Board of Trustees Report
District Office
February 11, 2009
Budget and Finance Committee
The committee was asked to authorize the selling of a short-term bond (around $50
million, maximum $75 million) for cash flow reasons. Given the difficult credit climate, it
has not been an optimal time for a general obligation bond. GO bonds also take a long
time to prepare, given the county approval needed, et al. A GO bond of around $450
million will be issued fairly soon, however. It will then cover Prop J costs for the next
eighteen months, according to the current spending plan. After a number of questions
were answered to the committee’s satisfaction, it was agreed to request that the full
Board authorize the issuance today of the short-term one.
Moss Adams, our bond performance auditors, reported to the committee (having earlier
given the same report to the Bond Steering Committee). They looked at over 200
expenditure items, which is apparently a substantial percentage. These covered activity
through the end of last year. They cited a number of positive practices at BuildLACCD
and at the colleges: coordination with SAP, management of documents, establishment of
pre-qualification lists, and safety education of employees. They identified some
problems: incomplete close-out of projects, college project managers spending their
funds before the completion of the project, and unclear justification for some
expenditures (various examples of this were noted). None of the criticisms
(“improvement opportunities,” in their lingo!) were stressed, however, and the general
tone was very positive. Some of the problems have already been rectified, according to
James Sohn of BuildLACCD.
Finally, KPMG presented its annual financial audit. Given the limited time available, this
was a rushed presentation, but the key finding was an “unqualified opinion” (the best
result possible) as to the district’s basic financial statements. They did report some
irregularities, including incorrect payroll expenses, loose payroll controls in IT, as well as
some gaps in tracking apportionment, but the items were not presented as significant,
and the committee didn’t seem concerned about them.
Committee of the Whole
The Board conducted its annual review of goals in a two-hour meeting as a Committee
of the Whole. The results of the Board’s self-evaluation were discussed. While positive
overall, one member was much more critical than the rest. Gary Colombo then led a long
review of what had been done to meet their 2008 goals. In terms of access, the AfricanAmerican Outreach Initiative was mentioned, with a claim that it had increased
enrollment among African-American males by some 13% since last year. I challenged
that connection, however, as there are other factors that seem more likely to have
caused this jump (such as increased concurrent enrollment and economic duress).
Trustee Scott-Hayes and Miguel Santiago talked about the need to have a comparable
initiative for Latino males. In terms of programs for the disengaged, John Clerx
described the new Career Academies, and Marvin Martinez talked extensively about the
dramatically expanded workforce training opportunities available to us now that the
federal stimulus bill has been passed.
Under student success, I reviewed two major steps we are taking: the inclusion of
essential academic skills in the course outline, and the creation of new Intro to College
courses, ones that can be taught by all faculty. I also discussed the new initiative the
DAS has launched with the Financial Aid managers and the ASO. Deborah Harrington
discussed the Faculty Academy (FTLA), and our new Basic Skills grant initiative. Finally,
we reviewed all that’s been done as part of our Sustainability Project, as well as the
extensive new green programs at Trade and elsewhere. The Chancellor said he hadn’t
seen such an ambitious initiative from faculty in ten years.
G. Colombo then made some suggestions about possible Board goals for this year. One
goal that the Board seemed especially interested in was boosting transfer. This led to a
long discussion about counseling. I stated that one reason for SMC’s success is that
they have some 60 counselors, and a far superior counselor/student ratio to any in our
district. That led to objections from Presidents Moreno and Garber, both of whom talked
about recent steps taken at East and Pierce to add counselors. Scott-Hayes was
insistent that new methods of counseling need to be employed (group counseling, for
example).
Patrick McCallum then reported the latest Sacramento news. (I’ll pass over his
discussion of the budget, as you’ve seen that elsewhere.) He cited the new CCC Caucus
in the legislature, headed up by Warren Furutani. Concurrent enrollment is now being
referred to an Accelerated Learning, given its troubled past. There’s some chance of
action this year to make it more available. In terms of bond construction, he said
California has the worst rules in the country for higher education facilities. He added that
Larry Eisenberg was far ahead of others in the state in terms of innovation. He
concluded with a review of the discussion in Sacramento about student fees. There’s
considerable and increasing pressure for higher fees, and the most that may be possible
is to have legislation that guarantees slow, modest increases. This is in spite of the fact
that there’s no fee increase in the current budget proposal.
Open Session
The bond approval item discussed in committee in the morning (see above) was moved
to the front of the agenda, so that communication with New York financiers could begin
right away. It was passed unanimously.
There were no public speakers. Diane Gamboa spoke about an upcoming Latina
Leadership conference, sponsored by LACCD this year. It was reported out that the
Board took unanimous action in Closed Session on a court item. No details were
provided.
Committee reports were made. In the External Relations Committee (which I couldn’t
attend, as it occurred at the same time as Budget and Finance), there was discussion
about the need to keep the public aware of bond project developments. Apparently, they
also are proposing that Prop J construction now be referred to as the Sustainability
Building Program.
A resolution was passed in honor of Cesar Chavez and another in celebration of
Women’s History Month.
In his report, Chancellor Drummond noted that the I-Pass was now in full operation, and
student bus use is way up. It’s being paid out of bond money for now. He commended all
those involved in addressing the bond and financial audit issues reported in committee:
“The district is greatly better managed now than when I came (ten years ago).” He
added that Larry Eisenberg had been presented with yet another award, this one from
the IBEW.
A contract agreement with SEIU Local 99 was approved and celebrated.
The Consent Calendar was passed unanimously, though not without the usual round of
questions. One concerned artificial turf and its safety. Another was over the wisdom of
offering football programs at five colleges, given the tough economic times (this in
response to an equipment item on the agenda). Three Board members appeared
skeptical, though Mark Rocha of West offered a spirited defense. The largest discussion,
however, had to do with the recommendation to remove Southwest’s part-time ASO
advisor of long standing, as he was working out of classification. Since he does not hold
the minimum qualifications (a B.A. degree) for the position, he can’t just be reclassified.
The Board went along with the recommendation, though some members were clearly
reluctant to do so. He will be compensated for his several years of work with the ASO
and work full time in his other job.
We’ve received another award for our building program, this one from a commercial real
estate organization.
Comment
I will be responding further to the Board regarding Counseling staffing, since the ratio
disparity between us and SMC (and others) can’t be dismissed as readily as the college
presidents would wish. My data (from an extensive study at East in 2006) shows East
with a 1:2,035 counselor/student ratio, and Pierce at 1:2,417, as compared to SMC’s
1:674 and El Camino’s 1:988. This has got to have made a huge difference in student
success outcomes. By all means, let’s look at new ways of advising students, but surely
we also need to commit to much larger Counseling Departments.
Chancellor Drummond and Trustee Field praised the faculty effort in Sustainability very
highly, and their comments are much appreciated.
David