(0:00 - 0:08)
Okay, it is now 6 o'clock PM. We will call the meeting to order. We do have a quorum and.

(0:09 - 0:16)
1st, order of business is the implication and pledge to the United States flag and pleasure. The Texas flag led by region. Judy.

(0:16 - 0:29)
All right, let's break father. We are just so grateful for this opportunity to gather father. We thank you for putting us together here as a board and we thank you for this community that we get to serve in this college.

(0:29 - 1:04)
We get to serve father. Thank you for your blessings upon this college with the funding. That's coming in father. 

Thank you for those that work so hard to see this college be a success. Lord, we just want to let, you know, how much we love and praise you father and we thank you for all you do in your name. We pray. 

Amen. And the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands 1 nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

(1:05 - 1:19)
Honor the flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas flag. And to the Republic for which it stands 1 nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

(1:20 - 2:12)
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands 1 nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. This evening, Nicole and another quality service leadership team member are here to share their journey from data to a statement of caring community and empowering all Lee college employees to be educators. Good evening, everyone. 

Thank you so much for having me this evening. I'm very excited to share our journey with you. We began very fortunately at a time when 3 forces collided.

(2:13 - 2:39)
The 1st, 1 was our title 5 pathways grant. Under the leadership of Kelly Ford Spears, we had a consultant do a landscape analysis of 1st year 1st year experience activities and they made recommendations for improvements. Through this work, customer service proved to be 1 of the areas with room for improvement.

(2:41 - 3:21)
Around that same time, I joined Lee college and Dr. Laura lane. Whirly and I were charged with launching guided pathways. 2.0. Through collaboration with many of our colleagues, we developed work groups to focus on each pillar and developed Lee colleges. 

Beautiful definition of guided pathways. The holistic roadmap to the ideal student experience. When Kelly shared the results of the title 5 grant landscape study with us, we realized it aligned perfectly in order to consider the whole student and provide them the ideal experience.

(3:21 - 3:42)
We do need to be thinking about the services they receive. And the 3rd force that happened at the same time was the launch of the empirical educator center. I was fortunate to be part of the team that launched that center and under the direction of Dr. Laura lane, whirly and Karen goth Miller.

(3:43 - 4:16)
We quickly adopted a mission of providing professional development for all college community members and encouraging a culture of continuous improvement to support the ideal student experience. So, we had 3 forces students telling us service needs to improve. Guided pathways where we are focusing on the entire student experience, not just checking boxes to get degrees and then a center dedicated to helping all of our employees improve.

(4:18 - 4:53)
So, Kelly Ford Spears, and I partnered to lead this project to take on this customer service problem. We had a few meetings with some pathways and student affairs personnel, and we developed a simple plan train. Some trainers do some training. 

You all have heard of the train the trainer model. We would send 10 to 12 people through Disney's online training on customer service. Then those people would host in person training at the college, and we'd fix the customer service problem.

(4:56 - 5:10)
So, we selected our group, this is not the original group. This is who we've evolved to, but I want to point out to you the diversity of this group. We have people from lots of different areas of the college.

(5:10 - 5:35)
We have different levels, everyone all the way from secretary up to executive directors, advisors, faculty. We really were intentional about getting a variety of representation on this group. My background is instruction, and when I thought about leading this group of diverse individuals, I got a little hesitant because different.

(5:36 - 5:58)
Frames of thought can lead to sometimes disagreement and difficulty. But then the magic began, we had our 1st check in meeting and we were all blown away. We had only completed 7 of the 25 assigned online modules, but we knew we had stumbled onto something truly special.

(5:58 - 7:06)
This group felt empowered, we began having the most authentic conversations I've ever had in my career. We didn't know exactly what was coming, but everyone left that meeting with the feeling that 1 professional development event that we were planning. I wasn't going to cut it, so we continued going through the Disney Institute modules. 

I'm going to share just some of the highlights of what we what we learned through those. 1st of all, we learned that exceptional service lies at the sweet spot where you are intentional about your processes, your places, and your people, rather than just focusing on checking boxes and accomplishing task. We also adapted Disney's explanation of why exceptional service is so much better than just quality service to envision the impact that it would have if everyone at Lee College became more intentional about their processes, places, and people.

(7:10 - 7:41)
We also learned about the idea of a common purpose. This was brand new to us, but it made a lot of sense. It's something that stands separate from the mission and vision, but it is highly aligned to those. 

It's a simple phrase that captures the why. It's not a goal to be achieved, but rather something everyone can aspire to. And our final thing that we learned and thought was the most important was about quality standards.

(7:42 - 8:11)
Quality standards ensure consistent delivery of service at every interaction. It's a ranked list of priorities that are used as a decision making framework that can be applied in every situation. Rather than having to rely on judgment calls or wait for supervisors to give input, everyone is empowered to follow a sequence of priorities and take action in the moment.

(8:12 - 8:25)
So, those are our big takeaways, and we did go ahead with getting training started. We were very excited. We still knew there was something bigger here, but we didn't want to delay.

(8:25 - 10:16)
So, in spring of 2022, we worked with over 100 student-facing college employees that are non-faculty and over 100 faculty to teach them about intentionality with people, places, and processes. We also paired each department with one of the quality service coaches to set service-related goals and create action plans to achieve them. The impact of this training simply went to spear our team on. 

They were more excited than ever, and we continued to meet and develop what we thought might be a good common purpose and service standards for Lee College. As you may remember, these became the Statement of Care and Community adopted by this board last December as part of Vision 2028. I know you guys see a lot of different things, so I thought I'd remind you. 

The common purpose is We Are Educators, and this evening when you came in, you got a We Are Educators pen. Last year at convocation lunch, we handed those out to all employees, and we encouraged them to wear them as a reminder that we are educators at Lee College, and everyone has the opportunity to share knowledge and promote growth with others. Our service standards are safety, courtesy, well-being, growth, and efficiency.

(10:16 - 11:44)
This year at convocation lunch, we have little ID card-sized cards that people can slide in with their ID card and always have that with them as well. I know I'm probably over my time, but I wanted to share with you the voice of some of our coaches. This is a quote from Fran Parent. 

She was one of our very original quality service coaches, and she is our team's mother hen. She wanted to share with you all what it means to be an educator, and I'll just pause a second to let you read. And then I also wanted to share from Mrs. Miranda Banks-Simmons. 

She wanted to share her thoughts on the impact of quality service. And I will also add that Miranda is one of our members of the team who I have really seen blossom through this work. She's found her voice, and she's making a change here at Lee College because she's empowered through this work.

(11:47 - 12:28)
So that was my quick spiel. I would love to answer any questions you all have. I have a question. 

So you mentioned early in the spring of 2022, you got with 100 student-facing faculty, right? Have the rest of the faculty? So we did 100 student-facing staff, and we did over 100 faculty. And then we continue to offer that same training every fall. And people who haven't attended yet are so Monday, next Monday, we're doing it at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

(12:29 - 12:33)
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you guys so much.

(12:33 - 12:44)
Thank you. Okay. Next item on the agenda is the disposition of the minutes.

(12:44 - 12:55)
We have the board policy committee meeting from July the 10th and the board meeting from July the 20th. Do you have a motion on the minutes? I would move approval. I second.

(12:56 - 13:14)
Okay. I've got a motion by Regent Cotton and a second by Regent Morfano. Any discussion on the minutes? All in favor say aye. 

Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Report of the chairman.

(13:16 - 13:32)
My report this evening will be brief. I just want to say thank you to our five finalists for stepping up when your community needs you. You've made our decision tonight very, very difficult.

(13:32 - 13:43)
And that's before you've made your three-minute presentations, because we know all of you. Let's say your reputations all precede you. You are all active in the community.

(13:43 - 13:55)
And so, for all of those reasons, we have a very, very tough decision to make tonight. But I would just say, thank you guys for stepping up. We appreciate it.

(13:58 - 14:06)
Regent Santana, building committee. Mr. Chair, the building committee has not met since our last meeting. Regent Guillory, policy committee.

(14:06 - 14:14)
We have not met either, sir. Regent Gerald. We have not met, and once we get through the budget process, we will meet again.

(14:14 - 14:22)
Okay, very good. So now, Dr. Bee, report of the president. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

(14:23 - 14:39)
Please, I'd like to begin by sending my apologies that I couldn't be with you in person. And I would tell you that I would certainly prefer to be there with you rather than be at home. I want to start off by giving you a brief update on enrollment.

(14:40 - 15:00)
We are currently up 10% overall as compared to our enrollment this time last year. Now, I don't want to be too hopeful, but all signs point toward our highest total enrollment in our college's 89-year history. We still have a little time left, though, and I'm hoping to confirm what we are seeing.

(15:00 - 15:22)
But I will just say we have so much to be proud of, and I'm so thankful to our entire Lee College team for working to achieve these incredible milestones. Next, I want to talk about the Liberty Back-to-School Bash. Lee College hosted the second annual Back-to-School Bash held at the Liberty Center on Saturday, August 5th.

(15:22 - 15:35)
123 families attended the event. 186 students of all ages received free school supplies. 16 students received free immunizations from the Texas Department of State Health Services.

(15:37 - 15:57)
232 people enjoyed free Italian ice. This was double the size of last year's event. We had participation from the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Texas Health Steps Star Program, Liberty Dayton Regional Medical Center, and Raising Awesome Awareness.

(15:58 - 16:24)
Please join me in expressing appreciation to Dr. Laura Lane Worley, Daisy Aramburro, Stephanie Broussard, Amanda Lavender, Katie Merrick, Alex Nguyen, Clayton Ware, and Estefany Sanchez, and all of our Liberty ISD partners. As we all know, there are significant changes in our new funding model. One of the areas that is changing is in our Texas Education Opportunity Grants.

(16:24 - 16:52)
We're pleased to receive a large increase in our TEOG allocation, and this will be significant for the students who will receive more aid. I want to recognize Felipe Leal, our Director of Financial Aid, who has been asked to participate in the Texas Association of Community Colleges' TEOG group, which will be advising the coordinating board on implementing the TEOG aspect of our new funding model. We are proud of him, and I know he will represent Lee College well.

(16:52 - 17:15)
As I shared with the board this morning, we've made the front cover of Community College Daily, and I'm so incredibly proud of our amazing Lee College. Special thanks, once again, go out to Sarah Tubbs for writing the article and connecting us to news outlets who have picked the article up. My thanks also go out to Brian Waddell for his outstanding leadership of our Marketing and Public Relations team.

(17:15 - 17:45)
Finally, I want to share the amazing story of two Lee College graduates who are on the cover of the Greater Town Magazine that David has to share with you tonight. Twins Joseph and Matthew Gerard of Liberty ISD graduated last May from Lee College, both with Associate's degrees in Business and in General Studies. But it is only now, this fall, that they are entering their senior year in high school, at Liberty High School.

(17:46 - 18:01)
This is, of course, amazing, but that's not the whole story. One of the twins, Matthew, was diagnosed with autism at age two, and that was when the family still lived in Los Angeles. He did not utter his first words until age four.

(18:01 - 18:28)
He was supported and served by providers in California until the family moved to Liberty when the twins were age 10. Dad says the greatest and best therapist was his twin brother, Joseph. Actually, ahead of their classmates by the time they entered middle school in Liberty, the twins asked their principal about dual credit college classes at our Lee College Liberty Center, but learned that this was not allowed until 11th grade.

(18:28 - 18:55)
They asked and received permission from their principal to test anyway. They passed and began taking dual credit classes at Liberty Center in 7th grade. In completing required courses for the two degrees, the twins maintained a 4.0 GPA while also doing middle school and high school work and playing saxophone in the Liberty High School jazz and marching bands.

(18:55 - 19:09)
It's simply amazing. It is once again a testament to how our Lee College is changing lives. My kudos go out to Katie Merrick, who worked with the boys for 7 years and is now a Lee College shared college coordinator.

(19:09 - 19:50)
And to Lee College's counselor, Kaylee Villanueva, who worked with the twins to ensure accommodation for Matthew and worked closely with his professors to make sure he had the tools to be successful. Mr. Chairman, on that very positive note, this concludes my report. Thank you. 

Now we will move into resignations and retirements. Dr. V. I have the following Johnson librarian. Rosa Martinez, a paying faculty, a D. N. Gene Price, academic advisor, James Miller, faculty, English and humanities.

(19:50 - 20:06)
Derek Thomas, recruitment and outreach specialist. John Elliott, division chair, welding and division chair and full time faculty and welding. Patricia Ranzini, vice president, college advancement and Tom Sandoval, network support administrator.

(20:07 - 20:15)
Thank you. Thank you. Okay, now we will have our financial report from Miss Ferguson.

(20:41 - 20:54)
Thank you, Chairman. We are going to be covering the financial results through July 31st, so we're almost done. We can see the end.

(20:54 - 21:08)
So this is our 11th month of the fiscal year, 92% of our operating expenses. Our cash remains strong. We have about 16 million operating.

(21:10 - 21:43)
Twenty five million in board reserves and other restricted funds, about eight million dollars available for construction and other projects. Our tuition and fees, we've been ahead of budget pretty much all year, and right now we're projecting that we'll finish up somewhere between six and seven percent over what we had budgeted for tuition and fees. Our state appropriations, of course, they tell us what that number is, so we're usually pretty good at estimating that one.

(21:45 - 22:14)
Our taxes, we are just slightly ahead of what we had budgeted, and we've seen this number before, but our revenue in lieu of tax is what about six hundred thousand over what we had budgeted. When we look at other revenues, our other revenue as well as our interest income is well above our budget. We're going to exceed our interest income by about a million dollars.

(22:14 - 22:51)
The big increase that we see in our other revenue is the TDCJ reimbursement. We have been very fortunate to receive some additional funds here in the last few months. They called and they said, hey, some schools didn't spend their money. 

Is there anything we can do? We said, absolutely. Send it over. Donna works very well with TDCJ and has been instrumental in securing those funds and making sure that we spend it to serve our students.

(22:53 - 23:25)
When we look at our restricted funds, we have about three hundred and fifty eight thousand that we will be pulling down and that will bring us into balance with what is available. When we look at our budget versus year to day projections, again, you can see that on the revenue side, we are exceeding our budget, tuition, taxes and in other. So from a revenue standpoint, we've done an outstanding job this year.

(23:26 - 23:51)
Looking at our projected net revenue right now, we're projecting that our revenue by itself will be about three point six million above what we had originally projected. And our expenses, we will be under what we had budgeted by approximately two point two million dollars. Now, of that two point two.

(23:54 - 24:27)
About one point three of that was planned in that we have our contingency, that's about a million, and then our insurance reserve, that's a little over three hundred thousand. And the rest of it is coming from vacant payroll positions, about a million dollars right now. And you may recall that we did change our budgeting process this year and we budgeted salaries at ninety five percent rather than the whole one hundred percent to allow for vacancies that occur throughout the year.

(24:30 - 25:03)
When we look at the breakdown of the expenses, our allocation between salaries, operating expenses and debt is all right where we had projected it to be. So we're well within the budget there. When we look at our monthly expense versus actual, you'll see that our salary and benefits are a little bit above, but you may recall that we asked the board to approve a compression adjustment this year.

(25:04 - 25:21)
And so that was not included in our original budget. So that is one of the reasons why our salaries would be over. And then also, when you look at operating costs, as I mentioned earlier, we were fortunate enough to receive some additional funds from TTCJ.

(25:21 - 25:41)
And so we did go out and purchase items to support our students with those funds. And so, although that shows to be over, we also had revenue to offset it. When you look at our expenses year to date, we're pretty much right in line with where we need to be.

(25:42 - 26:10)
So we're slightly under on salary benefits, slightly under on operating, a little bit over on debt service with the refunding transaction that we completed in June. Some of those were not included in the budget. And that is it for my report, Chairman, and I would be glad to answer any questions anyone may have.

(26:12 - 26:48)
Any questions? Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, next we have public comment. 

Do we have anyone signed up for public comment? Yes, we do, Mr. Chairman. We have Byron Schoenbeck. Mr. Schoenbeck, you have three minutes, and I will notify you when you have 30 seconds remaining.

(26:48 - 27:06)
Yes, Mr. Chairman, members, I have a long history with Lee College. It has a special place in my heart. Graduate, 1991. 

If you're not aware, my father was actually a Board of Regents at the time. He was able to hand me my diploma on the stage. It was a unique experience.

(27:07 - 27:33)
I was also president of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Fraternity, and I recently took advantage of the COVID tuition to come back to school. I just want to let you know that there are a lot of folks that are involved that can't make these meetings that do. Watch what you do and pay attention online, and I think we can do a little bit better job of being a little bit more transparent.

(27:33 - 27:51)
I know it's easy to just kind of go with the flow because nobody's here to say anything. A lot of times, it's just easier to go along and streamline everything for everybody to get out of here. One of the things I wanted to mention was that you do have some great candidates to fill Mr. Alfaro's seat.

(27:51 - 28:03)
There's not a single one of them that I would object to. I do have a concern just about the process. I would have preferred that the candidates could have been vetted in a democratic process through an election.

(28:04 - 28:18)
Maybe that's something we can revisit next time. But if you're looking at the agenda items specifically, I know it's budget season, and so we're paying a lot more attention to the local governments right now. I know everyone's working on the tax rates and budgets and everything.

(28:19 - 28:31)
We need to be able to look at what you guys are planning to provide input before you have a vote. By the time you have a vote, it's too late. We would like to let you know what we think on certain things ahead of time.

(28:32 - 28:46)
It looks like there's an agenda item for consideration of resolution of budget priorities. When I pull it up, there aren't actually any priorities listed on the website. It's just simply a detail.

(28:48 - 28:55)
Resolution identifies the Board of Regents' priorities for administration. I understand that. I would imagine that there are certain items that you guys are wanting to discuss.

(28:55 - 29:12)
I think it would be important for the citizens to be able to see that before you actually vote on it. I would ask you to maybe reconsider this or anything else that might not have all the details on there. Your other agenda items, we can see names, we can see facts and figures, we can see a contract, all this other stuff.

(29:13 - 29:30)
But for some reason, something as important as this, we can't see the information. I'd ask you to maybe reconsider so that we can have a fair discussion before you. I understand budgets discussions are going to be coming up maybe as early as next week or in the next few weeks.

(29:30 - 29:34)
So, we'd like to have that before then. Thank you very much. Thank you.

(29:41 - 29:59)
Okay, now we will move into action items. Consideration of new hires. Administration recommends that the Board approve the new hires as presented below.

(30:05 - 30:18)
Consent items, so we can take them all. Do you want to say them? I'll read them out there. Rhonda Brady, Program Manager, Community Education, Kids at College.

(30:18 - 30:27)
Philip Hanley, Director, Physical Plant. Jonathan Harris, Director of Purchasing. Melanie Stewart, Associate Degree Nursing Instructor.

(30:27 - 30:33)
Lisa Tuck, Geology Instructor at Huntsville. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second.

(30:33 - 30:39)
Okay, that was a motion by Regent Gerald and a second by Regent Cotton. All in favor say aye. Aye.

(30:49 - 31:10)
Kids at College Program. Consideration of hire for. Did I miss one? That would have been on the consent agenda, wouldn't it? Oh, they were all under there. 

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

(31:11 - 31:35)
They're in there individually just in case the Board wants to consider any of them individually. Okay, new business. Consideration of Vision 2028 Annual Progress Report and approval of the changes therein.

(31:35 - 31:53)
The administration recommends that the Board accept the Vision 2028 Annual Progress Report and approve the changes therein. I'd like to entertain a motion. Okay.

(31:53 - 32:01)
We have a motion by Regent Moore-Fontenot. Do we have a second on this item? Second. Second by Regent Cotton.

(32:02 - 32:18)
Any discussion on this item? At our last meeting, were these basically the changes that Dr. Walsters went over? Okay, great. Anything else? Rule number five. Under equity.

(32:21 - 32:49)
It says the race, ethnicity, and gender of full-time, part-time classified staff and exempt staff will reflect the race, ethnicity, and gender of degree and certificate-seeking students at the main campus. That is not what we approved in December. We actually approved a different statement, as we will strive to have the race and ethnicity.

(32:49 - 33:15)
There was quite a bit of discussion about this, and so it was revised. And this is used as to how goal number five got changed back, I guess. Did we approve? What page are you on, Mark? I'm on Dr. Walsters.

(33:16 - 33:19)
Goal five. Page 13. 13.

(33:20 - 33:37)
I just printed the one page. There was no intentional change, and we should use the language as it was approved. Which is the December approval? Yes, as it was approved in December of 2022.

(33:39 - 34:12)
Because if we don't make that change, doesn't that almost make it look as if we're saying we have to have these groups mirror, and wouldn't that violate employment or something because you can't target? Right? That was the discussion that was had when the original strategic plan was approved. What we need to do is make the amendment so that it reflects what we voted on in December, and you can still approve it. I made the motion.

(34:12 - 34:33)
Okay, can you amend your motion? Yes, I'd be happy to. I'd like to amend the motion to include the language that was approved in our December meeting to be reflected in this report that we're going to approve tonight. I'll accept that.

(34:33 - 34:41)
Okay. Any further discussion on the amended motion? All in favor say, aye. Aye.

(34:41 - 35:19)
Any opposed? Consideration of interlocal agreement with the city of Baytown for use of the wellness center and swimming pool. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and renew the agreement with the city of Baytown for the fiscal year 2023-2024. Do we have a motion on this item? So moved.

(35:21 - 35:26)
Second. Okay. We have a motion by Regent Geralds and a second by Regent Santana.

(35:26 - 35:38)
Is there any discussion on this item? Does this include retirees? The city of Baytown retirees? Yeah. I don't know. No? Okay.

(35:38 - 35:46)
Okay. Good. They've never asked.

(35:46 - 35:56)
I guess not. Any further discussion on this item? Anybody else have anything? Okay. All in favor say, aye.

(35:57 - 36:33)
Aye. Any opposed? Next, consideration of memorandum of understanding with member districts of the Lee College Education Center, South Liberty County. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the MOU with the member districts of the Liberty Center for the period September 1st, 2023 through August 31st, 2026.

(36:34 - 36:35)
So moved. Second. Okay.

(36:35 - 36:48)
I have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Moropant. No. Do we have any discussion on this item? Can we just identify who the member districts are, the partners are? Just so we… Oh, sure.

(36:48 - 37:02)
Say it out loud. Yes. This is Anahuac ISD, Dayton ISD, Hardin ISD, Holday-Zetta ISD, and Liberty ISD to provide dual credit courses in South Liberty County.

(37:06 - 37:14)
Any further discussion on this item? Just looks like we're the last signatures, so everybody else is on board. So, that's really great. Okay.

(37:14 - 37:19)
All in favor, please say, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Very good.

(37:30 - 37:52)
Consideration of extending contract with the PepsiCo and Smart Vending for exclusive beverage and vending services. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to exercise the first extension of RFP 220-531-01 for beverage and vending services on campus. So moved.

(37:53 - 37:56)
Second. Okay. We have a motion by Regent Moropant.

(37:56 - 38:03)
No. And a second by Regent Geralds. Do we have any discussion on this item? Drink my Coke to that.

(38:03 - 38:13)
No, I was thinking the same thing. Everybody's going to go up and down. And I'll raise my Dr. Pepperetti.

(38:15 - 38:21)
Can't get a drink at the arena. Okay. All in favor, say, aye.

(38:21 - 39:01)
Aye. Any opposed? Consideration of annual renewal of contract with Southern California News Group slash Ad Taxi for digital services. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the fourth renewal of RFP 200625-01 digital advertising services with Southern California News Group slash Ad Taxi.

(39:01 - 39:06)
Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. Okay.

(39:06 - 39:17)
I've got a motion by Regent Geralds and a second by Regent Moropant. No. Do we have any discussion on this? Just that in 2025, then we will have to go back out for bid for this item.

(39:18 - 39:43)
Just want to make sure that we state that for renewals that we will go out for bid next year. And when I looked at this, I thought there must be a nexus between the massive advertising and the increased enrollment that we have. And I'm hoping that we can say that it's a result of this level of advertising that we have.

(39:45 - 39:50)
Yep. Okay. All in favor, say, aye.

(39:51 - 40:02)
Aye. Any opposed? All right. Consideration of approval of Lee College Lawn Care Services Contract Renewal with Rotolo Consultants, Inc.

(40:02 - 40:28)
The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the Rotolo Consultants Year 2 renewable option of a five-year contract for the annual sum of $393,498.97. Do we have a motion on this item? So moved. Second. Okay, we have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Cotton.

(40:28 - 40:54)
Who was it? Oh, it was by you. I'm sorry. A motion by Regent Hall and a second by Regent Cotton. 

Sorry about that. Do we have any discussion on this item? Just pointing out this is the same price we paid last year, right? What it looks like? Yeah. I'm just fascinated by the fact that a lawn care service can bid it down to 97 cents.

(40:56 - 40:59)
To the penny. To the penny. Okay.

(41:00 - 41:27)
Any other discussion on this item? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

(41:27 - 41:44)
Recommendation and consideration of NameStorm insurance coverage. The administration recommends that the Board of Regents consider options for NameStorm traditional insurance or self-funded coverage. Do we have a motion on this item? So moved.

(41:46 - 41:53)
I have a second on this item. Second. I have a motion by Regent Geralds and a second by Regent Cotton.

(41:54 - 42:07)
Discussion on this item? I'm not real clear. I'm not going to be clear. Do we have? What we're doing? I can have a recommendation, but it's not clear.

(42:08 - 42:34)
So, as everyone knows, we've not had this coverage in the past. So, we did go out to the market and ask for quotes just so that we had information to make a good decision with. If we choose to go with NameStorm coverage, that $1.6 million price tag is what it will cost for us to have that insurance for one year.

(42:35 - 43:07)
If we choose to continue to operate without that coverage, it would be my recommendation that we put that money into our insurance reserve so that we can really build up a reserve, a self-funding reserve. As you know, we've been putting about $300,000 a year, a little over. Right now, we've got, I don't remember the exact amount, it's like $1.2, $1.3 million in that reserve currently.

(43:09 - 43:32)
I wanted to present this to you so that you would have current numbers on what it will cost. It's going to be my recommendation that we spend the $1.6 million one way or another. Either we buy the coverage or we add that to our self-funding reserve.

(43:35 - 43:49)
Did you have the $1.6 million in the budget already that you've given us? Yes. It's just in there as insurance. It's not in there as a specific category.

(43:49 - 44:04)
Is this the same coverage we went out to get bids on six or seven years ago when we started putting the $300,000 aside? Yes, sir. There's a deductible per building. Yes, sir.

(44:04 - 44:19)
I don't think it was that long ago, but it was in the last four or five. We've only been putting money into this account for just a few years while we only have $1.3. Right. It's just been since I've been here, which was in 2018.

(44:20 - 44:54)
One of the questions I have is somewhere in all this information I read that by not having traditional name storm insurance coverage, that federal assistance would not be available, right? That's what we're being told, yes, sir. If we wanted to go to FEMA and say, oh, FEMA, help us out because we got blown away, they're going to say, well, you didn't have insurance. But was there a certain amount that we could have for self-insurance that FEMA would cover or will FEMA not cover us at all? Right now what I'm being told is FEMA will not cover us.

(44:54 - 45:12)
I think I read that wrong then. But. We need we need to do something right to continue to put 300000 into a reserve is not going to be adequate if and when we suffer some type of a loss.

(45:13 - 45:25)
We've been very fortunate that we haven't had any type of loss in the past. But. There are some there's a 10 million dollar limit and a 15 million dollar limit.

(45:26 - 45:41)
I didn't see the 1.6 number. In this in these presentations here, what was. I believe that was for the 15 million dollar limit was 1. Yeah, this is 11,000,036.

(45:41 - 45:46)
Yeah, 1,000,000. It's year one. Oh, that was the total.

(45:46 - 45:49)
Okay. That was the total. Oh, okay.

(45:49 - 46:04)
1.1 for the 15 million dollar coverage and 810, 810,000 for 10 million dollars. Right. So, as we would all expect, if we pay this premium to an insurance company, we're covered.

(46:04 - 46:14)
If we never have a loss, we that's money we just keep putting out there. If we hold the money ourselves, we never we never have a loss. We still have the money.

(46:14 - 46:19)
Right. That would be correct. I think I think that was part of the more robust discussion.

(46:19 - 46:45)
We had a few years ago and making this decision and it was also based on the. Her building deductible that seemed to. You know, didn't make million dollars per building or something 2 or 3 buildings taken out. 

We're spending 3 million dollars. So. Basically, if you look at if you look at how it how it all.

(46:47 - 47:13)
Extends out if we were to the insurance company is planning on a 10 year payback in essence on that. So they're, they're hedging, if you will, that you will not have a loss for 10 years. And then if you do have that loss in 10 years, then you have basically paid down that money that they would in turn pay you back.

(47:14 - 47:32)
So, so that's that's the hedge that that we are faced with, which is are we going to have a loss in the next 10 years? We would be doing the same thing. So funding, right? Because if we had a loss in 2 years, we wouldn't have the funds that we would have after 10 years. That's right.

(47:32 - 47:50)
So we're really talking about the difference in the 2 is we hold the money or the insurance company holds money. But we lose any federal assistance. Should we have a catastrophic loss? And should we, and if we qualify for for any assistance, that's correct.

(47:50 - 48:05)
And if we have the catastrophic loss, and we don't have famous hip or the insurance. We have to have enough to self fund all the damages ourselves. We would be looking at looking at going out for some type of.

(48:05 - 48:17)
Financial assistance, either through a revenue bond, a geo bond, a local bank loan. We would have to go somewhere. So, so if we did have several million dollars sitting in an account.

(48:18 - 48:49)
We could go out for a bond and use those dollars to pay. Right. Yes, or we could use them to pay down on it and then just have a very small bond, right? Yeah. 

Whatever if we had more need than we had cash. 1 of the things that I'm looking at is that that deductible every building deductible. It's not campus wide. 

It's not. Plant wide, but it's every building and that adds up very fast. Because we haven't had any real catastrophic.

(48:50 - 49:06)
Problems that I'm aware of in the history of. And I don't have the policy in front of me, but I'm just thinking back to before the cap is that their total stop loss on there. It was 15Million.

(49:06 - 49:28)
That's correct I just remember before we could go out and borrow the money cheaper than the premiums would be if we had the loss and then we have the. 1st dollar to pay losses. And quite honestly, 15Million is not going to get us too far down the road. 

If we have a total loss. And that's that's all we would get out of this. That's correct.

(49:29 - 49:44)
I believe, you know, just following, it's just like, we're having the same conversation over that we had a few years ago, but maybe just to. Revalidate the decision we may accept today. We have more available funds to self insure.

(49:44 - 50:00)
And I, I know history shows we haven't had a cash catastrophic loss, but it, it only takes the 1st time to change that. And. You know, this is anything related to insurance is a gamble.

(50:01 - 50:09)
You're either gambling the money you're putting out every year and getting nothing in return, or you're going to get something for it. Sometime down the road in a catastrophic loss. So.

(50:10 - 50:44)
For me, the difficult part about making a decision about premium versus self funding right now. Is I don't know that we've looked at enough scenarios, but I think the conversation we've had in my mind says. Self insured is probably the way to go and budget for that. 

If we have the available funds. And considering the fact, if we did have a catastrophic event, we could go out strong financial rating. We have go out secure funds, emergency funds and have.

(50:45 - 50:55)
Have the money to pay to pay it back. Until we generated more revenue, right? You just need to go ahead. I just forgot my question.

(50:55 - 51:49)
No, I was just going to ask that they just need a motion by which 1 we want to do that. You're seeking is, is which way do we want to go? That's correct. Okay. 

1.6 million or 1.1. That's 1. the 1.6 was the total. I'm sorry. I misspoke on that. 

The 1.6 was the total. And so the 1.1. Was just for the name storm and that other amount is for the other coverage. That we will continue to carry that we already carry. 

So the amount you're recommending that would go into a insurance fund that we fund would be the 1.1 1.1. yes. I mean, could we just make it nice around me and it's easier to remember and so we got to make it difficult. To remember.

(51:51 - 52:16)
Okay, we've already got quite a bit of money. I would move that we set that insurance set aside, right? We don't have a motion. Do we? What we're discussing is which, which way we want to go. 

And so, so we had a motion already though in a 2nd. Well, yeah, but the motion was to give you the motion was to give you direction. I think. 

Okay. Okay. So, in order to come up with direction, let's, let's, let's look at it this way.

(52:18 - 52:28)
Um, let's say, uh, by show of hands, how many of us support. Self insuring with an insurance fund. Health insurance, health insurance.

(52:29 - 53:20)
Okay, how many support buying insurance? Well, I don't think we have enough information to make that decision. I think we should have had an insurance person do a presentation and also we need to understand what the impact of FEMA or no FEMA is. And also, I think we need to understand what our current insurance coverage is. 

What do we actually have coverage? We have 0 coverage for a named storm event. So, if there is a tornado that falls out of the sky from a named storm, and it takes out 2 or 3 of your buildings, you have no coverage. If you have a tornado that tears through the campus, that is not part of a named storm event, then you do have coverage.

(53:21 - 53:33)
Has to be within a named storm the named storm event in our proximity. Is what, um, is what the trigger is. So, if there's.

(53:34 - 53:56)
If there's probably what's what our worst scenario would be, it's most likely going to be a name. We don't have a lot of tornadoes. But so under the column, where it says current, where it says wind, hail and weather limit 237,000, is that a million? Whatever that is, is that coverage that we have? Yes.

(53:56 - 54:37)
Or we have all that coverage in the current column today. Yes, but it does not, but it does not extend. If it is part of a named storm event, and you're recommending we keep what we have. 

Also, I'm recommending that we keep what we have. Yes, sir. Go ahead. 

Yeah, the going back to the FEMA question. If we, is there any provision for us self ensuring that that would meet some FEMA qualification for coverage? Therefore we would. Have help from FEMA should we have a catastrophic event.

(54:38 - 55:01)
We have asked that specific question and the response that we received from our consultant that helped us. Go out for bid and prepare this was that. We, he, he couldn't say for sure 1 way or the other quite honestly, he said, if we could provide.

(55:02 - 55:25)
Proof that the, the fund was specifically for insurance. That it wasn't just money we had sent in around, but we strategically and specifically set that aside. For insurance that we could make a case.

(55:25 - 55:52)
For the fact that we were self insured, so we can say, instead of buying this 15Million dollar policy, we have this insurance fund that is 15Million dollars. Not that we have reserves of X amount, but we specifically have a fund for the type of loss with the same amount. Of the policy, the 15Million.

(55:53 - 55:59)
We're not behind your chief secretary had no, so. Right. Okay.

(56:02 - 57:12)
Okay, so we. That's. How do we document that for purposes? Well, I mean, the fact that we have a separate account for insurance, we have it separated on our ledgers. 

It is titled insurance. And we're not spending that money to cover. Any other types of expenses combined with the minutes of our budget meetings and so on proof that we would have for right now. 

And so to go back to your question, Mr. So, let's say we decide right now we want to just set up the self insurance, so we're going to put our extra 1Million. So now we're going to have 2Million. Well, 2Million is not 15Million. 

So if we had a loss next year, we could have difficulty in securing the federal assistance because we're not fully funded. We don't have an insurance fund that reached that level of coverage. If we were to go out and buy it now.

(57:12 - 57:40)
If we, you know, we managed to create a board reserve of 20 plus 1Million in the last 5 years. If we focus on it and allocate funds to this insurance fund, and we're able to build that up. At an accelerated rate, then in 5 to 6 years, I would anticipate that we would be able to have a 15Million dollar insurance fund.

(57:41 - 57:54)
So, the reserves that we have today, the 25Million, most likely that's for an event like this, right? Nope. No. Those are operating reserves.

(57:54 - 57:59)
What would we use 25Million? They're operating reserves. It's to continue the operations. Operational reserves.

(57:59 - 58:13)
For what? So, if we had buildings that are destroyed, we've got to go out and procure buildings somewhere to have class. So, we've got to pay. Yeah, we've got to pay the people. 

We have to pay our staff and faculty. So, you're assuming. It's to continue to operate.

(58:13 - 58:32)
So, you're assuming tuition, property taxes, state funding will cease. No. Well, then we don't need any extra money because we still get our revenue, right? Okay. 

But we're not paying rent on these facilities. We own them. We've got to go out and procure facilities.

(58:32 - 58:43)
Right. That's what the 25Million is most likely for because our revenue streams are going to keep coming in to pay our employees. Because there's property taxes and state money.

(58:43 - 59:09)
I think when we had that conversation, the definition of those operational funds were in case our revenue was to stop. Okay. Well, if taxes changed or quit coming in, if the state appropriation stopped coming in, if we had half of our tuition and fees lost, you know, I think it was those type of events, operational funds, not anything and everything.

(59:11 - 59:44)
Pay the day-to-day occurrences and everything so that you can continue to function as a college. I hear you and that sounds good, but we get our money ahead quite a bit and chances are taxes are not going to stop. But I'm just saying, if we could take some of that 25Million, say half of it, put in insurance, then we would have the 15, right, that we would need for FEMA possibly? I mean, if we get destroyed, there's a chance the plants could get destroyed and there goes your tax base.

(59:45 - 1:00:05)
I mean, so. What we did destroy? The town? Our industry? Industry. We're not going to be in business then. 

I mean, okay, that's fine. I mean, the closest. No, go ahead. 

So the motion you can amend whoever made the motion can amend the motion in order to allow for us to make. All right. Whatever made the motion can amend it to add that.

(1:00:08 - 1:00:18)
Yeah, do you have a motion? Your motion was by Regent Geralds and your 2nd was by Regent Codd. Okay, so we, so if Regent Geralds would amend the motion. If she desires to.

(1:00:18 - 1:00:44)
Yeah, if she desires to that, we are going to that we're directing the college to pursue self insured option for our budget. That's what you're looking for. Exactly. 

I would like to amend my budget. I would like to amend my motion that we move forward with self insuring for this insurance coverage. I'll accept that modification.

(1:00:45 - 1:00:59)
Okay, I have a question. We not specifically, they're going to pursue or bring back to us exactly what that's going to look like. I think so. 

Yeah, at the next budget workshop. I had 1 question. To satisfy the 15Million that the okay.

(1:00:59 - 1:01:20)
Is that can we have a, can we satisfy that with a. With a guarantee that we can go out and borrow in the market. That amount of money in other words, we have it available kind of as a credit. Or as credit, and I will pursue that line of questioning and find out if that will suffice 15Million dollars.

(1:01:21 - 1:01:55)
Unproductively aside interest earning. It's not going to be learning. Well, it's invested or we have the land too. 

So we are investing now. So, and maybe could you investigate the value of our property that we, we typically have that property reappraised every 2 years. We don't do it every year. 

We've been doing it every 2 years and this would be the year for us to have it reappraised. So, could we find out if the value of that property could be. Carried in that account as a self insurance guarantee.

(1:01:56 - 1:02:10)
I don't. That property was designated as investment property by this board. Back when I very 1st came and so.

(1:02:10 - 1:02:26)
I don't think that would work. Um, we could redesignate. You just need to find out if we can read that. 

Yeah. And we redesignated and satisfy. Just keep in mind that land is not instant money.

(1:02:27 - 1:02:30)
And so I have to vote to do that. Yeah. Once you find out.

(1:02:31 - 1:02:50)
But we could immediately borrow against that. Whatever man dollar property. Right and we could set up a line of property and have that in our pocket if we needed it. 

Potentially. Yes, sir. Do we know quickly? Do they self insure? Do they have insurance? I could not tell you.

(1:02:51 - 1:03:32)
I know when we checked with other area colleges. That are in our Gulf area, they all carry some level of insurance. Name storm named storm. 

I still think we need to have the consultant that you're you've hired to talk to this board, but. I yield to the vote. All right, but we have to adopt a budget by the end of the month. 

I'm all fine with hearing from an insurance consultant. We've been self insuring all along. Basically, the question is, do we want to increase from 300,000 each year to 1.1Million dollars? That's ultimately the question.

(1:03:33 - 1:03:36)
And, yes, I agree. Sure. We can have the insurance consultant here.

(1:03:37 - 1:03:42)
But the budget's going to be 1.1 or 1.6 either way. It sounds like. Not until you adopt it.

(1:03:43 - 1:03:49)
1.1, I think 1.1 is the self insured. The 600 is going to be there no matter what. So.

(1:03:49 - 1:04:01)
But you're going to put a 1Million aside. We're talking about jumping from 300,000 to 1Million is what is ultimately what we're talking about. That's the math equation here.

(1:04:01 - 1:04:45)
In the budget that we met all months ago. It did 1.1Million. The budget that you saw at this last meeting, which included expenses. Oh, the last meeting after we got the 9.5Million. Not before that. 

Right. Okay. I'm sorry. 

I misunderstood you. I thought you met last meeting was the 1st meeting that we presented any expenses to the board prior to that. What we had presented was revenue. 

That makes a big difference. Okay, are we ready to vote? Okay, all in favor of. Giving the direction to Annette of pursuing self insurance.

(1:04:45 - 1:05:03)
Please say I any opposed. Okay, so motion carries with 7 in favor and 1 opposed. The next item is on property insurance.

(1:05:06 - 1:05:31)
Consideration to award property insurance coverage to Texas Association of school boards. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the award of property insurance to TASB in the amount of 279,463 dollars. Do we have a motion? We have a 2nd.

(1:05:32 - 1:05:52)
We have a motion by region cotton and a 2nd by region. Do we have any discussion on this item? Hey, all in favor, please say, I, I, any opposed. Have to go back up to the back up to the casualty. 

Oh, yeah. Oh, that's good. That's all right.

(1:05:54 - 1:06:09)
Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Order. It's the same 1, didn't it? No, it's a different 1, different dollar amount.

(1:06:10 - 1:07:23)
Consideration of interlocal agreement with National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance TASB risk management fund for annual casualty insurance renewal. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and enter into an interlocal agreement with National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance TASB risk management fund for the casualty insurance renewal at a cost of 141,067 dollars. Okay, I have a motion by region gallery and a 2nd by region or font. 

No, any discussion on this item. All in favor, please say, I, I, any opposed. And property done casualty. 

Okay. Consideration and review of the 2023 ad valorem tax anticipated collection rate certification. The administration recommends that the board review and approve the certification of the anticipated ad valorem tax collection rate 2023 for Lee college district.

(1:07:23 - 1:07:52)
Do we have a motion on this item? Okay, I've got a motion by region Santana and I've got a 2nd was there. Who was by region cotton do we have any. Regional, okay, a 2nd by region hall, he and I talked over each other on the ladder. 

We'll, we'll give this 1 to region hall is left here. Yeah. Yeah.

(1:07:53 - 1:08:23)
Okay, do we have any discussion on this item? That was because they were both pointing at each other. That's. What was going on there? Oh, that's keeping our head down because you don't want to talk about it. 

Okay. I think you keep your head down. Okay. 

Okay. Okay, I've got no questions. This is just saying that we expect to collect 100% of our tax. 

That's all this is. We're not expecting 95 or 90 or whatever. Okay.

(1:08:24 - 1:08:31)
I understood that's correct. They. Have told us that that's what they expect to collect.

(1:08:31 - 1:09:12)
And now they just need you to say. We have seen this, we acknowledge what you are telling us is that we are going that you are going to collect 100% of our taxes. Fight over the rate later, we can fight over the rate on another day. 

Right. I have a question. Have we ever been told that we're going to collect less than 100% this last year? It was a little bit less. 

It was like 98. And how do they determine these numbers? There's a calculation and I'm sure Ms. Charlene could tell you. Come up, Ms. Charlene, put your other hat on your old hat.

(1:09:14 - 1:09:22)
They use the delinquent taxes, the penalties and interest and all the miscellaneous fees. So they're not just looking at the current year collections. That's how it got to 100%.

(1:09:22 - 1:09:49)
It just depends on a given year. If there's been litigation, big refunds, and they actually cycle the whole year on a 12 month cycle to come up with that number and they have to use it in the calculation for the tax rate. So that's why they're certifying and Paul back in court changed that formula where he wants everything included. 

So it totally changes how they look at it. That answer the question. It does. 

Yes. Thank you. Very helpful.

(1:09:49 - 1:10:04)
Thank you very much. Okay. Any further discussion or questions on this item? Okay, all in favor, please say aye. 

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, now on to the good part.

(1:10:07 - 1:10:22)
Hi, everyone. Are there any of them left today? Do you still want to join? Presentations by candidates for Lee College Board of Regents position four. Okay, I would like to call to the podium Mr. Heron Thomas.

(1:10:24 - 1:10:51)
Mr. Thomas, you'll have three minutes for your presentation and I will let you know we're down to 30 seconds. My entire life, I've been deeply vested in education in my community. I've served as a teacher, coach, and administrator in Goose Creek.

(1:10:51 - 1:11:12)
I'm currently a secondary principal in Barbers Hill. I've served on various committees in the community, founded a 501c3 organization, and served on the junior board for the Bay Area Homeless Services. These leadership positions have helped me understand the roles and responsibilities of a regent and how vital it is to serve the community and surrounding areas.

(1:11:12 - 1:11:43)
I've learned that every position is important, but the key to success is being surrounded by great people and having the ability to put them in the right positions to be successful. The biggest risk that I think the Lee College Board of Regents will deal with is handling decisions made by government officials, such as funding laws and Senate bills that directly affect our community with little regards to what is best for us. Another risk of being a community college within a passionately vocal town is that citizens could group all of the elected officials together.

(1:11:44 - 1:12:18)
This might cause Lee College to be negatively impacted if the community is upset about certain aspects of what is going on with the city of Baytown or Goose Creek, which could affect bond outcomes and contributions to the college. Building relationships with surrounding districts might be a risk if relationships aren't nurtured for continued success with future students. The biggest opportunities for the organization are opportunities for growth with enrollment and new programs to service our local community and surrounding service areas.

(1:12:19 - 1:12:48)
I have strong ties with student groups and district leadership with many of the surrounding service areas. These include Barbers Hill, Dayton, Anahuac, Crosby, Galena Park, Sheldon, Humble, Harris County, Department of Education, and many others. It is my job as a regent to build relationships that advance our college, to ensure that our financial policies and status remain strong, and give our president the tools and support to continue guiding our college.

(1:12:48 - 1:12:57)
I am proud that where others have saw rivalry, I have demonstrated unity. I am extremely comfortable with my commitment. I have handled a three-step process.

(1:12:58 - 1:13:04)
I have prayed about it. I've talked to my family, and I've talked with my supervisors. I feel supported at each level.

(1:13:05 - 1:13:24)
Something that could make this more manageable would be communicating, meetings, and other obligations well in advance so that they could be added to a calendar, and accommodations could be made if needed. I'd like to take this time to thank Mr. Alfaro for his service and acknowledge that someone will have big shoes to fill. 30 seconds.

(1:13:24 - 1:13:44)
If necessary, I am prepared to run for this position, whether that be in November or the 2025 election. I'll respect any decision made, and although in the past I was a proud one, I'll promise not to be a rebel. However, I am ready to navigate any obstacle until I have a seat on this board.

(1:13:45 - 1:13:55)
Thank you. Thank you. Off the record, I'd like to say that this is a monumental moment.

(1:13:55 - 1:14:08)
I'm a Thomas. That's the first time I've ever been first for alphabetical order. We lost the first five pages of application, so we started at T and went down to 30 seconds.

(1:14:09 - 1:14:21)
Yeah. All right. Thank you.

(1:14:22 - 1:14:30)
Next up will be Dr. Yvonne Thomas. She is with us via Webex. Welcome, Dr. Thomas.

(1:14:30 - 1:14:36)
Can you hear me? And let's see if we can hear you. I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes.

(1:14:37 - 1:14:39)
Great. You're right here. Yes, sir.

(1:14:39 - 1:14:40)
All right. Very good. You may begin.

(1:14:41 - 1:14:55)
Okay. Well, since dental school days, I've taken on leadership roles and I've served on boards to assist with projects to help to propel the organizations to achieve something bigger and better than what existed before. I thrive when challenged.

(1:14:56 - 1:15:40)
I was an officer in the National Dental Association and a member of the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital DMO Committee, where our goal was to form a dental maintenance organization for the hospital, which is similar to the more well-known health maintenance organization. When I served on the Bronx Netball Association as president, we realized that only pockets of neighborhoods and city netball associations existed, and it was obvious that we needed a national association if the sport was going to expand in the USA. I was one of a few people who founded the USA Netball Association, a national sports organization where I was the first president and held the roles of president, treasurer, and team manager at varying times over 15 years.

(1:15:41 - 1:16:17)
Furthermore, I have been on the local American Heart Association board, the YMCA board, and the treasurer of Baytown Junior Forum, where I revamped the accounting platform to streamline it and worked with several committees over six years. Currently, I hold several positions, president of the ACE District, director of the Baytown Sculpture Trail, member of the Baytown Chamber, and I serve on the city of Baytown Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. The biggest risks that I see Lee College facing include losing the momentum that has been recently gained, especially in terms of enrollment.

(1:16:17 - 1:16:39)
There have been great initiatives over recent years, such as the first semester free and the upgraded facilities for the nursing program, both of which continue to increase enrollment and involvement with Lee College. The need to continue to serve underserved communities and lower income students is also at risk. There may be challenges due to changes in programs that have recently occurred.

(1:16:40 - 1:17:05)
The diversity of a college should be comparable to the diversity of the community it serves, in this case, the greater Baytown community. In terms of opportunity, my vision is that Lee College grows to become a powerhouse in the region to include a brick and mortar presence in Mount Bellevue and the surrounding areas. The role of the regent should be to guide the college and develop a vision and a positive culture for it.

(1:17:06 - 1:17:29)
This requires creativity and innovation and the ability to set realistic and attainable goals to bring ideas to fruition to make Lee College that powerhouse. I am fully ready to commit to serving in a full capacity on the Lee College Board of Regents. As a retiree, I have flexibility to prioritize the requirements of my role on the board.

(1:17:29 - 1:17:46)
Although I love to travel, I will not be traveling as much in the foreseeable future due to family needs. And if I am not able to join the meeting in person, fortunately, there is a remote access like this, which is set up and that will allow me to participate. If a special election is called, I will run for the position in November.

(1:17:47 - 1:17:53)
And if I am appointed tonight, I will run for the position in 2025. Thank you. Thank you.

(1:17:57 - 1:18:19)
Kevin Troeler, all of the Ts. Mr. Chairman and Board of Regents, thank you for this opportunity to join you in serving Lee College. In the Army, I testified before Congress, advising the Undersecretary and Secretary of the Army.

(1:18:20 - 1:18:41)
I served on numerous gray-beard senior advisory boards. I was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Finance Regiment and was elected as President of the Retired Army Finance Organization. In our city, I served as United Way Campaign Chairman, served on the United Way Campaign Committee Cabinet, and served on the Texas City Manager's Ethics Committee for 10 years.

(1:18:42 - 1:19:05)
I've served as a member and as an elected officer, both at the federal and local levels. When I look at risks and opportunities, and I look at our board, I look for accountability, chemistry, and an overall culture that supports a free sharing of ideas and opinions. Major risks I usually focus on concern finances, budgets, and prioritization.

(1:19:06 - 1:19:44)
Budgets are a balancing act, competitive payroll to attract the best and brightest, keeping student costs affordable, and doing things to enhance the overall faculty and student experience in the classroom, in the sports arenas, and in a fulfilling campus life experience. Looking at the pathways to success and the six categories of learning pathways, are we relevant to the needs in the marketplace? I see on the Lee College website that the current college locations are Baytown, Liberty, and Huntsville. Where else should we be? I love seeing the Lee College Corporate Training Center and the library at the Children's Museum.

(1:19:45 - 1:20:19)
What future opportunities require our attention? What role do I see for the board? First and foremost, supporting our president, Dr. Villanueva, as she leads a complex organization. Being open to any and all conversation, respectfully working with our colleagues. Being knowledgeable of the demands, desires, and opportunities in our marketplace, respecting the expertise of staff, faculty, and administration, and in all we do, representing Lee College with pride and distinction.

(1:20:20 - 1:20:32)
Yes, I'm comfortable with all the requirements. I see no difficulties at this time. If you do not appoint someone tonight, yes, I intend to run in November, and yes, I will run for re-election in 2025.

(1:20:33 - 1:20:50)
In conclusion, thank you for the opportunity to make this presentation tonight. Regardless of background and circumstances, everyone deserves a quality education. An educated person is more likely to be a productive citizen, less likely to commit a crime.

(1:20:51 - 1:21:05)
An educated person is more likely to volunteer and give back, which all of you are doing. Thank you very much. Okay, we're moving into the W's.

(1:21:06 - 1:21:21)
Ms. Payne. Okay. Good evening, Chairman Fontenot, Board of Regents, and Dr. Villanueva.

(1:21:22 - 1:21:38)
Collective leadership. I began serving on various community boards in 1986 and had many varied experiences. Most of these opportunities were with nonprofits, and although not called collective leadership, it was the basic operational template for the organizations.

(1:21:38 - 1:21:58)
Bring together a group of carefully selected individuals with varied backgrounds and experiences to strategically move forward your initiatives. Through collaboration, you come to shared ideas. I have served on the board of directors for 13 different organizations, as chair on seven of them, and in various officer and committee positions.

(1:21:59 - 1:22:24)
In addition, I served as the executive director of the Lee College Foundation for 10 years. These experiences provided growth opportunities in learning how to manage, motivate, and collaborate, create trust and respect, encourage engagement, accountability, and transparency, all of which provide the groundwork for consensus and reliable decision making. Educating a growing number of students is always an opportunity.

(1:22:25 - 1:22:46)
Along with it comes the need for increased support services, as well as faculty, staff, equipment, and learning spaces. House Bill 8 provides funding more generous than state allocations in the past, but more doesn't necessarily mean easier. The board will still have challenges in agreeing how to appropriately prioritize and distribute the limited funds to meet the needs of the college.

(1:22:47 - 1:23:10)
This campus has aging buildings with maintenance issues, which have been the norm for many years. Prior to my retirement in 2020, college administration deemed necessary a new multi-year facilities plan to address ongoing maintenance, the need for new buildings, and to provide a facelift. If we don't keep our campus up to date, students have alternatives to Lee College, particularly with the success of online learning.

(1:23:11 - 1:23:41)
We are a one-taxing district college with a southernmost main campus and a large service area which requires us to think creatively about how to serve all students. Regent Santana and I spoke candidly some eight years ago about my disappointment that we weren't, as a college, really reaching those underserved service areas. I'm delighted that the service is being provided today to the Dayton, Liberty, Montbellevue area and I trust that once Montbellevue is completed, the focus will turn to the Channelview-Huffman area.

(1:23:41 - 1:24:06)
The risk if we don't? Lone Star College. In the meantime, we should set about proving that we are worthy of being part of their taxing districts. Are there any concerns about meeting the state's new outcome-based funding goals? The execution to achieve these goals is Dr. Villanueva's responsibility, but the fiscal trickle-down of not achieving those goals would affect the board and financial planning and could leave gaps in your budget difficult to manage.

(1:24:07 - 1:24:20)
All of the commitments are acceptable to me and will not cause any difficulty and I'd be happy to run for election in November in 2025. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you tonight. Thank you.

(1:24:24 - 1:24:41)
Mr. Wilson. Unlike Mr. Thomas, Pam and I are always used to going last. Good evening board members and Dr. Villanueva.

(1:24:41 - 1:24:56)
First of all, I want to thank you for choosing me among these wonderful finalists and giving me the opportunity to talk to you tonight. And why do I want to serve on this board? Very simple. I want to serve the college and our students.

(1:24:57 - 1:25:26)
Ever since I had a little medical issue 13 years ago, I have focused myself on seeking out opportunities to serve in our community, whether it's with the city or the school district or Meals on Wheels or my church. And now I've chosen the college as my target because what the college does is changes lives for the better, for our students. And I think I got that off the website.

(1:25:27 - 1:25:56)
Regarding the three specific questions you've asked us to address, the collaborative leadership, I think my experience in that is pretty good. I serve on, and I think I have it in your packet, I serve on 12 different committees or organizations and I know that to accomplish a goal, you've got to have a team effort, which is what I see in this organization, in this board. And I believe I can do it on this board also.

(1:25:58 - 1:26:41)
And the second question of, based on my understanding of the structure of the college, I see the biggest risks or challenges as being maintaining the quality in our safe campuses, facilities, continuing to grow our student population, keeping highly qualified staff and instructors, and keeping our tax rate as low as possible while maintaining our facilities, paying our staff competitively and managing our debt. And I had one other item in there that I took, been taken out after Annette's presentation, that being that we need to, we have a challenge of maintaining our financial strength and reserves. It appears we do not have that as a challenge.

(1:26:41 - 1:27:46)
I see our opportunities as growing relationships with Goose Creek School District and Barbers Hill ISD, growing our ability to provide the curriculum that will produce more qualified workers for our industry and our medical provider partners, and the opportunity to grow our reputation as a high quality and affordable institution of higher learning, which will obviously help grow our population. I perceive my role as a regent to be to work with and understand our risk and our opportunities with the staff and to work with the administration to create an ideal, affordable, safe campus to ensure that all our students can be successful. Relative to the time commitments, I am a firm believer that you go after the people that are very busy to fulfill this kind of obligation, and I will have no problem in the time constraints or the time requirements.

(1:27:47 - 1:28:02)
And finally, indeed, if no one is appointed tonight, yes, I will run in November, and yes, I'll run for re-election in 2025. And if you decide to choose me tonight, I'm ready to get in the seat tonight. Thank you.

(1:28:02 - 1:28:10)
Thank you. Okay. My thanks to each of you.

(1:28:10 - 1:28:30)
At this time, the meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on above listed date after proper posting and in accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code for the specific purposes provided will recess from open meeting to closed meeting. No action will be taken while the board is recessed in executive session. Okay.

(1:28:30 - 1:28:38)
Okay. We are now adjourned out of closed session and are reconvened into open session. I call the meeting back into order.

(1:28:39 - 1:29:03)
And the first order of business is we're going to conduct a ballot of, let's see if we can come to a consensus here. You just want us to pass them down? Pass them down, and I will read them out, and Secretary Himsel will tally the vote. Do you have a piece of paper to tally on or do you need me to give you one? Yeah, probably.

(1:29:03 - 1:29:07)
Do you have a spare one of those? Yes, I've got it. Well, not a spare one of these, but. Okay.

(1:29:08 - 1:29:12)
I got paper. Sorry. That's all you're going to give me? Yeah.

(1:29:12 - 1:29:14)
That's all. Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to get the paper.

(1:29:15 - 1:29:40)
What? Okay. Are you ready? Okay. Regent Santana casts his vote for Pam Warford.

(1:29:45 - 1:30:04)
Regent Gerald casts her vote for Mike Wilson. Regent Morfantino casts her vote for Heron Thomas. Regent Guillory casts her vote for Heron Thomas.

(1:30:10 - 1:30:30)
Regent Cotton casts his vote for Heron Thomas. Regent Himsel casts his vote for Pam Warford. Regent Hall casts his vote for Pam Warford.

(1:30:32 - 1:30:51)
Regent Fontenot casts his vote for Heron Thomas. May I read them? Yes, please. Heron Thomas received four votes.

(1:30:51 - 1:31:01)
Pam Warford received three votes. Mike Wilson received one vote. Yeah.

(1:31:02 - 1:31:22)
We can entertain a motion or we can adjourn. We can entertain a motion for a candidate or we can go back and deliberate some more with whatever is a pleasure. Do we think we need more deliberation or can we come? I will entertain a motion.

(1:31:23 - 1:31:35)
Well, I would make a motion that we cast another vote to include Heron Thomas and Pam Warford. Okay. Do we have a second for that? Second.

(1:31:35 - 1:31:39)
Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye.

(1:31:39 - 1:31:43)
Any opposed? Okay. Second. Okay.

(1:31:43 - 1:31:50)
Two on that. Was that Regent Cotton or Regent Gerald's? You give it to Regent Cotton. I'll take it.

(1:31:51 - 1:32:11)
Okay. Give it away. Okay.

(1:32:58 - 1:33:06)
Are you ready, Mr. Secretary? I am ready, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Regent Morfantino casts her vote for Heron Thomas.

(1:33:06 - 1:33:28)
Regent Santana casts his vote for Pam Warford. Regent Geralds casts her vote for Pam Warford. Regent Fontenot casts his vote for Herron Thomas.

(1:33:31 - 1:33:53)
Regent Mark Hemsel casts his vote for Pam Warford. Regent Kotton casts his vote for Herron Thomas. Regent Guillory casts her vote for Herron Thomas.

(1:33:56 - 1:34:11)
Regent Hall casts his vote for Pam Warford. Yes, Mr. Chairman, Herron Thomas received 4 votes. Pam Warford received 4 votes, so we have moved to a wrestling match.

(1:34:18 - 1:34:57)
Would we like to reconvene into executive session and deliberate? I see some heads nodding. Okay, then at this time, we're going to reconvene into executive session and deliberate further. So, you're going to tell about what we're doing? Yes, we are. 

We are back into open session. Sorry about that guys. And we're going to vote again.

(1:34:57 - 1:35:19)
Yes, we are reconvened into open session. Thank you. Yeah. 

Sorry about that. No problem. It's getting late. 

We're all getting punchy. Okay, we have them all in. Okay.

(1:35:21 - 1:35:34)
Are you ready Mr. Secretary? I am ready Mr. Chairman. Okay, Regent Santana votes Pam Warford. Regent Weston Kotton votes Herron Thomas.

(1:35:38 - 1:35:54)
Regent Guillory votes Herron Thomas. Regent Geralds votes Pam Warford. Regent Susan Moore Fontenot votes Pam Warford.

(1:35:57 - 1:36:09)
Regent Mark Hall votes Pam Warford. Regent Darrell Fontenot votes Pam Warford. Regent Himsel votes Pam Warford.

(1:36:13 - 1:37:24)
Okay, the tally is Herron Thomas received 2 votes. Pam Warford received 6 votes. Okay, at this time we will entertain a motion. 

Mr. Chair, I move that we appoint Pam Warford to fill the Lee College Board of Regent position number 4 until the term expires in May of 2025. Second. Okay, we'll give Regent Himsel the 2nd on that. 

The motion was made by Regent Santana. Is there any discussion on this motion? I would just say this has been a very difficult choice for everybody. It has. 

I want to say thank you to everyone who spoke. I think we had an amazing group of candidates and I don't say that because it's the nice thing to say. I say it because I really mean it. 

And every one of the ones that I know, which is most of them, I really appreciate. I would like to echo that. This has been a very difficult, from the day one, we received all of the trying to weed them out and wean through it.

(1:37:25 - 1:38:31)
Very difficult on a personal level and on the board level. Because I feel like, like said tonight, we could have tossed cards and the card that landed on the top of the step of the ladder would have done well. Yes. 

And we really appreciate each and every person that showed up and has done that. And I would encourage you that if you truly care something about Lee College, May 2025 is not that far off. Anything else? Okay, all in favor of appointing Pam Warford to position for, please say, aye. 

Aye. Any opposed? Okay, welcome aboard, Pam. Congratulations, Pam. 

I almost want to say you're the next contestant. Come on down. I don't think it's in order.

(1:38:33 - 1:39:02)
Okay. I didn't tell you you had to sit next to me, Pam. Yeah, she's sitting next to me. 

Does she join us right now? No, no. Oh, yeah. Housekeeping item, will you still, will you be in town next week? Okay. 

August 24th, we will swear you in. Okay. I throw stuff at people, but I don't.

(1:39:08 - 1:39:44)
Okay, I believe this is the last item on the agenda. Okay, consideration of resolution of budget priorities of the Lee College Board is proposed that the board review and approve the resolution that states the budgeting priorities of the Board of Regents. Do we have a motion? Chair, would it be appropriate for us to read that resolution? Yes, we can do that. 

We do that at discussion. I can take the motion and second first if you like, but. Yeah, I mean, I was going to read it during discussion, but I'll read it now.

(1:39:44 - 1:41:19)
Okay. Okay. Resolution of the Board of Regents of Lee College. 

Whereas the Board of Regents of Lee College recognizes that there are many needs and goals to be funded by the Lee College budget, the budget should provide the students at Lee College with access to the best instructors, a safe and up-to-date learning environment, and resources needed to create the ideal student experience. To recognize these priorities in the Lee College budgeting process, it is resolved that these items are to be included in future operating budgets. One, salaries at a competitive rate that will allow Lee College to recruit and retain faculty and staff. 

Two, annual deposits into the Lee College Board operating reserve until the reserve equals six months of operating expenses. Three, funding for the annual repairs and maintenance of Lee College facilities at an amount equal to 2 to 4 percent of the current aggregate replacement value. Four, continue to build capacity in the current Lee College tax rate for a future general obligation bond that will minimize the future INS tax rate impact on taxpayers. 

Five, ensure that Lee College is adequately insured for namestorm coverage by either an established self-insured fund or premiums for insurance coverage. And six, appropriately lower the overall tax rate after considering the first five priorities. I hereby certify, and that's it.

(1:41:21 - 1:41:27)
So we'll entertain a motion for that resolution. I move for approval. Second.

(1:41:27 - 1:42:27)
Okay, motion by Regent Santana and a second by Regent Morfano. Discussion on this item. I have something. 

Number six, the appropriately lower the overall tax rate after considering the first five priorities. In my mind, that kind of, because through budget workshops I've been outspoken that I feel like we can reduce our tax rate. And to me, the wording a little bit makes it sound to me like it'll be easy for us to say, oh, well, we can't reduce the tax rate because we haven't met 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So I'm a little concerned with that wording. 

And because of that wording, I'm not sure I can support this resolution. I've got lots and lots of questions. You know, I guess the number one, we're basically seeing this for the first time.

(1:42:28 - 1:42:58)
And I guess I'm not clear on why we're all of a sudden last week trying to devise this. And I guess one concern is it looks like we are binding this board and future boards to this resolution. And I don't understand how or why we would want to do that, not knowing what may lie ahead, you know, that involves the budget.

(1:42:59 - 1:43:27)
I guess I'm concerned with number one. That seems to be the main focus is salaries. And I guess there's nothing in here related to budget that talks about student success, student outcomes, student needs. 

There's nothing in here that's doing anything with student success. The main focus is salaries. Now, the third or fourth word in this one is competitive rate.

(1:43:27 - 1:46:09)
Salaries at a competitive rate. Who determines that? And where does that come from? Now, my question is, you know, does the compression that we approved just a few weeks ago to raise everybody's salaries up to the competitive rate, is that what we're talking about? Or are we talking about annual raises? Because we just raised everyone's salary a few weeks ago to be competitive with the market. And then this budget next week, we're going to approve another five or six percent on top of that, you know, which we just did. 

How do we, what, how do we determine competitive? Are we going to do an annual survey to determine that? And does a competitive rate mean inflation? Does that include the inflation? So, I guess I don't need to understand a lot about that number one and how it compares. The second one talks about annual deposits to Lee College Operating Reserve. You know, we're talking six months. 

I read in the paper this morning, the city is looking at maybe 90 days. We're looking at 180 days. We already have probably 140 days or so, not counting the 10 million dollar property that we have sitting out there that we could easily get a loan on if we needed it. 

So, I guess I don't understand why anyone would need 180 days when it seems like other entities do not need 180 days. So, I think we need to have discussion on that. Also, it talks about six months of operating expenses. 

What is an operating expense? Does that include things like, you know, free tuition? What all is included in, quote, operating expenses? And that number can actually change as the budget changes annually. So, we may never get six months if we're continually raising it to the budget. The third one talks about annual repairs and maintenance to Lee College facilities. 

It looks like, to me, the annual repairs and maintenance, we're already doing that in our current budget. But we're saying we need two to four percent to cover annual repairs and maintenance. To me, that needs to have some more discussion.

(1:46:10 - 1:50:37)
And what I don't know is what is the, it says aggregate replacement value. Are we talking replacement of all the buildings that Lee College owns? Because I doubt if McNair and Main Campus will have a disaster at the same time and destroy both of them. But the aggregate replacement value could change every year with the tax evaluation. 

We could, you know, a future board could be told, hey, that, you know, HCAD raised the values of our buildings up to 400 million. And now you've got to all of a sudden have these reserves that you've got to take from the taxpayers. So, I don't think we can bind boards with this. 

And then the fourth one is continue to build capacity in the college tax rate for future general obligation bonds that will minimize the future INS. So, what are we talking about here? I don't know that I understand how we build capacity in the tax rate for a future bond. I mean, it sounds like we're telling people we're going out for a bond already. 

We obviously can't do that. So, I think number four, we need some discussion on that. We talked about the next one, the self-insurance. 

You know, we don't know how much is needed there. I think that's a moving target. And then the last one is appropriately lower the overall tax rate after considering the first five priorities. 

So, the word appropriately, what does that mean? To what? What do you lower it to to be appropriate? And then what is the overall tax rate? You know, is that the whole 21 cents that we have today? And, you know, this is the lowest priority that we're looking at tonight. You know, if this was a company or a business, you know, owned by stockholders, i.e. taxpayers, they wouldn't be at the bottom. They would be at the top. 

And I think we need to reconsider the priority list. And again, is this binding on future boards? I do not understand how we can tell a board 10 years from now that they've got to do this, and not knowing what the budget is. Because once this is done, this takes the board out of the process. 

Okay. Last week was a budget workshop that was geared around developing a philosophy of what our budgeting priorities would be for when we set the annual budget. And from that meeting is how this document was formed. 

Okay. So, these are guidelines that we wish to follow as we develop a budget. Okay. 

We're not obligating any future board to anything. Well, it's a resolution. I mean, do you want to say something? It's not a bylaw. 

It's not. Darryl, I think John might have something. Oh, if you like. 

Yes. Just kind of legally, it's not binding on a future board. It's, y'all can change it at your next meeting. 

But you have to change it, though. But it's binding until we change it. Correct. 

But, well, but at the end of the day, a future board or this board, right, could change it at any time. So, it's not illegal. I mean, it's a permitted practice. 

And John, it can be changed by next year, or by adopting a budget with a different priority. That's changing this. It's not that you pull this out and dusted it off and said, can I do this? No. 

You've changed it by simply adopting a budget that went out of this order. The right way to do it is we have our workshop in the spring or in late winter that we set the priorities based on the economy, based on the college, based on the taxes. We set it during the first quarter of every year. 

And then the budget process is based upon each year's priority, you know, instead of setting it now for next, for a year from now. We have no idea what's going to be happening a year from now. No one else does this that I'm aware of.

(1:50:37 - 1:51:13)
So, one of the, one thing that does occur in terms of like what a lot of school districts do, and I think colleges will do it as well, is they will, they'll set aside money. They'll dedicate part of their fund balance, right? I mean, it's a similar type of thing, right? And it's not binding, but it's kind of like a dedicated fund balance. But even though you've dedicated it, you can undedicate it at any time. 

Same concept here. Can I just kind of clarify? He's just getting done. It seemed like you were questioning all these items as you didn't understand what they were.

(1:51:13 - 1:51:38)
This is exactly what we discussed last week. And this is exactly These were presented after the meeting last week. No, but this is exactly what we discussed in terms of, you know, salaries at a competitive rate. 

If the economy is down, then salaries follow that. It's not like we're going to give raises every year just because it says that. And competitiveness is based on, you know, human resources going out and doing the studies and getting all this data.

(1:51:38 - 1:51:49)
You know, we've been doing the annual deposits into our operating reserve. We have a policy that says four to six months. This is a suggestion that we go to six months instead of stay at four, four and a half.

(1:51:49 - 1:52:00)
That's all it is. We discussed that at our last meeting, the funding on annual repairs. We've been bumping the maintenance budget up every year, trying to get more done with the money we have.

(1:52:00 - 1:52:20)
The two to four percent came from what Annette presented was a basis that institutions use based on the replacement value of their properties. This is not about a catastrophe or tornado. This is about just keeping up with maintenance annually based on the value of your facilities.

(1:52:20 - 1:52:55)
And it's a guideline two to four percent. We're not obviously going to apply every dollar we have to any one of these all together. We'll do like we've always done. 

We touch each one of these every year. So that that number three could be up to 12 million dollars. It or more it may be. 

And you know what? If we can't get there, we're still saying we should try to get there, which is the appropriate way to budget for maintenance and repairs. And I guess it all goes down to maybe the bottom of this thing is the tax rate. You know, the only reason we did this is because we were given nine and a half extra million dollars.

(1:52:55 - 1:52:59)
And we're trying to find cubbyholes to stick it in. These aren't cubbyholes. Yes, it is.

(1:52:59 - 1:53:05)
We do not talk about any of these. It was not a cubbyhole. We did not talk about it again.

(1:53:05 - 1:53:09)
Okay, one at a time. Sorry. I was just I was just raising my pen.

(1:53:10 - 1:53:18)
Was that me? No, just because you didn't throw it. Keep going back and forth and I don't give everybody a chance to chime in. So we got to jump in.

(1:53:20 - 1:53:40)
Okay, so I just want to say, because I don't even want to sound like I'm agreeing with Mark Hemsel. I don't ever want that to happen. However, my recollection of yes, these things were brought up and discussed.

(1:53:41 - 1:53:55)
They were, but they were not agreed upon. And from my recollection, we talked about how do we get back together to determine what the priorities were going to be. And to me, that has not happened.

(1:53:55 - 1:54:01)
We had a conversation. We were supposed to decide and it looked like someone decided for us. That's right.

(1:54:01 - 1:54:18)
And so to me, is that it should be our decision to make and it should be tied directly with the budget. So we can, priorities, your budget reflects what the board's priorities are. And to me, we did not come up with this together as a board.

(1:54:19 - 1:54:27)
It was discussed. Some of these points came straight from someone else's conversation. It was not all of our opinions.

(1:54:27 - 1:54:37)
And then it landed here as if it's what we all talked about. We never got back together and here it's presented. So I'm not prepared to vote for this tonight.

(1:54:37 - 1:54:48)
And this conversation about philosophy probably should have happened in January or February. It could have happened last Thursday too, but it didn't. But not this close to voting on a budget.

(1:54:49 - 1:55:18)
Well, we haven't really seen. And I would agree that last number six, even if all of this, and even if we decided and agreed that every single one of these, one through six was what our priorities were, I still don't like the fact that we would need to reword number six so that it doesn't say after everything else. Because that does make it appear as if it's the very last thing we'll do if we can after that.

(1:55:19 - 1:55:23)
And I don't agree with that either. So that's considering though. It doesn't say meeting.

(1:55:24 - 1:55:32)
I read it and I heard it the last time that it was read from someone else. And I still don't, I'm not prepared to vote. I don't know if I heard that Sam.

(1:55:34 - 1:55:58)
Oh, okay. You know, we do a budget every year. And organically, it seems like we arrive at some discussions around all six of these areas without a priority given to any of them.

(1:55:58 - 1:56:14)
It's just organic how it happens. Who would not want competitive salaries for our employees? We all did. And we know, I mean, we don't have a high turnover rate, but we want to be competitive enough to retain our employees.

(1:56:15 - 1:56:32)
We know that we want to have an operating reserve. We have in our policy four to six months. And so now we're just trying to make strides to get to the six months operating expense.

(1:56:33 - 1:57:16)
I don't want to go through each one of them, but every one of them are things that we consciously or subconsciously look at when we are actually trying to decide what our budget's going to be, what our tax rate's going to be. And so I want to say that that's a whole workshop within itself. If we're trying to agree upon the wording, I think the concept is what we really need to try to wrap our heads around and give the administration some guidance because we don't have much time left.

(1:57:16 - 1:57:38)
It's unfortunate that we don't have much time. And so, you know, let's not, you know, I won't bury my head in the sand on any of this, but I will certainly say that every single thing on here is important. And you only have a pool of money that we're going to be able to operate with.

(1:57:39 - 1:57:57)
And within that, we do the best that we can. And we just have a check where we're checking off we've touched this, we've touched this, we've touched this, and this is what we've done. But it just gives us a kind of a roadmap, a roadmap for where we're, what we're trying to do with our budget.

(1:58:00 - 1:58:18)
I think partially that we're hung up on the fact that there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yep. I think if you took out the numbers, played fruit basket, put them all out there, you're going to have the same thing. We're all, this is what we've been talking about all year when we talk about spending money.

(1:58:18 - 1:58:48)
How do we prioritize these things? How much do we want to put in each cubbyhole, if you will? And we build our budget, then we know how much money we need, then we know what we can do with our taxpayers. We do it the other way, then we wind up shortcutting something because we don't know what's needed. Well, but don't they tell us what we, what they present to us a budget of needs, right? That's true.

(1:58:48 - 1:59:05)
Do we need these 6 things in order for them to be able to tell us what they need? Every budget we've ever made is because they came to us and said, these are the needs. But the needs were included in each one of these items. Then we challenge them on what they bring.

(1:59:05 - 1:59:11)
And I think what they're trying to get to is to bring us what we want. Exactly. Not what they perceive we need.

(1:59:12 - 1:59:38)
It's intended as a philosophy so that when Annette is developing this budget, she knows the parameters to work around when bringing us a budget. And the 2 to 4%, I mean, that was enlightening for me last week because, I mean, I chaired the building committee for 2 years. And I understand this is a well-known figure out there, but I had never been told it before.

(1:59:39 - 1:59:55)
It's something that, and we have been woefully under this. But now that we have funding, we've got to address the deferred maintenance that has been around this place forever. We've got to address it.

(1:59:56 - 2:00:03)
And this is annual repairs and maintenance. This is the stuff you do on a regular basis. Paint, replace a door, replace a window.

(2:00:03 - 2:00:11)
This is annual things that we're talking about here. And we don't need $12 million, but, oh, we've got pens in the air. Only because he hasn't gone yet.

(2:00:11 - 2:00:14)
So he's got to make fun of me. Yeah. I'm trying.

(2:00:14 - 2:00:30)
I just feel an amazing symmetry going on here about just, you know. I just had several comments. I take a little bit different approach in that, and I don't want to get off into the budget, but I'm going to quote one statistic.

(2:00:30 - 2:00:55)
I think taxpayers are paying 58% now and the state's down to 12. Is that what the number was on that previous page? Anyway, I'll only make that point because I think if we look at these 5 goals, leave number 6 off. If we take those 5, since the taxpayers are paying the majority of this, that it ought to be the taxpayer should be balanced against each individual one.

(2:00:56 - 2:01:10)
Not stacked on top of one another, but out to the side. So we've got a priority and then we have to weigh that against the taxpayer competitive salaries. I think we should have competitive salaries and I think the taxpayers would agree with it.

(2:01:11 - 2:01:26)
But when we go down and saying, yeah, we need to have $50 million in reserve or 6 months. And taxes are going up 10% a year on all of our homeowners. You know, it may be the taxpayer wins out on that one.

(2:01:27 - 2:01:46)
And we can stack them 1 through 5. But number 6 needs to be opposite each and every individual 1. And I think that's a better way to look at it and it's more fair to our taxpayers. And you've heard my arguments and we'll save that for next week. We'll go into all that.

(2:01:47 - 2:02:06)
But they are the largest funder of our college and many of them receive 0 services. So I just felt like reading this, it looked like it was a preemptive restriction on our debate for next week. And I just don't think that's healthy.

(2:02:06 - 2:02:18)
I think that we need to continue to be able to discuss these things out. And for that, I can't support this. And 1 last thing, priorities change constantly.

(2:02:19 - 2:02:38)
I mean, my gosh, it changed for us radically between June and now because of the increased state funding, which, you know, $9.5 million, plus a $5.5 million additional Avroam revenue if we leave the same. That happened. I mean, we had 1 meeting on that.

(2:02:39 - 2:02:59)
I would, I think it would be healthy if we put the taxpayer opposed to each 1 of those lines. Try to stack them. But even when you stack them, you can't say, well, we're going to fulfill this 1 entirely before we move on to the next 1. You've got to have some kind of a, well, we can give up a little bit of reserve to give another percent raise or something like that.

(2:03:00 - 2:03:13)
So that's my approach. And I can't support this. So I just want to, just for clarification, I believe that every single 1 of these is exactly what we've talked about.

(2:03:14 - 2:03:24)
And I could agree to them. I, Weston, to me, it's a bullet makes a difference. Because the bullet says we are committed to competitive rates.

(2:03:24 - 2:03:27)
We all are sellers. We're all committed. I believe we are.

(2:03:28 - 2:03:41)
But to have a bullet, when you have bullets, all of them are equal. And that means we are committing to do all of these things. We may not be able to do all of them at 1 time, but we are committed, we are focused to doing these things.

(2:03:41 - 2:04:05)
The way that this is written with the numbers and number 6 being worded as if we will not consider doing a tax increase, decrease or whatever it is until after these other 5 are done, to me, that's where my issue is. Because I happen to work with budgets every day. And we start with the tax rate.

(2:04:06 - 2:04:21)
We start with what we want to reduce it to. If we're going to reduce it, you know how much that accounts for, how many days of reserve that's going to take out of your budget. You know 300,000 a day, so you're going to lose a couple of days, get a million.

(2:04:22 - 2:04:51)
And you can make that calculation to know. And then if you get down and you're trying to get all of your priorities done, then you send the departments back to cut a 1 percent out of their expenses, to go in and cut down and get more lien, and you're not getting so much of the things you want, you look at the things you need, and you cut from that way. But putting the tax, whether we do the tax rate or not, to me, it's not right to have it in a place to where you're not even going to look at it.

(2:04:52 - 2:05:06)
And this restricts us to say, we're not even going to consider it unless all of these other things are done. And that's what I disagree with. I don't disagree with 1 through 6. With a bullet saying that we commit to doing them, I do.

(2:05:06 - 2:05:24)
But I just think putting it this way, it's written in a way to where it says, we're not going to talk about doing anything with the taxes unless we've done all these other things. And that's all. I agree that we've talked about this, and I support them all.

(2:05:24 - 2:05:31)
But I don't, this format, no for me. It is wording, and I agree with the 1 through, it does set a priority. But the wording says considering.

(2:05:32 - 2:05:37)
It doesn't say completing or accomplishing. It says considering. After 5 or 10.

(2:05:37 - 2:05:49)
So it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean you can't lower the tax rate till we get 6 months. Doesn't mean you can't lower the tax rate till we get 2% in the maintenance budget. It says after considering, which means do a little here, do a little here, do a little here.

(2:05:50 - 2:05:59)
The point was, don't just cut the tax rate and not consider where we have needs. That's all that was. But as you know, you can reword it and fix it then.

(2:05:59 - 2:06:08)
If it's as simple as a considering, take considering out. Every year when we are presenting the budget, those things are in there. And those things are told to us.

(2:06:08 - 2:06:14)
If we don't have this, we don't have that. We can't lower the tax. Maybe we'll look at the tax rate next year or next year.

(2:06:14 - 2:06:25)
And we've heard that year over year over year. So it is lowered. But my last point, there was several other good submissions of priority items that did not make this list.

(2:06:25 - 2:06:40)
And I don't understand who picked these 6 and where all the other ones were that were submitted that had to do with student success and things like that. And I just think we need to have a workshop. We need to address this and we need to scrap this for tonight.

(2:06:41 - 2:07:10)
Okay, in my opinion, as I read this, okay, I'm not on the bullet part to your point on resources needed to create the ideal student experience. To me, that says student success. We seem to expand on student success and student outcomes and all those things a lot more when we talk about other parts of the budget and other items during regular sessions.

(2:07:11 - 2:07:31)
So I think that's a very weak way to put it into a resolution to talk about priorities. There's no reason we have to jump into this thing tonight and approve it without having a workshop in January or February for next year's budget. We can give them just like Gina said, we plan early.

(2:07:31 - 2:07:43)
We don't start this process until way late. And to the audience out there, we still don't have a budget and we got to approve it next week or the week after. And we haven't seen really anything yet that we can approve.

(2:07:44 - 2:07:50)
Our first budget workshop was June 29th. And it's changed. We had one, but June 29th.

(2:07:51 - 2:07:55)
It had all the expenses listed in it. Everything listed. I don't remember seeing that.

(2:07:55 - 2:08:01)
You start with revenue. Yeah, we started it, but it has changed drastically since then. Drastically.

(2:08:01 - 2:08:06)
What changed? And we're still waiting to see it. What changed since June? State appropriations. State appropriations.

(2:08:06 - 2:08:09)
Right. Couldn't do anything without that. So.

(2:08:10 - 2:08:17)
Well, that's what triggered this and all these cubbyholes to shove that 9.5 million dollars. These aren't cubbyholes, Mark. These are policies.

(2:08:17 - 2:08:21)
These are maintenance. And these are operational needs. These aren't cubbyholes.

(2:08:21 - 2:08:30)
Well, then why are we just not talking about them? We talk about these every year. They just came up because we got down. Almost 10 million dollars handed to us a couple of weeks ago.

(2:08:32 - 2:08:43)
And two weeks is not a real fast time to be able to talk about it. I mean, that's, it seems like it's just dumped on us in a couple of weeks ago. We got to do something with it.

(2:08:44 - 2:08:50)
Absolutely. We don't want to talk about lowering the taxes. I don't have to talk about it.

(2:08:50 - 2:08:58)
I don't agree that we need to wait for next year to do it and all that. Because we're meeting because we just told them we're going to swear in next week. We are.

(2:08:58 - 2:09:17)
So, that means we're going to be here. So, I'm just saying, I think this can be worded in a way to where, I mean, I know it can be, it's a simple fix for me to support it. I'm not saying for anybody else, but I don't think it has to be workshopped and we can go through all of these things.

(2:09:17 - 2:09:27)
I just think it needs to be worded a little different. I think it can be brought back next week. Oh, well, then we asked the question to give guidance to the author of this.

(2:09:28 - 2:09:34)
Whatever that is. We don't know. Administration asked us to come up with a budget philosophy.

(2:09:35 - 2:09:38)
That's what last week's workshop was geared around. Yes. Okay.

(2:09:38 - 2:09:56)
And these are the talking points that came out. This is what I heard. You know, I asked Annette, based upon our meeting last week, can we capture that into a document that will be our philosophy? So, we're trying to put a philosophy on paper.

(2:09:56 - 2:10:03)
This looks like something that other board members submitted. But I have right here. We were asked to submit.

(2:10:03 - 2:10:17)
Yeah, we were asked to submit and to submit it. Okay. So, now we have a document that kind of summarizes what the two said and includes the discussion from last week.

(2:10:18 - 2:10:51)
So, things like affordable education, student success, financial stability, employee compensation, facilities maintenance, tax reduction, capital projects. Sounds familiar? Okay. Things like take care of our employees, active 6 months of emergency operating, cash reserves, maintenance and repair budgets, insured for name storm coverage, capacity in our tax rate for future GO bonds, lower the rate after considering first priorities.

(2:10:52 - 2:11:10)
It's right here. These are the things that were brought up by members of this board, inclusive of the conversation that we had last time. Now, we have to agree that we believe the concepts and dicker a little bit with the wording of it later.

(2:11:10 - 2:11:29)
But do we agree that this is the concept that we need to follow to be able to give the administration guidance? They're depending upon us. I don't agree with number 6. It would have to be changed before I support it. Number 4. What would you want, Judy? Well, I don't.

(2:11:29 - 2:11:46)
Well, because I gave my opinion last week that I and Gina did too, that we felt like we could accomplish all these things and possibly give a tax reduction to the citizens. That's not what this says. There's nothing in here that says we don't get there.

(2:11:46 - 2:11:53)
There's nothing in there that says it does. And I can just I can foretell the future. Well, you know, we can't do that yet.

(2:11:53 - 2:12:14)
So may I interrupt you just to give a perspective on number 6? I thought that was a conciliatory attempt to say, oh, we heard the board say that we wanted to give a tax, lower the tax rate for our citizens. That's what I thought number 6 said. That's not how I read it.

(2:12:15 - 2:12:37)
But that's how I read it. And I was like, OK, maybe the offensive term or the thing that doesn't make it palatable for you is that it says after considering. So if we can agree that tax, lowering the tax rate is important, let's just word it so that it's important and not just continue to.

(2:12:37 - 2:12:46)
That's what Gina said and that's what we said 20 minutes ago. It said, as stated, I won't support it. OK, but we're not going to do anything with it tonight.

(2:12:46 - 2:12:59)
Let's just move forward with conceptually, do we agree with the key operative words in each one of these? And if we do, then. We've got a good working document to. We can massage it.

(2:13:00 - 2:13:11)
OK, let me address. Let me answer your question from my perspective and get close. Number four, continue to build capacity for Lee College tax rate for future general obligation bond.

(2:13:11 - 2:13:24)
What that says to me is, is we're going to start taxing our citizens today to build this capacity for a bond program. We don't even have a proposal yet. And secondly, they haven't voted on it.

(2:13:24 - 2:13:33)
So we're charging taxes to people for a proposal. And when you're talking about bonds, they have to approve them. And they haven't approved this.

(2:13:33 - 2:13:42)
They may turn it down. I mean, and we have not finished yet. You don't want to listen to me, Don.

(2:13:44 - 2:13:50)
No, please don't start. No, no. I'm having PTSD right now is what is what's happening.

(2:13:52 - 2:14:04)
So I think it's important that we. It may be legal, but I just I don't think the taxpayer appreciates it, particularly on Jill bonds. I think they need to have an opportunity.

(2:14:05 - 2:14:16)
We I mean, we are obligated to go and let them speak. School district is doing that. I don't think they've raised their tax rate four or five cents this year in anticipation of their bond program.

(2:14:16 - 2:14:22)
But that's exactly what this lays out to do. I can't. Well, I don't know.

(2:14:22 - 2:14:31)
That's not building capacity. That's an academic term. And it basically says that you want to be in a good position.

(2:14:32 - 2:14:43)
So whatever we have to do to be in a good position, it doesn't mean that we're driving. Okay, she's saying pay down debt. This goes all the way back to a year ago.

(2:14:43 - 2:14:57)
Okay, when we had the presentation from the bond advisor about refunding bonds and paying down. I understand that fully. You know, I disagree with that.

(2:14:57 - 2:15:18)
And today, mortgage rates are exactly double what we're paying on our debt. So if a young buyer like my son who's closing on a house, his interest rate is now double the 37361, whatever we're paying. That's the cheapest way for us to finance buildings is to have our tax exempt bonds.

(2:15:18 - 2:15:31)
The rates are always lower. Yet we're taking money from our taxpayers, additional money that costs them at least double that or more to pay off our low interest debt. And I'm not even talking about the impact of inflation.

(2:15:31 - 2:15:40)
You know, you have an education and finance background. You understand how the cost of a dollar can get inflated away. This is for our taxpayers.

(2:15:40 - 2:15:48)
This is where the money's coming from. It's a bad deal. So I struggle with building capacity or however you want to put it.

(2:15:48 - 2:15:56)
It's a bad deal for the taxpayer. And I just I don't think we should be putting them last. And that's what I read.

(2:15:56 - 2:16:07)
This is the taxpayer will be dead last in any consideration. None of the other entities in the city is looking at tax rate reductions. And it's not just rates.

(2:16:07 - 2:16:15)
It's the burden. And every house is going up 10% a year. I mean, that's a fact.

(2:16:15 - 2:16:25)
They're all capped. 97% of the houses in Harris County are capped. And so we could drop 2 cents and our burden stays the same on a homeowner.

(2:16:26 - 2:16:36)
If they're it's not just the rate, it's the burden. And the burden is increasing every year, every year. And I just we can't put them last anymore from my perspective.

(2:16:37 - 2:16:43)
We can't solve this tonight. Yeah, we're not. And so I'm going to table this item for a future meeting.

(2:16:45 - 2:16:51)
You already have a motion. Yeah, we already have a motion on the table. The table can be addressed and then that will take care of the 1st.

(2:16:52 - 2:16:54)
All right. Yeah, we vote on it. 2nd, the type.

(2:16:54 - 2:17:02)
Okay, so I've got a motion by region Santana to table the motion. I've got a 2nd by region. Is there any discussion on tabling the motion? No.

(2:17:02 - 2:17:07)
Okay. All in favor say, yeah, say, hi. Hi, yeah, there's that.

(2:17:09 - 2:17:14)
You call it any. Yeah, I anybody opposed to tabling. Okay.

(2:17:15 - 2:17:19)
All right is tabled. We'll take it up at a future meeting. Maybe next week.

(2:17:23 - 2:17:29)
Judy won't be here. It's not that I'm not here. Don't can discuss it.

(2:17:29 - 2:17:37)
That's what it was intended to do. Okay, so matters of concern for future agendas. I'm concerned we're going to have the same discussion again.

(2:17:38 - 2:17:43)
Over and over again. Not show up. That's exactly what I'm saying.

(2:17:44 - 2:17:50)
We have the same disagreement no matter who's what's recorded. We have the same disagreement. Okay.

(2:17:52 - 2:17:56)
Then I know. I move that we adjourned us. We're adjourned.

(2:17:56 - 2:17:59)
Well, it's a journey. We've exhausted. That's good.

(2:17:59 - 2:18:03)
All right, I'm out of here. Go. Thank you.

(2:18:03 - 2:18:06)
And we're sorry. No, thank you.