When college Human Resources administrators realized they had made a blunder and were overpaying a new employee, Vice President Rose DelGaudio demanded the employee pay back the overage.
Not so fast said trustee Tim Nader.
MESA Director Dr. Mourad Mjahed was directed by DelGaudio to reimburse the college for an error made by the district’s Human Resources department in July. The error was made public during the December governing board meeting when Mjahed said the district was going to reclassify him from range 40 to range 28.
Nader, a California State Attorney, said that was a contract violation and that DelGaudio did not have the authority to ignore a contract and act unilaterally. DelGaudio was publicly overruled and Mjahed was not required to pay for her mistake.
DelGaudio said the mistake occurred when the document was presented to the board.
“It was erroneously placed at a range 40 on the board docket and that’s how it went forward,” she said.
DelGaudio said the position was originally classified at a range 28 by Koff, a classification consultant that conducted the study, therefore that should be the official range. Nader said the “official range” is whatever the board approved. He said it may have been a mistake, but it was approved by the board and DelGaudio could not just change it because she felt like it.
“I understand it was a mistake, but if we make a mistake, that mistake becomes law until it is changed,” he said. “That’s generally how it works. If Congress passes a bill with a typo, and the president signs it, that’s the law until they pass a new bill.”
Fernando Poveda, president of the administrators association, said the error occurred in HR in July and no one caught it until November when he and Mjahed were notified. DelGaudio told Mjahed to repay the difference between range 40 and 28, which Poveda estimates to be almost $2,000 a month.
“They said ‘Hey, we made a mistake and you should have been a range 28, not I think a range 40, so we’re going to put it on the December board meeting and we’re going to make that adjustment and by the way you’re going to have to pay all that money back,’” he said.
Poveda said that it was unfair for the district to expect Mjahed to repay a significant amount of money due to an error made by HR. He concurred with Nader and said that once something is approved by the governing board, it is a binding contract.
“The rub was that the district made the mistake, didn’t catch it for almost six months, then wanted to penalize the employee and make him pay all that money back based on their mistake, which was not right,” he said. “DelGaudio tried to strong arm it and we said no. Then a governing board member agreed.”
Poveda said the district was more willing to negotiate after the December governing board. He said the agreement was Mjahed would remain at a range 40 until the district looked at the reclassification to determine if range 28 was appropriate and regardless of the outcome he would not have to reimburse the district. He said SCCDAA and Mjahed technically could have challenged the district’s position and fought to keep Mjahed at range 40 for the rest of Mjahed’s contract. Poveda said the union and Mjahed opted for the high ground and would honor the district’s study findings, but not pay for DelGaudio’s mistake.
SC’s MESA Director position was reclassified to range 28 at the February governing board meeting.
