College District Deficit Aired at Heated Session

The Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District was officially apprised of a projected $13.1-million budget deficit in a meeting Wednesday night marked by finger-pointing and scolding of purported culprits.

The district’s chief budget officer, Bonnie James, was grilled about his methods, and the college presidents were warned by board President Althea Baker that their job evaluations would suffer if they do not pull their schools out of debt.

But the presidents, including E. Bing Inocencio, president of Pierce College in Woodland Hills, rejected blame for the district’s predicament.

“The basic problem is, our payroll’s too big,” Inocencio said. “There’s no way around it.”

Earlier in the day, Inocencio began two days of emergency brainstorming sessions aimed at tackling his school’s worsening financial situation.

Inocencio, citing a projected $3-million decrease in funding in the next academic year from the Los Angeles Community College District, told about 100 professors and administrators that it was time to fight back--time to come up with ideas for raising revenues, cutting expenses and, most of all, putting pressure on the district’s trustees for more money.

“We have to do this together, regardless of how new, left-field or radical this may seem,” Inocencio told the group.

Pierce’s situation reflects the financial health of the entire nine-campus community college district, which serves about 100,000 students and is the nation’s largest system of its kind. The San Fernando Valley has three of the nine campuses--Pierce, Valley and Mission colleges.

Inocencio asked the district board Wednesday night to look at data on the revenue the campuses produce. “Then you can tell us if we live within our means,” he said.

Interim Chancellor James Heinselman said he would report to the board in two weeks with proposals to curb the deficit.

Meanwhile, state community college district monitors are expected to begin scrutinizing the district’s recent round of raises and other financial policies as early as next week. The district is already on a list of closely watched community college systems and may become a candidate for a state takeover if it fails to produce an acceptable improvement plan.

At the meeting at Pierce, Inocencio blamed the district for siphoning off an unfair portion of revenues from the school to fund other colleges in its system, leaving Pierce with a projected budget allocation for next year that is not enough to cover the school’s payroll.

Those attending the meeting said later that they couldn’t remember a campus president ever flatly asking faculty and staff for help.

“This is the first time I can recall where the president has said, ‘I need your help,’ in a direct and sincere way,” said Barry Haskell, chairman of the science and physics department.

Pierce College, with 9,300 students, raised $34 million in tuition-generated revenue this academic year, yet received $25 million back from the district, said Carmelita Thomas, vice president of academic affairs, citing school budget figures.

The current district allocation of $25 million will be reduced to $22.1 million during academic year 1998-99, Thomas said. Meanwhile, she said, the college expects to spend more than $23 million on payroll alone.

Pierce was among eight of the nine district campuses that were forced to make deep cuts in classes last year to help make up for the district’s shortfall.

Times correspondent Tom Becker contributed to this story.