Community College Board OKs Spending Freeze to Cut Deficit

The Los Angeles Community College Board moved to reduce its $13.1-million budget shortfall Wednesday, voting to save $4.5 million by freezing expenses and firing temporary employees, including some student workers.

To further pare the projected deficit, which has threatened the district’s standing with the state chancellor’s office, the board announced its intention to seek concessions from the powerful unions that represent teachers, administrative and maintenance workers.

According to a notice in the board agenda, the unions will be asked to discuss the possibility of accepting unpaid furloughs, reduced benefits, salary deferments and layoffs.

A final vote on reopening union negotiations will be taken at a special meeting Friday. The unions are under no legal obligation to reopen talks on their contracts.

The financial crisis in the country’s largest community college district comes after severe cost-cutting measures in the last year at its nine campuses, which include Pierce, East Los Angeles and Los Angeles City College.

Class offerings were cut as much as 20% this semester, after cuts in the fall, library hours have been trimmed and job vacancies have been left unfilled. But most of the campuses are running a deficit anyway after trustees gave raises to employees but did not supply the additional funds to meet the higher payrolls.

Los Angeles City College student Trudie Meriweather warned the trustees that unless they provided something to raise morale, “a lot of [students] are going to leave.”

Union officials complain that they are being unfairly blamed for the district’s fiscal woes, which they say have been exaggerated by district officials and exacerbated by mismanagement.

After winning the current three-year contract with salary increases ranging from 12% to 16% after several lean years, the unions are apparently ready for a fight to hold onto the gains. A flier circulated by the union representing clerical staff said: “The only ‘take back’ we are interested in is district administration taking back the disinformation they keep providing the media.”

Despite seeking union concessions, some board members are leery of blaming the deficit on the raises the board approved over the last year.

“It is premature to say that it’s salaries,” said trustee Gloria Romero.

Romero has focused attention on a Wilshire Boulevard high-rise purchased by the board for use as a headquarters, but never occupied. The district instead signed a 20-year lease on downtown office space.

The vacant building is on the market, but its value fell significantly during the real estate collapse of the early 1990s. Because of its location on a stretch of Wilshire where values have not rebounded, the district stands to lose as much as $6 million.

The district’s vice chancellor and chief financial officer, Bonnie James, has said that selling the building would not affect the short-term crisis because the money could be used only for capital improvements, not operating expenses, where the shortfall is occurring.

Nearly $3 million of the projected deficit stems from a fine the state chancellor’s office is imposing on the district because it has fallen below the recommended 75%-25% ratio of full-time to part-time faculty.

Board members took advantage of the presence at the meeting Wednesday of the state’s vice chancellor of fiscal policy for community colleges to plead for relief from the fine.

The district’s percentage of teachers who are full time dropped, to 71%, because faculty were offered early retirements several years ago to save money. What’s more, the district still has one of the highest ratios of full-time to part-time teachers in the state community college system, where the average is 62.1%. But many lower-ranking schools do not face similar punishment because of a rule sparing those whose ratio is improving.

In January, with the deficit projected at a relatively minor $1.3 million, the state chancellor’s office downgraded the Los Angeles district on its list of troubled districts. In a letter, the chancellor’s office cited the raises, which exceeded state guidelines, and other persistent fiscal problems.

A regional agency that accredits community colleges also warned that the district was in danger of losing its accreditation if it did not get its financial house in order.

A worsening financial picture could spur the state chancellor’s office to appoint a monitor to oversee the district’s spending. But the state vice chancellor, Patrick Lenz, reassured the trustees Wednesday that this was unlikely.

“We’re getting very positive responses to our proposals to rectify this situation,” Lenz told the board.