Budget and Allocations Committee Meeting Minutes
September 22, 2014
Senate Chambers 6:30 PM
Chairman: Sen. Blake Kennedy
I.
Call To Order
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Meeting is called to order at 6:30PM
II.
Pledge of Allegiance (Senator Kishek)
III.
Roll Call by Vice Chair Talley.
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IV.
Quorum is established with 8 voting members
Approval of the minutes
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V.
Senator Gagliardi. Motion to approve the minutes from last week’s meeting. Second. All in
favor. Motion passes.
Approval of Agenda
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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
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VIII.
09/22/2014
Chairman Report and Remarks
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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XII.
XIII.
Announcements
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Next Senate September 29th 6:30 (Senate Chambers)
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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.
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On title 8, when it comes before senate I want to encourage you all to tell senate what
we did tonight.
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Scholarships, please keep promoting those.
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There are no cellphones or laptops permitted during meetings.
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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.
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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
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Meeting is adjourned at 7:17
Minutes prepared by: Leah Tolisano, Senate Secretary.