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# SMC board offer a smokescreen, employees say
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/smc-board-offer-a-smokescreen-employees-say/
- Published: 2003-09-17T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:56:26.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Eighteen employees will likely be laid off*

Local college workers on Tuesday balked at an offer from school officials meant to spare the jobs of 18 employees.

They said the offer comes at too high a price because Santa Monica College officials would retain the right to lay off those workers if the state’s financial outlook worsens.

Under the proposed plan, which was discussed Monday night by the SMC board of trustees, workers would limit their hours and wages in order to keep the 18 jobs from being eliminated. The positions vary from athletic trainer to gardener to clerical assistant to personnel technician.

More than 250 people attended the meeting in the campus business building and dozens addressed the board, asking it to reconsider laying off employees. The action is expected to save the school $842,536 in salaries and be the final step in balancing SMC’s $208 million budget this year.

SMC workers now have until Oct. 6 to make a decision on the offer. But Phil Hendricks, president of the California School Employees Association, an SMC union, said Tuesday the offer isn’t acceptable.

“What they offered last night was nothing new,” said Hendricks, who during the meeting shouted “Liar! Liar!” at SMC president Piedad Robertson and was forced out by campus police. “They want us to give them money and they want to retain the right to lay us off. That’s not an offer that our members would benefit from.”

Hendricks said the union has offered as much as $2 million in cut hours and wages, but in return they want a guarantee that no workers will be laid off for six months or a year. He added that the board’s refusal to give that assurance indicates that it would not hesitate to eliminate the positions.

“If they had no intention of doing that, they would say ‘No layoffs within a short period of time,’” said Hendricks, echoing the opinion of fellow workers who vocally questioned the board’s reluctance to do so at the emotionally charged meeting.

Robert Sammis, SMC’s vice president of human resources, said the offer to reduce hours and wages, called “work-share,” would save the school nearly $1 million every six months and thereby cover the remaining budget deficit. But Sammis said the board of trustees needs to retain its right to lay off workers because no one knows how the state’s economic situation will evolve.

“No one on the board, no employer, none of us want to see people laid off,” he said. “So if there is a legitimate alternative that would generate the savings necessary to this year’s budget, what the board is saying is, ‘We’re willing to look at that.’

“They have extended a significant olive branch to the union and the ball’s kind of in their court now, to see if they’re serious about workshare.”

Meanwhile, SMC’s school year has begun, however it’s not business as usual.

Enrollment is down from 31,000 to 25,000 this fall, classes have been cut by 26 percent, five programs are no longer offered, and hundreds of jobs for teachers, workers, administrators and students are gone.

SMC officials, since February, have cut $10 million in a successful effort to bridge the shortfall in state funding and balance its budget. The school has $1.8 million in reserve funds and Tom Donner, SMC’s executive vice president, said he expects that money will be used to offset further shortcomings from Sacramento.

The cuts have stirred unrest on the small campus and many of the school staff say the way Robertson is dealing with the budget crisis is shortsighted. In separate votes earlier this year, campus workers and teachers voted overwhelmingly in votes of no confidence in her leadership. Hendricks said even with the most recent cuts factored in, SMC still has more administrators and managers per student than any other community college in the state.

SMC workers said at the meeting that the entire situation has left a sour taste in their mouths.

Petra Wolfe, a tool room attendant in SMC’s automotive department for 15 years before it was dropped from the college’s roster in May, told the board through tears how SMC officials botched her layoff, sending her final papers to an address she hadn’t used in eight years.

After addressing the board, Wolfe said she would like to see the disparate campus groups work together to solve the budget problem, but that SMC officials seem to walk into the meetings with their minds already made up.

“We have the right to want no layoffs,” said Wolfe, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “It’s very frustrating to see that everybody is not pitching in. I’m very ashamed to see them sitting there, just to see the blank look on their faces. They have a responsibility to this community.”

> “I’m very ashamed to see them sitting there, just to see the blank look on their faces.” — — PETRA WOLFE Former automotive department worker, Santa Monica College

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 17, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091703.pdf?ref=smdp.com)