GCCCD Grapevine

After long delays and considerable foot-dragging, district negotiators have apparently recommended that the GCCCD Board approve the funding of two years service credit as an incentive for certificated employees to retire this June. Informed sources say that certificated employees who were hoping to retire this June, contingent on Board approval of this incentive, will be notified by letter to go ahead and submit their retirement paperwork. This decision was made at the June 2 Board meeting. Official Board approval is expected at the next meeting.

This early retirement incentive, commonly known as a "golden handshake," is available through state law AB 2609, which allows the District to purchase two years of service for employees as an incentive for early retirement, if this saves the District money. The District does not have to pay STRS for this service credit for two years. During that time, the savings effected by replacing older, experienced employees at the top of the salary schedule with younger employees, hired at a much lower rate, will more than pay for the plan . . . and the District continues to save for decades thereafter! For this reason, it's difficult to understand why approval was delayed to such a later date. This was a win-win proposal from the beginning.

As a first step to reducing an estimated $2.4 million deficit in the 1992-9 district budget, the Gcccd Board took action in April which saved about $344,000. This was accomplished by reducing the number of divisions at Grossmont College and by combining and eliminating several positions in the district office. This action was taken after four months of study by a joint committee of faculty, administrators and classified employees.

The position of Vice Chancellor of Development and Human Relations, currently held by Dr. David Feldman who is retiring, is being eliminated. Other positions being eliminated are the Associate Director of Information Systems, currently held by Brad Tiffany, and Grossmont College dean. The four remaining divisions at Grossmont College are Business and Professional Studies, Communications and Fine Arts, Humanities and Behavioral Sciences, and Mathematics and Science. Other positions in the district were combined or downgraded.

An additional $2 million of anticipated budget shortfall has yet to be dealt with,and the prospects are grim. Grossmont College president Richard Sanchez, in his "End of the Year Report," told district employees that the budget crisis will impact both the 1992-92 and the 1993-94 academic years. He said, "We're going to be poor for two years, folks." This could mean, in addition to more cuts and restructuring, a freeze on salaries throughout that period with no cost-of-living adjustments.

Chancellor Don Walker hosted the second annual Emeritus Club luncheon at the Carlton Oaks Country Club on Thursday, May 28. The turnout was light, compared to the same event a year ago. There were a total of fourteen at this year's luncheon but only seven of those attending were emeriti, compared with fifteen emeriti last year.

Emeriti attending were, in alphabetical order: Bob Danielson, Lee Engelhorn, Erv Metzgar, Tom Scanlan, Don Scouller, Mickey Shelley, and Sidney Wiever. Others attending, in addition to Don Walker, were: Vice Chancellor Jack Miyamoto; the two college presidents, Richard Sanchez and Sam Ciccati; and three board members, Rick Alexander, Rebecca Clark and Barbara Collis.

There were introductions and short speeches, including praise for the retiring chancellor, who expressed optimism for the district's future. Reference to the dismal status of the upcoming 92-93 district budget was minimal, probably because state income is still an unknown and what is known is so grim that nobody wants to talk about it.

Overall, it was a congenial gathering with lots of opportunity for emeriti to talk informally with top-level district administrators and board members. These meetings represent a potentially important occasion for retirees since the Chancellor's Emeritus Club is the only official board sanctioned organization of retirees in GCCCD. The number of district retirees continues to grow and, with the right leadership, the emeriti could serve as a conduit for retiree concerns as well as resource pool for the district.

This will be my final editorial and the last issue of Grapevine that I'll be writing and producing. I've been involved with the Grapevine since its inception in April, 1990, when I was still a member of the SIRP retirement committee and before I retired that summer. Beginning with the January 1991 issue, I've done most of the reporting and writing, and until the last issue was desk-top producing the copy prior to submitting it to Duplicating.

This job has been a good experience overall. I've leaned a lot about reporting, editing, writing, newsletter production, and desk-top publishing. More important, I've met and talked with a number of district retirees and have learned about some of their post-retirement activities. I've had an opportunity to work with other retirees who have written for the newsletter and district employees who assisted in the production, layout and printing. I want to thank all of those good folks again.

There has been a down-side to this job, as well. First, there are other activities competing for my time, primarily fiction and article writing and more reading than I can ever catch up with. Second, the lack of response to repeated requests for letters or phone calls from retirees has resulted in very little of the type of news that I feel this newsletter should include. Related to this, Bruce Barnett, president of the United Faculty, informs me that only about five retired faculty have responded to an offer of a $25 per year retiree membership in the United Faculty, for which they'd receive that organizations' newsletter, and be invited to social functions sponsored by that organization.

It appears that most of you have developed other interests since retirement. I can understand that, but it surprises me that there appears to be so little interest in maintaining even a casual contact with the district or other retirees, since most retirees worked in the district for over twenty years. There's other evidence that there is little interest, on the part of most retirees, in staying in touch (e.g., see Poll Shows Little Support...on this page, and note the low turnout at retiree breakfast and the latest emeritus luncheon). This doesn't provide much incentive for continuing a newsletter.

Finally, although the chancellor has been supportive of retiree efforts to maintain services and communications (such as this newsletter) between retirees and the district, there has never been a penny of compensation for the hundreds of hours of effort this job has entailed over the past two years. Volunteerism has its limits.

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On a related matter, the Office of Retirement Services, which grew out of the SIRP-2 committee and originally included Dean Parks, Leon Hoffman, Tom Scanlan, Don Scouller, and Fred Stollenwerk, is also fading into oblivion. Two of the members are moving out of state this year, and for reasons cited in the previous paragraphs, the remaining members will no longer be meeting. We'll have to hope that the board-approved services and benefits that this committee proposed and implemented (e.g., Gold Card benefit) will survive the ravages of time and economic downturn.

Please address all future retiree concerns to the district personnel office.

A questionnaire was mailed to all of the approximately one hundred certificated GCCCD retirees late this April, asking if they favored the formation of a certificated retirees' association, and if they approved the interim by-laws and purposes which were enclosed with the questionnaire. There were only 29 responses, of which only 24 were favorable, and three of those favorable were not living nearby and didn't feel that they would be able to participate. In effect, only about one-in-five of the local certificated retirees contacted favored the formation of such a retirees' association.

As a result of this poll, the interim committee which worked on this proposed organization and by-laws (see March, 1992, issue of Grapevine) does not intend to further pursue the formation of such an organization.

The board approved a change in criteria for emeritus eligibility at their June meeting. Faculty applicants must now be a full professor and meet one additional criteria from those listed for qualifying as a professor (e.g., lave been a department chair or chaired a major standing committee for at least two years, etc.), and if the additional criteria involves service to the college, it must have been satisfied within eight years subsequent to retirement. The new criteria were adopted at the urging of some board members, the chancellor, and a committee of current emeriti; and were approved by the academic senates before going to the board. Interested retirees should contact Sharon Wood-LaFollette in the district office at Grossmont College. She has the new Emeritus Application forms which reflect this change.