EL CAMINO COLLEGE
Planning & Budgeting Committee
February 5, 2004
Minutes
MEMBERS AND ALTERNATES PRESENT:
Bobbi Villalobos, Chair
Cheryl Shenefield
Miriam Alario-Wolski
Susan Taylor
Carolee Casper
Harold Tyler
Susan Dever
David Vakil
Thomas Jackson
Lance Widman
Dawn Reid
ALSO ATTENDING: Patricia Caldwell, Mike D’Amico, Pamela Fees, Victor Hanson, Alex
Kelley, Arvid Spor, Julie Stewart
Handouts:
January 23 budget memo from Pamela Fees
Board Policy 1600 – Full Inclusion of People with Disabilities
Acknowledgements - Draft
Information from L. A. Times – “Gov. Warns of ‘Armageddon Cuts’
Information – Community College Update – Highlights of the Proposed
Community College Budget for 2004-05
LACOE Informational Bulletin #200 – Depletion of State Unemployment
Insurance Fund
Information from L. A. Times – “Schools Put on Fiscal Watch List”
Information – Community College League of California – 2004-05 Budget
Deliberations for the California Community Colleges
Bobbi Villalobos called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m.
Approval of Minutes
Minutes of the December 18, 2003, meeting were approved as written.
Announcements
Bobbi Villalobos informed the committee members that Board Policy 1600, Full Inclusion of
People with Disabilities, had been approved. She said that the task force made a presentation at
the Manager’s Forum and will be working on administrative policies in order to implement the
policy. She said that the taskforce will attend a PBC meeting to update the members on their
progress.
Pat Caldwell reported that legislation is pending to apply special education requirements of K-12
to community colleges. She said that AB 422, legislation that required publishers to provide texts
in electronic book format to California colleges, is in effect. ECC should not be buying from
publishers who do not provide electronic versions. The Special Resource Center has the ability
to take videos and provide closed captions on them, but not all televisions on campus have the
ability to support or view this feature.
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Bobbi Villalobos reminded the committee members that part of the PBC directive is to look at
alternative funding sources. She will be inviting representatives from the Foundation and the
Grants Office to future PBC meetings in order to begin reviewing alternative funding sources.
Bobbi Villalobos also said that Student and Community Advancement provided staff provide
clerical support for the PBC for the fall semester, and Administrative Services will provide a the
same for the Spring semester. Pam Fees announced the following schedule: February, Delores
Buerger, Fiscal Services; March, Arlene Bautista, Police; April, Michele Waller, Human
Resources; May, Beverly Johnson, ITS; June, Sonia Gallardo, Bookstore; July, Lillian Sapp,
Purchasing.
Planning Update – Arvid Spor
Arvid Spor said he will be attending meetings of PBC on a regular basis and wants to work
closely with PBC members regarding the oversight and guidance of the Educational Master Plan.
He said he is creating a planning and budgeting model that will be available to the campus
community.
Arvid will be assisting with the strategic planning process, which includes linking planning to
budgeting as a key component for this year. He said the PBC members will also be involved in
oversight and guidance for the program review process and the coordination of activities/
planning among District activities. He distributed a timeline indicating the points at which
various groups on campus will be receiving various chapters of ECC’s Comprehensive Master
Plan. It will be modeled after the Allan Hancock CCD Plan, which he shared with the committee
members.
Arvid said he will be asking PBC to review each chapter of the Educational Master as it is
prepared. Although the document is mandated by the Chancellor’s Office. Pat Caldwell added
that she sees it as more of a value to the campus community as the plan will drive the ECC
budget. She said it should be used as the budget book is used and brought to every PBC
meeting. David Vakil asked about the process of writing the Education Master Plan, specifically
who would check the accuracy of the report. Arvid responded that as he writes every chapter, the
PBC, College Council, Academic Senate, and Cabinet will review it.
Budget Update – Pamela Fees
Pam Fees said that Victor Hanson, Pat Caldwell, and she attended the Governor’s Budget
Workshop on January 15, 2004, to hear about the impact of the proposed budget on community
colleges. She said that the budget places very strong reliance on the passage of Proposition 57, a
$15 billion bond to fund one-time help to get the State out of the current deficit. Propositions 57
and 58 must both pass—neither can be implemented on an individual basis. She also said that the
final proposition, Prop 55, is a bond facilities measure. If it passes, it would have implications
for ECC as it would mean funding for ECC for projects..
Pam said there were a number of surprises in the budget that were discussed at the workshop:
--there appears to be an intent that a 1.84% COLA be applied to community college
funding—it is not at this time. The lack of COLA was called an oversight; it was
supposed to be the same as the COLA for K-12.
--Proposition 98 was also discussed, adding that the Governor does not like the word
“suspend” and prefers the word “rebased.”
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--the proposed fee per unit is going from $18 to $26. Last year, fees jumped from $11 to
$18, a 64% increase. An increase from $18 to $26 in Fall 2004 would be a 44% increase.
Fee increases are proposed to be capped at 10% , but that applies only to the CSU and
UC.
--a differential fee of $50/unit has been proposed for those with bachelor’s degree or
higher. This was implemented in 1992-93 (page 51 of Final Budget) and eliminated in
1996. This might have an impact on ECC as overall community college enrollment
decreased the last time a differential was imposed.
--community colleges will receive funding for 3% growth. Because of cuts to the UC
and CSU systems, it may be that people will not be able to get into these universities and
instead attend community colleges.
Pam also reported that the Governor proposes to equalize low-funded districts to the funding for
districts at the 90th percentile. Since the cost of fully funding this process of equalization is
somewhat more than $200 million, the Governor’s proposal calls upon the Chancellor’s Office to
prorate the available funds according to each eligible district’s entitlement. She added that in the
past, equalization has not been supported by ECC because even though ECC would benefit, it
would cause more competition among community colleges to take students from other districts
and probably lower educational levels. She said next week the District’s position on equalization
will be clearly stated and issued in a letter.
She said that the proposed budget includes a flexibility component via a clustering of various
specialized programs and block grants. That is, funds previously “categorized,” such as
matriculation and EOPS funding, will now be included in the general fund.
Pam said the intent is to do away with special grant money and put it all into a block grant that
will be distributed to campuses. Dawn Reed said that ECC has always been committed to honor
specialized programs (i.e., EOPS) but that unfortunately, sister programs have not been so
fortunate and grant funding has been taken to be used for other functions on their campuses.
Vic Hanson discussed the memo from LACOE regarding employee contributions facing a
dramatic increase in the benefits for unemployment: .12% in 2002-03, .30% in 2003-04, .70% in
2004-05. He said that if assurance cannot be given to a 10-month employee of a return to
his/her position, the employee is eligible to apply for unemployment benefits during summer
months.
Another handout distributed to the committee members was a Los Angeles Times article on
community colleges that were put on a fiscal watch list. ECC’s name is not on the list, however
local colleges like Compton, Santa Monica, and Glendale are on it. ECC was on a watch list in
1996 for lowering its reserves to 4.8%.
Vic announced that the Bond update for the next Board meeting will include the 2004 Facilities
Master Plan transition. The plan will be shared at Flex Day on February 11and will then be
taken to the Board for adoption. In addition, the January Measure E bond report submitted to the
Board will be brought to the February 19 PBC meeting.
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Adjournment
Before adjourning, the committee discussed several issue for clarification:
--Lance Widman asked if in the Spring semester there was still a 10% reduction in
sections offered compared to 2002. Bobbi Villalobos confirmed that this was the case. A
question was then raised about ECC’s continued publicity to seek students, particularly
the advertisements in the Los Angeles Times and in newspapers outside the District. Pat
Caldwell said she believed the ads were part of a contract that was already paid for last
year. One week of ads, she said, was pulled.
--Susie Dever said she thought there was value in marketing the college name and
keeping it in front of people. She said that there are also some classes that need more
enrollment, and ECC might consider target marketing for specific programs.
--Pat Caldwell reported that Spring enrollments indicate there are double the number of
applications for new and returning students right now compared to last Spring.
--Vic Hanson said the vice presidents are updating a list of frozen positions and those
that are now exempted from the freeze. It will be brought to the February 19 meeting.
--The last enrollment projections shared by Vic Hanson projected 450 students over cap
in September 2003. As a result of that information and further review, and to control
costs it, Vic said the decision to cancel the winter intersession was made.
The meeting adjourned at 2:40 p.m.
Agenda for February 19, 2004
Approval of Minutes
Announcements
Measure E Bond Updates (shared at January and February Board meetings)
Final Draft – District Overview
Budget Update
Vacant Positions Exempted from Freeze
Updated Projected Credit FTES
Next Scheduled Meeting
February 19, 1:00-2:30 p.m. in the Alondra Room.
Recorder: Delores Buerger, Fiscal Services
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