Community College Instructor Raises

Re “Officials Balk at 5.7% Raise for College Instructors,” May 16.

This article is an insult to 1,200 community college teachers who serve Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura Colleges in the Ventura County Community College District.

You allow Richard Currier, the district’s chief negotiator and a lawyer from El Cajon, to criticize Richard Anthony, the neutral fact-finder who chaired the recent fact-finding for a “cut-and-paste” job on the fact-finding report--as if such an action would invalidate the report even if it were true.

You omit the fact that the district, not the faculty, insisted on adhering to a 30-day time limit imposed by law on the fact-finder, leaving him only two days to put together a report once the other panelists for fact-finding submitted their recommendations. This is the first time that I know of in the state when the 30-day limit hasn’t been waived for the fact-finder, simply because it is too short a period in which to have presentations, rebuttals, consultation and report formulation. But you say nothing about that.

You report that faculty have made “angry calls for a strike” when at three meetings at the three colleges, faculty expressed deep disappointment in the district’s attitude, not anger.

The district is trying to roll back contract provisions that have been in place for more than 20 years, but The Times dares not mention that.

ELTON HALL

Chief Negotiator

Ventura County Federation

of College Teachers

AFT Local 1828