SANTA MONICA COLLEGE FACULTY ASSOCIATION

REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING

Minutes - May 27, 2010

Members Present: Terrin Adair-Lynch, Afrasiabi, Chuck Brinkman, Sandi Burnett, Katarina Cerovic, Fran Chandler, Tom Chen, Steve Contarsy, Ian Culbertson, Rebecca Curtis, George Davison, Abbas Dehkhoda, Guilio Dellarocca, Tracey Ellis, Blue Fier, Dennis Frisch, Elena Garate, Martin Goldstein, Keith Graziadei, Matt Hotsinpiller, Ben Jimenez, Josh Kanin, John Kennedy, Richard Lavallee, Ming Lu, Ed Markarian, Mario Martinez, Mitra Moassessi, Jim Pacchioli, Nick Pernisco, Pauli Peter, Tom Peters, Jackie Scott, Elisha Shapiro, Lantz Simpson, Howard Stahl, Michael Strathearn, Joy Tucker, Odemaris Valdivia, Anne York-Herjeczki, David Zehr

Excused: Kym McBride, Judith Remmes, Audrey Sandoval, Kathy Sucher, Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein

Absent: Eve Adler, Maria Alvarado, Vini Angel,  Garen Baghdasarian, Espy Bolivar-Owen, Ken Buckner, Laura Campbell, Troy Cardenas, Anna Collier, Gayle Davis-Culp, Jim Downs, Brian Dunniway, Gail Edinger, Heather Eisenhardt, Mark Foster, Claudia Garcia, Steven Kaufman, Lesley Kawaguchi, Jim Martin, Ken Mason, Suzanne McDonald, Marilyn McGrath, Colleen McGraw, Joan Mills, Feresteh Mobasheri, Sue Moisin, Eric Oifer, Franklyn Phillips, Paris Poirier, Bill Price, Juan Quevedo, Jenny Resnick, Saul Rubin, Michelle Scholefield, Christine Schultz, Michael Schwartz, , Jim Smith, Nina Theiss, Holly Thiercof, Sal Veas, Alicia Villapando, Kayli Weatherford, Lisa Williams, Carol Womack, Ventris Woods

Guests:  Jo Kidd, Bill Nault, Aida Mostkoff, Andrea York, and Sylvia Farias

The meeting was called to order at 11:22 a.m., a quorum was present.

I.                   Approval of Minutes, May 13, 2010

http://www.smcfa.org/index.php/meetings/94-draft-minutes

      It was moved by Nick Pernisco to approve the minutes as submitted.

      Passed unanimously

II.                Approval of Bylaws – Second Reading

       It was moved by David Zehr to accept the second reading of the Bylaws.

       Passed unanimously

III.             Motion from the Executive Committee

The Executive Committee recommends that the Representative Assembly approve a $500 donation to Pico Youth and Family Center.

 Passed unanimously

IV.              Motion from the Executive Committee

The Executive Committee recommends that the Representative Assembly approve reassigned time for Summer and Fall, 2010, as presented.

      Passed unanimously

Summer 2010

President                      20% = 3 LHE

Chief Negotiator           20% = 3 LHE

Vice President              20 hours total

Negotiating team           10% each for a total of 30%

Fall 2010

President                                              80%

Vice president                                      40%

Conciliator                                            40%    

Chief Negotiator                                   80%

Secretary                                              20%

Director of Government Relations         60%

Political Director                                   40%

Editor                                                   20%

Website                                                20%

Part-time Committee Chair                   20%

Negotiating Team                                 40%

V.                 Motion from the Executive Committee

The Executive Committee recommends that the Representative Assembly approve a $2000     stipend for Michael Strathearn for his service to the Association.

      Passed with one abstention

VI.              Approval of MOU- Full Time Athletic Team Coach

This MOU is related to the men’s basketball coach; 2010-11 will be the third year that the Faculty Association, based on the request from the Kinesiology and Athletics department, has signed this MOU with the district to have a project manager be the head coach for Basketball.

 It was moved by Sandi Burnett “that the Representative Assembly approve the MOU on Full-Time Athletic Coach.”

     Passed unanimously

VII.           Faculty Association Election Results

       Richard Lavallee reported that Anne York-Herjeczki was elected to the position as Secretary of the SMCFA. Department Representatives will be notified by campus mail.

VIII.        Special Guests from FACCC – Sylvia Farias:  FACCC Program Director and Andrea York, Director of Government Relations for FACCC.

Ms. Farias reported on the California Great Teachers Seminar, which will be held in Santa Barbara on August 1-6, 2010. FACCC has offered a 50% off scholarship. Interested parties should send an email to Mitra Moassessi; a drawing will be held to choose a winner.

Ms. York reported on the State Budget and current Legislation.

Budget --CA has a $19 billion dollar deficit to deal with; the Governor wants to slash Medi-Cal and CalWORKs; however, he wants to fully fund Prop 98, and to put money in the CSU and the UC at the cost of these other areas. So Democrats unveiled their plans: both the Senate and Assembly do not support corporate tax breaks. There is a state-wide initiative to repeal the tax breaks.

The Senate proposes a revenue plan and budget cut: increasing license fees, and increasing the alcohol sales tax by 60%. The Assembly wants a functional way of dealing with the budget, with cuts. They are focusing on jobs. We can’t afford to cut programs that will just continue the cycle of unemployment. They propose taking a loan and for collateral using the savings from an oil severance tax.

The Governor wants to fund SB 70 by cutting $10 million form the Part-time fund and $10 million from EOPS. A philosophical debate is occurring in the capital: the Assembly is saying they are hearing the community colleges loud and clear that the categoricals are integral to the faculty. They suggest dropping the growth to 2% and using that money for the categoricals, so they reject the Governors’ proposal to fund SB 70 by taking the money away from part-time faculty and categoricals.

Corporate tax Breaks: Tax structures need to be changed. Sales tax breaks for out of state businesses should be changed.

New revenues – an oil severance tax - are on the table.

Attacks on Pensions continue: The Governor said he will not sign any budget that did not revise the pension plans, specifically on the CALPERS side. He is trying to build some sort of solidarity with the Republicans in the Legislature on this issue. 

Legislation:

Reviewing the Master Plans for Education: there has been discussion on completion rates; could we do better? – yes and we should – but how do you get better at completions rates when you are cutting the programs that are crucial for students with the most needs.

SB 1143: FACCC urges faculty to oppose this bill.  Carol Liu is sponsoring this bill and she is not a supporter of community colleges. This bill proposes to change the way colleges are funded; if it passes the community colleges will be funded on completion rates.

This bill will move districts away from Equalization in funding.  

AB 1807: FACCC supports this bill. SMC is the statewide model for statewide reemployment rights for part-time faculty. This bill will help Districts with no seniority or re-hiring rights.

AB 1903: FACCC supports this bill to assist EDD in developing their website for job information.

Ms. York and Ms. Farias suggested faculty visit the redesigned FACCC website for further information: http://www.faccc.org

IX.              For the good of the order

Congratulations to Frank Dawson, Chair of Communications, who won dinner for two in the “Know Your Contract” quiz drawing.

Respectfully Submitted,

Becky Curtis

Recording Secretary