The Cosumnes River College Academic Senate passed a vote of no confidence in Los Rios District Chancellor Brian King on Friday, voting 8-7 with five members abstaining.

The vote comes two days after the Los Rios Community College Board of Trustees Approved a 4% raise in King’s salary by a vote of 7-0. This will make King’s base annual salary $392,199.60 effective on April 1.

CRC Academic Senate President Jacaob Velasquez said he was disappointed to learn that the board gave King a raise.

“In spite of the fact that faculty have raised these concerns and that three of the four academic senates throughout the district have these resolutions of no confidence, we actually are going to reward him, that seemed inappropriate,” Velasquez said.

With the vote, CRC became the third Los Rios college to pass a vote of no confidence in the district’s chancellor. American River College and Sacramento City College have both passed votes of no confidence in King, and Folsom Lake College has passed a resolution of support.

According to ARC’s no confidence resolution, a significant reason for the vote was how the closure of Davies Hall at ARC was handled. The document states King knew about the safety issues for over a year and yet the building closure happened with only a 24-hour notice.

The ARC Academic Senate’s no confidence resolution stated there is a lack of transparency in district decision-making and faculty are excluded from key decisions.

The SCC senate’s no confidence resolution stated over the last three years, the LRCCD district favored hiring long-term temporary faculty instead of full-time faculty.

“It seems to me that the chancellor, because of his leadership style, has created a culture within the district at the district level, which has negative impacts on the educational opportunities that CRC offers,” Velasquez said.

At Friday’s CRC Academic Senate meeting, Velasquez said their decision could cause fall out.

“I would not like to think that we deprived faculty of their opportunity to speak up for themselves,” Velasquez said.

Omari Tau, a CRC music professor and senator representing Arts, Media and Entertainment, said the fallout of any response could possibly be an advantage.

“It could mean they see a united front,” Tau said. “They see a united faculty across the district.”

Velasquez said he’d like to see genuine change.

“We don’t simply want people to acknowledge that we’ve made this decision,” Velasquez said. “What we want is to see them to take that feedback and make changes to address the longstanding concerns faculty have had.”

During the Los Rios board meeting, Board President Pamela Haynes made a statement on behalf of the trustees about the board continuing to have confidence in King and his leadership team.

Haynes said the district’s challenges within the past several years were due to factors beyond their control and King continues to ably lead the district.

“We appreciate that in his efforts to guide our district through very challenging times and improve outcomes for students,” Haynes said. “Chancellor King has had to make a number of very difficult decisions.”

Haynes said King and his team have also shown a consistent willingness to communicate with the Academic Senates and other stakeholders on controversial decisions.

Haynes said the board wanted to show their support for King by giving him this raise.

“Every one of the constituencies groups got 8%,” Haynes said. “The Chancellor did not. He did not get a raise this last time.”

Los Rios trustee Robert Jones said he understands the legitimate concerns of the faculty.

“There have been some tremendously stressful circumstances in the district for faculty,” student trustee John Doherty said, who attends ARC. “I know with the Davies Hall closure, I had teachers who lost offices and that isn’t easy.”

Haynes said raising the chancellor’s salary at this time was intentional.

“We wanted to send a message,” Haynes said. “Relative to where the board stood on our message, relative to the no confidence, and relative to the board, and how the board feels about this particular Chancellor and the work he is doing and his leadership team.”