Budget and Allocations Committee Meeting Minutes September 22, 2014 Senate Chambers 6:30 PM Chairman: Sen. Blake Kennedy I. Call To Order - Meeting is called to order at 6:30PM II. Pledge of Allegiance (Senator Kishek) III. Roll Call by Vice Chair Talley. - IV. Quorum is established with 8 voting members Approval of the minutes - V. Senator Gagliardi. Motion to approve the minutes from last week’s meeting. Second. All in favor. Motion passes. Approval of Agenda - VI. Senator Kishek. I move to approve the agenda as amended. Second. All in favor. Motion passes. I only have one thing to report and it is concerning tonight’s special request for the Spinnaker. I sent this email out and you all saw what it was all about. I make a recommendation that this comes out of the student union construction budget fee and not the special request budget. Treasurer’s Report and Remarks - VIII. 09/22/2014 Chairman Report and Remarks - VII. 09/08/2014 I just want to say congrats to the new members on the committee. I want to reiterate what Chairman Kennedy said about the special request; I highly recommend it comes out of our general reserve construction fee. It is coming from the student union not the spinnaker; it is for construction on the spinnaker office. Director Simms will elaborate further on that later. As for title 8, Attorney General Harris, myself and Chairman Kennedy have been working on it so that things are more transparent. I will go over it further tonight. I encourage you to look through it thoroughly. Guest Speakers - Senate President Ramirez- I just wanted to remind each of you about your senate scholarships. This doesn’t apply to the appointees. None of you are fall seats. However, your fellow fall seat senator’s forms are due a week before their term ends either November 7th, or November 21st. If you need a form please pick one up after committee. There are three requirements you must complete: workshops, sponsorship, and the involvement. I am talking to Senators Rotella, Culberson, Gagliardi, Talley, Tunjic and Kennedy. The workshop requirement is complete if you attended senator orientation. If you did not attend orientation, you must schedule a workshop with the cabinet members. The sponsorship requirement is complete if you sponsored any type of legislation throughout your term. The involvement requirement is complete if you did one of these three options: 10 hours at the lend-a-wing pantry, 2 agency events, or 5 hours at lend-a-wing and one agency event. You should recall from our first senate meeting of the semester, SR-14F-2778 revisal of senator scholarships. To remind everyone about the new senator scholarship requirement, will be effective for senators elected from here on out. So the new senators elected this fall and next spring will be a part of this. The new scholarship requirements are two competitive $750 scholarships that senators may apply for once a semester. Next senate meeting I will be proposing newer language for the policies and procedures reflecting a vote from the SG scholarship committee, to allow even senators applying in the fall or spring instead of allowing those senators with those semester seats to apply. Please let me know if you have any questions. IX. Account Totals 2014-2015 Fiscal Year Special Requests Travel Requests Salary Reserves Now $324,888.00 $23,679.00 $57,978.08 After $316,701.40 $23,679.00 $57,978.08 X. Unfinished Business-none XI. New Business A) Travel Requests B) Special Requests - a) Spinnaker Media – Senator Dan Culberson: The installation of these glass doors will enhance the Spinnaker. It will really solidify them as a serious media outlet, and address safety concerns for the office members. John Simms: I am here to present a request for a door for the spinnaker office. This deals with construction. The space in particular was never really intended for an office space, it was intended to be a lobby. Our office manager sits in the lobby, and because of that we want a more professional and safe environment for the office manager. The cost is just over $7,300 dollars. Just as a point of reference, we have replaced several doors around the student union. We have used this fund for that. *Shows pictures of the current Spinnaker office and examples of doors that are already in place in the student union* o Senator Kishek: Was this idea thought of by the spinnaker? - Yes. Because of my role they came to me. It goes through a long process. o Senator Akers: It is for a means of safety concerns, have there been any safety issues? - Not to date, we just want to provide a safe working environment. o Senator Talley: How many quotes did you get before you chose this? - I can let you know. If it is below $10,000 you can get by with just getting one quote. o Director McGuire: If they find a better vendor after, they can use it. Senator Rotella: I motion to take this out of the student union construction fee. Second. Discussion. Roll call vote: Senator Talley-yes, Senator Rotellayes, Senator Kishek-yes, Senator Culberson-yes, Senator Gagliardi-yes, Senator Tunjic-yes, Senator Cepoi-yes, Senator Akers-yes. Motion passes. 8-0-0. Senator Kishek: Motion to approve the amended special request. Discussion Roll call vote: Senator Talley-yes, Senator Rotella-yes, Senator Kishek-yes, Senator Culberson-yes, Senator Gagliardi-yes, Senator Tunjic-yes, Senator Cepoi-yes, Senator Akers-yes. Motion passes. 8-0-0. C) General Reserves D) Transfers E) Budget Balance F) Finance Code a. SB-14F-2798 The Interest and Services Act (ISA) – Senator Blake Kennedy: This is the reformation of title 8 that Attorney General Harris, Treasurer Wolf and myself have worked on. - Treasurer Wolf: The idea behind title 8 guides all of the fiscal reforms that we have. The intent behind the whole start of the reforms was to put more power in the hands of the students. You will see throughout title 8 that it gives a lot of power to the business manager. We started to notice that the authority was in the staff instead of the students. We wanted it to be more in the hands of the students. There were a few small changes; the 1st change is student treasurer is being changed to student body treasurer. And B&A chair is changed to budget and allocations chair. I want to use this is a chance to show you how our fund balance works. We have a fund balance that is divided into 3 reserves; cash flow operation reserve, scholarship reserve, and general reserve. Tonight you motioned to take something out of the general reserve and this can only be done if recommended by the B&A chair and treasurer. Our cash flow operating reserve right now is at $300,000 and we would like to change that to $200,000. We have a good fund balance now, and we will be able to operate with this money. Should our fund balance go down, we can change that. With the scholarship reserve, are funded through the interest of our fund balance. This reserve is for us to have enough money to generate interest. Since we have a stable fund balance, we would like to lower the reserve from $700,000to $400,000. Our fund balance isn’t changing. We can always increase our reserve. Currently it states that the B&A chair needs to do a workshop prior to August 1st for all the directors. All of our directors have been with us for a while and really didn’t need to go to another workshop, and we decided to change the wording to 2 workshops held to the B&A chairman’s discretion. If he sees it necessary he can call for a workshop. The B&A office will help if there needs to be a workshop done. In section 815.8 it states that the accountants shall provide fiscal training. We changed this to shall provide additional training; this was recommendation from the business manager. They don’t need to be told by us to provide that training. For the annual budget process a lot of was sent to the business manager. For the annual budget process a lot of the things were sent back to the business manager, and we are changing this to be sent to the treasurer and B&A chair. There are different deadlines, the B&A chair and myself will be presenting these deadlines to the B&A committee. There was a process not set up clearly. Under budget amendments, that was changed. The budget director shall have sole authority to request for striking line item transfers, within a category of his or her index. This is just to ensure that the budget director sole authority to request the transfers. Kaitlin is the budget director of the legislative branch; she can’t request a transfer in the executive branch where someone else is the budget director. Transfers to create new budgetary line items, all transfers must be proposed by the budget director. It will go through a transfer form and then it goes through the committee. We are not requiring it to go through senate unless it dies in committee. This will allow it to come to the B&A committee. If it gets approved, the transfer happens. We are adding that the decision may be overridden by the student body treasurer. In section 831.7, the beginning of the fiscal year Knipe was hired I had to state how much was used for her search position. It stated within 30 days, we are changing this to the next scheduled meeting. When an RSO or department requests something, you can request a 5 year background of how they have used their funding. You would just table it to the next meeting. We are dealing with a lot of money. Just be conscious of this, you just have to ask for it. If something is recommended by the B&A Chair or the Treasurer, it may be funded through general reserve or the construction fund. Freezing and funds, we are striking this from title 8. Currently it states that the business manager may freeze an index not to exceed 30 business days, we are taking this out because it gives a lot of power to the staff members and taking it away from the students. If there was a deficit in a category, they need to be put on probation. We are changing that to a line item; I think that draws red flags. This as well is giving the power to the student body treasurer. For placing different departments on probation, it’s giving the student body treasurer power. o Senator Culberson: Looking at page 9, chapter 843. For the terminations of the general reserves, are those completely discretionary? - We have a chance to go over it before the committee. It is a recommendation. o Senator Rotella: Just a friendly- you missed the word “be” a couple items. o Senator Akers: How much interest is earned annually? - It is very very low right now. Probably the lowest it’ll go. The scholarship committee talked about how we can cut down funds. Its 0.8% right now. That should increase. o Director McGuire: You have three different areas; you don’t just get interest off that. If you lower the scholarship reserve, that just goes into the general reserve. You can spend that on projects. o Senator Gugliardi: In the past how much have we used in the scholarships?-We don’t use that money, we earn interest. o o XII. XIII. Announcements Next Senate September 29th 6:30 (Senate Chambers) Club Fest Volunteering September 29th, it was passed out in senate. This is next Monday and there are slots open for us to sign up. Get your hours in. On title 8, when it comes before senate I want to encourage you all to tell senate what we did tonight. Scholarships, please keep promoting those. There are no cellphones or laptops permitted during meetings. I will be sending out an email about a workshop, it will be informal and quick. You can ask any questions you need to ask. Final Roll Call by Senator Talley. - XIV. Senator Akers: Section 801.5 how much is generally is used from the cash flow reserve? - We don’t use any of that money. If we have no money, then we use this so we can operate. Senator Talley: What is the difference between centralized and de-centralized transfers? - De-centralized is the spinnaker, they are overseen by their own budget director. They just send monthly reports to us. Centralized have to fill out a form. Senator Kishek: I move to approve SB-14F-2798. Second. Discussion (this is much clearer, and the students have more of a voice/I think this clarifies a lot). Roll Call Vote: Senator Kennedy-yes, Senator Rotella-yes, Senator Kishek-yes, Senator Culberson-yes, Senator Gagliardi-yes, Senator Tunjicyes, Senator Cepoi-yes, Senator Akers-yes. Motion passes. 8-0-0. Quorum is reestablished with 8 voting members Adjournment - Meeting is adjourned at 7:17 Minutes prepared by: Leah Tolisano, Senate Secretary.