College District Files Suit to Determine if Its Hiring Policies Are Fair

Calling into question its own hiring policies, the Ventura County Community College District has filed suit asking a Superior Court judge to decide whether its employment procedures are exclusionary.

At issue is a section of a contract that, members of the service employees union say, requires the district to promote from within their ranks before considering outside applicants.

District officials say it may violate state affirmative action and equal opportunity laws. And one job applicant, along with the NAACP, has threatened to sue the district for unfair hiring practices.

Fred Mickle Jr., who is African American, said he left a full-time job as a student activities officer at UCLA after being recruited to fill a similar position on a temporary basis at Ventura College. He said college officials assured him he would have a “fair and equal opportunity to compete” for the full-time slot.

But after ranking among the top applicants for the job, Mickle said, he was told the position was open only to current employees. He is considering a suit against the district, he said.

Chancellor Philip Westin said, based on legal counsel, he believes the union contract may violate state equal opportunity and affirmative action laws.

But speaking on behalf of at least three longtime college employees who want the job of coordinating extracurricular student activities, union officials say these employees should be first in line for any new openings and have refused to renegotiate the clause.

“It gives the opportunity to the employees that have worked here for 10 to 15 years,” said Leanne Colvin, president of the local chapter of the service employees union, which includes all nonteaching staff members.

“[They] have the qualifications and need to be given the opportunity to be promoted to higher jobs,” Colvin said.

After attempts to reach an agreement on renegotiating the clause came to a standstill two weeks ago, Westin said, he decided to go ahead with the lawsuit against the union and called a hiring freeze on nonteaching staff positions until the matter is resolved.

“I will not move forward on something that legal counsel says may be in violation of the [state] educational code,” Westin said. “That is why we moved forward with filing the suit.”

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Although Colvin said union officials felt “blindsided” by the move, they have agreed not to file a grievance about the hiring freeze, which has put on hold at least a handful of positions already approved by the board.

Their attorneys are working on a response to the district’s lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Mickle, who still holds the temporary position, said he is being shut out of any input on the matter.

“I am being excluded from conversation and discussion and I am at the heart of this whole thing,” he said.

Westin said that while Mickle’s case brought the disputed contract clause to his attention, he has not been informed on the details of the Mickle case.

“This is not about a person,” he said. “This is about our [hiring] process.”

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District officials learned of the problem in January when a handful of students appealed to trustees to challenge the union’s position, telling them they were convinced that Mickle was right for the job.

“Fred Mickle has been there time and time again for us,” Arturo R. Murguia, a first-year senator for the college’s student body, said Friday. “I know some teachers who don’t even keep their office hours, yet Fred was here last night until one o’clock to help us get a project completed. You don’t find that kind of dedication very often.”

Ventura College President Larry Calderon said the college was forced by district policy to simultaneously advertise the position outside the college and post it as a promotional opportunity from within.

All applicants were then ranked on one list based on their qualifications, he said.

Afterward, the applicants were divided into two lists for outside and inside candidates, and the inside candidates were given priority.

In some instances, when there are not enough inside candidates, jobs do end up going to outsiders, Colvin said.

Mickle said he received a letter in January stating that he was No. 2 on the list. That was before he was told that only inside candidates were eligible for the job.

Calderon said he was shocked that Mickle was not in the final interviews and urged him to appeal the decision. The college official who reportedly told Mickle he would be eligible was not available for comment.

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“I think the process has somehow been abrogated,” Calderon said. “When that issue was negotiated [in the union contract] someone wasn’t paying attention.”

Although the district’s lawsuit states the union contract conflicts with affirmative action policies, Westin said the real issue is whether it discriminates against outside candidates.

The district has not yet taken a stance on a voter-initiative measure that would outlaw affirmative action policies throughout state government by constitutional amendment.

This incident, Westin said, is not a test case for the district’s stance on affirmative action.

Mickle agreed, saying he feels he is being discriminated against because he is an outside candidate, not because he is black.

“If you are going to advertise openly,” Mickle said, “then you have to interview openly. If you [screen] people, tell them they rank in the top three and then don’t give them an interview, this is a joke.”

Although he said he has not had a chance to review the district’s affirmative action policies, John R. Hatcher III, president of the Ventura County chapter of the NAACP, said his organization is also considering filing a lawsuit on the grounds that the union contract clause is exclusionary.

“They told him one thing,” he said. “They emphasized that if he came out and helped set up the program, he would have first chance at a permanent position. Then they brought out the rule. They use the rule when it is to their advantage. That is institutional racism.”