Redwoods Community College District
Vice President, Chief Business Officer
FINANCIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE NOTES
April 6, 2007
This was the fifth meeting of the fiscal year and the first meeting after the Ad Hoc Budget
Committee was appointed by the Board of Trustees. The meeting agenda was designed
primarily to update members on developments from the meetings of this group and to develop
the budget assumptions for the Tentative Budget in June.
Present
Trish Blair, Ron Cox, Helen Edwards, Chris Gaines, Leslie Haddock,
David Harris, Tricia Hawkins, John McBrearty, Scott Thomason
Absent
Sydney Larson, Ken Magnuson, Rodney Kaloostian, Jean Lawry,
Budget
Assumptions
Members worked on the development of budget assumptions for the
Tentative Budget for 2007-08 for presentation to the board in June. The
assumptions for the Preliminary Budget for 2007-08 were used as a
guide for the development of revised assumptions. A number of points
were discussed with the following points being of special interest:
¾ Attendance trends and projections – update estimate of current
year FTES for use in calculating state revenue for 2007-08 from
4,405 to 4,434 FTES.
¾ Health & welfare plan budget - change Dental Plan rate
increase from 0 to 2%.
¾ Retiree benefits – change assumption for prior service liability
contribution to no transfer for 2007-08.
¾ Operating budgets – assume a 5% cut from 2006-07 for funds to
be allocated by senior administrators to operating units.
¾ Capital outlay requirements – show no transfers needed from
the General Fund to the Capital Outlay Fund for projects for
2007-08.
This information will go forward to Senior Staff and College Council for
input and to the board as background for the approval of the Tentative
Budget in June.
Ad Hoc Budget
Committee
At the March board meeting an Ad Hoc Budget Committee was
appointed to meet and consider the budget gap for 2007-08. Selected
historical cost and FTES data shared with this committee was presented
and discussed with FAC members. Two issues were identified for
consideration for the 2007-08 Tentative Budget presentation to the
board:
FINANCIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE NOTES
April 6, 2007
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¾ Include a calculation of the 50% Law based on the Tentative
Budget estimates. We were not in compliance with this
requirement for 2005-06 and are not expected to be in
compliance for 2006-07. There would still be time to make
corrections to our operating plans for 2007-08 in June to come in
compliance, if needed.
¾ Include a brief presentation of preliminary budget revenues
and expenditures for 2008-09. The Ad Hoc Budget Committee
recommended that the District take two years to bring ongoing
expenditures in line with ongoing revenues. It would be
appropriate to look forward one budget cycle to see what
additional budget solutions will be necessary to achieve a
balanced budget.
FTES Projections
Ron shared a projection of FTES for 2007-08 based on historic trends. It
is expected that when IR has progressed further in its work, a full
detailed enrollment projection model will be developed for multiple year
projections. For now historic trends show a continuing decline in FTES.
At this time, FTES for 2007-08 is expected to decline to 4,229 from the
estimated 4,434 for 2006-07.
CCCCO Budget
Monitoring
Scott discussed the process for district budget monitoring by the
California Community College Chancellor’s Office. The next step in the
process of intervention by the system office would be to request that the
Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team come to our district and
perform an examination and report back to the system office. Scott does
not feel that we are to that point. With sufficient progress towards a
balanced budget by June, we should be able to show the system office
that outside assistance is not needed.