BUDGET PLANNING COMMITTEE
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
3:00 p.m.
L107
Summary Notes
MEMBERS PRESENT
MaryGrace McGovern, Bob Brown, Solomon DeCamp,
Tami Engman, Tim Flanagan, David Gonsalves (phone) Sharrie
King, Lee Lindsey, Tami Matsumoto, Steve Stratton, Lorie Walsh
OTHERS PRESENT
Julia Peterson
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by committee co-chair
Bob Brown.
SUMMARY NOTES
The summary notes from March 7 were approved with changes.
The Final version will be posted on the BPC website.
DISCUSSION
BUDGET UPDATE
Lee gave a brief recap of the budget and noted that nothing is
improving at the state level. There continues to be lower than
expected revenue coming in and the state is looking at a $3B
deficit.
He stated that work continues to be done on the district’s budget
and is confident that we can balance it although it may not be easy.
Cuts have been made in services and supplies and by not filling all
vacant positions. He also stated that he will email out the 3-year
budget forecast document that was presented to the board of
trustees on April 3. The forecast outlines best and worst case
budget scenarios and what the effects will be if the tax measures
do or don’t pass. For next year we will be able to maintain our 5%
fund balance, however, without additional state funding or
structural changes that will not be the case for 2013/14 and
beyond. The district’s expenditures continue to increase every
year e.g. benefits, contracted salary increases, increases in services
and supplies. The 3-year forecast shows our problems, and now we
need to work to find solutions and make the budget work.
FINAL RANKING
SPREADSHEETS
There was discussion about the survey that was distributed by IEC
and according to data collected by IR only one member of the BPC
completed it. Several committee members spoke up at the table
and said that they had indeed completed the survey on behalf of
BPC and other committees that they served on. Julia stated that she
will check into this on behalf of IEC to see if there was a flaw in
the survey collection process. Bob reiterated how important it is
for all committees to document and assess the work they are doing.
It’s not enough that we’re doing the work, but the work needs to
be recorded to show evidence of our processes.
There was discussion regarding the Final Ranking Spreadsheets
and the current process used to rank the needs requests. It was
noted that several changes will be made to improve the process.
Bob commended Lee for showing the linkages to the Strategic and
Education Master plans and requested that he do the same for the
Measure Q rankings. Some of the recommendations for changes
included:
Have committees filter out items that are below $5K
Identify one-time or ongoing cost (total cost of ownership)
e.g. software programs, subscriptions, equipment that
requires ongoing maintenance.
How to show that we closed the loop with Program Review
Identify possible funding sources
Discussion continued regarding the probability of funding any of
these items now that the ranking process is complete. It was noted
that there some items that may qualify for funding from Measure
Q or Safety credit funds.
RECOMMENDATION
ON 101 CORRIDOR
SITES
The committee discussed the recommendation from the Facility
Planning Committee (FPC) regarding the 101 Corridor sites which
can be viewed at http://inside.redwoods.edu/BudgetPlanning/ . Lee
stated that a Request for Proposals (RFP) will be sent out in the
Eureka area to help find an appropriate location to house the
Eureka Downtown site. The goal is to find a smaller site that can
meet the scaled back requirements of a downtown site. The district
would be willing to stay at the present location if the current lease
cost could be negotiated for a much lower rate.
CLOSING THE LOOP
The committee will meet before the end of the semester to debrief
about what was accomplished this year and how to plan for the
future.
ADJOURNED
SUBMITTED
The meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m.
lw