A trio of interesting stories this morning from the local government/agency front.
First off, College of the Canyons administrators are getting raises….$400,000 worth in fact, even as students face fee and tuition hikes for classes next year and the college reconfigures the way it charges for extension-type courses:
Despite a hefty tuition increase for students, the top dogs at College of the Canyons may be in for a raise.
The Santa Clarita Community College District is poised to approve a 6 percent pay increase over two years for most campus administrators and managers, officials said.
District trustees will vote on the pay package tonight. Like other community colleges, tuition at COC will increase from $26 to $36 a unit this fall.
“It’s fair,” said district spokesman John McElwain. “In these times, I’ll be the first to say it’ll raise an eyebrow. “But it’s to create equity among our employee groups.”
Unlike other faculty and staff at College of the Canyons, most administrators and managers haven’t seen a pay bump in four years, he said.
The nearly $400,000 increase in pay for 76 top officials will put their salaries on par with similar administrators across the state.
COC points out that it has also “shed five top administrative jobs for a savings of $650,000,” which means the College is outlaying $238,000 less overall.
But if giving raises at a time of national austerity and belt tightening makes you raise your eyebrows, what do you think about old school, and I mean really old school, nuns lecturing City Hall, possibly in flawless Latin vulgate? Fellow papist I Heart has more from last night’s Council meeting in which the Latin-loving/John XXIII-hating folks at Newhall’s Queen of Angels church issued a fatwa decree against the City’s Historic Preservation ordinance (which exempts religious buildings but mistakenly included their church on the list of SCV historical properties):
Nearly two dozen parishioners and members of religious orders still took to the podium, arguing that Queen of Angels should not be forced to accept the burdens associated with being designated as a historic landmark. They wouldn’t be so designated, by all assurances, and Kellar asked that a letter be drafted to put this in writing. I didn’t find their repetitive remarks too annoying, perhaps because I’m Catholic (though not the QOA sort of Catholic), but also because they were rightly suspicious of why their church was still on the list of buildings to designate and because they thought other property owners shouldn’t have to endure burdens either
One wonders if OLPH was responsible for the mix-up.
Staying on religion and local government, I just had a vision of Petz’ next push to mix church and state. He successfully compelled the City to remove its irony quotes from “In God We Trust,” but if Lancaster is any indication, he’s behind the curve:
A federal judge has ruled that officials in a Los Angeles County city can open city meetings with a prayer.
U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer ruled Monday in favor of Lancaster officials who approved a policy allowing the prayers in August 2009.
The city also put the question to voters, who passed the policy to allow prayers of any denomination or faith at city meetings.
Mayor R. Rex Parris said Tuesday that the city takes pride in defending the rights of citizens to pray.
Remember R. Rex Parris? Whenever you’re feeling down about the coziness in this town among the GOBN, go and have a look at his glowing, angelic official biography on the City of Lancaster’s site. Parris, you’ll recall, told the AV Press last year that he viewed the City of Lancaster as a growing “Christian Kingdom,” and he’s been pushing for prayer at City Council meetings ever since. Now, a court has said that’s ok, as long as it’s non-denominational prayer.
That’s just the thing we need to make Santa Clarita Council meetings even more interesting and entertaining: prayer.
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