Legal Fees Skyrocketing

Since Philip Westin became chancellor six years ago, the Ventura County Community College District has shouldered a more-than-tenfold increase in legal fees, a rise that reflects a standoff between a disgruntled faculty union and an administration under fire.

Records show the district’s annual bills for legal advice climbed from $69,432 during Westin’s first year in 1996, to $527,078 the following year. It has since increased to more than $933,000 for the 2001-02 fiscal year, which ended June 30.

That puts the district’s legal fees well above those for comparable-sized college districts in California. The Coast and Contra Costa community college districts consistently spend less. Last year they reported legal expenses of $335,227 and $149,257, respectively.

“Why has it gone up so much so fast?” asked Don Facciano, president of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn.

“I’d put this in the same category of the board of trustees not overseeing Westin’s expenses,” he said. “Their job is not to rubber-stamp financial decisions. If it’s justifiable, so be it, but at this point we need to look at everything.”

The district’s legal fees have drawn attention in the controversy surrounding Westin’s spending practices. The Camarillo-based law firm of Wood & Bender reported to trustees last spring that Westin had been reimbursed for more than $119,000 in business-related expenses from 1997 to 2001.

In response, Westin filed a complaint with the State Bar of California, accusing the firm of attempting to oust him to gain control of the district’s lucrative legal services contract.

Attorneys David Bender and David Wood have denied the allegation.

Bender was the district’s general counsel during Westin’s first two years as chancellor, when legal fees shot up dramatically. Bender left the district in 1998 to work for a software company.

Since his departure, however, the district’s legal fees have ranged from $400,000 to more than $900,000.

Attorney Jack Lipton, who replaced Bender as general counsel, says the faculty union is to blame for the bills.

Union grievances and lawsuits account for at least half of the district’s legal fees in recent years. Under previous administrations, the union squeezed unwarranted settlements out of the district simply because officials feared litigation, Lipton said.

When Westin came on board, he and the trustees felt that the best way to discourage frivolous complaints was for the district to hold its ground.

“When the district administration is confronted with lawsuits, they have the option of just caving into demands they don’t think are reasonable or vigorously defending the district’s position,” Lipton said. “Since I’ve been general counsel, when the board feels it is right, it wants to defend its position.”

Larry Miller, president of the Ventura County Federation of College Teachers, dismissed that explanation. Instead, he said, Westin’s mission is to break the union--which represents 1,069 part-time and 413 full-time instructors--by fighting nearly every complaint and slowly draining the union’s resources.

“For 25 years we were able to settle grievances before they cost any money,” Miller said. “The union leadership has been largely the same people for 25 years. The faculty hasn’t changed much. The only thing that’s changed is the advent of Westin’s administration.”

The district could not provide a full accounting of grievances filed during Westin’s tenure or a comparison of settlements paid prior to and since the chancellor’s hiring.

And Westin denies trying to dismantle the union, saying that final decisions about whether to settle cases are made by the five-member board of trustees, not him.

At the same time, Westin said, he is concerned about rising legal costs and is determined to get them under control. Last week he said he had slashed this year’s legal budget to $450,000.

To achieve that goal, he instituted a new policy requiring administrators to get permission from him or another executive before calling Lipton.

The district pays Lipton a fixed rate of $1,325 a day, three days per week, and $185 for each additional hour his services are needed. Lipton said the district often requires more than three days of work each week and frequently needs advice from other specialists at his firm.

Westin also has asked newly hired Vice Chancellor Bill Studt, a former Oxnard schools superintendent, to be the administration’s liaison with the faculty union.

Already, Westin said, Studt has resolved two union complaints before they became formal grievances.

“We’re spending too much money fighting the union, and have been for some time now,” Westin said. “Throwing mud at them isn’t going to accomplish anything. But it takes two sides to lower the decibel level. It takes two to dance.”

Records show district legal fees first surged in 1997 and 1998, as the union threatened a strike. A strike was averted, but by then, the administration and union leadership were polarized.

Since 1999, the district has dealt with at least 43 grievances and lawsuits, records show.

A handful of cases involved student injuries or complaints against instructors. The majority of those were brought against the district by the union and individual faculty members.

In one case, the union complained about the district’s decision to pay a part-time music instructor, who was a professional musician, at a PhD scale even though he did not hold a doctorate.

Harry Korn, the union’s grievance chairman, said full-time instructors could be paid at higher scales but that the union did not believe the same flexibility applied to part-time teachers.

The difference in salary the two sides were arguing over amounted to about $1 an hour.

Still, Korn said, it was a battle worth fighting on principle. “They could have come to us and said, ‘We’ve got this great instructor, but we can’t get him to come here unless we pay him $1 an hour more,’ ” Korn said. “But they didn’t ask. They just did it.”

The district fought the union’s efforts to force the matter into binding arbitration, but that is where the case ended up. The arbitration panel sided with the administration and allowed the higher salary.

Korn said the union later requested public records and discovered the district had spent nearly $83,000 making its case, compared with the union’s $5,000 legal bill.

“They can file a one-page grievance--it can even be handwritten,” said Lipton, the district’s lawyer. “And in response to that, in order to protect the district’s position, we have to do an extensive job in preparing a thorough response. So it’s not surprising to me that the district’s costs would be much greater than the union’s.”

The most expensive and complex of pending cases involves Paula Munoz, a former Ventura College program coordinator whom the district demoted and suspended, after accusing her of discriminating against a female faculty member because she was Mexican.

Four of Munoz’s colleagues and associates also were suspended or punished for their alleged treatment of the woman.

Munoz and the others have accused the district of waging a vendetta against them for personal reasons and of sending a strong message that Westin and Ventura College President Larry Calderon shouldn’t be second-guessed.

Their collective grievances, pending administrative hearings and a lawsuit Munoz recently filed have cost the district nearly $500,000 in legal fees. Westin has estimated the legal fees could reach $1 million by the time the cases are resolved.

Korn, the union grievance chairman, called the demotions and suspension a “witch hunt.”

Westin said he had good reason to discipline the faculty members and stands by his actions. “I don’t want another person discriminated against at our colleges,” he said.

Another case that underscores the tension between the union and Westin involves the Ventura County Sheriff’s Academy, whose classes are taught by law enforcement officers.

The faculty union says wearing a badge shouldn’t prevent those instructors from being subject to the same rules and oversight as other faculty--and from mandatory representation by the faculty union.

The administration has argued the academy is a special situation and that its instructors, who are not paid by the college district, should remain exempt.

“Why not just throw the whole thing out and not have the union represent anybody, which is what I think the district would like to do,” Korn said. “Next thing, it’ll be Amgen teaching math classes for free. I think it’s a union-busting tactic, frankly. In the 30 years I’ve been in this college district, I’ve never seen any chancellor as anti-union as Phil Westin.”

An administrative panel has upheld Westin’s position on the sheriff’s academy. The union has filed an appeal.