Pay raise rocks college community

They've survived together and have a bond that has helped a region not rich in high-dollar ZIP codes, she says.

"There's a real connection with the community," Helen Nickolson, president of the Yuba College Academic Senate and a counselor at the campus in Linda, said.

"People in the community want programs that will get them jobs," said Nickolson. "This is the only college around."

After the biggest controversy within the Yuba Community College District that she can recall in her 30 years there, Nickolson wants it to "be a bright star again."

"This is a special place," she said. "I hate to see any of that hurt."

Trustee Alan Flory said the turmoil that came with a $29,282 raise — since rescinded — for Chancellor Nicki Harrington is an issue that will be resolved along with budget cuts.

"We can unify once again," Flory said. "We'll be able to move forward."

Still, the Yuba College Faculty Association, saying student services and classes have been cut while the chancellor's received a hefty pay raise to $249,282, will rally Wednesday outside the community room at Woodland Community College, where the Board of Trustees is set to meet.

"It's evident the board has lost touch with the reality of our financial situation and we need to send them the message that we will not tolerate this," said Lisa Jensen-Martin, faculty association president.

Adrian Lopez, college district spokesman, said the group has the right to hold rallies but describes the financial challenges as a statewide issue not unique to Yuba.

Jensen-Martin said Harrington's pay boost substantially set back progress that had been made to improve the relationship between instructors and the college district.

"We put our proverbial swords down," she said, "and then they offer her a $30,000 raise."

Trustee Brent Hastey said compensation for executives of public agencies always promises problems for the officials who approve higher salaries.

"I don't care if times are good," Hastey said. The public never perceives people who work for government as underpaid, he said.

The controversy over the chancellor's salary comes to an institution with tenured faculty who have challenged her boost in executive pay.

Harrington's salary, rescinded Wednesday by trustees who cited the public perception that their Jan. 20 decision boosting her pay violated the state open-meeting law known as the Brown Act, can still be increased. But most observers agree with Hastey that the Brown Act issue is moot.

"This time they did what they needed to do," Jensen-Martin said of the board's Feb. 3 decision.

What the college district also needs to do, said Mathews, is follow the model of the Los Rios Community College District, which serves counties including Sacramento and El Dorado. Administrators and faculty for Los Rios reached agreement in a response to state reductions in aid —a resolution that contrasts with what Mathews called Yuba's "take the cut and shut up" approach.

Flory said Los Rios benefits from a much bigger budget — $302 million as compared to the $54 million budget for the Yuba College district.

"They've got more management to delegate different hot spots," he said.

Flory praises Harrington's work in winning full, six-year accreditation for Yuba and Woodland colleges. Hastey notes her success in 2006 with the $190 million bond initiative known as Measure J. That bond means new and better facilities as well as employment for hundreds of construction workers, Hastey said.

Jensen-Martin cites issues including Yuba College losing state certification for basic police academy courses because of inadequate facilities and staff as among problems Yuba faces under Harrington's leadership.

Professor Tim May, who began at Yuba College in 1977 and remembers the financial problems that hit in 1994 and 2002, describes the controversy over the chancellor's salary as a distraction the district doesn't deserve amid the new financial woes that he said the school will survive.

"We're going to get behind that," May said. "We owe that to the students."

Contact Appeal reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmc carthy@appealdemocrat.com