Saying higher salaries were necessary to attract top-caliber talent, the Coast Community College District board has approved pay increases of 24% over three years for six top administrative positions.

The raises, decided on a 4-to-1 vote Wednesday, apply to the district's three vice-chancellors and the presidents of Golden West, Orange Coast and Coastline colleges.

The district is currently seeking to fill four of those spots, which will have annual salaries that will increase to $145,000 from $129,000 on July 1, and ultimately top out at $160,000.

Getting experienced people to apply for the positions would have been difficult without offering a better package, said board President George Brown. "We needed to raise our salaries to be competitive."

The board had been putting off raises for years, but "we can't let the college go to pot because everybody was screaming and yelling at us," Brown said.

Faculty protested the raises.

"I thought it was horribly ill-timed," said Kevin Parker, president of Orange Coast's academic senate. "As it's been said many times before, [that money] can be translated into courses."

The district plans to cut hundreds of classes this coming school year and has implemented a hiring freeze on full-time professors. Faculty will receive pay raises of 1.84%.

Trustee Jerry Patterson said he opposed raising the administrators' salaries on the basis of what those positions pay elsewhere, because the same criteria wasn't used for faculty wages.

Patterson backed eliminating future cost-of-living adjustments and suggested that the raises be distributed only after positive performance evaluations. The board voted down both amendments.

The average pay for community college presidents is $130,615 this year, a 3.1% increase over last year, according to the American Assn. of Community Colleges. Multi-college system presidents made $182,294. But Patterson said such surveys often inflate the numbers. "Everybody surveys the higher paid presidents. It's a vicious cycle, [with everyone] saying, 'They're getting more than we are.' "

Brown pointed out that even with the raises, salaries were still lower than the national average. He said that while California was a desirable place to live, "it costs you a fortune to live here."

The pending sale of the district's PBS television station, KOCE-TV, coupled with the $900,000 the district hopes to receive in rent annually by leasing undeveloped district property, will provide the budget with a much-needed infusion of cash, Brown said. The district was recently removed from the state's fiscal watch list, given to schools with reserves that are unacceptably low.

The board also approved a salary of $190,000 for incoming chancellor Kenneth Yglesias, $4,000 more than retiring chancellor Bill Vega received this year.