Faculty Gives College Board Low Marks

Frustrated and angry over bitter contract talks, nearly 200 college faculty members attended the Ventura County Community College District meeting Tuesday, many accusing officials of deception and immoral behavior.

Those who could not fit into the board room listened to the meeting through speakers outside and picketed, carrying signs that read “Unfair to Labor.”

District trustees sat impassively as faculty members and students bluntly told them they were insulted by the district’s negotiating tactics. Chancellor Philip Westin instructed trustees not to respond to the charges.

“Only an unscrupulous administration and board would lie and lead the public to believe that the faculty is so generously paid,” said Larry Miller, president of the faculty union. “It is an obvious union-busting tactic to do such things.

“In addition to lies, the board and the chancellor have erected a wall of silence that they hide behind so they don’t have to listen to the truth,” Miller said. “The chancellor will not talk to the union or the press and board members refuse to meet with us.”

But district officials have said the faculty members are already well paid, and their demands for pay and benefits increases will sink the three-college district deeper into debt.

“We’ve had tough negotiations before, but we have never had a district-sponsored campaign of deception, outright lies and public attacks on the integrity and hard work of our faculty,” said Elton Hall, the union’s chief negotiator.

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With negotiations at an impasse since April, the district has bought advertisements in local newspapers to state its case.

“If you really care about the students, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is,” Moorpark College instructor Gary Ogden told the board. “You paid $1,800 for your ad this Sunday--I could have used that money to buy equipment for students.”

The union also has taken out advertisements and begun picketing outside the trustees’ businesses. And teachers have crowded district meetings hoping to sway the five-member board.

Although this is the second large rally union members have staged, the district’s chief negotiator said it will have little impact.

“They have the right, both the union and faculty, to express their feelings and opinions to the board,” said Richard Currier, chief negotiator for the district. “The board is very professional in allowing them to do so. But the district is not going to abandon students and the taxpayers because faculty members come to the board and tell them to do so.”

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Essentially, the American Federation of Teachers Local 1828 is demanding that the district’s 1,200 teachers receive an annual salary increase, improved health benefits and hourly pay rates for part-time teachers equal to those of full-timers. Union members voted last month that they had no confidence in Westin to lead the district.

“Right now a part-timer can teach 60% of a full load for a year and get paid a little over $13,000,” Hall said. “We think that’s just immoral.”

Full-time faculty salary is also a point of contention. “We’re asking for a salary formula that only gives us an increase if the district gets an increase from any state money,” Hall said. “This is exactly what we had before.”

District officials, however, have proposed eliminating the formula and giving the teachers a 1.5% increase if the additional state money comes through.

That, teachers say, is not enough, especially given the recent raises give senior administrators.

The board voted 4 to 1 on Sept. 10, much to the dismay of union members, to raise the salaries of Westin and Deputy Chancellor Michael Gregoryk, each by 5.78%. Westin now earns about $142,800 annually and Gregoryk about $127,550.

Trustee President John Tallman dissented on the vote, saying it was not a good time to raise the chancellor’s salary.

The base salary range for district teachers according to the salary schedule is from $31,000 to $65,000, depending upon experience and post-graduate units. But according to an advertisement the district ran in local newspapers Sunday, more than 70% of the full-time faculty earned between $60,000 and $90,000 in 1996 when bonuses and extra pay were factored in.

“We looked at their W2 [tax] forms for the last year,” Currier said “Their salary schedule does not include overload or any other number of potential ways of making additional money, such as extra compensation pay, extended work year or large class sizes.”

Although Currier has said the district has a $1.6-million deficit because of the salary formula, the union asserts that the salary increases for the chancellor and deputy chancellor and the addition of four management positions cost the district more than $690,000.

Another issue that ignites tempers is health benefits.

While union members want increased benefits, district officials want to cap them.

“The state recently passed a law which allows some part-timers to get health benefits under certain conditions,” Hall said. “We would like to see some movement for some kind of health benefits to cover part-timers.”

The district also wants supervisors, rather than peers, to evaluate teachers. But union members say supervisors have no place in the classroom.

“State law says that supervisors shall not control the educational process,” Hall said. “Supervisors don’t know what goes on in a classroom; most have not been in one for years.”

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Additionally, the district wants to recover control over the “right of assignment,” which essentially would allow the district to transfer teachers to any location, and do away with a benefit allowing teachers to increase their course load and take a later semester off.

The district’s advertisement stated that the total cost of the union’s proposal is $14.4 million--43% higher than the existing cost of faculty salaries and benefits, which is projected at $32.3 million.

“To agree to these demands would bankrupt the district,” the advertisement stated.

The union’s advertisement claimed that trustees Pete Tafoya and Bob Gonzales approved spending $750,000 in tax dollars on lawyers.

Union members also picketed outside the workplaces of trustees Tafoya, Gonzales and Norm Nagel on Monday and at Nagel’s second dental office in Thousand Oaks again Tuesday.

Trustee Allan Jacobs will not be picketed this week because he does not work.

And board President Tallman, often the lone dissenter, will not face picket lines, because he did not vote for the administrative raises, members said.

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The district and the union exchanged initial proposals on March 20. Four negotiating sessions were held in March and April, but the faculty union declared an impasse on April 21. They have worked without a contract since June.

The district’s negotiating team and union members will meet with a state mediator next week in their fourth attempt to overcome the impasse.