The top 20 employees at Gavilan College made $3.4 million in salaries and benefits in 2011, which is about 15 percent of the total personnel expenditures at Gavilan College.
Gavilan College board president Laura Perry responded in a letter to Assemblyman Luis Alejo to claims by an advocacy group that the Gavilan board should re-agendize its October approval of the president's $42,000 pay hike in light of allegations trustees violated the state open meetings law in their decision.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has supported allegations that the Gavilan College board violated Brown Act provisions in October of last year when it increased the president’s pay during closed session, but also confirmed the deadline had passed to invalidate the action.
Gavilan College President Steve Kinsella’s $42,000 salary raise is under fire again – though this time it’s because a local Latino advocacy group alleges the Gavilan College board violated the Brown Act in an October meeting when trustees approved increasing his pay from $234,090 to $276,090 by 2015.
Luis Alejo (D-Salinas) made a special appearance at Central High School Friday to speak to students. With about 100 or so students, Mayor Steve Tate, Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Wes Smith and trustees Claudia Rossi and Ron Woolf, the assembly member spoke about his childhood and how he got to the state capitol. He said he was arrested at 16 while attending Watsonville High School and was put on juvenile probation. After another offense his senior year, the school told him with one more problem, he would be expelled.
The first regular Board of Education meeting at Gavilan College since the death of Mike Davenport was weighted with emotion Tuesday night, when several trustees took a moment to remember their lost colleague before discussing how to fill his shoes.