When Governor Gray Davis signed the state budget on Aug. 2, 2003, for the 2003­04 fiscal year and all sources of revenue were combined, community college funding was reduced by $86.8 million. The state has also indicated that an $8- to $10-billion deficit will be carried forward into the 2004­05 fiscal year, according to the final budget report.

Victoria Lewis, interim vice chancellor of administrative services, gave a presentation to West Valley­Mission Community College District board members at an Oct. 2 meeting. Lewis said the district is going to take a number of major hits because of budget cuts, such as reducing operating budgets to levels that are unacceptable as well as transferring $1.5 million from a retiree benefit fund to the district's general fund. This brought concerns from currently employed faculty seated in the audience, who will eventually retire from the district.

Lewis explained the transfer was necessary because there are "structural imbalances" within the district at which expenditures exceed revenues. Chancellor Stan Arterberry said the district will eventually have to replace those dollars to prevent future liability, but there is still an excess of about $4 million in the retiree benefit fund.

He said the district had initially indicated there was a $15.2 million deficit, which has since been revised through expenditure reductions to $1.6 million. The district will also most likely take 75-percent reductions in both scheduled-maintenance and instructional-equipment allocations, and there will be no cost-of-living adjustments to faculty salaries, to name a few. These cutbacks come at a time when medical benefits, insurance and retirement system costs are increasing.

Arterberry thanked the district's financial staff for its extra efforts under pressure from Sacramento to complete the final budget report. After the presentation by Lewis, the board members unanimously passed the final budget.

The district is also facing a $1.2-million penalty from the office of California Community Colleges for not hiring new faculty this year. Arterberry said that payment will be spread out over the next three years, and will not be paid for through the $1.5 million from the retiree benefit fund. Board President Chris Constantin said there's a possibility that new faculty would be hired next year to meet faculty obligation quotas and prevent any more monetary penalties, only to be laid off.

"I'm at a loss," Constantin said, shaking his head. "I could not even tell you what next year is going to bring."

In addition to budget woes, 11 faculty members whose retirements were recognized by the board at a July 30 meeting are still waiting to be paid their pre-banked leave. Pre-banked leave, which is similar to accumulated comp time, can be paid out to employees who retire earlier than anticipated.

But negotiations are still under way as to the rate at which that pre-banked leave will be paid out over time because of a discrepancy on that issue between the retirees and the administration.

"The interpretation of their contract is in question," Lewis said.

Members from the group of 11 retirees told the board members that the district's human resources department and contracts the retirees signed promised a 100-percent payout in full of that pre-banked leave, yet 94 days later, as of the Oct. 2 meeting, they had not seen that money.

"Help us feel proud of the years that we have served the district," said one of the retirees, Mission College's former economics department chair, Dr. Gloria Ham. "Don't make us beg for our salaries that we have worked for and rightly deserve."