Interim Chancellor Huff Ousted by District Governing Board
Interim Chancellor Eugene Huff (right) and Former Chancellor Fred Wood (left) discuss the formation of an interim presidential hiring committee at a Fireside Hall meeting with CCC staff on Aug. 15, 2019 during a public forum.
September 10, 2020
The Governing Board of the Contra Costa Community College District decided not to extend the contract of Interim Chancellor Eugene Huff Tuesday night, effectively terminating his relationship with the district.
Huff, currently the executive vice chancellor of administrative services, will remain in his role until the end of his contract, June 30, 2021.
The decision was made during the Sep. 9 regular district board meeting, held via Zoom video conference.
Board secretary Greg Enholm motioned to vote against the extension of Huff’s contract, with a second by trustee John E. Márquez. Vicky Gordon also voted no.
Rebecca Barrett and Andy Li voted in favor of extending the contract.
At its June 24, 2020 regular meeting, the Governing Board voted to delay decisions regarding implementation of merit increases until the fiscal year 2020-21 budget was better known.
During yesterday’s meeting, the 2020-21 budget was approved, and Huff’s contract came to an end.
In a previous 4CD district meeting, Associate Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Dio Shipp and Chief Financial Officer Jonah Nicholas were also denied contract extensions.
Contra Costa College faculty and staff have expressed concerns about these decisions, both publicly and privately to Advocate staffers. The Advocate was sent a link to an anonymous website (https://4cd-boarddysfunction.weebly.com/) that alleges impropriety by members of the board. It includes copies of several district documents and links to recorded board meetings.
Huff has been working as the Interim Chancellor and performing his duties as executive vice chancellor after Chancellor Fred Wood’s surprise early retirement in November. The district plans to hire a permanent chancellor before the end of the fall semester.
Rick Ramos • Oct 14, 2020 at 7:54 pm
I am concerned by the fact that the community in Ward 1 specifically the Latinx community urged the board to move forward with the chancellors search . We had a great diverse pool and the Unions, Interim Chancellor Huff and Trustee Barrett appear to purposely drag ged their feet . The unions made it clear they wanted to keep Huff as chancellor and the community felt he and his team had not addressed issues of diversity hiring and closing the equity gap. The three trustees heard the call to action and moved the process forward and were fortunate that Dr Reese took the position. Now they are being called distinctions. That’s a joke. The accusations against Trustee Marquez they refer to is misleading and a hoax. District HR already to the blame for that. I hope you do some fact checking.
I have been a member of the UF for over 25 years. I support labor but it looks like it’s time to change out their leadership and allow more progressive faculty of color to step up.
Neal Skapura • Sep 13, 2020 at 6:57 pm
Thank you for summarizing this most recent Board meeting, Ms. Pantoja.
CCCCD Trustees Enholm, Gordon, and Marquez have abdicated their responsibility to the District as well as the voters. Over the last four months, we have publicly seen self-serving actions, a Board self-evaluation revealing three years of Board dysfunction, retaliation against employees (CFO Jonah Nicholas, AVC of HR Dio Shipp, and now interim-Chancellor Gene Huff) through contract non-renewals, and finally, our accreditation about to be tarnished.
I hope The Advocate can dig into the issues and help to shed light on the unethical actions that Gordon and Enholm have taken and that Marquez has supported through his ongoing support of the two of them by voting to not renew contracts – a retalitory act, by the way, that opens the District up to liability issues.
Readers – ask yourself, as many of us have asked publicly, how do the actions of Enholm, Gordon, and Marquez to not renew the contracts of top-performing managers serve the institution, the District goals, and the students? It’s not a complicated question, but it remains unaswered by them.
Neal Skapura
Local 1 President