College Trustees’ Hesitation to Cut District Jobs Draws Criticism
After weeks of tough talk, some trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District wilted under employee pressure and refused last week to eliminate 17 clerical jobs from district headquarters, drawing criticism from campuses already forced to cut classes and calling into question efforts to reform the financially troubled system.
Cutting the positions would have trimmed about $500,000 a year from the cost of operating the district’s downtown headquarters. But more important, it would have signaled the trustees’ willingness to embark on long-range plans to decentralize the system by giving more money and authority to local campuses.
The workers, mostly from the Educational Services Division, would have been transferred to district schools under the proposal. They compile attendance records and keep track of expulsions, grant applications and class planning.
The change, recommended by the chancellor, said trustee Gloria Romero before Wednesday’s board vote, would move education services to “where education takes place in this district. And it is not in this building, but on the nine campuses.â€
Moments later, however, board members Julia Wu, David Lopez-Lee and President Althea Baker voted against the cuts. The seventh trustee, Kenneth Washington, is ill and is not expected back for several weeks.
“You chickened out!†Romero said to Baker before leaving the meeting in protest, along with trustees Elizabeth Garfield and Kelly Candaele.
The three said later they were betrayed by their colleagues, who had agreed to the cuts in earlier closed-session talks, then buckled in public.
“There’s absolutely no justification for not making cuts at the district office,†Garfield said.
Indeed, the board voted last fall to ask for cuts of more than $1 million from the district office budget. The need to economize became even more critical in February, when a second-quarter financial report projected a $13.1-million budget deficit for the 1997-98 school year.
The shortfall could jeopardize the district’s accreditation. And the state chancellor’s office is threatening to send in a monitor to audit the district’s operations unless it straightens out its finances.
The district chancellor said this week the budget gap has been narrowed to roughly $3 million through a hiring freeze on temporary employees, the layoff of student workers and using block grant money, instead of general fund dollars, to pay for maintenance projects.
Acting Chancellor James Heinselman announced last week that nonunion administrators, including college presidents, and union faculty employees, such as counselors, will be furloughed for a week without pay to save money.
But the Los Angeles district still faces an ongoing fiscal crisis of major proportions.
The vote against cutting jobs at district headquarters is significant in that it reveals the board’s reluctance to make changes in a system that badly needs them, Romero said.
“To me, the vote was a signal of a philosophy for this district,†she said. “And when push came to shove, some trustees said, ‘You cut your college budgets, I’m going to protect my downtown staff.’ â€
Two of the positions on the chopping block were secretaries in the board office.
Instead, the board’s actions indicate--at least for now--that trustees lack the will to make the difficult decisions where employees are concerned.
Employee union representatives, meanwhile, say the district is being mismanaged. The deficit is exaggerated, they say, so it is premature to cut jobs or try to save money by asking for contract concessions. And now that the board is waffling, there is little incentive for unions to agree to district pleas for weeklong, unpaid furloughs.
Regarding district reform, Faculty Guild President Carl Friedlander said the trustees “certainly do need to demonstrate to employees they are serious about this, and they haven’t demonstrated it significantly yet.â€
The three trustees who walked out of the meeting were not the only ones distressed by the vote and what it portends.
“It was a real bombshell,†said Pierce College President E. Bing Inocencio. “Everybody on campuses around the district agrees on downsizing the district office. . . . I’m very, very disappointed and so is my campus.â€
The Academic Senate, the faculty union and Heinselman also favor cutting downtown administration and putting student services closer to students.
“There are many things of this nature we need to look at,†said a disappointed Heinselman. “This was step one--one of the easiest steps.â€
Defending the decision, however, Yvonne Owens, president of the Staff Guild, said the cuts to educational services fell too heavily on clerical workers from her union.
Two of the trustees who opposed the job cuts last week said they were moved by pleas from employees.
“It’s very painful for me to see that these employees have been with us for so long,†Wu said. “All of a sudden, we just disrupt their livelihood and demoralize [them]. I just don’t see how I can go through with this.â€
Baker said she balked at the cuts because she could not justify them until a complete, long-term plan was in place.
“Eight weeks of pay [saved this fiscal year] and we’re going to change people’s lives for the rest of their lives?†she asked rhetorically.
By that time, her three angry colleagues were not in the room to hear her.
“I lost my quorum, so you can see the angst,†Baker said.
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