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May 12, 2021 Governing Board...
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Good evening. I'd like to call to order
the Wednesday, May 12, 2021 regular Governing Board of the Pima
Community College District.
This is a virtual meeting hybrid. Following the guidance of
public health officials, the college has closed its facilities to the
public to allow only restricted access to essential personnel to
promote social distancing and limit the spread of the Coronavirus.
Accordingly, the board will conduct this meeting through remote
technologies and limited in person. Members of the public interested
in the following proceedings may do so at the PCCTV YouTube homepage.
First thing I'd like to do is the roll call. Mr. Silvyn, could
you read the roll?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Catherine Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Present.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Luis Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Here.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Maria Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Present.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Meredith Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Present.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Demion Clinco?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Present.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: All board members are present.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Mr. Silvyn.
Next we have our public comment and call to the audience.
The Pima Community College Governing Board welcomes public
comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the college. Generally
the total time for public comment will be limited to 45 minutes, and
comments will be limited to 3 minutes per individual. These time
limits may be modified by the board or board chair.
Individuals sharing comments are expected to communicate with
decorum and respect. Individuals who engage in disorderly conduct or
use divisive or insulting language may have their time reduced or
concluded by the board chair.
At the conclusion of public comment, individual board members may
respond to criticism made by those who addressed the board, may ask
staff to review a matter, or ask that a matter be put on a future
agenda. Members of the board, however, may not discuss or take legal
action on matters raised during the public comment unless matters are
properly noticed for discussion and legal action.
Finally, be advised that internal college processes are available
to students and employees for communication.
It looks like we have four, five individuals who are interested
in addressing the board this evening. We will begin with Vivian
Knight.
>> Good evening, everyone. I'm the business department head,
Vivian Knight, and I oversee the business program for online and
campuses. Today I'm joining this meeting because I wanted to support
our business students who won the Case Competition that host by Eller
College, the Case Competition, it's open to all the Arizona community
college.
So I'd like to introduce, we have two students who will be
presenting tonight to share their experience about the Case
Competition. The first one I'd like to introduce, Angel S, and I
won't be able to see if she's online right now.
Angel, are you there?
>> Yes, I am, Vivian.
>> Thank you. Go ahead.
>> I just wanted to say thank you so much for the opportunity.
It was wonderful that we won (smiling) but it was a great
opportunity. It really resonated with me that I am so happy that I'm
a returning student and that I did this at this point in my life, and
at this time in all of our lives with the Coronavirus and everything
just is, you know, turned upside down.
It has been such a supportive and rewarding experience for me. I
just wanted to thank you, really, from the bottom of my heart. I
appreciate the opportunity and I appreciate Pima Community College
and instructors like Vivian and Randall and Renae. It's been an
amazing experience.
So thank you so much.
>> Thank you so much for sharing with us. And we also have
another student will join us tonight. Her name is Danielle.
Are you there?
>> Hi. Yes, I am here. I just wanted to channel what I wanted
to say similar to what Angel explained, just how grateful I am for
the opportunity to be able to work alongside fellow Pima students as
well as being able to work along with the Eller College.
I just wanted to say how great it was that Pima gave me these
opportunities, from the various professors I have had so far in my
experience at Pima, it has just been a wonderful experience. I look
forward to the future, because I know I will have the skills and
everything prepared for when I go off to graduate.
So thank you so much for the opportunity.
>> Thank you for sharing with us. You both are doing a great
job. This is just demonstrate your leadership and that the Case
Competition wasn't an easy competition. It's very competitive.
All of you just demonstrated your knowledge in the business area
and be able to come up with a solution for real business case within
two hours of the preparation. So that was amazing.
We are really, really happy to have our students be able to
participate with Eller College Case Competition.
I'd also like to have our business class advisor, Jane Hall, and
the next one will be Suzi Haertzen. She's the winning team faculty
advisor, leading the team.
I would like to have them just briefly talk about this experience
as well. So, Jane, would you please share a few words with us.
Jane, can you hear us? I know Jane is online, but she might have
some technical issue.
Suzi, will you be able to speak? Can you try?
>> Hi. I'm Suzi Haertzen. I was fortunate enough to lead the
team that won the Case Competition. But honestly, all of the credit
goes to the students that were on my team.
I just happened to get lucky enough to get assigned as their
sponsor. They don't allow you to stay in the room. It was all
virtual this year. They don't allow you to stay in the room while
the students are working on their presentation, even though I wanted
to. I really wanted to kind of just watch and see the process.
But I came back from our advisor meeting, and then they pretty
much had it all well in hand, and I was just really, really impressed
with the caliber of students that we have here at Pima Community
College.
Well done, students, Danielle and Angel and the two that were not
here tonight. Good job.
>> Thank you so much, Suzi.
I wanted to circle back to Jane Hall to see if she would be able
to join us and share with a few words. Jane, will you be able to
speak?
>> Yes. Thank you so much, Vivian. I wanted to say thank you to
the board and to the college.
Again, I helped coordinate our teams for this year to send to the
ACCE Case Competition. This is our second year in a row winning. We
sent five teams, diverse teams, made up of different majors in our
accounting and business program. Just so proud of all of our
students and our winning team.
Thank you so much to Vivian Knight as our department head. We
have just gotten such great support in competing in this competition.
It's such a pleasure to be here tonight to celebrate the students'
success.
It really is a team effort. It's our faculty, it's our
department head, it's our dean, Jim Craig, as well, and just
appreciate the college's support. Just so proud of our students here
tonight. Thank you.
>> Thank you. I wanted to appreciate that the chancellor invited
us to come here and speak about the Case Competition's experience,
coming from the students' perspective and faculty and the department
as well as the division.
Really appreciate this opportunity to allow us to take this much
important time for you and busy agenda doing the board meeting to
allow us to share this experience with all of you.
Thank you very much.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much. Again, we really
appreciate you taking the time to come and share with us the
outstanding success of our team for the 2021 Arizona Community
College Excellence Case Competition. Congratulations to the students
who participated and thank you to the faculty who led the team.
We're really appreciative, really appreciate your commitment to
excellence and the work that you do.
>> BILL WARD: Chair Clinco, I hate to cut in, but I want to let
everyone know I'm getting texts and e-mails from people that there is
no audio, that I guess the public or whatever are not able to
-- sorry to butt in, but...
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: PCCTV is working on it.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: We are going to take a short recess until
we can get this sorted out. We will recess until the sounds of the
gavel.
(Brief Recess.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Okay. So we're going to call the meeting
back to order. We hope that the technical difficulties will be
resolved.
The next item on our agenda is 4.1, the Governing Board
recognition and awards. We have 20 minutes set aside for this item.
Is it Dolores Duran-Cerda, our provost, who will be presenting
this item?
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Yes, I will be presenting. Thank
you.
Good evening, everyone. Chairperson Clinco, Chancellor Lambert,
members of the board, colleagues and guests. It's my honor tonight
to acknowledge students, community members, and also employees who
have received an honor or some kind of recognition and award, for
example, or have contributed greatly to the college in some way.
So it is my honor to read the names, and we first will start with
the category of students. The first student is Ms. Vanessa
Valenzuela who was inducted into the National Adult Education Honors
Society. And actually, the next few that I will be listing as names
also have been inducted into the National Adult Education Honors
Society.
Next we have Ms. Norma Alicia Velasco, Mr. Cornell Elem,
Mr. Samer Altoqa, Ms. Amina Muktar, Ms. Frohar Akbary,
Mr. Jean-Claude Niyongabo, Ms. Anfal Hussein Hasan, Ms. Antonia
Molina Grijalva, Ms. Mariana Canetas-Yerbes.
Congratulations to all of these students who were inducted into
the National Adult Education Honors Society.
Our next category is community members. Mr. Daniel Davidson.
Long-time volunteer with Adult Basic Education for College and Career
as a math tutor and math classroom aide. He was nominated for the
Arizona Association for Lifelong Learning for the volunteer year of
the year award last year and received it. So we congratulate him
too.
Also, as a community member, we have Ms. Allison Hughes who
donated archival materials from the time of her employment at the
college to the college library. She actually has joined us here and
so we are very grateful for her contribution, her service to the
college.
Our final category is our employees. We have four employees that
I will list their names and also the reason of their being recognized
tonight. First we will start with Mr. David Arellano, nominated and
selected as a winner of the 40 Under 40 awards presented by the
Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
We also have Ms. Carmen Salvo. Completed her Doctorate of
Education in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University.
Her dissertation title is An Examination of Attributes for Success to
Explain Failures in Community College Elementary Algebra, and this
was completed during the pandemic. Wow, that's impressive.
We also have Ms. Stephanie Dennison, recognized by the Arizona
Association of Lifelong Learning as the 2020 AALL Rookie of the Year.
Wonderful.
Then our final recognition is to Ms. Consuelo Carrillo, named
outstanding teacher of the year by the Coalition for Adult Basic
Education, COABE.
That completes the list of our students and community members and
also employees who are going to be recognized tonight. We
congratulate all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's been
a tough year, but look at what you have done to strive and to thrive.
Thank you very much. With that, I will pass it back to you,
Chairperson Clinco.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Provost Duran-Cerda.
Congratulations to all of the individuals who received a
recognition tonight. This board is incredibly proud of the work that
you are doing. It enhances the richness of this institution and
makes this district a better place to be part of. So thank you very
much and congratulations.
Next I'd like to just take a moment to recognize our outgoing
student board representative, Sage Fukae McCollough. Sage, we wish
you were here with us. It's been a very complex and strange year.
Throughout it all you have been attending our meetings and keeping us
apprised of the issues facing students and the activities and
important things going on across the college.
We really appreciate your time and your commitment to this board.
It really enhances our understanding and connection to the student
body, particularly in this very difficult time.
We have an award to recognize you. We will be mailing this to
you after the meeting this evening. So congratulations and thank
you.
Next we have item 1.5, remarks for the Governing Board. We have
25 minutes set aside for this, five minutes each.
I will just report that I had the pleasure of attending the All
College meeting, and it was again very inspiring to hear the breadth
of vision and direction from all of the presenters.
It was great to see so many people participate through the online
forum. The comments on the side, it really provides an important
voice and sort of clarity to the board and just sort of the
temperature of how things are going.
Thank you very much, and thank you, Chancellor Lambert, for your
continued leadership in charting a path.
Dr. Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: I have no comments today. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: I just want to thank the people,
congratulate the people that got the awards. You make Pima better
and our community. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Mr. Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: I just want to echo what yourself and
Maria mentioned, Ms. Garcia mentioned. The acknowledgement not only
of the students but the faculty. I think it's great. It's
outstanding. In this challenging time, I think it's good, very good.
I just want to say just a few words in reference to our audience
but also to the community as a whole, just to be safe out there. It
is a challenging time, but I know we will pass through it and I think
it's just a matter of time. We will be back to norm, and we predict
we will be able to open up our classrooms, and that's coming around
the corner very soon. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Hi. Thank you. I also would like to
congratulate all the awardees and also Vivian's team for the
extraordinary work that they did. Congratulations.
Again, I'd like to tell the listening audience that we are here,
there is a lot going on behind the scenes, and it's amazing and
extraordinary what the staff and the admin and the faculty have been
doing during this last tumultuous year.
I congratulate and I applaud everybody involved. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much.
Next we have item 2, our reports, administrative reports. The
first is the AERC update with Ted Roush, campus vice president, and
Dr. Aubrey Conover, campus vice president.
We have five minutes set aside for this item.
>> AUBREY CONOVER: Good evening, everyone. Chairperson Clinco,
members of the board, Chancellor Lambert, colleagues and guests.
Unfortunately Ted has retired, but we do need to acknowledge his many
years of service, and we do appreciate that.
I'll be presenting this evening with my co-chair, Makyla Hays,
one of our math faculty. Tonight we will give you a brief overview
of some of the work that's been done in the AERC and a really brief
history for some of our newer board members.
With that, I'm going to quickly share my screen here. For our
newer members, we just want to let people know that the new AERC, the
employee representative council, came out of the previous Meet and
Confer process. That was a process that we had had for many years
that met once a year as a collaboration between employee
representative groups and the college administrators.
We really were looking for more ongoing dialogue that we could
address issues and concerns as well as an opportunity really just to
make policy work better for everyone at the college, and thus the
AERC was formed.
The AERC represents all employee classifications, so we have
members from our full-time/adjunct faculty, exempt, nonexempt,
temporary, administrators. Really gives us a chance to bring
everyone together to the table.
One of the changes that we had recently that I know some of you
are aware of is that to get in line with state law changes, we wanted
to make sure that we were recognizing the role of employee
representative groups but also make sure that we are following the
new law that had been put forward.
We currently have one seat reserved in each one of the employee
classifications so that we ensure that ongoing dialogue between the
employee representative groups and the college. That does not mean
that the other positions within the different classifications might
not be from the employee representative groups, but it just ensures
that we maintain that connection.
Our role within the college. We are really focused on looking at
board policy, employee policy, and finding out what is going well and
what we need to work on. These policies range dramatically,
everything from discipline to supervision, to holidays and anything
else you can think of.
We also serve an important function, because sometimes employees
believe something is policy-related and they want a change in policy,
so we can act as a liaison and get them connected to the appropriate
person so that they have the opportunity to address their concerns
that might not be policy-based.
With that, I will turn it over to Makyla to talk about what we
have been working on.
>> MAKYLA HAYS: So as Aubrey mentioned, I am not Ted (laughter).
I am co-chair of the AERC starting this past January. What we have
done over the last...
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: I'm sorry to interrupt. Could you just
introduce yourself?
>> MAKYLA HAYS: Sorry. Makyla Hays, I'm math faculty. I teach
at Northwest Campus and online and virtually right now.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much.
>> MAKYLA HAYS: And I'm also PCCEA vice president.
The past couple of years, we have undertaken a rewrite of the
employee handbook. We had the common policy, a faculty policy,
exempt staff, nonexempt staff, and adjunct policy books. They were
all separate and they were all negotiated separately.
What the AERC started as our task when AERC started was to take
all of those policies and create one employee policy. That has been
completed and is now on the college website under AERC.
Our goals were to eliminate redundancies and contradictions and
give a little bit more equity between the group. There was also an
interest from administration to separate processes from policies, and
so that has been done as much as possible, but there is also still an
interest from all the employees as well as administration to make
sure that we have policies that are specific enough to guarantee or
give as much as you can of a guarantee of equity across this large
district.
One of the things we have worked on is since posting all of these
handbook policies and going through the large process is we have been
made aware by HR of some policies that needed some updating to
reflect current practices or that they weren't working as written, so
we have gone through the process with several policies with HR over
supervisor expectations, discipline procedures, and some Title IX
updates where language needed to be updated to reflect law. Then
that's worked really well.
Future projects, we are working on looking at a faculty leave
adjustment to allow for leave payout similar to what all other
full-time employees at the college get. We are working with ESC and
putting language together that will work and that is going to the
ELT.
There is a group working on language for remote work for
employees. We have been doing so much remote work with COVID that if
that's going to continue in any way, there really needs to be some
policy to say who gets to do that, how much, and put some parameters
on that so that there is equity.
We will be looking at the class and comp study, and bringing that
in to, reviewing it, putting language to that for policy, especially
if there is anything related -- well, there will be things related to
salary changes and so on. So we will be the group to kind of take
the idea and put it into policy.
There is also policies that are in transition. What I mean by
that is when we looked at all of the handbooks and created this one
single handbook for everybody, there are some policies that were
considered more process that used to be housed in policy and then now
are not.
So we are keeping an eye on those things and figuring out where
they go and how employees can still maintain that voice within them.
Some of them, they are kind of housed under the departments that
apply them. So the provost's office, ESC, HR, things like that.
And the class and comp review, we are going to be involved in the
classification and compensation review in terms of putting things
into language. One thing that we want to make sure that we recognize
is that that's not our annual compensation discussion that the board
policy calls for. So it is definitely a compensation discussion and
we are happy to be involved in that, but that is separate from an
annual compensation discussion.
Last, opportunities for growth. AERC is still fairly new, and
there is a lot of opportunity to educate and outreach what we do to
the college community as a whole. We had scheduled or we were trying
to schedule some campus tours to talk about the changes that we made
to the policy and then COVID hit. Now we will still want to do that
when we return back to campuses and talk to people about what the
process is and where these policies are found and how to get help if
you need it.
We would like to improve the ease of website submissions so that
people can bring forward any problems they are seeing with policy.
We would like to make sure that all of the stakeholders, both users
and those that apply, know the role of AERC and that we are used to
address policy updates or concerns.
This just ensures that we have one group at the college who's
familiar with policy and able to change all of the little pieces that
need to change when something is changed. So the AERC is that place,
and we need to just make sure that our process is well-known by
everyone who uses it at the college and that we have a common path
through a policy change.
>> AUBREY CONOVER: I think that is our last slide, and so Makyla
and I are here to help answer any questions that the board may have.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Does the board have any questions?
Can you just tell us how it's going? Like, I mean, is the
process working? I think that's one of the reasons we put this on
the agenda. We had hoped for sort of six-month updates and then
because of COVID we haven't had an update in a while.
But is the process effectively working?
>> AUBREY CONOVER: Yeah, so maybe I can take that from
administrative and have Makyla speak from faculty.
Yeah, I mean, really our goal with the changes for AERC was to
have that ongoing dialogue, and I really do think that by doing so we
have been able to address a lot of things collaboratively.
Even when we disagree maybe, I really feel, at least I hope it's
true from everyone who is involved, that everyone at least has a
chance to voice their concerns and their ideas. The vast majority
were able to move forward together.
I think it's been a real positive change from my perspective.
Makyla?
>> MAKYLA HAYS: I would say we really only worked with the AERC
process for the last six months to a year, even though we have been a
group longer. The first year to two years was really that big, large
overhaul of everything, and so, you know, separating that out from
what we have been doing as AERC I think this last year we have really
kind of hit a good groove on how we are working.
We had an election process that we ran through. We have new
representatives that just started in January. We now have a system
for how we can create resolution teams and update the group.
We have managed to pass several votes on changing policy. So I
think there is positives to it. Is there room for improvement? Of
course. But I think right now it is going in a positive direction.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Okay. Any other questions? Okay.
>> MAKYLA HAYS: I don't know if it's my place or not, but
someone asked if there was public comment still, and I just thought
before I was done I would throw that out there.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: We are looking at the schedule. We had a
deadline, a cutoff. We have gotten the notice that there was
somebody else, and we are going to try to squeeze it in depending if
these reports wrap up on time. So that is the intent because we have
a very hefty schedule.
Thank you very much. I'd say let's put this on an annual review
now. Does that work with the pleasure of the board that we would
just get an update on the AERC annually as opposed to every six
months? Does that work for everybody? You want to do six months?
Okay. Six months?
Why don't we have you guys back in six months, get you on the
calendar to give another updated report. Okay. Thank you very much.
Next we have our campus police update with Buddy Janes, chief of
police. Mr. Janes, you have 10 minutes for your item.
>> CHIEF BUDDY JANES: Good evening, honorable board members and
Chancellor Lambert. I'm Buddy Janes, your chief of police. I'm here
to give you an update on college police matters.
A PowerPoint is being shared but I wanted to introduce a couple
of members from my team that are here tonight, to include Commander
Michelle Nieuwenhuis, who will celebrate 27 years with the college in
a month or so; Commander Ricardo Gutierrez; and Lieutenant Jonathan
Haywood.
Some of the updates that I'd like to share with you is the
completion of the LEMAP. The LEMAP was the Loaned Executive
Management Assistance Program. In 2017 the college partnered with
the LEMAP consultation group in a guided pathway to accreditation.
They identified 120 issues that needed to be resolved for us to be
eligible for accreditation, and I'm happy to tell you we have
completed all of those issues and we have submitted an application
for accreditation.
We have instituted a liaison program, which is a community
policing model where we have a specific officer assigned to each
campus embedded with that team, where they go to all of the meetings
and activities that are associated with that campus and work hand in
hand with all of the people that are on campus for each specific
campus.
We have been involved with lots of meetings and presentations to
include student government, Faculty Senate, Student Senate, and we
make ourselves available for all of those groups all the time to
answer questions or be available to present.
Some of the other things we have been involved with, an
after-action review. We reorganized our police department based on
the LEMAP reorganization for a recommendation for reorganization in a
little bit more of an efficient manner where things aren't
stovepiped. Things move a lot quickly above us in our chain.
We have been involved with COVID-19 testing and vaccination. I
think we all have seen the many different activities in regards to
that around all the campuses in Pima Community College.
And we had some updates with our PCC Alert and hyper spike
system. The hyper spike system is the mass notification system that
has a loud speaker on every campus that gives directions in case of
an emergency, so we have been heavily involved with some of that as
well.
I think we might have missed one. Some of the other things we
have been involved with is community engagement. You may have seen a
Special Olympics video that college police was involved with, Toys
for Tots. Our police command staff engaged in diversity, equity, and
inclusion programs offered by the college. We have been heavily
involved in the last year specifically with access and
assets-tracking control during the COVID-19 response and recovery.
As you can see, we have enjoyed many successes. I'm happy to be
here to report those to you tonight. But I'd be remiss to not give
credit of those successes to Vice Chancellor Bill Ward for his
outstanding leadership and support of the college police team with
all of these different things we have been having our hands involved
with, especially COVID-19 being the challenge that we have all been
facing the last year.
Thank you very much. That's our presentation. If you have
questions for any of our team, we're all here to answer any of those.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Chief Janes. Any
questions? Yes?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you, Chief Janes, for that
presentation and just to really quick, yeah, I want to applaud what
you have been doing especially with the vaccination process. It's a
real community effort. Thank you for that.
Also, quickly, maybe in 30 seconds, how is the robot doing?
>> CHIEF BUDDY JANES: The robot is doing very good. It's very
popular. A lot of selfies are being taken with the robot. The
company that we partnered with called Knightscope has the robot in a
lot of different apartment complexes in Phoenix after we got the
robot, so it's doing great.
Dr. Dor� has set up a little bit of a Town Hall for the Downtown
Campus, sometime in the future where we will be available to answer
more questions and talk about the robot. The robot is doing well and
so far has been a fan favorite with a lot of the students and faculty
on campus.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any other questions for the chief?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: So what does the robot do?
>> CHIEF BUDDY JANES: It's a mobile camera, for lack of a better
term. We have hundreds of cameras on all of our campuses, and the
robot is a mobile camera and also has an emergency button that could
be activated for direct access to police dispatch.
That's, in a nutshell, what the robot does. Downtown Campus.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: So somebody's monitoring the camera on the
robot?
>> CHIEF BUDDY JANES: Somebody can be. There is not someone
sitting at any of our cameras, but we have access to get into a
software program that we could get into, but there is not someone
specifically sitting at that camera or sitting at that software
watching what the robot sees, but we can log into that system and see
that just like we can with any other camera across any of our
campuses.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Thank you.
>> CHIEF BUDDY JANES: You're welcome.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Chief. We really
appreciate all the work you're doing to keep us safe especially in
these unusual times to make sure our campuses are secure. We
appreciate it.
>> CHIEF BUDDY JANES: We appreciate the support. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Next is curriculum quality improvement,
CQI, with Dr. Lamata Mitchell, vice president of academic affairs and
student learning, and Wendy Weeks, our director of academic and
quality improvement.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Chairperson Clinco, I'll go ahead
and get started. Thank you so much, and it's my pleasure to
introduce the team of curriculum quality improvement.
We have consolidated two offices, the curriculum office and AQI,
academic quality improvement. It's now under the supervision of our
vice provost, Dr. Lamata Mitchell, so I will now pass it on to her
who will introduce the team and a presentation.
>> DR. LAMATA MITCHELL: Thank you, Madame Provost. Good
evening, Chairperson Clinco, members of the board, and Chancellor
Lambert and members of the audience.
We have three members of the team with us this afternoon. We'd
like to share with you some of the updates that we have been able to
accomplish. That is Jason Brown, Stacy Naughton, and Steven Abel.
Unfortunately Wendy Weeks, Vanessa Romero and Jennifer Torres are
unable to be with us tonight, so I'm going to turn it over to the
team.
>> Thank you, Lamata. I'm going to go ahead and share our
presentation here.
The theme for our presentation is look what's happened in two
short months. This is involving specifically the catalog. We have
made very substantial changes to the way that we do business in terms
of the catalog. We'd like to present a sampling of the upgrades that
we have made to the catalog in the last two months.
We started out with the foundation of gathering analytics data
about the catalog to drive our enhancements. Within a few weeks of
gathering the data, we realized that greater than 1 in 5 of our
visitors were accessing the catalog through a mobile device. As a
result of that data, we prioritized optimization of the catalog for
phones and tablets.
So now, if you go to the catalog on your phone, you'll be able to
view it easily. The whole thing fits right in your pocket.
Next, we noticed that some of the pages were being more visited
than others. Further, we were able to track students to see what
they were searching for. So using that, we put large buttons at the
top of the catalog pages for everyone to easily navigate to exactly
what they are looking for most often. So that includes things like
the catalog search, the programs at Pima, and the course
descriptions.
Lastly, since implementing the changes to the catalog, we have
seen strong growth in the number of visitors to our catalog. In
fact, this week we are up nearly 20%.
With that, I'll go ahead and pass this on to Stacy Naughton who
can speak to the reach of our new catalog.
>> All right. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Stacy Naughton from
the CQI team. So where in the world is Pima's catalog?
As Steven mentioned, we're using Google Analytics to better
enhance how the information in the catalog is displayed. One way we
have done this is by adding a Google translate feature that allows
users to access the catalog in over 100 languages.
As displayed on the graph, through analytics, we can see the
catalog is being used all over the world. We have also used the data
to create shortcuts to the most frequently used pages in the catalog.
Those are now prominently displayed on the homepage so students,
staff, faculty, and the community can quickly find the information
they are looking for. Even better, and one of my favorite new
features of the catalog, is that with a click of a button our
students can now contact advisors and faculty based on the program of
study they are interested in.
With that, I will turn it over to Jason Brown who will take you
through some of the other incredible new features of the catalog
>> Thanks, Stacy. What you can see here is a basic department
page. Each department in the college has a page of information, and
I'm showing you this one because it's a legacy page. This isn't what
our pages are going to look like.
This is an enhanced department page. As you can see, it's too
big to fit on one page, but it includes items like the department
head and contact information, a direct link to that department head's
e-mail. The same for advisors, showing the student which advisor
they need to contact if they are interested in accounting programs.
Lists all the full-time faculty that teach in that, and lists all
the programs, direct link to that program in the catalog.
The stuff that you can't see below that is there is highlights of
the program. There is quotes from students. Many of the pages are
giving us pictures to put on, and so we have a departmental picture.
Archeology is a great example of that where they have a whole
bunch of pictures of students doing field activities.
So we wanted you to know that the enhancements to the catalog are
not just on the surface and not just in the user interface at the
beginning, but deep in the catalog we are adding more and more
information.
I think with that, we could field any questions you may have.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any questions from the board? Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Once somebody clicks onto your program for
information, how soon does somebody respond to somebody's request?
Is it online automatically? Do you have a time frame?
>> DR. LAMATA MITCHELL: That would go straight to whomever they
have clicked with, whether it is the chair of the department or the
dean or the program advisor. We would like to have a response to the
student within 48 hours. Some have done 24 hours' response.
That part of the response is out of our control, but we know that
students have been so far pleased with the fast response they have
received when they clicked on an e-mail that takes them directly to a
person and a name that they can follow up with.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Dr. Hay? Did you have a question? No?
Any other questions?
Okay. Thank you very much. Great work. It's great to see a lot
of these projects coming to fruition. Okay.
>> DR. LAMATA MITCHELL: Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you. Next we have our update on
board member statements asserting evidence about the comprehensive
integrated energy management program RFP.
Mr. Silvyn, our general counsel. You have five minutes.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you, Mr. Chair. So let me just set
the context for this.
So there was an April 19 study session, and one of the items on
the study session was an update on the comprehensive integrated
energy management program. That's a program where or a project
rather where the specific details are still under development. The
point of it would be to do a significant update to college equipment
and systems that manage our buildings like heating and cooling,
lighting systems, to achieve significant reductions in energy and the
related utility costs and also to create updated curriculum and a
living lab environment where students who are taking certain
construction and building trades and building management programs
would have access to college-wide information and experience.
The reason for this update is at that study session, two board
members made representations that they had received evidence
indicating that a representative of the vendor who received the
contract had written the RFP, which if true would represent a
significant problem. So I followed up on that, and the point of this
is to report back to the board about that.
So the specific information was requested. It hasn't been
disclosed. Normally if you need to figure out what happened based
on, well, witness one said one thing, and witness two said another,
that can be difficult. In this case though we have the actual RFP
document which we can look at to see whether or not there might
actually be evidence to support that allegation.
So what I wanted to do is just highlight some specific elements
of the RFP. What's projected on the screen here is -- I'm not going
to go through the RFP, it's way too long, but what's on the screen is
the scope of work that the potential vendors for the project were
asked to address. Those are assessing current systems and equipment,
establishing and tracking sustainability, related information,
identifying and providing funding sources, implementing smart
technology and data analytics, designing and implementing living labs
and promoting program awareness.
That's the scope of work, the description they were asked to
respond to.
In the responses they were asked to provide the information that
you see up on the screen, a description of their firm and who would
be involved in the project, detailed evidence of their experience and
similar projects, detailed evidence of their ability to develop a
sustainable program, detailed evidence of experience implementing
data analytics and business intelligence platforms, detailed evidence
of experience partnering with academic organizations.
What you see now is these are the selection criteria upon which
the proposals were evaluated. Their market sector experience,
project management and coordination approach, experience integrating
systems into training programs and marketing, evaluation of the
project personnel, how they planned to staff the project, their cost
proposal and their references.
The point of this is if you look at all this information, there
is nothing in there that's particular to any vendor or would give one
vendor an advantage over another one. In other words, the scope of
the project, the information requested, and the selection criteria
are all quite general and very common in the solicitations that we
use and that other institutions use for comparable solicitations.
And we also know that none of the companies that bid on this proposal
expressed any concerns about the RFP language, that it was in any way
favoring one vendor over another.
The firms that bid on this project were all large companies.
They have done public bidding before and have bid on and have been
awarded contracts with other public entities, so presumably should be
aware that if they had a concern they could have raised it but they
didn't.
The point of all this is whatever information might have been
provided to board members, there is not evidence from the RFP itself
that suggests in any way that any vendor influenced what the language
in the RFP was in any way that might have favored one vendor over
another.
One concern I know that has been raised periodically when people
have said they have information but they are concerned about coming
forward, and that is there is a written college policy that prohibits
retaliation, that recognizes whistle blowing as a protected activity.
This is an excerpt from the employee handbook that makes engaging in
retaliation prohibited and warns employees that engaging in
retaliatory actions can result in discipline up to and including
termination.
So I just want everyone to be comfortable that the college does
in fact have a written policy that protects whistle blowing.
Finally, I wanted to put out there, if someone does have
evidence, whether in this particular instance or in any case where
they have a concern about improper actions happening, a violation of
state law, violation of policy, any concern like that, there is
multiple ways that those concerns can be expressed or evidence
shared. So I put my contact information up there.
There is also the Office of Dispute Resolution, has an e-mail
address and phone number that they answer. Then finally, if someone
is really uncomfortable, we have a third-party vendor that provides
an anonymous reporting service. The phone number is listed on the
slide as is the link to the website.
The way that works is someone can make a complaint or report a
problem either using that phone number or the website. That will
generate a report to the college. It does not disclose who they are.
It does not disclose their phone number, their address, we do not
have any way to know who they are.
So if someone is really concerned, there is a truly anonymous way
for individuals to provide information. We can actually communicate
with them through this website. We can message them through the
website so we can communicate with them, still protecting their
anonymity, we don't know who it is, so we can collect evidence and do
follow-up.
I just want to put that out there in case there is, like I said
in this case or any other case, we have multiple ways for individuals
to report information including anonymously, so hopefully that can at
least resolve this particular question.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Are there any questions or comments from
the board? Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: I'd like to read a statement if you can
allow me?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Sure. Go ahead, Ms. Garcia.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: First of all, Jeff, I just want you to know
that I believe that the policies that are in place are great if
people follow them, including myself. But the other thing, so I'm
going to read this statement and leave out some names for various
reasons.
So there are well-established procedures involved in drafting
RFPs that deal with procurement of goods and services. You have
stated that you -- okay. Someone has stated they were solely
responsible for drafting the energy management RFP.
I have to state this. As vice chancellor for finance, it is my
opinion that you do not possess the qualifications to have played any
role in drafting the energy management RFP. Further, you failed to
involve the subject experts in our facilities department.
I have repeatedly asked for a detailed evaluation or assessment
to assure the total expenditures I am being asked to approve is the
best value for our taxpayer dollars. To date I have received none.
If the information I have -- I have received none of the information
I have requested. I should inform you that as a board member I have
the right, obligation, and fiduciary responsibility to consult with
experts in the field in question.
I would do this in order to independently verify that I am voting
for something that will maximize the benefit to our taxpayers and
eliminate the risk of loss or waste.
I am responsible to my constituents. I feel that in my best
interest of my constituents I must demand that I be provided with any
and all information that I request before I am asked to spend tax
dollars.
You must understand that the board is responsible to approve
expenditures in an open and transparent institution. I would not
have to be telling you this. Whether I am in the majority or not is
not an issue and should not play no role in fulfilling a board
member's request for information.
As for the person trusted with the preparation of budgets, I
trust I will not have to remind you again that your responsibility to
provide members with information so that we may make informed
decisions.
So based on this statement that I am making, I am saying that
there is a lot to be desired, in my opinion, it is my opinion, and we
have received information and I can't state the name but from a
vendor stating that this person actually stated that this RFP was not
written by the person questioned.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: So I understand that, but the evidence, the
best evidence, which is the RFP, does not support that allegation.
So it may be that you received information which is not correct, and
of course we are fully prepared to answer your questions. We had a
study session on this very topic, and you didn't attend, which would
have been an opportunity to ask questions.
But be that as it may, absolutely, please, provide your questions
to me or questions. We are more than happy to provide that
information so the board, all board members, can make a fully
informed decision and feel comfortable that they have the
information.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Okay, but I have already requested that
information on the assessment and I have yet to receive it.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: And I asked a follow-up question to help
clarify what you're looking for and you didn't respond to that. So
one of the problems we have here is we need to have a detailed
conversation so we can understand exactly what it is that you're
looking for so that we can provide that information.
My suggestion is we clearly need to have some follow-up
conversation, and as I think board members already know, there
certainly will be further board meetings where the subject of this
project is on the agenda, and all board members will have an
opportunity to receive additional information, ask whatever follow-up
questions they feel appropriate.
Again, the point of all of this is to make sure that you and all
board members get the information that you need so you can feel
comfortable you're making a fully informed decision. We all
understand as staff that's absolutely our responsibility to assist
you in carrying out your responsibilities.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any other comments from any board members?
Okay. I just will close with a comment, and I have said it
before and I'm sure we will continue to talk about this, the
Governing Board bylaws, Article 12, provides a detailed
responsibility for board members on how to handle complaints when
they come forward. It is spelled out. This is the guiding document
that is ratified by this board that provides the framework for how
complaints should be handled.
By not handling them in this way -- this is set up to protect the
college, to protect individual board members, to limit risk. I mean,
that's really what this is about is so that the institution isn't
sued and that individual board members aren't sued. Because in the
past, people came with complaints to board members and board members,
in at least one very well-documented case, didn't take action in an
appropriate way, and there were multiple lawsuits and people
resigned. It was a very detailed -- I mean, it ultimately ended up
the college, was part of the reason the college ended up on academic
probation from the accreditors because the board isn't following its
own policy.
By not following policy, we are also validating individuals who
work for this institution to not follow the stated employment
policies by not following this guideline.
It is undermining the ability of this institution to function
well. It's undermining the ability of this board to function well.
And it really has to stop.
I'm going to leave it at that, but this board will have to take
some sort of significant action if it continues, because it is
creating havoc in the system. Okay.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I'd like to offer, just for the
listening audience, that we are having a board retreat over the next
two days, and the public needs to know that. I think there are a lot
of things that need to be discussed amongst us at this retreat, these
topics being one of them.
I think that with the past year being secluded with COVID -- I'm
going to blame things on COVID, of course -- but I really do think we
need to come together and talk frankly with transparency about this
and several other issues as a board together, and I think in the next
two days hopefully we'll resolve some of these issues. Thanks.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Ms. Ripley.
Our next item on our agenda is our Culture of Care with Dolores
Duran-Cerda, our provost and executive vice chancellor for academic
excellence, and David Bea, executive vice chancellor for finance and
administration.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Thank you, Chairman Clinco.
Dr. Bea and I are going to be presenting on building on our
Culture of Care. I'd like to provide some context for this.
At the last board meeting, our faculty board rep, Brooke
Anderson, brought up faculty burnout issues. As Board Member Ripley
stated, this has been a tumultuous year with the pandemic, with
social and racial unrest, a lot of stress with faculty, of course,
with all the different classes they had to put on virtual and online,
make that pivot, make sure their students are engaged and retaining
students, and also our staff and administrators have gone through a
lot of stress. Some have been, for example in facilities, our police
officers, have been nonstop. They never took a break. They have
been working consistently since the beginning of COVID.
So we need to make sure that we address the Culture of Care, our
well-being, as human beings, as employees, as family members, and
also those of our students.
I think we are doing a great job addressing the issues with our
students. We have had Town Halls. They have really responded to
what their needs are. We are addressing those. We also need to look
at our employees, our internal family, and make sure that we are
taking care of each other, basically.
With that, we got together with a group, and it was Dr. Bea,
Denise Morrison from employee services, Dr. Lamata Mitchell, our vice
provost, Hilda Ladner, diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, and
Kate Schmidt, our executive director for faculty affairs and
development, and myself.
We got together and kind of brain-stormed with some ideas as to
what we can do to improve and build on our Culture of Care.
With that, I'm going to share the next slide. Dr. Bea is going
to share with you what we have done so far, and then we will go on to
the next steps.
Dr. Bea?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Good evening, Chairperson Clinco, members of
the board, Chancellor Lambert, colleagues, guests.
As Dolores I think referenced, the college prides itself on
having a holistic and caring relationship with our employees. So I
want to start today and sort of give sort of the legacy that the
foundational premise of our relationship with our employees, and then
we will talk a little bit more about what has happened more recently
and how we have responded to it.
This slide, which admittedly is very busy, and I could probably
talk about each component of this individually for half an hour or an
hour, what it basically highlights is that we have a legacy of
prioritizing compensation, which includes a total perspective of
compensation that's not only pay but it includes having a rich and
robust set of college-funded and voluntary benefits available for our
employees.
We have good leave policies in terms of sick leave, annual leave
that's available for employees to utilize, and then holiday and
recess pay.
We also have a number of support services, including a recognized
-- statewide it's a recognized program of wellness that is I think
it's been going on for I think about seven years now and gets
stronger and stronger every year, providing all kinds of
wellness-related activities for employees that range from physical
wellness, mental wellness, and then also it includes financial
wellness.
So we know that we have been through in the last ten years two
different financial crises of different types, and having that
available to employees is important also to help them navigate the
challenges of these difficult times.
I'm not going to belabor all of the benefits that the board, we
talk about those and the board has approved increases and
enhancements to a number of those benefits in recent years, including
this year, particularly with short-term disability.
On top of that, looking at how we approach our employees and the
professional development opportunities we provide, we have a robust
program of professional development opportunities. We have strong
funding available, healthy funds available for employees to get
external professional development opportunities. And then to ensure
that we keep track and monitor how things are going with our
employees, there are a number of metrics that we take a look at,
things that would indicate, in an unhealthy organization, things of
concern.
These are things that we monitor to ensure that we don't have
problems which include employee turnover, recruitment success, so
sometimes when you have failed recruitments over and over again, it
might be an indication that the compensation is off versus what the
market rates, market wages are, and then we have to adjust that and
take that into consideration. That's happened a number of times over
the years.
Then employee relations and dispute resolution. So trying to
work out the most satisfactory and best solution possible when there
are conflicts.
So let's move to the next slide. So we went into a unique
situation about a year ago that none of us have experienced in our
lives. We actually ramped up our response, trying to recognize the
challenges that employees were experiencing and trying to maintain
really good contact and connection with our employees.
So that included providing much more enhanced virtual offerings
of our wellness activities. We scheduled a mammography van so that
people could come on-site in a safe way to get that kind of care,
because we knew that a number of providers weren't easy to get access
to. So trying to provide those kinds of opportunities for folks.
We have used our Employee Assistance Program I think in a really
productive and progressive way, which is that we encourage employees
who are individually having issues to get in touch with the employee
assistance, that that is then they refer employees to get counseling,
whether, again, that could be financial or marital counseling or
could be just individual counseling. They get triage through that
program to get the kind of support they need.
So we have individual programs, but we have also been really good
as an employer that when there is a crisis that happens at the
college, something that might be particularly stress-inducing, that
we have created group sessions so that we have had our provider
Jorgensen & Brooks come on-site and have group sessions for people to
sort of debrief. That's when it was on-site. What we have been
doing in the COVID situation is having virtual group sessions for
people to talk about and be open, be able to open up about some of
the challenges they are experiencing, whether it's dealing with
trying to work while you have kids at home, things like that, all the
things that people are experiencing that have been particular
challenges.
And you see that the stats in the last year, 344 of our employees
have used the EAP services during the year, which is a pretty
significant proportion of our employees.
We have also encouraged all supervisors to do routine touch base
points, so giving contact employees -- working remotely, people can
be distant, making sure that our supervisors are actually in regular
contact with the employees and make sure that everybody is doing
okay, and if they need help, how to get the help.
And then some of the more practical things we have done is we
have actually relaxed our leave policies. People weren't able to
take leave. So a number of people were coming up against their leave
caps. So we actually extended what the caps were for a while. We
also liberalized our leave buyout program so that people didn't lose
the leave that they weren't able to use. That also financially
helped people because they were able to buy out and get a little
additional money to help if they had particular challenges.
So those are a number of the things that we did that were
specific to the situation of the last year. Then now we will go and
I'll turn this back over to Dolores and talk a little bit about the
brainstorming for how to deal with where we're at now.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Thank you. In addition to our group
that met a few times to brainstorm, we reached out to the college
internal community for inquiries about short-term ideas. For
example, Dr. Bea asked Staff Council to submit any ideas,
brainstorming ideas they had.
I asked Faculty Senate. Also at Friday's virtual All College
meeting, I asked all employees, please submit your ideas to either
Dr. Bea or myself. Over the weekend and through today even I have
been receiving some, and I'm sure Dr. Bea has too. So we are
compiling a list of all the different wonderful suggestions that are
coming our way.
The most common ones that we have seen is compensation. Another
common one is reducing class sizes. Another one is faculty load.
Just a couple more examples, physical therapy type of videos, like we
have had the yoga videos but more physical therapy, making sure
people are standing up and stretching.
Also another popular one was flexible remote work options. It
seems like for a lot of folks working remotely has worked very well
due to their personal situations or whatever the situation is. Then
they have been very productive.
Those were some of the most common suggestions that we have
received thus far. And then, as you see on the screen, we have
different options as well. So with the day of relief, I will ask Dr.
Bea to elaborate a little bit more, but this is more of an extra day
of pay.
So, Dr. Bea, if you'd like to elaborate on that point please.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Yeah, so what we are talking about with a day
of relief, it works a little bit differently depending on the type of
employee, but the idea is recognizing that we have all endured a lot
in this last year and that the college could recognize employees in
some fashion with the concept like a day of relief, and where it
would be, for staff people, it would be a day where they arrange with
their supervisor to just take a day, an extra day off.
Why it's a little bit different depending on employee types is
because by the time this semester ends, which is very soon, faculty
go off contract. So the idea with a day of relief -- and we will
talk more with the board at the study session on Friday about this,
because there is a little bit of budgetary implication with this
idea, but that we would, on a one-time basis, provide faculty with an
extra day of pay. So it is sort of recognizing that this day of
relief but they are off contract, so it would be an extra day of pay
that would happen while they are off contract or to start the
contract year. Because there is a budgetary impact, we are going to
need to talk about it in relation to the budget and the study session
on Friday.
But that's the idea of it, and -- go ahead. Sorry?
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: I don't think anybody said anything.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Oh, sorry, I heard something. I guess someone
is talking in my head. Sorry. (Smiling.)
So that's the idea with the day of relief. It's really
recognizing we have endured a lot in this last year, and just really
have a day for people to just destress and be able to get away for a
little bit.
So that's what the day of relief, that's what that's about.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: I was just reminded by Dr. David
Dor� that he met with Staff Council leadership to get some ideas, as
well. Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Dor�, and I met with the ACES group
membership about re-entry and then about ideas how to resolve stress
and burnout.
Another item that you see here is addressing individually through
divisions or units, meeting times, e-mail stress. Maybe for example
instead of interacting on e-mail at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. when you wake
up or during the weekend, schedule it for a weekday at 8:00 a.m.,
work time, so people are not seeing e-mails and then expecting they
think, okay, I need to respond on a Sunday evening or something like
that. So that's something that can be discussed within each division
and unit.
Also extended expanded use of leave. And then a final suggestion
is August Day of Wellness. So when people come back or as they are
coming back for the fall semester, we want to hold some activities
that help employees to feel re-invigorated. It's also a time when we
hopefully will be more face-to-face by that time, and just getting to
reconnect on a face-to-face way instead of virtually.
So this includes optional activities with other Pima employees,
virtual yoga, et cetera. We have a long list also of possibilities.
So this is just a taste, an update for you, since it was
requested from the last board meeting, and this is continuous
conversation dialogue. We will continue dialoguing with our
employees as to more ideas. For the employees that are hearing
tonight, if you like to continue sharing ideas with Dr. Bea and
myself, please do so through e-mail. We are compiling a list and we
will be reviewing that list and assessing it and continuing the
conversation for ideas and how to build on our Culture of Care.
Dr. Bea, do you have anything else to add? I think that pretty
much completes our presentation.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much. Are there any
questions from the board? Okay. Thank you both very much for all
your work.
Next we have our reports by representatives of the board. First
is our student report from Sage Fukae McCollough.
>> Sage: Hello. Thank you guys for having me. This will be my
final Governing Board meeting. Thank you, guys, again.
For virtual adult education, this month we are launching the
virtual financial coaching office hours and the All About Government
in Your Life, Learn How to Make Your Voice Heard series.
ABECC student engagement program is collaborating with ABECC's
leadership and PCC media team, adult education inspirational posters
and videos. These student stories will aid promoting awareness about
adult education in our community and statewide. Thanks, Pima.
For Virtual Student Life, we have the Student Senate election
results. Voting for the 2021/2022 Student Senate was held from March
31st to April 16 virtually via D2L. 259 votes were cast, an increase
of 180 votes from the previous election, and the 2021/2022 Student
Senate is Colin Bryant, Desert Vista; Miguel Bererra, Downtown; Carla
Wilson for East Campus; Sage Hawkins for East Campus; Allysa Saunders
for Northwest; Rachel Graniva for Northwest; Maximus Luevos for West
Campus; Jacqueline Wirt for West Campus; and then Andrea Salazar C
for PimaOnline; and Amatra Patel for PimaOnline.
Then there was also the annual student leadership awards. The
winners were announced May 3 through 7th, 2021, via social media and
e-mail.
They also have online Connect U via D2L. 143 students competed
in the 2020/2021 school year as of April 19, 2021. They have Career
Cafe on Thursday, May 6, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. via Zoom. For
virtual Student Senate, PASS of the 2020/2021 are wrapping up their
terms for the year. The Student Senate has assisted in committees,
virtual Town Halls, created the Discord platform to promote online
student engagement. The final project, community safety, has been
recorded and will be available for future students as a resource.
Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much. We will be sending
you your recognition in the mail. Again, thank you for all of your
service to our board over the last year.
>> Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Next is our adjunct faculty report with
Sean Mendoza. You have five minutes.
>> SEAN MENDOZA: Chair Clinco, Chancellor Lambert, members of
the board, honored guests. Earlier this year the adjunct faculty,
with support of the provost's office, began to address some of the
more pressing issues regarding our employee group. Led by Kate
Schmidt of the provost's office, the team consisting of adjunct
faculty, college administration, and staff, employed a design
thinking process approach to tackle concerns of compensation,
communication, and equity.
I'm happy to report that the group is working to finalize a
recommendation to the provost in the coming days. I look forward to
sharing these outcomes with you when we return in the fall.
Speaking of the fall, I'd like to thank college administration,
specifically Dr. Dolores Duran-Cerda and Dr. Lamata Mitchell, for the
expanding campus access questions-and-answers document shared with
full and part-time faculty. This document addressed a number of
concerns by adjunct faculty when returning to the classroom in the
fall. We appreciate the institution's efforts keeping our college
and community safe during this unprecedented time.
I hope that the college will continue to update and communicate
this document as we begin to find our new sense of normalcy. Thank
you for your efforts.
Lastly, as we begin our summer activities, please continue to
keep your thoughts on our global and local friends and family
affected by violence, unrest, and this COVID pandemic.
Thank you. This ends my report to the board.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much.
Next we have our staff report with Michael Lopez.
>> MICHAEL LOPEZ: I don't have a written report, but I do want
to say, Chancellor, Chairman Clinco, board, guests, and colleagues,
it's been quite a year and we have gone through so much. Really, I
want to commend the students for just being so strong and brave and
getting through this the way they have.
Definitely our administration and our faculty, adjunct faculty,
our staff, part-time staff, all our board members, everyone that is
involved with Pima in the decision-making, it's just been quite a
year, and I think Pima has grown and has come together in many ways.
We have some hope for a real, real promising '21/'22 academic year.
Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Mr. Lopez.
Next we have our faculty report with Brooke Anderson.
>> BROOKE ANDERSON: Good evening. Chairman Clinco, board
members, chancellor, fellow employees and guests.
Faculty Senate held its last meeting of the semester on May 7.
The Faculty Senate Systemic Justice Action Committee has continued to
work on the unteaching and unlearning summit scheduled to take place
September 7 through the 10th. This summit will be open to the entire
college students, faculty, staff, administration with the goal of
bringing together to listen, share, collaborate, heal, feel, think,
process, understand, and work to solve problems.
All Pima Community College faculty and staff are invited to
submit brief proposals for the summit using the form linked on my
report.
Instigated by the current COVID-19 situation in India, members of
the Faculty Senate Systemic Justice Committee have cosigned a letter
attached to my report authored by Dr. Josie Milliken that
acknowledges that suffering caused by the pandemic that is far from
over, and it offers some ways to act during this difficult time.
This letter was shared with Lisa Brosky and sent out on the All
Faculty LISTSERV.
Discussions about faculty burnout are continuing, as noted by the
provost and Dr. Bea this evening. Faculty appreciate the college
leadership, including this board, are concerned about burnout in our
community and want to decrease this problem and that Dolores
recognized that faculty burnout is connected to working conditions,
like compensation, class size, faculty load, and flexible in-person
and virtual work expectations.
AP 1.01.03 is being collaboratively revised. A group of faculty,
including Makyla Hays, Matej Boguszak, Dr. Tal Sutton, and Dr. Josie
Milliken, volunteered to participate. After two productive meetings
in April, meaningful revisions have been made, and the group hopes to
complete their revisions and post the AP by summer.
Information about this summer's teaching strategies workshop was
recently distributed to faculty. The event will focus on student
engagement, reflective practice, and discipline-specific equitable
inclusive practices. The event is scheduled to take place on
Saturday, August 7, from 8:30 to 12:00 virtually and at the Downtown
Campus. Those interested in presenting can complete the form that is
also linked to my report.
As for faculty notable accomplishments, like Michael just
acknowledged and so many others have, this has been a difficult year
for everyone. Yet faculty still continue to thrive and do amazing
things. Amanda McPherson, early childhood education faculty; myself,
writing faculty; Dr. Dianna Repp, anthropology faculty; and Tawanna
Wilson, math faculty, were all nomination for diversity, equity, and
inclusion awards. And Dr. Dianna Repp, anthropology faculty, is
receiving the 2021 diversity and inclusion education award. She was
nominated by Margie Youngo for prioritizing equity, diversity,
inclusion in her teaching and leadership work.
Dr. Josie Milliken, writing faculty, will be delivering a
presentation titled Rise Up, Rise Together, Bias and Microaggressions
on June 3 at the 2021 Women in Higher Education Conference.
Julia Guseva, writing faculty; Ana Jimenez, math faculty; and
Yvonne Sandoval, math faculty, have been selected to serve as
associate instructional designers for the 2021/2022 academic year.
Thanks to Dr. Josie Milliken's leadership, 12 faculty will be
2021 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy
fellows, which is a global award-winning fellowship that offers
faculty the opportunity to learn how open pedagogy,
interdisciplinary, and cross-institutional connections and community
engagement can be intertwined to transform teaching practices and
students' learning experience.
Amanda McPherson, early childhood education; Ann Browning Akin,
anthropology; Kathy T, writing; Cora Varas Nelson, biology; Courtney
Web, student success; Darian Q, political science; James Sheldon,
math; Jameson C, writing and literature; Linna F. Vondawy, paralegal
studies; Peter M, political science; Rachel Hornby, CAD; Sarah
Jansen, philosophy and religion. I apologize for anyone's name who I
just butchered there. Congratulations.
This summer these faculty will team up with faculty from other
institutional partners to learn how to develop renewable assignments
that will help students achieve global justice through open pedagogy
work using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
framework.
Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much.
Finally we have our administrative report with Jeff Thies. You
have five minutes.
>> JEFF THIES: Good evening, Chairperson Clinco, members of the
board, Chancellor Lambert, students, colleagues, guests. I'm
reporting tonight on spotlighting the Applied Technology division,
following up on some device distribution information, and then
sharing some important data at the end.
In Applied Technology, the team would like to congratulate Ken
Bice, welding department head, on his retirement. Ken, thank you for
leading a great program in such a small space. We appreciate your 17
years of service to our students.
Applied Technology was honored to host the 46th annual car show
on the 24th, thanks to the Tucson Street Rod Association for donating
over $20,000 to Pima's Applied Technology programs.
Be sure to watch the virtual ribbon cutting for the new
automotive technology and innovation center at 10:00 a.m., May 18,
PCCTV. Thanks to the local chapter of the National Association of
Women in Construction, recognizing ten construction and CAD students
with support kits as they pursue their careers.
The AIT robotics program enjoyed working with the TRiO team at
Desert Vista to offer Sunnyside High School students an introductory
robotics course.
Lastly from Applied Technology, Pima Applied Technology students
first participated in the University of Arizona's engineering design
day competition in 2019/'20. This year two CAD students helped keep
our winning streak alive, so we're two for two in winning the best
design documentation award. This is a testament to our students'
efforts, the CAD faculty and staff support, and Carmen Cuevas'
leadership. Great job.
As you all know, we provided devices last summer using CARES Act
funding. Library and ed tech have been looking into the impact of
the CARES Act device loaning program implemented last summer and has
the following preliminary findings. Fall to spring persistence rate
of students who borrowed devices such as laptops, tablets, and
hotspots is 20% higher than the persistence rate of nonborrowers.
Also, when asked the question, if you hadn't been able to borrow
the device, how would you have completed your classes this past year,
one-third of the students said they would not have been able to.
They did not have another plan or option. Kudos to the great job of
the library and ed tech staff for providing devices to students this
past year.
Last but not least, kudos to the placement coaches, mathematics
faculty, dual enrollment staff, and student affairs staff and
administrators for elevating the multiple measures process and
providing math pathways that match student programs.
By providing access to an increasingly large pool of students
that have recently graduated from high school, the efforts are making
a difference in this critical early milestone for degree completion.
For example, in one cohort, 17- to 19-year-old Latinx students'
access to and success in gateway math courses has more than doubled
since 2015/2016, helping to close the equity report.
That ends my report.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much.
Next we have the chancellor's report, but before I hand it over
to the chancellor, we did have an additional request to speak at the
call to the audience which came in late, and so this will be the last
time we entertain this but we will allow it this time. Please get
your requests in prior to the cutoff.
Matej Boguszak? Can we elevate him?
>> MATEJ BOGUSZAK: Hello, good evening.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: You have three minutes. Go ahead.
>> MATEJ BOGUSZAK: Thank you. I was under the impression I had
sent the request on time.
Good evening, Chair Clinco, board members, colleagues and guests.
It is so good to see you all in the community room. I can't wait to
be back on campus in the fall. Again, really proud to be a Pima
employee.
Tonight I wanted to provide some additional context for the
budget discussion on behalf of PCCEA. I've e-mailed you a
presentation and pasted a link in the chat so everybody can follow.
First, please know how much the employees appreciate the attempts
to finally do something tangible about our salaries, which have been
stagnant due to a seven-year suspension of steps and currently
running about 7% behind inflation, meaning we are earning less today
in real terms.
So thank you, board, for considering at least a temporary measure
now that the budget picture has improved. Thank you, Dr. Bea, for
your work and advocacy on this, not to mention your long-term
diligent financial stewardship and service to our college.
I'd be remiss not to point out some deeply troubling trends over
the last several years, though. You'll know that the expenditures on
instruction are being kept mostly flat for next year while
institutional support, which is mostly administration, is up by 8%.
That in itself would not raise too many eyebrows I think, but if we
examine this trend going back two, four, eight years, expenditures on
instruction have actually declined ever so slightly while
instructional [sic] support has shot up by 30 to 40% depending on how
you measure this.
Looking strictly at salary expenditures for full-time faculty for
a minute, they are down 24% since 2012. Understandable, right, since
we have been losing students and cutting the budget.
Yet administrator salary expenses have only been reduced by 9%,
almost three times less. Since 2014, when Step Progression was
suspended, the chancellor's salary is up almost 15%, average
administrator salary up by 7%, and full-time faculty, 1%.
Even among the administration, the benefits have accrued
exclusively to top-level administrator executive for deputy
positions. Several people got five big raises through steps and
reclassification, so 10, 30, 40, $50,000 raises for essentially the
same job.
The Chancellor created three new executive administrative
positions just this year. That's a 43% increase in --
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: You have 20 seconds left.
>> MATEJ BOGUSZAK: Yet not a single dean got a single step.
Even the chancellor acknowledged we are not paying competitive
salaries to some of our academic administrators, and our dean of
Allied Health resigned to pursue another opportunity.
There is so much more to this, but bottom line is that select
favorite individuals are prioritized for early permanent inconsistent
raises, not based on policy, and before the conclusion of the class
and comp study that everybody else has kept waiting for at a time of
great resource scarcity and low morale.
I will not get to finish this with additional time. Would you
give me a couple more minutes?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: You know, I think we really have a very
robust schedule, but we did receive your e-mail. I'm sure all of the
board members will look at it. Again, this is just the first step in
our budget discussion this evening. Hopefully we will continue to
hear communications from you.
>> MATEJ BOGUSZAK: All right. Thank you so much for listening
and for your service.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Next we have our chancellor's report.
Chancellor Lambert?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Good evening, everybody. First of all, I
want to say thank you to all of the faculty, staff, students and
administrators and the board for incredible work we have done over
really the last year plus two months. I mean, who could have
imagined that we would be in this situation that we found ourselves
in, but we demonstrated our resilience and our ability to just stay
focused on the mission and make sure that we deliver on the promise
for our students and community, so I applaud each and every one of
you for what you have done to make sure we get there for our
students.
Speaking of our students, don't forget graduation next week, May
19, 7:00 p.m. Hopefully everyone will be able to tune in to
hopefully which will be our last virtual graduation, and then the
following year we can go back to the Tucson Convention Center and
have our normal face-to-face with our families and friends and our
students.
Instead of going into certain items, I thought I'd talk a little
bit about the larger macro forces that are happening. You know, we
hear about climate, we hear about race, we hear about the health
pandemic, but here is another concept for everybody and that's called
sansdemic. What sansdemic is is there is just not enough people.
A study was just published by Emsi, that's a group that we depend
on for a lot of our data. What they are concluding is going back as
far as 1970, the low fertility rate at that time was 2.1. It has not
improved since then. In other words, in our country, we are not
replacing folks. That's going to become a serious problem for our
country.
But it doesn't stop there. Our labor force participation rate
has also been falling over that same period of time. In the United
States it is 61.7%. In the State of Arizona it's about 59.7%. In
Pima County it's 58.2%.
These trends, if they continue, will signal a serious shift in
how every facet of our lives will be shaped. We don't have to look
too far to understand the seriousness of all of this. Go to Japan
where they have been experiencing this in a much more acute way.
This is a problem that's going to affect the size of our
institution, it's going to affect our tax collections, it's going to
affect police, fire. All of those services are going to be impacted
as we go forward.
The more we can do to try to support each and every individual
out there and get them the kinds of skills they need is going to be
ever more critical. We don't have folks to waste anymore. Every
individual is talented, and we need to make sure we develop that
talent so that they will be available to live out their hopes,
dreams, aspirations and goals.
Just keep in mind that that's our role is to pay attention, first
and foremost, to these macro forces and that shape policy around that
to make sure then we are operationalizing the large pieces and then
ultimately tactically implementing them.
That's what we have been doing the last eight years. I hope that
we can continue to stay focused on where that puck is going.
I'm going to leave it at that. I know it's a long night. We
still have a number of other items, so I will just conclude with
saying thank you to Lisa Brosky. Lisa's husband got a nice job in
the Tampa Bay, Florida area, so she will be departing us. Her last
day will be the end of this month.
Thank you, Lisa are for your service to Pima and best of luck to
you and your family in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area. You'll be
missed.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you, Chancellor Lambert, and good
luck to Lisa Brosky.
Next we have our information items. Mr. Silvyn, if you could
read the information items, please.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you, Mr. Chair. The information items
that were included with the materials for this evening's board
meeting include the February 2021 financial statements, employment
information which has one new hire, several retirements and
separations. Faculty hiring, two individuals have been hired as
faculty in the aviation program. A list of individuals who have been
certified to serve as adjunct faculty at Pima Community College.
Modifications to administrative procedure 3.26.01 on course
materials. This administrative procedure was revised to address some
comments and clarify standards regarding textbook selection that
emerged during the process of developing a board policy on academic
freedom.
Next item we have is a description of a grant program at the
Desert Vista Campus for the health professions opportunity grant.
This is a grant that's been in place for a number of years. It has
recently been extended for six years with an additional $3 million of
funding.
Next we have information regarding the distribution of
Coronavirus relief funds under the act that is known commonly as
CRRSAA. Next we have a description of a grant program, another grant
program from the federal government. This is additional Coronavirus
pandemic relief funds. The board report provides a listing of how
those funds were distributed.
Finally, we have another information item which lists how funds
were used from the federal allocation to Pima Community College as a
minority-serving institution.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much.
Next is our consent agenda. Mr. Silvyn, if you could read the
consent items, please.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The consent agenda items for this evening are the minutes of the
April 14, 2021 executive session, minutes from the April 14, 2021
regular meeting. We also have minor updates to board policy 9.01,
which relates to information technology resource management.
Next we have the receipt of or rather the awarding of a
subrecipient agreement with the National Institute of Metalworking
Skills which would assist the college in delivering services under an
industry apprenticeship grant.
Next item is a recommendation for the execution of
intergovernmental agreements with the Arizona Board of Regents for
Pima College to participate in what's called the public allies
program in which individuals, through partially funded federal, where
individuals provide services that are partially funded through
federal monies.
The next item is an execution of intergovernmental agreement with
the Pima County Sheriffs Department for the provision of educational
services by the college, particularly adult basic education at the
detention, sheriff's detention facility, county's detention facility.
Next item is the recommendation for the execution of an
educational services agreement with El Rio Community Health Center
wherein the college will provide educational services to employees of
El Rio.
The next item we have is a recommendation for amendments to
several dual enrollment agreements with a variety of schools to add
additional sites and classes that include in the Amphitheater School
District the Pima JTED, Marana School District, Patagonia Union High
School District, Sunnyside Unified School District, Vail Union School
District, Presidio Charter School, and St. Augustine Catholic High
School.
Next item is approval of a renewal contract with Accruent. That
is the software services firm that provides the FAMIS software,
software that facilities uses to manage its operations and requests
for services. The agreement would extend from July 1, 2021, to June
30, 2026, at a total cost not to exceed $994,260.
Next we have recommendation for execution of a contract with
Swaim Associates for design services for a center of excellence for
pubic safety and security at the East Campus, total cost for the
agreement not to exceed $350,000.
Next we have a request for authorization to execute an agreement
with the Arizona Communication Experts to upgrade fiber optic cabling
around community college facilities. Costs for this are not to
exceed $727,652.
Next we have a request to reactivate a certificate for direct
employment in the hotel and restaurant management area.
Next we have a request to inactivate a mechanical designer CNC
programmer certificate for direct employment.
Next we have a request to inactivate a certificate for a direct
employment in fashion design.
Next we have a request for approval of the new mission
fulfillment framework statement on purpose, vision, mission, and
behaviors. Specifics of that are contained in the board report.
Next we have a request for delegation of authority to purchase
information technology equipment for HyFlex classrooms. Total
purchases not to exceed $2,947,500.
Finally we have a request for authorization to execute an
agreement or agreements to purchase network and data center equipment
to enhance the information technology infrastructure at the college,
particularly through the installation of uninterruptable power
supplies. This is funded through some of the federal pandemic relief
funds at a cost not to exceed $700,000.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Do I have a motion to approve the consent
agenda?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: I have a question. (Comments off
microphone.) Can you give me an explanation as to why that is
happening?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Why don't we pull the item, and then we
can discuss it separately and then we can vote on it separately if
that works. It's item --
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: 4.13.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: 4.13. Great. We have a motion? Did we
have a motion to adopt, approve the consent agenda?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So moved.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a second?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: This is with the withdrawal of 4.13.
All in favor -- any other discussion? All in favor of the
motion, signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed?
Hearing none, the consent agenda passes unanimously with 14.3
considered separately. So we will take 14.3.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: It's 4.13, just to clarify.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: 4.13. Let's take 4.13 separately.
First, can we have a motion to approve the recommendation of
passage of 4.13? Then we will have a discussion.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So moved.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a second?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Discussion? Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Okay, I have a question as to why that's
going to be removed. Has there been some studies done that the
enrollment isn't there, or it's not required in industry anymore?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Chancellor Lambert?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: I'm going to ask our provost to come speak
to this specifically. I just want you to be aware, we do a program
review process, and part of that program review process we look at
the different certificates, different degree programs, look at
enrollment, look at all those different patterns to determine whether
there is viability for whether it's a certificate or a degree.
So I will have Dolores speak to or she may ask for someone else
to speak to directly to this particular one.
Dolores?
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Yes. Thank you, Chancellor Lambert.
I will explain a little bit and I will also refer it to our vice
provost, Dr. Lamata Mitchell, for this particular inactivation.
As the chancellor explained, we do a robust program review where
the program itself is assessed. We work closely with the dean and
the department heads and the faculty to assess the actual certificate
or degree and looking at various items such as enrollment, such as
the labor market.
In many instances there is a refreshing or revamping of the
curriculum process. This may be one of those, and so I'm going to
pass it to Dr. Mitchell who may have more of a detailed explanation.
>> DR. LAMATA MITCHELL: The provost is correct. Based upon the
advisory committee's recommendation, the program review data that the
department looked at and the work that the faculty in that area has
done, they have decided that they would like to revamp the entire
program so that the certificate really does speak to the competencies
that our local employers say they expect the students to be able to
demonstrate on day one.
And I just saw a response from Steven, and he said he can speak
to the program review and process if needed.
But in a nutshell, that is why. Rather than tweak it, it really
needs to be completely revamped so that it aligns with what industry
says they need to see the students they hire from us be able to do.
>> DR. DOR�: Dr. Duran-Cerda, in speaking with Greg as well I
think another issue is the low numbers and trying to get it better
aligned specifically with the machine tool program. That specific
certificate doesn't align well with what we are doing in machine tool
on the pathway.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Thank you, Dr. Mitchell and Dr.
Dor�.
Steven, did you want to say something? No? Okay. We're good.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Thank you. You know, I was just concerned
because with advanced technology, you know, it's kind of -- it's one
of the items that is needed. So if it's being revamped, I
understand. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you for bringing it to our
attention. Thank you for the clarification.
Are there any other questions for the administration or staff?
All in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed? Hearing none, motion
passes unanimously.
Now on to the regular action items, 5.1, contract amendment with
the Gordley Group.
Mr. Silvyn, could you read the recommendation?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: So first let me extend my apologies to
Ms. Garcia and the other board members. I don't know what happened
to the explanation. At some point there was an explanation contained
in 4.13 board item. I don't know what happened in the posting, but
normally we do, as you saw in the other items, we do put information
about activation and inactivation. I don't know what happened.
Sorry about causing any confusion with that.
So first, I thought there was a request just to maybe do a quick
refresher on kind of how the action item process works?
Let me do a quick overview of that, and then see if you have any
questions, or maybe if I didn't cover the part you're thinking about,
then let me know and let's address that.
Normally for action items there is recommendation read, a member
of the board will make a motion to approve it, and there will be a
second. Now, that doesn't have to happen. A member of the board
could make a motion other than the recommendation. That would be
okay too. But normally what we have is a motion and a second and
that opens up the discussion.
At any point, could be right at the beginning of the discussion
process or any point during the discussion process, any board member
could make an amendment. I would like to amend the motion to add
whatever or take something away.
We follow somewhat of an informal process and so typically what
we do is when someone proposes an amendment, we often will ask the
person who made the motion, would you consider that a friendly
amendment and agree that the motion should be amended that way?
If they agree, we now have a new motion that includes that
amendment. If they don't agree, then we need someone to second the
amendment and then the board would discuss and vote on the amendment.
If the amendment passes, the motion as amended is now the motion
on the floor for discussion and vote by the board, and there could be
other amendments.
If the amendment does not get voted by a majority of the board,
then the original motion as it was made remains the motion on the
floor for further discussion and vote by the board.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: (Off microphone.)
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: A substitute motion essentially would be to
strike out the whole thing and replace it with something else. It's
a form of amendment.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any other questions?
So, Mr. Silvyn, could you read the recommendation for the
contract amendment to the Gordley Group.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: The chancellor recommends that the Governing
Board authorize the chancellor or designee to execute an amendment to
the agreement with Gordley Group for the provision of marketing and
advertising services.
The amendment will increase the contract award amount for the
remaining term of the five-year contract from July 1, 2021, through
June 30, 2023. Total cost for this two-year period are not expected
to exceed $2 million excluding any applicable tax and total contract
value for the full five-year period is not expected to exceed $4.5
million.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Do I have a motion to approve the
recommendation?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I move for approval.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a second?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Chancellor Lambert, do you want to give us
an overview?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Yeah, so we're really excited about all the
great work that's been going on at the college, but as a result of
that, it also increases expenses and the need to market those new
efforts.
I'd like Lisa to come on, this will be her last time addressing
the board, to talk in more detail about those efforts and why this
additional support would be needed to help us market them.
Lisa.
>> MS. LISA BROSKY: Certainly. Thank you very much. Chair
Clinco, members of the board, Chancellor Lambert, colleagues and
guests. It is my honor and privilege to be able to give you this
report.
I heard a quote just recently, I was reminded of this quote from
Rufus Glasper, president and CEO for League for Innovation, and he
said community colleges think we are in the community, students will
come to us. But he says if community colleges hope to bring students
back next fall, they need to come up with the funds to market
themselves to students.
Well, thank you, Governing Board, for embracing this philosophy,
because it is a large part due to your advocacy for marketing that we
are having this conversation today.
So when we entered the request for proposal process three years
ago for a local advertising agency, we based it on the annual budget
we had at the time, which was between 400,000 and $500,000.
It was shortly after that that you began to recognize the need
for additional funding for marketing. Thank you to that support, we
have been able to do a lot. So we were able to roll out our new Keep
Striving brand and really spread it across the community and make it
well known. It's been widely accepted and widely supported.
We were able to develop a very robust campaign for PimaOnline.
The numbers are just off the charts successful for that campaign.
We have been able to expand our advertising to Hispanic, African
American, and other specific audiences, and particularly we have been
able to expand our Spanish language advertising, which this year will
include not only radio but outdoor and specialty advertising. We owe
Gordley a lot of credit for this particular effort.
We have also been able to add a number of digital components to
our typical enrollment campaign such as advertising on the very
popular social media platform TikTok.
On top of your advocacy and support provided by the college, we
have had some very successful grant applications done by the college,
and I'm thinking in particular of a few workforce has had recently.
Those come with marketing dollars attached to them.
Also we have had several individual programs who have identified
marketing dollars in their operations budgets that we have been able
to use to help them increase applications and enrollments to their
program, specifically this year paralegal and law enforcement as two
examples.
We have been working with adult ed in partnership sometimes with
their funding and in partnership with marketing dollars to help boost
their programs.
What all that work has done is bumped us up against the $2.5
million spending limit of the current contract. What we are asking
for is just a little bit more capacity for the next two years, so we
are asking to expand that contract by $2 million or effectively $1
million a year for the next two years of the contract.
We don't expect necessarily spending that much with Gordley, this
year we are going to spend about $700,000 with them, but it gives us
the capacity so as grant funding comes in or additional funding comes
in that we can manage this effectively without continuously coming to
the board. Approving this tonight is going to let us continue all of
the good work that I just mentioned uninterrupted.
I just want to say a quick thing about Gordley. Gordley has
provided tremendous value to Pima Community College and our students.
They have been with us for a while, so they know the college as well
as we do. They certainly know our students. They've really honed
their act in helping us develop the right language, the right
audiences, the right tools to reach them.
That's why we have been able to expand so much of what we have
done. They also do some really wonderful value, finding value for
us. They do their own RFP process for the advertising tools they use
so we were getting the most we can for our advertising dollar.
They have also been really successful in bringing us unique
opportunities. For example, this year we are going to be marketing
with the Sugar Skulls, which we were going to do it last year, and of
course there was the pandemic, but we get to do it this year.
This is a really important demographic. We share a demographic
with the Sugar Skulls audience. Gordley has been responsible for
helping us expand our Spanish-language advertising, and they have
also brought us special opportunities like a recent one with El
Imparcial, which allowed Dolores, our provost, to be interviewed for
that publication.
So we really feel like we have a lot of momentum going on. We
are excited about where we are going. Our enrollment numbers for
this coming fall are looking very promising. Summer looks fantastic,
and this is the work that we would like to continue with your
approval.
If I can answer any questions.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Are there questions from the board? Okay.
I don't hear any. Okay.
We will close the discussion. We will have a vote. All in favor
of the motion signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Abstain.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Mr. Gonzales, you voted yes?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Yes.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: It's a 4-1 --
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: 4-0 vote with one abstention.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: 4-0 vote with one abstention.
Thank you very much. The next item is our 5.2 contract with
Trane US Inc. for the Synexis Sphere antibacterial devices.
Mr. Silvyn, could you read the recommendation?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The chancellor recommends the Governing Board authorize the
chancellor or designee to execute an agreement with Trane US
Incorporated for the purchase and installation of Synexis Sphere
antimicrobial devices. Total costs for the agreement are not
expected to exceed $1,189,310.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Do I have a motion to approve the
recommendation?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So moved.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a second?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I would like discussion. What is the
procedure, Jeff?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: We need to have a second, and then we can
have a discussion and then we can have an amendment to the motion.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: A discussion. So we will start with the
presentation from Chancellor Lambert's team and then discussion.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: As all of you know, one of the points that
David Dor�, president of campuses, made earlier was a lot of our
employees are really anxious about coming back into our spaces. They
want to make sure that they are coming into a clean, healthy
environment.
As a result of that, we have been looking at a solution that
would help address the indoor air quality for our employees, our
students, and the like.
As a result, we are recommending that the board approve this
recommendation but also recognize that the funding source for this
would come out of the HEERF money that we are receiving. It's not
coming out of existing college dollars.
With that, I'm going to have Bill Ward and David Bea follow up
with additional questions or comments that you may have.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Are they going to give a presentation or
they will just answer questions?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Dave or Bill, did you have a specific
presentation you wanted to roll out or you just want to answer
questions?
>> BILL WARD: I can give out information if you would like me
to, Chancellor.
Chair Clinco, members of the board, Chancellor Lambert, students,
colleagues, and guests. To give you a little history or knowledge
about these pieces of equipment is what you have in front of you is
the college is looking at purchasing about 556 Synexis Sphere units
to be installed in all PC classrooms district-wide. So it's not in
every area. It's mainly in the classrooms.
The units are stated to create Dry Hydrogen Peroxide from -- I
don't need to get into the whole technical part of it, but the deal
is, the idea to be utilizing these units, as the chancellor talked
about earlier, is that the reduction of the Coronavirus in the air
after 60 minutes.
A single sphere is stated to treat about a thousand square feet.
The units are approximately 19 inches in diameter, weigh about 14
pounds. The sphere is a portable unit that can be mounted on the
wall and operate from a standard electric wall outlet.
Units are advised to be left running 24/7, so it's something we
will have running all the time for maximum effectiveness. Also, as
part of this project, is the idea to install, which is a portion, to
install indoor quality testing equipment in six areas and monitor for
two weeks. Then install a sphere in each area to operate and perform
an indoor air quality measurement for comparability.
The idea is this is emerging technology, so part of the proposal
would be for us to run a pilot and test these units. So that's kind
of a cool thing.
The measurements will be temperature, humidity, chemicals because
it does use hydrogen peroxide, and Pima would not be one of the only
institutions testing these out at the time.
The proposal also includes training for PC staff on installation
and servicing the spheres. With the 566 proposed units, electrical
consumption is estimated at about, I figured I'd say it's about 4,000
in electricity with all of these little units within a month, but
that's all over the college district. So that's not a whole lot of
money.
The life span is projected for about 10 years, so they will last
that long. Units require consumable changes every three months for
operations and maintenance for approximately 20 minutes each, 741
hour total hours of operation, says the cost and consumables, that
would mean they have a little filter and a little unit inside that
would have to be replaced. That's about $194 annually -- let's see
here, what we have there.
The university institutions utilizing this system is University
of Oklahoma and Kansas State University. And that's what I have.
That's all that I have related to what we have here with these pieces
of equipment.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Questions from the board? Ms. Ripley
first, because you said you had a discussion. Then we will go to
Ms. Garcia.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yeah, so if you said this, I apologize,
but these would be installed in every classroom or how many
classrooms would they be installed in? And how many total classrooms
do we have, if you have that data at the tip of your fingers? Of
those, how many would get these?
>> BILL WARD: Well, this is the majority of our classrooms. I
don't have that data at the tip, but I can get that to you, but the
idea would be to put them, like I said, all over the college district
in the main rooms, but I can get you an updated amount as to how many
classrooms.
I did miss something, too. The consumables are estimated at $350
per unit, and so what that means is that we have to, would have to
replace those every so often and so I didn't say that correctly
earlier.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: So $350 per unit per year in addition
to the purchase price of 1 million...
>> BILL WARD: It could be approximately 194,600 annually total.
That's something that we will need to talk with the Trane Company
about related to these units, because there is some information
related to how long they can operate without having the consumables
changed or replaced. But at the end of the day I think that would be
the top price of that, but I feel we could probably knock that down
if needed.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: So you're saying that it's going to cost
194,000 a year to maintain these units. Is that correct?
>> BILL WARD: I do feel that the first part when we purchase
this system, I'm pretty sure and I'd have to fully look at the
proposal, that I think it is covered in the first year, but that is a
cost that we would need to prepare for as we move forward.
And the reason why I brought up what I said is because on one
thing it looks like we may have to change them annually, but then we
also found another study that basically states, and I think it
relates to their technical data, that we may only have to change them
every two years.
So that's something that we, if the board approves, that that's
something that we would need to verify with the company and Trane.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: My next question is who will do the
replacement? I think you said PCC or is it Trane?
>> BILL WARD: They are little tiny units, so I mean, I would be
under the impression that we would be the ones that would be changing
the little filters, or the pieces, the components that would be have
to be replaced.
Also these units have a warranty on them. So the way I would
look at it is the first year or so most likely would be a warranty
product. But like I said before, if we did it annually it would be
in the $190,000 range. That would be in the second year.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Garcia, Dr. Bea had his hand raised.
Not sure if it was germane to your question?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Yeah. I think just to support what Bill was
saying is that the high-end estimate would be the, almost 200,000.
The current thought is that it needs to be done every two years.
>> BILL WARD: Agreed.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: So the next question is so this is virgin
technology. I looked this up, and I didn't see anything where it was
approved by the CDC and ASHRAE. It isn't certified. Then my next
question is why didn't we consider some other units? Some that are?
>> BILL WARD: I would say this is emerging technology, but the
inventor of this product has put it in a number of places, not just
in universities. I think also too they have looked at putting it in
some hospitals and other things. There is a number of articles and
blogs and things that are related to the product.
There is other technology out there too, another product out
there that's like, called needlepoint bipolar ionization, and it's
another emerging technology and it's also gaining popularity.
But remember, a lot of this stuff has come out since the COVID.
Now, there are products that are out in the industry that are
approved by the CDC and ASHRAE and actually UL. What UL means is
that means they are certified related to -- they are not going to
blow up because they plug in, and then the CDC, as we all know,
relates to health. So if it's going to clean or kill a bacteria or
mold or something, that's what that approval would be for. Then also
to ASHRAE relates to the air quality and things like that.
So there's really only one product out there right now, and that
is the UV lighting. That has actually been in place for decades.
That's something that basically relates to installing these types of
lights inside the air handling equipment itself.
I would estimate that that could be in the range, I would say the
most expensive range when we look at our size of equipment that we
have throughout the district. And this is just off the top of my
head because I haven't estimated this. I'm just getting, I have seen
them before and have used them in other places, probably about 2,500
a unit. But that would not go in the classrooms. That would
actually go in the air conditioning systems itself.
But at the end of the day, this is new emerging technology. A
lot of cool things are coming out. I mean, this COVID situation has
put a lot of things on the table, and this is something that was
proposed to us and we have taken a good hard look at it, and a lot of
people -- like right now I will say that both ASHRAE and the CDC are
monitoring it, but they are also monitoring other pieces of equipment
that's out there too.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: So currently it hasn't been certified,
correct?
>> BILL WARD: There is really only one product that's been
certified, and that has to do like what I said with the UV lighting
but it's a total different type of product. It's something you would
literally have to install in the unit, in the air handling unit.
Like take your house. It would be something if it was at your
home, you would install it in your air handler, the thing that flows,
makes the airflow. Then basically what they are, they are UV lights
and they run all the time. I don't have the cost for off the top of
my head of what they cost to maintain and things like that.
It's just based on -- actually, you can order equipment with that
already in it if you want to. But that's really the only system out
there at this time that if you're concerned about those types of
certifications, that right now is really like one of the only systems
out there that's kind of standardized and used all over.
But remember, these are portable units. They can be mounted,
they can be moved, which is very simple. They are not that -- like I
said, they are not very big. I don't have a picture to show you what
it looks like, but they are kind of cool looking.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Through facilities, have we done a
complete assessment? If so, do we have a report?
>> BILL WARD: What we have done, Board Member Gonzales, is we
have actually gone in and taken a look at it and looked at all the
studies. Like I said before, you know, it's emerging technology, and
so what's happening is that people are actually looking at these
things and using them and actually studying them.
So what we see out there is a lot of people are saying some good
things about it, but it is technology in a sense that it's still
being studied at this time.
So if you guys, if that's the thing, if you're looking for it to
be certified, right now the only certification it has, and a number
other projects have it too, is just the UL rating which is on any
device that plugs into an outlet.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Last question. Right now reference to
this product, there is articles out there but there is no actual
research that's being done?
>> BILL WARD: No, there is research. Actually that's kind of
what the pilot would be, is if the college was to utilize this
product, then we would actually be part of that research. There is
actually research that's out there.
But like I said, it's considered emerging technology. Basically
when I say that, ASHRAE and CDC are acknowledging it. Just like they
are doing a bunch of other things. But they are like watching it.
They are waiting for the information to come in or the studies to
come in, and then eventually they would give their stamps of approval
on it.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: It seems to me, and we have heard from the
faculty leadership and the administrators that one of the key issues
for our faculty and our students is doing everything possible to make
sure the classrooms and the space that we have is safe and clean to
return fully in the fall.
So I think it's incumbent upon us to do everything we possibly
can to ensure and using the latest technologies -- this is brand new
technology, it was invented probably a few years ago but only
marketed since COVID, and there is no other technology like it out
there. The fact that it's portable, you don't have to plug it into
your air handler, you can move it from room to room, that's a big
deal, in my opinion.
If we can make this statement as a board that we are totally
behind, want to make sure we are doing everything possible to keep
our classrooms clean and keep our spaces clean, I think it's a
worthwhile investment that the students hopefully will respond to and
come back in full force in the fall.
So I think it's a good investment. I like the idea that it's
portable. There is a lot of studies, scientific literature published
on the effectiveness of these machines. Hospitals use them all the
time in their emergency rooms and their surgery rooms.
Bill mentioned Oklahoma bought 3,000 of these things, K State did
as well. Of course it was invented in Kansas. That's why they
bought them. I think it's a good investment and I think it gives a
good message to our faculty and students that we care about their
health and we're doing everything possible to assure that the rooms
and the spaces are safe.
>> BILL WARD: If I could, Board Member Hay, to piggyback on to
what you just said, the other thing too is to think about it, like
Board Member Hay said, is that the college could use -- remember, we
went out and did that cleaning. Nobody knew exactly how the cleaning
was going to work or if it was going to be beneficial but the college
did it anyways.
Then with this type of system, you could actually use these types
of systems in partnership with the system, with the other system. So
it's a multi-pronged approach about -- and I totally agree that if we
want people to feel safe and comfortable, things like this, I mean,
at the end of the day, and sometimes -- I'm not saying they don't
work or they are not great, it's just perception a lot of times
really makes you feel better about coming to an institution.
I mean, one thing I would say is we changed our whole cycling
with filtration. One of the things we do, we used to change our
filters every three to four months. Now we don't do that anymore.
It's every one to two depending on use, but no more than two.
So the college is doing a lot of things, but any tool that we can
get to help people feel more comfortable, and not just people coming
here but our staff too.
So I just wanted to say that.
>> DR. DOR�: If I may again, Chair Clinco --
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Dr. Dor�, before you, looks like David Bea
has had his hand up, and Board Member Ripley is waiting to speak, and
then let's hear from you, Dr. Dor�.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: I just wanted to follow up on a hanging
question, the question was about how many units there were. So there
were enough units to cover all of the classrooms and have some extra
leftover including the learning centers, and some of the labs that
are bigger might require more than one unit. It is really focusing
on the classrooms and having a localized way to provide really good
sanitization on a local level in the classroom.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much.
Board Member Ripley and then Dr. Dor� and then Ms. Garcia.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you very much for the
clarifications. Conceptually I totally agree, and I think was more
we just wanted to make sure we chose the right company.
I have not this company but I have one in my house, so I know the
value, but it goes beyond just microsubstances in the air. But it's
also dust and pollen and you know the pollen in this area.
So I would also, when we decide where and when the installation
would happen that we take care of our staff and the common areas as
well if at all possible, because it's not just health but also
quality of life and quality of work day-to-day for the people that
work here every day.
Thanks.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Dr. Dor�?
>> DR. DOR�: I will leave the right system to the experts, but I
just want to emphasize, as the president of the campuses, it's my
highest priority that our students and our faculty and our staff and
all of our employees feel safe.
So I really encourage the board to adopt a solution, because I
have been communicating to our employees and to our students that we
are doing everything we can to make sure that their air quality is
clean and safe.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: I guess I'm concerned, and I would want to,
and I appreciate what you guys are giving us, but on the other hand I
would like to know, in addition, what would it cost to do the better
system even though it's more expensive? There is the thing that goes
into the...
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Board Member Garcia, I would argue that
there isn't a better system. Each of these systems have their pros
--
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Well, one that's certified.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Even the certified one has its pros and has
its cons. Remember how it's mounted, it's only attacking the virus
and all those other things at the point of entry. Once it comes into
the room, it's no longer effective because it's at the point of entry
where it's mounted.
So lots of things can still get into the room that that UV is not
going to help you with. So you have to keep that in mind. That's
why there is not one single solution. I think that's what Bill was
saying. You put a multi-layered approach, and UV may be one of the
things we might want to do downstream, but this one is right in the
room itself.
I think to Board Member Ripley's point, you know, and I think
some of us have used similar things in our houses. I just want us
not to lose sight of that. There is no silver bullet here. It's
multi-pronged, and I think this one is going to be very visible.
It's closer to us in terms of that atmosphere and that's why I
support it.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Okay. Is there any other discussion?
Let's have a vote since we have a motion on the floor. All in
favor of the motion, signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Abstain.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: So it's 4-0 with Mr. Gonzales abstaining.
Thank you very much.
The next item on our agenda is 5.3, Downtown Campus hotel/motel
development. Mr. Silvyn, could you read the recommendation?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The chancellor recommends the Governing Board authorize the
chancellor or his designee to proceed with the planning, design, and
construction for the adaptive repurposing and development of the
Downtown Campus hotel/motel properties.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: I will go ahead and make the motion.
Is there a second?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Okay. Chancellor Lambert? Do you want to
provide a context and overview?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Yes. You know, we are very excited that the
board has supported the acquisition of these three hotel properties,
and we have been looking at these properties and trying to envision
how we would best use them. We really believe we have a strong use
case for adaptive reuse of these properties.
So we'd like to bring on an architect to go in and design,
someone who has experience in this area, to really allow us to take
it and bring it to life for our students and our staff and community,
et cetera. That's why we support this.
Also, if you would like to hear a presentation, we'd be glad to
do that. I have our provost who -- and I see David is right there.
They have put together what the use case would be for these
properties. Maybe I'd start there first, and then we can talk about
the financial side of this to bring it to life. Go ahead.
>> DR. DOR�: Sounds good. So we're going to give -- I'm going
to give a little context, especially for Board Member Ripley, I want
to give you a little bit of history about the campus, and then
Dolores will talk specifics about the hotel and Bill will talk about
the facilities.
Dolores, do you want to go to the next slide. Next one.
So, Board Member Ripley and others, Tucson was one of four cities
that participated in the Rose Center For Public Leadership in Land
Use a few years back. That focused on revitalization of that Oracle
area. That's 2.6-mile district north of downtown that encompasses
not just the Downtown Campus but two school districts.
What came out of that really was that we were the anchor
institution in this area, and the city is very committed to urban
redevelopment in a much more, I think, conscientious and much more
sustainable approach.
So as a result of that, we have been very involved as partners in
the Thrive in the 05 area. In fact, we have partnered with the City
of Tucson economic development and we have a joint position with Pima
Community College and the economic development area.
We are very engaged in really revitalizing this area. It's an
exciting hub, because as the downtown sector grows, the city
anticipates tremendous growth up in this area, in this corridor, as
well.
So in summary, Thrive in the 05, it really works to align what we
are doing with the Downtown Campus making this a community hub for
really transformational efforts, a gateway to Tucson's vibrant
downtown. It's going to be the primary workforce development area of
the city, as well.
So just an overview of Downtown. About 120,000 people live
within three miles of the Downtown Campus. Our Downtown Campus and
our Desert Vista Campus are located to serve our most diverse
populations in the county. Downtown Campus is also the campus best
served by transit routes.
As part of the education and facilities master plan, the
recommendation was to strengthen Downtown as the key anchor for the
delivery of student and academic support services. So there is a
number of projects that are now underway.
We are doing the ribbon cutting Tuesday for the automotive
technology innovation center. The advanced manufacturing center is
scheduled to be complete in 2022. Our adult basic education main
offices and intake are housed at Downtown. We currently have our
diversity, equity, and inclusion office and our immigrant and refugee
center are housed at the Downtown Campus.
Then future plans are for our workforce development division to
be relocated to Downtown Campus, and that would include our Small
Business Development Center, an expansion of our entrepreneurial
programs at the Downtown Campus, and also integrating IT coursework
into all of our programs in response to Industry 4.0.
So I think now I'm going to really pass it on to Dolores. These
are kind of the big-picture things that are going on, and now
Dr. Duran-Cerda will talk about some of the specifics of what these
properties would be used for.
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Thank you, Dr. Dor�.
What you see on the screen now is our recommended option, which
is the renovation of the three properties, and that includes the
Tucson Inn, the Copper Cactus Inn, and also the Frontier Hotel.
As Dr. Dor� said, at the Downtown Campus with the EMP, education
master plan and facilities master plan, the recommendation is to have
the diversity, equity, and inclusion center there and expanded,
including the immigrant refugee student resource center.
The teaching and learning center is recommended that it be moved
to the Downtown Campus, as well, and then expand social services such
as food pantry, clothes closet and wraparound services.
So for these different options, I'd like to share with you the
programming options that are in line with the Downtown Campus's
community role as outlined in the education and facilities master
plan. It's also in line with the campus roles outlined in the
document, and also in line with the campus role as a community hub,
as Dr. Dor� mentioned, as demonstrated by Thrive in the 05
partnership.
So specifically, the Tucson Inn, we are hoping the diner can be
used and supported by the culinary and hospitality program kind of
with the '50s theme that goes along with the sign and the
architecture there.
For the Copper Cactus, we were thinking of having the diversity,
equity, and inclusion center there, and that includes the immigrant
and refugee student resource center, as well as the faculty affairs
and development, which includes the teaching and learning center,
faculty qualifications, and the faculty resource center headquarters.
For the third property, the Frontier Motel, we are thinking of
establishing the innovation hub for the arts, and because of the
Downtown Campus, it has the Applied Technology center of excellence,
we were wanting to be creative and innovative of using that synergy
with the liberal arts, having students work on capstones that combine
both. We talked about welding and how you could make jewelry, you
could make all kinds of creative things. So having those kinds of
synergies that haven't really been thought of before and making
students combine their talents and innovation. Then another
potential possibility is P-Tech, having the center of excellence for
early college.
So those are the programming ideas that we have been focusing on
and have talked to the deans, respective executive directors over
these particular programs.
Maybe I should stop here for any questions before I pass it on to
Vice Chancellor Bill Ward who will give the potential costs and
renderings and timelines.
>> DR. DOR�: Can I mention, too, one other thing I forgot to
mention, we are in conversations with the county about co-locating
the Pima County OneStop at the Downtown Campus, as well.
Since you have the Tucson Inn sign, we recently received a grant
from the City of Tucson to restore the Tucson Inn sign, so that will
be back to its glory hopefully within the next year.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: I think this is very exciting for multiple
reasons. Dolores and David, I think you have done a great job.
I'm curious, though, is there an opportunity for leasing retail
space to vendors who want to sell, whether it's something to eat or
books or whatever, is that an opportunity, as well?
>> DR. DOLORES DURAN-CERDA: Well, with the diner, that would be
open to the public, especially with the new buildings that have been
constructed, center of excellence, and the business and industry and
all of that hub. I think that would be a great potential.
With the dean of arts, when we talked about the innovation hub,
he also mentioned a marketplace for faculty and students to sell
their art, their artwork. So that is a possibility, as well as
community agencies. We are looking into, and Dr. Dor� can elaborate
on that, a position, kind of like a social worker liaison to
community agencies, so they could potentially have offices there, as
well.
Dr. Dor�?
>> DR. DOR�: Board Member Hay, I'd be happy to share this with
the board. The City of Tucson Economic Development Office has a
number of renderings. In terms of Drachman, I think particularly
Drachman, there is tremendous commercial potential for Drachman. And
so I think absolutely I think having some leasing would certainly be
on the table.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: First of all, I'd like to just state that
in my view we are an educational institution. We're not supposed to
be into redevelopment. And I also, Provost, I understand that some
of the things you're trying to co-locate in this area are already in
existence in other buildings. Right now the college capacity is
underutilized, so I have prepared my little statement earlier, so I
just want to read this.
I was elected to the board to represent this community and my
district. My constituents expect me to represent them and use my
best judgment when making important decisions, like spending their
tax dollars on renovation of these properties.
Because this is a large expenditure of public funds, I feel
obligated to examine all the facts involved. I have made numerous
requests to the chair, to the chancellor, and the board who have
heard my request to obtain more information concerning this project.
But my requests have been ignored.
I also requested a study session on this project. This request
was also ignored. I feel that I have been totally disrespected, and
I believe I know the reason for this. I cannot vote to approve this
project until all my requests have been made. I would also request
that my fellow board members do the same.
This project involves a considerable amount of money, and we are
only given 10 minutes to discuss this project. Presently, we have
excess capacity. Mr. Ward, you can tell us exactly how much we have.
It does not make sense to me to be in the business of renovating
properties that have little educational value.
I do support historical preservation as important for our
community. But the college does not, should not be using our
revenues to fund these projects.
For this reason, I will not approve this project.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much, Ms. Garcia.
Are there any other comments or questions from the board?
Ms. Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yes, I think that based on some of the
comments, Board Member Garcia's comments, I feel that perhaps the
presentation that I received wasn't received by everyone.
When I first got here, I had the pleasure of meeting with a lot
of the vice chancellors and had a presentation on the different
options for the hotels, but I'm not sure what happened in between and
how we decided on these options.
One of the options had some parking spaces and a parking garage
that would have an ROI, but I feel like there needs to be a little
bit more discussion so we can all come to an agreement on what to do
with these already purchased properties.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: So I would just note we have had numerous
discussions over the last two years since we purchased them. They
have been included in the master planning work. We have had multiple
discussions at study sessions. We have taken tours of the property.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: You had a tour of the property.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Garcia, please, please, point of
order. We have a process. We heard your presentation. I'd like to
speak for a moment.
You know, these buildings, they are historic, they are on our
western, northern edge of our campus. What's being presented this
evening is an opportunity to take programs that need investment, that
need to be boosted up.
I mean, I look at the list of things that are on that slide, and
those are all programs that as a board we have said over and over
again we are committed to. We are committed to a refugee center,
committed to all of the different things that are on that slide.
What I think we are seeing is the blending of multiple community
priorities. That's what I'm hearing from David Dor�, our vice --
vice chancellor?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: President of campuses.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: President of campuses, sorry, president of
campuses. But it's how do you blend all of these things together.
How do we blend community initiatives with our educational services
to benefit our students.
I think this is a really thoughtful plan that does those things,
and we have had multiple conversations and multiple discussions and
multiple presentations over the last year and a half to two years in
a host of different ways.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Mr. Chair?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Yes. Chancellor Lambert and then Ms.
Garcia.
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: So keep in mind, the Downtown Campus, the
Roosevelt Building, well, that was an adaptive reuse. The old post
office, which is our library, was adaptive reuse.
So the college has had a history of taking facilities, rehabbing
them, and repurposing them for the benefit of our community. That
would be the same thing here.
As Chair Clinco is pointing out, let me just use DEI as an
example, they are in a little office. They need to have much more
space, more breathing room to meet the growing needs of our students
and our community. So this gives us the opportunity to do that.
Now, you can't look at things as what they are right in front of
us at the moment. We have to look at where things are going into the
future. So that new automotive center is an example of that, the
advanced manufacturing center. We are going through a renaissance
right now at Pima Community College. I have had people say that to
me.
I think we're going to see people coming back to the college
because they are going to see that we have so much opportunity. Our
programs are modernized. We are now into the 21st Century. We're
leading in some of these areas, so we are going to need more space,
not less space, as we go into the future. So let's not just look at
things right in front of us, but let's think about that future and
where we're going, and it's exciting for this community.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Okay, so Chancellor Lambert, you know, we
were not given a presentation on the different options. We may have
had tours, we have had discussions, I will agree with that. But you
have -- I have never heard about a parking lot. We did a tour, and
that was it.
You know, it was never explained to us -- okay, so for example,
the diner that wants to be renovated as is, and when we had the tour,
you were talking about keeping the buildings as is. That is not good
utilization of land, in my view. That's my view, okay?
I'm okay with, you know, that we need an expansion and I'm okay
with centralizing certain educational opportunities and cultural
events, but you have to show us exactly what you're going to do, not
approve these buildings as is. I can't do that.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Dr. Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: Board Member Ripley, to your point, we did
receive the same presentation. We received it in the documents that
were sent to us as well as study sessions. So everybody received the
same information. Whether or not it was read and appreciated --
nothing has been held back.
But I can't see a single item on this list that Dolores went
through that's not deeply embedded in what we believe in in this
college. Whether it's -- the culinary arts has always been an
innovative idea. I think the idea about diversity and inclusion
center there and transborder studies and putting a faculty center for
excellence there, I think that's a fabulous idea. And I imagine if
we had a faculty member in this room right now, they would agree that
they need a place for faculty excellence and growth.
We own these properties. Cat, I'd be fine with doing an
additional time, study time if you really want to have a clear
presentation on what they want to put in there and how they want to
debate who's going to go where, that's fine, but to say we haven't
had the information is false. Whether you read it or not is one
thing, but we have had all the information. We have had two study
sessions. We've been talking about this -- it has been the master
plan for two years.
So somebody hasn't read the materials, but I think this is
exactly what we should be doing in this space, and I'm certainly
willing to get further information before we agree to move forward
with this.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Thank you, Dr. Hay. I really think
that we do need to look at this a little bit deeper so that everybody
on this board is satisfied with the decision.
I think that this year we are -- and as a new board member, I
feel it's my responsibility to the taxpayers, that we look at this
very large budget that we are going to look at soon, and within the
context of that budget look at where the hotel property renovation
lies, where all of the centers of excellence, where they sit, and
look at the big picture, because there is a lot of money, which is
wonderful we're getting all of this federal funding which will go
away next year, but I think that I would feel more comfortable as a
board member if we looked at this in the context of the greater
budget and our strategy, to your point, Chancellor, of a
bigger-picture strategy of where we want this school to go and what
it's going to look like in the next not just year but two, three,
four, five years, and also in the context of where we are moving
socially not just in Arizona but nationally and internationally.
So I would like to see one very serious discussion, whether
that's a study session, where we all sit down civilly and see the
presentations from all of the people involved, facilities, Dr. Dor�,
everybody that had a piece of this, finance, Dr. Bea, and really lay
it all out in the context of the budget, which I think we also need
to discuss a little bit more deeply. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Dr. Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: And I fully support that, cat. I also will
suggest, and I want to say this publicly, that when the board has
study sessions on important topics, all board members need to show
up, and they can't not show up and say I never heard about it,
because we have had study sessions and people don't show up.
So if we are going to actually get serious about this and sit
down and talk about it, then you need to show up.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: (Off microphone.)
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: No, you've missed it.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Mr. Gonzales?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: I just want to say that the plans look
good in reference to what Ms. Cerda mentioned, all those programs. I
will concur that those programs are needed, but more important, the
synergy, what she brought forth, I think it's great.
Even as Mr. Lambert mentioned, it's a renaissance, it's a new
beginning. But one of the operative words that Mr. Lambert
mentioned, we are trying to get modernized as well, too.
I know that we have had discussions before, and one of the
discussions, one of my concerns that I had is the cost. I know we
are probably going to see it, but I think it's something that I would
like to see, what is the cost for this renovation will amount to
versus or in comparison to a new building? In the past you mentioned
that we have to replace -- well, I was on the tour, and it's going to
take a lot of work, a lot of work.
In reference to bringing it up to the standards with the new
technology and all that, I think it's going to be a lot of money. As
I mentioned, I would like to see, as I mentioned before, I would like
to see what is the cost in reference to the renovation, but more
important, is it cheaper? Is it more productive? Is it better and
more modernized in reference to doing a design build, a new facility?
PCC should not be in the area of renovation. We are there to
provide the services. If we want to provide the best in excellence
services, I'd like to see a design build, new buildings, where we can
really right those programs as needed.
But as we heard before, the space capacity, we have a lot. We're
not capitalizing that. We said it briefly a while ago, reference to
one of the campuses, but I think that the space reference to what we
have, that's something that we need to look at.
But if we're going to be -- like I mentioned, I would like to see
the actual and true costs in reference to the renovation, but more
important, what would it be, cost -- is it more cost-effective to do
a new building, a design build in reference to the programs? I don't
know. I think that's the other area that we're going to be looking
at.
As I mentioned before, and all of us, we all have to look and
provide the best for the community, for the students, not only in
reference to the academics but also we are responsible for the costs.
We have that fiduciary duty to look at all perspective, all areas,
what is a true cost. Thank you.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Okay. So, Chancellor Lambert, what I will
do is I'll withdraw my motion and let's get this scheduled for a
study session in the next two weeks. Okay?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Okay.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Thank you very much. The next item on the
agenda is capital budget plan for fiscal year 2022. We have 10
minutes.
Do we need...
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: We need the presentation.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Do we approve...
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: If we follow our regular process, I will
read the recommendation. We can have a motion, and Dr. Bea will...
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Great. Mr. Silvyn, if you could read the
recommendation.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you, Mr. Chair. The chancellor
recommends the Governing Board approve $47.9 million in capital
projects and estimated life cycle needs for fiscal year 2022.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a motion to approve the
recommendation?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So moved.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a second?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Discussion? Chancellor Lambert?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: So I'm going to ask Dave to just do a brief
presentation on the big picture of this capital proposal.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Good evening. Chair Clinco, members of the
board, Chancellor Lambert, colleagues and guests.
In your board packet is the recommended list of capital projects
to be folded into the upcoming fiscal year '22 budget. As has been
indicated, it is a large increase over a typical year or the more
recent years, which have been actually lower than normal in terms of
the capital projects. That's principally because of adding the
furnishings and equipment for the centers of excellence projects that
are coming online, adding in a number of pieces of high tech
equipment for additional centers of excellence like arts and things
like that that don't have new buildings but do have these greater
technology needs. And then information technology and other life
cycle needs. Life cycle needs include deferred maintenance and other
planned and normal expenses that happen during the year.
Included is also the energy management project that we have
talked about with the board. And listed in the board packet are the
categories of the projects as recommended by the location, the
organization division that would be the recipient of the equipment
project, and then also the type of project that we are talking about.
And then the specific projects are listed out there.
This comes from a process where it's sort of a bottom-up process
where each year we open up a database for people to submit their high
priority or their priority capital needs. That gets evaluated by
administrators and then approved by the executive administrators in
the unit. It gets reviewed then by facilities, information
technologies, and the planning group to make sure it's consistent,
that the cost estimates are consistent with what the true needs are
going to be and that it's consistent with the college's priorities.
And then that list is compiled. The highest priority items were
the ones that are in front of you. And the funding sources are a
combination of again the availability of federal funds to support
some of our needs as well as using fund balance and transfer revenues
for our life cycle funds. We have that budgeted typically to the
tune of about $10 million.
This I think addresses and really puts us in a good position
related to the conversation that we just had about really taking the
college forward with the academic technology needs and capabilities.
This is a robust capital plan, and it meets a lot of needs.
On top of that, the other thing that's worth -- and I will say
this in terms of the budget presentation in a few minutes, is this is
a capacity document, so this sets the maximum amount that can be
spent on any of these projects. We are also this year going to
implement a little bit different capital projects process, and we
will be coming back on a regular basis both to the finance audit
committee and will give regular reports back to the board on how this
spending is actually happening related to these capital projects.
That said, what I mean by that is that approving it tonight gives
us the capacity to do the projects. It doesn't mean that we will
spend all of the money in this list in this next year.
With that, I will ask if the board has any questions.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any questions for Dr. Bea? Yes, Dr. Hay?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So in the budget for the new aviation
building, did we already plan on this, this is like 3 or 4 million,
$3.5 million? Is that in the budget for the building and all that?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Yeah, in some of the cases the answer is
totally yes and some cases it's a little different. With the
aviation project, recall when we submitted the initial request to the
state we had requested something that was in excess of $20 million,
and then they funded us to the tune of $15 million. So the
additional needs are supported by, essentially supported by the
college.
Similarly, a number of these projects are funded or were planned
to be, the equipment was included with revenue bonds, projects or
anticipated to be used from the college's reserves.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: You know, I would like to have a study
session on every line item that you have here.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: I don't want a study session on every line
item. I think the finance and audit committee can do that, but I
don't want to be involved in that.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Well, the thing is on some of this stuff
he's presenting, they are going to be incapable of trying to get all
this stuff accomplished within one year.
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: But I would love for the finance and audit
committee -- I'm sorry.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: So just -- let's -- I have heard your
request. I actually -- tonight we are voting on this. We need to
move it forward so it can be folded into the budget. We can vote it
down.
Ms. Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Hi. Yes, point of clarification if you
will.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Yes.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: We had a discussion earlier. I was
unaware that we were actually going to vote to approve this budget,
that this was just a public presentation.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: So this is the capital budget plan. This
is not the actual budget of the institution. These are just capital
improvements.
Correct, Dr. Bea?
This is a line-item list of things that people have forwarded.
This is just small component of the budget. It is not the budget.
This is just priorities the different entities in the college have
brought forward and moved through a process that Dr. Bea's office
runs, and then these are what get adopted as part of those -- this is
not "the" budget of the college. The budget of the college, what we
are voting on tonight is whether we should publish it and that
provides a cap on how much we would spend.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Okay, so some of these line items can
be adjusted or changed or eliminated, or we can add things as long as
it stays at the cap?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Dr. Bea, do you want to...
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Yes. And that's what I'm saying it's a
capacity document, and the budget later is the more critical version
of that, where all of these projects are folded into that budget, so
this is a subset of that budget.
Yes, so what we are saying is this is the absolute max that could
be spent by the college. That's important because it goes out to our
taxpayers to approve. It doesn't impact the taxpayers because we are
not increasing the tax levy and we're not increasing tuition. This
is just so that they are aware of how the college is spending money.
Board Member Ripley, to answer your question more specifically,
if a project isn't completed within the year, the costs would be less
than this. If it turns out that it's a project that we decide not to
do as we go through, as I mentioned that I'm planning to have a
routine and regular updates with the finance audit committee and
we'll provide that information to the board as well, that if a
project is identified that it doesn't need to happen, which does
happen, this happens every year, that some projects don't happen, a
project it turns out a piece of equipment isn't needed or there is
another way to solve that problem, that money doesn't get spent. It
gets folded into fund balance and then we are able to use that in
capital needs in a future year.
So that's normal. So what we are looking to do is get the
topside cap set by this budget, and then it would go down from there.
What you can't do is go up from here.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Okay, great. In essence it's sort of a
living document in that it can be tweaked? With that said, with
respect for my more savvy financial colleagues, I would like perhaps
a one-on-one with you, Dr. Bea, to go over some of the line items,
because apologies, I was unaware we were actually voting to approve
this, so I would like a one-on-one just to go over the line items if
that's okay.
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Mr. Chair, if I might, just to clarify one
other thing, and Dr. Bea can correct me if I'm wrong, one of the
reasons we think about this as a capacity document is any particular
project on this list that's more than $250,000, which would exceed
the chancellor's delegated authority, if we are going to buy
equipment or some kind of goods or services for a project that would
exceed that amount, any contract in excess of that amount is going to
come to the board for approval.
So approving this capacity document does not mean the board has
approved that we are going to do everything on this list. It just
sets the outer limit of the capital budget and then, like I said, any
specific project that exceeds the $250,000 delegated authority will
be presented to the board for approval.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Great. Thank you very much.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Yeah, that's correct.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: But this is the scope of the capital
projects?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Right. This is the intended plan, and then
anything, as Jeff mentioned, anything that's above the board
threshold will come back to the board for approval of the specific
contract.
Things that are under that and that are deemed to be continued
high priority, we need to do them, we will purchase those according
to the college's procurement policy.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: But if there were questions on specific
items on this list, now is the time to talk about them.
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: (Off microphone.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Well, ultimately, this is the framework
that we are going to approve, which is the capital budget, the
capital improvements that are being proposed for the institution.
Ultimately what we move forward, it's the outer limit, but these are
the projects that will progress.
If there are concerns about specific projects or a specific
element, now would be the time to bring it up.
Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: So the advanced technology, all that stuff
that was presented to us, when is that facility going to be finished?
It's not going to be this year but it's on our budget.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Chancellor Lambert?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: This facility, as you know, we have already
broken ground on it, so our plan is to have it done as we move into
hopefully sometime next year around this time period. So potentially
we could have it done this upcoming fiscal year.
But remember, we also have to start ordering certain things.
Even though the building may not be finished, we may start ordering
certain equipment and tools that will go into the facility, because
we know it should be done right around this time frame next year.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: It's also important I think to recognize that
we don't purchase equipment just to have it sit around, that if the
facility -- you know, if the timing of these projects is critical, if
it's related to a new facility, the timing of the equipment coming in
at the same time as the building is ready for the equipment to be
used is the plan. That's the goal. That's what we would try to do.
And there is no -- by the way, the other thing to say is there is
not a downside that if we approve a capital project this year, in
fiscal year '22, and it turns out that it's purchased in August of
'22, so fiscal year '23, that would just be a carry-forward project.
The funds would stay in the capital fund, and then we would carry
over that funds to the next year and you would see it in next year's
budget proposal as we were just shifting the money from one year to
the other. The capital fund can cross over years, in other words.
It doesn't have to be spent in this coming fiscal year.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Two more questions that are different.
One is, again, I'd love to have a one-on-one for you for all these
line items, I don't want to waste everyone's time, but for everyone's
awareness, what is contingent projects again at $2 million?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Yeah, that's a great question. That's the
best question. Yeah, that is essentially a line item that is to
handle some unforeseen or unexpected project. We like to have some
contingent money available and then would have the capacity to do
that.
In this particular case, there are a couple of projects that are
specific that we wanted to review a little bit more thoroughly before
we approve the capital project. Then there is a little bit of
cushion in case there is some need that comes up during the year,
emergency needs happen for capital equipment. Piece of HVAC
equipment goes down and it's above the threshold that is in the
normal life cycle fund or refrigerator equipment, things like that,
or a piece of academic training equipment can go down and we want to
be able to buy it right away, so we have a contingent line for that
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Would the board be notified of the
expenditure of that 2 million?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Yes.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Before it happens?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: What we are planning to do -- there are two
things, to have a regular update of how we are using the funds
throughout the year, and then secondarily, if the dollar amount was
above the board threshold, yes. So you would be informed beforehand
if it's above the board threshold. You would be informed after the
fact if it was below the board threshold.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: My second question is I'm assuming that
the hotel renovation does not come under capital projects?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: It isn't at this point.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: It is not?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: It is not. It is not in this list.
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: The energy management plan, is that part of
it? That is part of it, right?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: So it's included in the list, but as was
discussed earlier, that project is going to go back to the board for
approval before it goes forward. Again, it's the same situation.
Depending on the cost mechanisms and how we finance it, the cost
will change a little bit also with what's in this budget. So this
budget is set up for what the proposed amount is to be pay as you go,
to reference earlier conversation.
So in other words, the board would be approving that project
before it actually goes forward and is approved to go. Nothing is
going to happen with that until it goes back to the board.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Mr. Gonzales? Was your hand raised?
Okay.
Any other questions? Ms. Ripley? No?
Okay. So hearing no more questions, all in favor of the motion
signify by saying aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Opposed.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Ms. Garcia?
>> MS. MARIA GARCIA: Abstain.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Okay. The motion passes 3 to 1 with Mr.
Gonzales voting no and Ms. Garcia abstaining.
Next item on our agenda is the proposed property tax levy for
fiscal year 2022. Mr. Silvyn, could you read the recommendation?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The chancellor recommends the Governing Board remain levy neutral
for fiscal year 2022 property taxes.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a motion to adopt the
recommendation?
>> (Speaker off microphone.): So moved.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a second?
>> MR. LUIS GONZALES: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Mr. Lambert?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Well, in consideration of the conditions
that our community has faced last year and this year, it's been our
recommendation not to ask for a levy increase. So we'd like to
continue with that going into the upcoming fiscal year.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any questions regarding the item?
Hearing none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye.
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed?
Hearing none, this motion passes unanimously.
5.6, publication of fiscal year 2022 proposed budget in the
presentation for July 2021 public hearing and special board meeting
to adopt the budget and set a property tax rate and levies.
Mr. Silvyn, will you read the recommendation?
>> MR. JEFF SILVYN: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The chancellor recommends the Governing Board approve publication
in accordance with statutory requirements of the fiscal year 2022
budget in the Arizona Daily Star on May 24, 2021, and May 31, 2021,
and conduct a public hearing and a special board meeting on June 9,
2021, for the purpose of adopting the budget and setting property tax
rates and levies.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a motion to adopt the
recommendation?
>> DR. MEREDITH HAY: So moved.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Is there a second?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Second.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Discussion? Chancellor Lambert?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: As you notice in the document presented to
you all, that we have outlined the key components of this budget.
There will be no tuition increase, no levy increase. It does reflect
some other proposed revenues as well as how that will break down in
terms of all funds, general funds, and then the expenditures, as
outlined.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Dr. Bea has a presentation?
>> DR. LEE LAMBERT: Do you want to do a presentation on this,
Dave?
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Well, I will defer to the board's preference,
but we have a presentation.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Let's have it, Dr. Bea.
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Okay. Good evening again, and this is a
follow-up of the last item, the capital budget.
As you know, the budget comes together through a series of
actions that happen during the spring and conversations that happen
during the spring and culminate in the presentation tonight where we
put it all together to an all-funds budget package and run it by for
approval from the board so that we can take it to the taxpayers in
order to do a public hearing in June and formally adopt it in June.
So tonight, what it is really about is approving the overall
capacity of the budget so that we can take it out for taxpayer
review.
We will be having a study session on Friday to talk a little bit
more detail about the budget, particularly with some of the items
within it, compensation being I think one of the primary ones to have
a little bit more detailed conversations with the board.
What I'm going to talk to you about is what we have built into
the budget in terms of capacity and our ability to handle some of the
priorities that we have been talking about with the board.
With that said, and Chancellor Lambert mentioned this I think
really well a few minutes ago, as I said, it establishes the maximum
spending capacity. You're not required to spend up to that level.
We spend under our budget every year. But it does set a maximum that
you can't go over. During the year, reductions happen and slight
changes happen, and that's normal and fine.
In this particular case, it reflects increased spending capacity
due to the passage of 481, so we don't have the same expenditure
limitation constraints that we have been operating under prior to
that. As we mentioned earlier, the increased flow of federal funds
and then there are potentially other funds, we put in a request for
state funds also to help us with some of the capital requests that we
have and some of our other infrastructure requests that come in.
So this budget is really built to be able to handle -- if those
funds come in, we will be able to spend it on the college's
priorities as identified with the board through this series of
conversations that we have been having.
As always, we try to prioritize employee compensation, that is
the comprehensive version or definition of compensation, salary
increases, salary and wage increases, and then also benefits.
In this particular year, in the budget right now, we have built
in an increase to the salary scale of 2% plus a thousand dollars for
regular employees, so it's 2% plus a thousand dollars. What that
means for employees is that that range of increases would be around
2.5% to over 5%. So depending on what the salary level is, that
thousand-dollar flat rate has a greater proportional impact to the
lower-income employees.
We have also built into the budget increasing a handful of
employees who are a little bit under $15 an hour to raise them up.
There aren't very many of them. They are the two lowest steps at the
lowest grade classification that we have, so we have that included in
here, as well.
Then we just talked about the capital outlay as identified to
really equip up our centers of excellence and to deal with a lot of
infrastructure needs that we have the opportunity to deal with now.
As Chancellor Lambert mentioned, this budget does not include any
increase in tuition and fees. It also continues to provide the
student success support courses at no cost, no tuition cost.
It is a levy neutral budget, which means we are not increasing
the tax rate which you just approved, so that is good news to the
taxpayers. And the tax rate will be going down actually pretty
significantly. We do get growth in new property, so we get an
additional $1.35 million from new properties that have been added to
the tax rolls.
As has been mentioned a number of times, the federal funds coming
from HEERF I, II, III, the CARES ACT, the CRRSAA Act, and then the
more recent ARPA, those all are providing significant money to the
college. We just found out this week that the third HEERF is going
to result in about a little more than $19 million of direct student
aid support, and it also has $18.8 million of institutional support.
So we have additional funds coming in beyond what we have already
received through the first two HEERF acts.
Salaries and wages, the college on top of the salary
recommendation that we have put in or what we have folded into the
budget that we will talk a little bit more about on Friday, we have
also, the costs, the increased costs for medical and for improving
and enhancing the short-term disability program and funding up the
Public Safety Retirement System are folded into the budget, so those
are all college-absorbed benefit costs.
We have talked already about the capital and IT infrastructure
commitments. Then through a series of these priorities, what we have
mentioned to the public in Prop 481, here are the things we are
looking to do, the chancellor's goals and the strategic plan goals,
these are the priorities for the institution. And so there are a few
things that we have done that are consistent with 481, adding in more
student success, not only making the student success courses free of
tuition, but adding in a couple of student success advisors and a
student success faculty member, somebody who teaches STU classes.
This summarizes the tax situation. I'm not going to belabor the
point, because I think I made it already. The fact that we are levy
neutral makes the budget process quite a bit easier. If you increase
the tax rate, you have to go through a truth-in-taxation process. We
won't have to do that this year.
And again, it means that the tax rate is going to go down because
assessed valuations in the county have gone up, and we are not
increasing the tax rate so the tax rate will go down. And then the
change year over year is from the growth in new property.
Here is a summary historically of how the revenues have come in
over time by type, and you can see that the last few years we have
really ramped up the use of reserves for capital purposes. That's
because we have issued the revenue bonds, we have been accumulating
college reserves, and really making a point to reinvest back into the
college, so that will start declining over the next few years.
As long as we have these big projects happening, it's going to
continue to look a little bit like that. And then you can see the
big growth here, the big change in the budget, is the federal funds,
the grants coming in that we have talked about.
This is just a comparison year over year of how the budget has
changed in terms of the revenue sources and the use of the revenue
sources that are in the budget.
Then here is a change in terms of the funds. So the big changes
are in the general fund, and that's funds that come in and then we
are essentially transferring that mostly, there is some operational
changes, but most of that is going to support these capital increases
that were in the capital budget that we talked about.
And then the restricted fund is those things that will be funded
and expensed directly to those grant funds, the HEERF funds. And
then the bigger amount or large part of that is also the student aid,
the direct student aid. So we get the funds coming in from the
federal government and then we ship it out to the students directly,
but we have to show that capacity in our budget document. So that's
one of the reasons for the big increase.
Here is what the proposed budget looks like overall. Typically
our budget looks more blue in terms of these line items, but because
we have such a big increase in capital spending, it is a little bit
distorted versus what our historical norm is with our personnel
expenses being in the general fund somewhere closer to 70% of the
general fund, but overall when you factor in capital, it has become a
much smaller component particularly with all the construction we are
doing.
Next steps with the budget calendar, what we are looking to do is
get approval tonight so we can post the state budget forms in the
newspaper, and then in June we will have the public hearing and
special meeting. What isn't listed on this is the study session we
will be having on Friday where we will talk a bit more about
positions and compensation.
There is additional information in this presentation. I'm not
going to go through all of those items. I'm going to shoot to one
though in particular which is the general fund summary. What's
important about this and why I want to shoot to this is because this
one really shows that year over year when we take away those capital
projects, that massive infrastructure investment that we are putting
into the college, the budget change year over year is not that
abnormal.
There are some increased costs for information technology in
particular. I will point out that that's actually one of the things
that leads to the institutional support growing. Institutional
support is not just administrators. Administrators actually are
located in a number of the different categories. Institutional
support are the support services. So those are things like human
resources, information technology is one of the bigger ones, the
financial services. Those kinds of things are the institutional
support categories and some of the other administrative functions of
the college. So those are support functions, not administration,
just to be clear on that.
In addition to that, college police and some of the facilities
are also in that category. It's a category that covers a lot of
important things at the college and it is not just about
administrators.
Anyway, so what the point of this slide is if you look at the
change year over year, there isn't that big of a change and the
change is primarily based on the compensation increases and small
amounts of utility, utility increases and IT license changes that are
mostly related to the pandemic and some of the additional things we
are doing from a technology standpoint.
Those are the things I wanted to make sure we hit tonight. Those
are the most critical slides and most critical points I wanted to
make. I will stop there and ask if the board has any questions.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Any questions for Dr. Bea? Yes?
Ms. Ripley?
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Yeah. So just to be clear, this is a
proposed budget? We are not approving it tonight? We are just
approving --
>> DR. DAVID BEA: Correct.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: -- the fact that it is a proposed
budget and we will have more discussion this Friday for one and then
a public hearing?
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: We are voting to publish it in the paper,
which is the legal requirement so that we can then vote on it at the
next meeting, but it provides the upper level, outer limit.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: Great, because again, I would like to
ask some specific boring questions apart from this meeting, it's
9:13, on some line items, to be clear.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: You can certainly ask questions now, and
if you want we can go into more detail at the study session. You
have to ask them, so either now or later.
>> MS. CATHERINE RIPLEY: I will wait for the study session. I
do have a lot of questions, and they are boring.
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Sounds great. Any other questions for
Dr. Bea?
Okay. Hearing none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying
aye?
(Ayes.)
>> MR. DEMION CLINCO: Anyone opposed? Mr. Gonzales? I didn't
hear you. Okay, aye. No one opposed. The motion passes
unanimously.
Finally, we have a request for future agenda items. Okay.
Hearing none, the meeting is adjourned.
(Adjournment.)
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