$199,000 Paid to Coach in Settlement : Hearing: After judge backs request by The Times, Ventura College discloses amount it gave to former head of basketball program to drop suit.

A former Ventura College basketball coach who sued the college district, saying officials lied to him about an investigation concerning the team, was paid $199,000 in a settlement agreement.

Details of the settlement with ex-Pirates coach Glen C. Hefferman were made public Friday after Superior Court Judge Henry J. Walsh ordered the Ventura County Community College District to release the document.

With his ruling, Walsh found in favor of the Los Angeles Times, which had filed suit against the district in order to force it to release details of the deal.

When the settlement with Hefferman was reached in early August, parties on both sides of the lawsuit had agreed to keep the terms confidential.

From his office at Malcolm X Community College in Chicago, where he now coaches men’s basketball, Hefferman said late Friday that he believes district officials negotiated in bad faith, knowing all along that the deal would eventually be made public.

Hefferman claims the district offered him a substantially larger sum to settle the lawsuit during negotiations this past summer, but that he agreed to the $199,000 in exchange for the confidentiality clause.

“I’m very, very mad,” Hefferman said. “I took less money to keep it confidential and what they did is lie to me. It was extremely important to me that the terms be kept confidential.”

The district’s general counsel, Jack Lipton, denied Friday that any offer above $199,000 was made or that the district negotiated in bad faith.

“That’s simply not true,” Lipton said.

A clause in the agreement signed by Hefferman states that the deal will be kept confidential “except to the extent that they are required to do so by law.”

The 33-year-old Hefferman sued the college district last year, alleging that college officials deceived him by failing to tell him that the basketball team was under investigation for recruiting violations when he was hired in 1997.

Two months after he started coaching, the basketball program was hit with heavy sanctions and two years of probation.

During the 30-minute hearing Friday morning, Walsh said he empathized with Hefferman’s desire to keep his financial affairs private, but the law was clear that deals between private parties and public agencies are public records.

“You both negotiated this settlement aware of this government provision,” Walsh said. “I have not heard any arguments why it’s not enforceable.”

After the ruling, Hefferman’s attorney, Jim Armstrong, said that he was keenly aware of the law, but had hoped that no media agency would request a copy of the settlement.

Lipton said he was not surprised that the judge ordered that the deal be made public.

“The law is clear that in these types of cases the media and the public have a right to this type of material,” Lipton said.

In fact, college district officials did plan to release the agreement last month after getting a media request but chose not to when Hefferman’s attorney threatened to sue the district if the terms were disclosed.

According to the settlement, Hefferman was paid the money in one lump sum and was also given a favorable letter of recommendation from district Chancellor Philip Westin.

In the settlement, the district admits no liability and states that it is paying Hefferman the money only to compensate him for damages and personal injuries, but not lost wages.

College officials declined Friday to say whether the deal with Hefferman was the largest such settlement ever. But Lipton, who has been general counsel for the district for about a year, said it was the biggest sum since he has been on the job.

The settlement was substantially larger than the $70,000 that was paid to former Ventura College basketball coach Virgil Watson, the man who preceded Hefferman in the same job.