Neil Yoneji

A coalition of Asian American and Latino groups demanded Monday that trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District reconsider their recent decision not to rehire Chancellor Neil Yoneji, one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in local government.

A coalition of Asian American and Latino groups demanded Monday that trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District reconsider their recent decision not to rehire Chancellor Neil Yoneji, one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in local government.

After a nine-month nationwide search, trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District have chosen a high-ranking insider to be chancellor of the nine-campus system, officials said Thursday. Neil Yoneji, the district's top fiscal officer who has been interim chancellor since December, was picked largely because among the three finalists for the post he was viewed as being best suited to guide the district through its tough financial times, board President Kenneth Washington said.

After a nine-month nationwide search, trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District have chosen a high-ranking insider to be chancellor of the nine-campus system, officials said Thursday. Neil Yoneji, the district's top fiscal officer who has been interim chancellor since December, was picked largely because among the three finalists for the post he was viewed as being best suited to guide the district through its tough financial times, board President Kenneth Washington said.

The Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees unanimously approved a precariously balanced $371.3-million budget for next year as a special committee continued to look for more ways to reduce spending. District officials cut central office operations to keep funding at each of the nine colleges at "essentially the same level of funding" as last year, according to interim Chancellor Neil Yoneji.

A Los Angeles Community College District vice chancellor has been named interim head of the nine-campus system until a permanent successor to departing Chancellor Donald G. Phelps is selected. Neil Yoneji, vice chancellor of the business services division, will assume leadership of the district Dec. 31. The former Saddleback Community College District administrator joined the Los Angeles district in 1991. Phelps, 63, has been chancellor since 1988.

Los Angeles community college trustees voted Wednesday to hire Jack Fujimoto, former president of Mission College in Sylmar, as interim president of Pierce College in Woodland Hills. By a 6-0 vote, the trustees accepted Chancellor Neil Yoneji's recommendation to put Fujimoto in the post for the next two to three months while trustees finish their review of three finalists for the permanent president's job.

Assembly Majority Leader James E. Rogan on Tuesday protested the special fees property owners may be required to pay the Los Angeles Community College District for campus improvements. Rogan (R-Glendale) said the proposed assessment is inappropriate, especially in a place like Burbank, which is not home to any of the district's nine campuses. "The college district is trying to sugarcoat this tax with words like assessment district, but it is a tax plain and simple," Rogan said.

A plan to have a private developer build and operate a 15-acre golf driving range at Pierce College, partly for student classes and partly as a money-making business serving paying customers, drew enthusiastic support Wednesday from college district officials. Pierce College President Lowell Erickson presented the plan to a Board of Trustees committee of the Los Angeles Community College District in Downtown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Community College District officials are scheduled to travel to New York City in March to interview one of three finalists for the position of Pierce College president, district officials said. Chancellor Neil Yoneji and two other board members will spend about two days in New York, said Blair Sillers, a district spokesman. A final decision on the position is not expected until at least March 20, the date of a regularly scheduled board meeting, Sillers said.

The first Latino chancellor to head the Los Angeles Community College District will start work Aug. 19 at a salary about $40,000 a year more than his predecessor's--even after deleting a $15,000-a-year incentive plan from the deal. Trustees of the college district voted 7-0 Wednesday to approve a four-year contract with the new chancellor, William E. Segura, providing nearly $192,000 a year in total compensation, including a $140,000 base salary.