Trustees reject fiscal plan

Yuba Community College District trustees narrowly rejected a fiscal contingency plan Wednesday that faculty critics said failed to include enough administrators on a layoff list.

The 4-3 vote means trustees will meet again next week and look at adding more administrators to the list.

"Four board members had the courage to do what the community demanded of them," said Lisa Jensen-Martin, president of the Yuba College Faculty Association. "This action gives us the glimmer of hope that the board will act in such a way that protects students during this financial crisis."

Jensen-Martin had told trustees that if they approved the plan, the college district next year would have one administrator for every three faculty members.

Faculty critics of the plan said one administrator was on the layoff list. Four more should be added, they said.

An overflow crowd lined the walls of the multipurpose room at the Linda campus for what turned out to be a five-hour board meeting that included apologies from two trustees about the since-rescinded pay raise for Chancellor Nicki Harrington.

"I've been losing a lot of sleep lately," Trustee George Nicholau said of his support for the $29,282 pay boost trustees announced in January. "It sent the wrong message to our students and our community."

He also apologized to Harrington "for putting you in an environment you never asked for," saying the chancellor had not sought a salary increase.

Trustee Brent Hastey called the raise by trustees "a screw-up on our timing."

"I have made hundreds of mistakes as a politician," said Hastey, a former Yuba County supervisor. "This year has really been a record."

Trustee Benjamin Pearson, who voted against the fiscal plan, said the measure included the layoff of a political science professor, which would end that program.

Pearson said he became a trustee because of a political science class. He also cited the loss of English as a Second Language instruction that he had said he has long supported.

"I'd be lying to my constituents," Pearson said, if were to vote for the fiscal plan.

Trustee Xavier Tafoya, who voted for the plan, said an extensive review went into the fiscal measures. College district officials said the plan is necessary because of state budget cuts and a March 15 deadline to inform professors and administrators they may be laid off next school year.

"We've had the staff work on this for months," Tafoya said.

The fiscal plan listed layoffs for 30 positions, including professors and a dean and suspended the licensed vocational nursing program.

No date has been set yet for the trustees meeting next week.

Harrington said the rejected fiscal proposal represented the district's response to a worst-case scenario of state budget cuts.

"It's not a perfect plan," she said.

Tim May, Academic Senate vice president, and Teresa Dorantes-Basile, president of the Classified School Employees Association that includes custodians and secretaries at Yuba College, opposed the plan.

"We can do better than this," May said. "It represents a profound lack of imagination."

The loss of English language classes that was part of the plan spurred several speakers to tell trustees about the value of such instruction.

"This is the only place we can learn English well," said Olivehurst resident Juan Escobar, 25.

Yuba City resident Lakhwinder Kaur, 27, asked trustees not to cut the classes.

"Please help me be a better citizen," she said.

How they voted

Yuba Community College District trustees rejected a fiscal plan Wednesday on a 4-3 vote.

YES: Xavier Tafoya, Jim Buchan and Leela Rai

NO: Benjamin Pearson, Brent Hastey, Alan Flory and George Nicholau

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.