.

“In the best of times one should proceed cautiously,” said Ventura, speaking for the academic senates of all three campuses. “This is obviously not the best of times.”

For the third consecutive year, the district is facing sweeping budget cuts that could result in layoffs of part-time teachers and class closures come September.

At the special meeting Saturday morning, trustees will, among other things, complete performance reviews of the three presidents and vote on the contract extensions.

Trustee Pete E. Tafoya, who has supported the long-term contracts all along, said the multiyear deals reward good employees for loyal service.

“There are options even when the new chancellor comes on board,” Tafoya said. If the new chief wants different college presidents, “he can make it very clear that they should start looking for a new job.”