Trustees Give Chancellor Authority to Hire, Fire

Ending what they called personnel micro-management, Ventura County Community College District trustees this week delegated total hiring and firing authority of nonteaching employees to Chancellor Philip Westin.

The decision was immediately criticized by the teachers union and faculty members from Ventura College, who say it concentrates too much power in the hands of one administrator and will add to an already bloated bureaucracy at the college district office.

Under the new policy, the chancellor has exclusive authority to hire, fire and discipline managers and administrators throughout the three-college district. Formerly, the board routinely reviewed such personnel actions, occasionally overruling a decision by the chancellor. The policy change does not directly involve instructors, whose positions are regulated by union contract. But faculty members at Ventura College fear that Westin, left unchecked by the board, will add administrative staff rather than hire what they say are sorely needed additional full-time instructors at the campus.

For some time, union representatives and the faculty have complained that Westin reneged on a promise to allocate funds equally between hiring additional administrative staff and hiring more instructors.

Since he took the top district job in 1996, Westin has increased his budget for management staff more than threefold to $836,086, according to figures released by the union. By contrast, Ventura College hired only four full-time instructors last year, and none this year.