October 22, 2009 - Minutes

Business 144 -- 11:15 -12:35

Members Present: Terrin Adair-Lynch, Javid Afrasiabi, Espy Bolivar-Owen, Chuck Brinkman, Ken Buckner, Sandi Burnett, Laura Campbell, Fran Chandler, Tom Chen, Steve Contarsy, Ian Culbertson,  Rebecca Curtis, Abbas Dehkhoda, Guilio Dellarocca, Tracey Ellis, Dennis Frisch, Elena Garate, Claudia Garcia, Martin Goldstein, Keith Graziadei, Ben Jimenez, Lesley Kawaguchi, Richard Lavallee, Ming Lu, Mario Martinez, Suzanne McDonald, Joan Mills, Mitra Moassessi, Nick Pernisco, Pauli Peter, Tom Peters, Paris Poirier, Bill Price, Jenny Resnick, Michael Schwartz, Jackie Scott, Lantz Simpson, Howard Stahl, Michael Strathearn, Nina Theiss, Joy Tucker, Odemaris Valdivia, Alicia Villapando, Carol Womack, Anne York-Herjeczki, David Zehr.

Excused: Rebecca Anderson, Katarina Cerovic, Josh Kanin, John Kennedy, Kym McBride, Saul Rubin, Audrey Sandoval, Judith Remmes, Kathy Sucher.

Absent: Eve Adler, Maria Alvarado, Vini Angel, Garen Baghdasarian, Greg Brookins, Troy Cardenas, Gayle Davis Culp, Anna Collier, George Davison, Michael Dixon, Jim Downs, Brian Dunniway, Gail Edinger, Heather Eisenhardt, Blue Fier, Mark Foster, Matt Hotsinpiller, Steven Kaufman, Ed Markarian, Jim Martin, Ken Mason, Marilyn McGrath, Colleen McGraw, Feresteh Mobasheri, Sue Moisin, Eric Oifer, Jim Pacchioli, Franklyn Phillips, Juan Quevedo, Michelle Scholefield, Christine Schultz, Elisha Shapiro, Jim Smith, Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, Holly Thiercof, Sal Veas,  Kayli Weatherford, Lisa Willaims, Ventris Woods.

Guests: Bill Nault, Matt Pakbaz.

The meeting was called to order at 11:21; a quorum was present.

I.               Approval of Minutes, October 8, 2009

http://www.smcfa.org/index.php/meetings/94-draft-minutes/1175-october-8-2009-draft-minutes

Correction to the minutes: Greg Brookins should be listed as absent and Ken Buckner as excused.

It was moved by Chuck Brinkman that the minutes be approved as corrected.

 1 abstention, Motion carried.

II.             Motion from the Executive Committee:

"Pursuant to the vote of the membership in Spring 2008, the Executive Committee recommends that the Assembly allocate $35 per member to the SMCFA-PAC for the academic year 2009-10 for the purpose of supporting the Board candidates endorsed by the Assembly."

Passed unanimously

Background -- PAC (Political Action Committee) allocation: In Spring 2008 the FA voted to allocate a portion of the dues to the PAC ($35 per member). The FA will provide an opt-out form for members who do not wish their dues be transferred to PAC.  Members who fill an opt-out form do not receive a refund and their dues stay in the FA general fund; the Representative Assembly will approve the board candidates that the FA will support.

III.           Approval of 2009-10 Faculty Association Budget - Mario Martinez

Notable entries: FACCC (Faculty Association of California Community Colleges) dues are now a separate line item, so members can see the total amount of those dues. Full-time FACCC dues are $16.20 tenthly; part-time FACCC dues are $5.62, eighthly.  FACCC dues are set by FACCC.

Reserves in the FA account in mutual funds and cash = $950,000.

Any specifics on investments, checking account, etc. can be viewed by stopping by the FA office. All the mutual funds that were approved by the Executive Committee and the Representative Assembly several years ago remain unchanged. Treasury Mario Martinez will report on the status of FA investments in the near future.

Motion from the Executive Committee:

 “The Executive Committee recommends that the Representative Assembly approve the 2009-10 Faculty Association Budget.”

 Passed unanimously

IV.           Special Guest - Jonathan Lightman, Executive Director of FACCC:

Cancelled due to cancelled flight from Sacramento

V.             President's Report: 

·      DPAC Meeting: A motion brought to DPAC from the Budget Committee was amended by DPAC.

The original Budget Committee motion:

“The Budget Committee recommends to DPAC that the District backfill all categorical programs at the level of the 2009-2010 Adopted Budget from the District reserves in an amount not to exceed an additional $1,000,000.”

The amended motion:

“The DPAC recommends that the District strategically backfill all some of categorical programs at the level of the 2009-2010 Adopted Budget from the District reserves in an amount not to exceed an additional $1,000,000.”

The original motion stated that all categorical would be backfilled; the amendment stated strategically backfill some of …... 

The FA voted against the amendment, but voted for the motion.

DPAC approved a second motion from the Budget Committee:

“In light of the projected state funding level in the 2010/2011 budget, the Budget Committee recommends to DPAC that each categorical program develop a plan by January 1, 2010 for the upcoming 2010-2011 academic year at a level that assumes un-enhanced state funding.”

• The District’s 311 report (financial report to the state) states that 53.74% of the unrestricted budget has been spent on instruction, so the college is in compliance with the 50% law.

• The FA met with the district and representatives from the Academic Senate to discuss issues surrounding student evaluations. A second meeting has been scheduled for October 27^th.

VI.              Report from the Director of Governmental Affairs: Dennis Frisch 

• CCCI (The California Community College Independents) Conference. October 16-17: There are 13 members in CCCI and 12 colleges were represented at the conference. The FA sent a delegate of 9 members to the CCCI conference. Several union negotiators were concerned about the effect that the state budget situation will have on negotiating health benefits.  Some of the colleges are under pressure to make modifications on health benefits.

• The chancellor’s accreditation task force has created a smaller group who will meet with the representatives from the Accreditation commission. The CCA has filed lawsuits with the committee.

• The Board of Governors will be presented with a first reading concerning the exemption from the 50% law due to ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds.

VI.           Negotiations Report: Howard Stahl

• The Governor signed Assembly Bill 361, which allows college bargaining agreements to negotiate to allow faculty to join the State Disability Insurance program.  This benefit is most attractive to part-time faculty, as full-time faculty receive similar benefits thru STRS.  This bill provides a mechanism to allow just part-time faculty to join SDI and would be a “no cost” item to the District.  The cost of the SDI program is 1.1% of salary. The FA will survey part-time faculty on this issue.

• The District informed the DPAC Budget Committee that it is not interested in offering a retirement incentive.  A study commissioned by Human Resources claims there would be no generated savings.  The FA has asked for copies of the study to review.

• The District has recently started denying the assignment recommendations of certain Department Chairs when those assignments would result in 10 LHE being assigned to certain part-time faculty.  Although the District approves assignments for all faculty, the FA has and will continue to discuss this matter with the District.

Respectfully Submitted,

Becky Curtis

Recording Secretary