BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1684
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Date of Hearing: April 17, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
AB 1684 (Eng) - As Introduced: February 14, 2012
SUBJECT : California Community Colleges: chancellor
compensation.
SUMMARY : Establishes compensation limits for California
Community College (CCC) district chancellors. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Would limit compensation of a CCC district chancellor to no
more than two times the compensation of the most highly
compensated faculty member in the CCC district.
2)Defines "chancellor of a community college district" to mean a
CCC district's chief executive officer to whom power is
delegated pursuant to existing law.
3)Defines "compensation" to include, but not be limited to, a
salary, bonuses, a vehicle allowance, and a housing allowance.
4)Makes the provisions of this bill applicable only to CCC
district chancellors who enter into or renew a contract for
employment with the CCC on or after January 1, 2013.
EXISTING LAW provides that each CCC district shall be under the
control of a locally-elected governing board responsible for
establishing rules and regulations consistent with the laws of
the state and the regulations of the statewide CCC Board of
Governors.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : Background . Each of the 72 CCC district governing
boards is responsible for setting the compensation of its chief
executives. The compensation levels and the policies that guide
the setting of compensation vary widely across the state.
Presumably, these decisions are based upon financial conditions,
performance, local living costs, and governing board
prerogatives. Additional factors affecting compensation amounts
include the organizational structure of the district and chief
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executives' responsibilities. There are three main
organizational arrangements among the 72 CCC districts: (1)
multi-college districts (administered by chancellors) where each
district is composed of more than one college; (2) individual
colleges (administered by presidents) who are part of and
managed by the multi-college districts; and (3) single-college
districts (administered by superintendents/presidents as chief
executive officers). This bill would apply to CCC district
executives in single and multiple college districts, but not
presidents of colleges that are a part of a multi-college
district. According to the December 2009 data from the CCC
Chancellor's Office, of those executives responding to the
executive compensation survey, the average salary for
chancellors of multi-college districts was $241,918, for college
presidents in multi-college districts was $184,695, and for
presidents of single-college districts was $200,889. In
addition to base salaries, executives reported benefits
including vehicle and business allowances, retirement
contributions, educational stipends, and housing allowances.
Purpose of this bill . According to the author, "The current
economic recession has resulted in funding being reduced from
CCC budgets, forcing the colleges to endure tighter spending
allowances and employee lay-offs. At the same time, enrollment
increases have forced many CCCs statewide to do more with less,
stretching their tight budgets even tighter as schools struggle
to meet the needs of additional students. In spite of these
concerns, some chancellors are still compensated high salaries
regardless of their schools budgetary shortfalls." The author
believes this bill establishes a reliable scale for determining
executive compensation at CCCs in an effort to strive toward
more uniformity, transparency and increase resources to assist
in student success.
Differences among districts . The author argues that this bill
seeks to solve a problem highlighted by recent news articles;
that there exists a wide range of differences in salaries and
benefits among CCC district executives. However, as noted by
the CCC Chancellor's Office, there are major differences in the
organizational structure and chief executives' responsibilities
among CCC districts. It is difficult to identify the degree to
which the salary/benefit differences among chief executives can
be attributed to these organizational/responsibility
differences, CCC districts are not required to report data on
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executive compensation. The CCC Chancellor's Office does
conduct research on executive compensation within the CCC
districts; however the surveys are voluntary, and in the most
recent 2009 survey of chief executive salaries, not all CCC
districts executives responded to the survey request.
Linking executive and faculty compensation . According to the
author, while CCC chancellors continue to be compensated with
high salaries, CCC faculty members have experienced work
furloughs, reported paying higher costs for health and
retirement benefits, and have not received cost of living
increases. This bill would limit a CCC district chancellor's
salary to no more than double the compensation of the highest
faculty member in the district. The author has not provided a
rationale for linking chief executive salaries to faculty
salaries. Further, if the goal of the author is to reduce chief
executive compensation levels, it is not clear that this
requirement would achieve that goal. According to data provided
by the author, in at least 25 of the 72 CCC districts, chief
executive compensation could increase under this provision.
Lack of available information . The author notes that not enough
is known about how much CCC funding is spent on executive
compensation because such matters are controlled at the local
level and not required to be made available to the public. The
author argues that there is no single source on the internet to
compare the salaries of CCC administrators. As previously
noted, the CCC Chancellor's Office has conducted surveys to
track this information, but not all CCC district executives have
responded to requests for data. This bill would not increase
public access to data regarding executive salaries. If a goal
of the author is to increase access to information regarding CCC
executive salaries, Committee staff recommends adding a
reporting requirement consistent with that goal.
Defining faculty compensation . This bill defines compensation
to include, but not be limited to, a salary, bonuses, a vehicle
allowance, and a housing allowance. This definition appears
aimed at the compensation of a chancellor. It is not clear how
faculty compensation is intended to be defined. For example, in
computing the chancellor compensation limits would the faculty
compensation include summer courses, overload assignments or
administrative duties? Committee staff recommends adding a
definition of compensation that would be used for computing
faculty salaries.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Teachers Association
California Federation of Teachers
Opposition
Antelope Valley Community College District
Association of California Community College Administrators
Community College League of California
West Kern Community College Districts
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960