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It's 6 o'clock so we'll call this meeting to order. First thing on the agenda is the invocation and pledge led by Regent Weston Cotton. If you would join me please.

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Our most gracious Heavenly Father we thank you for the opportunity once again to come together to do good things at Lee College in Baytown. We ask that you would bless our endeavors, bless each and every one of us that are here tonight and those who are thinking about us and expecting us to do your will. God we ask that you would bless each and every one of us and help us and guide us as we go through the deliberations tonight.

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Keep us safe, bring us back. All these things we ask in your most precious name. Amen.

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Will you join me and pledge the American flag? I pledge allegiance to the Flag, of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And to the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas flag, one state under God, one and indivisible.

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Okay next up is student spotlight. So thank you Mr. Chairman September is actually National Student Parent Month and Kelly Ford Spears is here to welcome a very special speaker. Thank you Dr. Villanueva and Board of Regents members for allowing me to speak tonight in recognition of National Student Parent Month. 

Across the country student parents comprise about 25 to 30 percent of our college student population and the college is included in that. We serve hundreds of parenting students each semester including single parents. Student parents are incredibly resilient individuals who persist through many challenges and barriers, juggle countless responsibilities, model the importance of education for their families, and personally give me hope for generations to come. 

Tonight I'm so proud to introduce one of our very own student parents Joseph Chapa. Joseph will be graduating with his Associate of Arts degree in December and plans to continue his education at the University of Houston. In his time outside of Lee College Joseph loves to fish, coach Little League, barbecue, and feed the people he loves and cares for.

(2:42 - 4:20)
Joseph come on down. Thank you Kelly. Good evening Board of Regents and everyone in attendance. 

Thank you for having me this evening. This is truly an honor. Being a full-time college student has its challenges. 

Being a full-time parent has its challenges also. When you put the two together those challenges become life real-life situations that can make them both challenging. I come from a single parent household. 

Growing up we didn't have much but we never went without. Although my parents were divorced, both stayed active in my life. They both instilled in me that hard work, dedication, and most importantly consistency is key to success. 

A few years back I was injured in a refinery explosion. In January of 2022 I had to have lower back fusion surgery. That same year in April I was facing yet another decision. 

Being that I was not able to work in the construction field anymore I had to ask myself what was I going to do with my life. My doctor told me to go to school. The best advice I received and at 42, 42 years old, I came to the college campus and was welcomed with open arms.

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The challenges I faced as a single parent were difficult. Not being able to work and having limited funds, worried about our next meal, how was I going to get to and from campus, how was I going to pay my light bill. Then I was informed about the Resource and Advocacy Center. 

Not only did their services help me but that help also had a ripple effect on my five-year-old son. The child care assistance had been so much more than just child care. It also allowed me to enroll my son in an awesome program with Redeemer Lutheran where he has now started his education. 

You see, not only did the support help me continue my education, but it also started the education for my son that will one day be a graduate from the college as well. Without the support from the Resource and Advocacy Center, my education would not be possible. I am truly grateful for everyone, not only in this department, but every single one of my professors and faculty that explained to us about the support and help that Lee College provides. 

I never thought the college would have helped me with a gas card, free food to help me feed my family, or even help me pay my light bill. But they did, and now I'll be graduating this December. In only five semesters, I have been able to pursue my education and with the help of the Resource and Advocacy Center and finally earn my college degree. 

None of this would have been possible without this support, and when you hear the saying Lee cares, I can honestly say Lee College truly does care. Thank you. Okay, next we have disposition of the minutes for Board Budget Workshop August 3rd, Board Meeting August 17th, Public Hearing August 24th, and Board Special Meeting Budget Workshop August 24th. 

Correction to the agenda, we do not have minutes for August 31st. That'll be presented at the next board meeting. So do we have a motion on the disposition of the minutes? Okay, we have a motion by Regent Geralds and a second by Regent Cotton. 

Any discussion on the minutes? Yes, I'm sorry, to approve them, yes. If there's no discussion, all in favor of approving the minutes as presented, say aye. Any opposed? Okay.

(7:09 - 7:59)
Okay, report of the chairman. I do have something tonight. I have three items actually. 

The first thing I want to say is an update on the challenge that was presented recently from the president's cabinet that they, at a 100% participation rate, have supported the gala and have challenged the Board of Regents to do the same, and I'm here to report tonight with a little over a week to gala. Seven of our nine members have supported the gala, so if you have not supported it as of yet, please go, you can do it online, please go online and support the gala. If you're not going to be there, there's a wonderful auction raffle item that you can buy a ticket on, but let's get 100% participation.

(8:01 - 9:37)
Next thing I want to say is, did everybody see the paper today? Okay, congratulations to our very own Dr. B, being selected as an Aspen Institute President's Fellow, the inaugural class, and if you haven't read the article, it's an excellent article, and we are just extremely proud of you, Dr. B. Next, I want to say we had a very good turnout last weekend, our state conference for the, it's called the CAT Conference, the Community College Association of Trustees, and at that conference there were breakout sessions, and I want to report that we had an excellent breakout session presented by our very own Kelly Ford Spears, excellent session. It was titled, Using Technology to Support Student Well-Being. It was a panel discussion that had Dr. V, Kelly, Dr. Bob Booth, who's the Chief Care Officer for Timely Care, and it was moderated by our very own Susan Moore Fontenot, so excellent, a lot of questions, the crowd was very engaged, and I've recommended to them that they bring this to the ACCT conference next year in Seattle. 

It was a wonderful presentation, so that's all I have. Building Committee. Mr. Chair, I do have a report today.

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I don't know how minutes are taken, but I do have it written, if anybody's trying to keep up. So the Building Committee met Wednesday, September 20th, 2023, so we reviewed the status of the major projects supported by one-time funding sources over the last few years. In 2021, the board approved revenue of 3.8 million dollars for projects. 

We reviewed the status of these projects. Some of the ADA projects had increased due to bids coming in higher than budgeted, and these increases will be considered to be funded by the next allocation of board funding. If they cannot, then we will look at some lost revenue funding.

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The 2022 revenue, the board allotted four million dollars for projects that are primarily ADA in nature. These projects will focus more on building interior ADA concerns, and these projects have not been started. The Student Resource Advocacy Center project, funded primarily by the McKenzie Scott five million dollar grant and some lost revenue funds, totaled 6.7 million dollars. 

The project had some unforeseen issues, but it's nearing completion. Another four million dollars in projects have been funded by CARES Act resources. Several projects include the nursing school renovation, replacing old HVAC units around campus, addressing air quality issues in a few buildings, and some McNair electrical and welding needs. 

These projects are near 100% complete. Another project is the McNair workforce renovation project, which is about three million dollars, and this was funded from lost revenue funds. This project is also near completion.

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These projects, which have all come to the board for approval, represent about 22.2 million dollars in facilities investment, and along with the 2018 11 million dollar revenue bond, we have put over 33 million dollars into our facilities in the last five years. However, I want to point out these have been one time funding sources and are not continuous. We also spent some time talking about the 2018 strategic facilities plan, which is now about five years old, and the fact that we need to maintain this document as we make repairs and improvements to the facilities. 

We discussed using this strategic facility plan as a road map for priorities with our expanded maintenance and repairs budget. The focus is preventative maintenance and identifying needed repairs that are appropriate for a maintenance and repair budget. So we spent a few minutes discussing how to address longer term facility needs that may be associated with a future geo bond. 

We've not had a geo bond in 10 years, and as we look at our aging facilities and plan for future programs, we will begin to develop our specific needs. And looking at a geo bond should not alarm anyone, since this is typically how all taxing entities address growth and major building deficiencies. We will invite the public to participate in this effort as we move forward. 

Our next building committee has not been scheduled, but we do plan to meet in October. That's all I have. Thank you. 

Any questions? Did I miss anything for the members that were there? Okay, thank you. Very good. Regent Guillory, anything from the policy committee? Due to my schedule, we have not met, but we do have probably about 10 policies that we will be bringing forward to our next meeting, which will be in October, and then we will bring them to the board. 

Very good. Regent Gerolds. We have not met, but I will be getting with Annette to schedule a meeting in October. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start off with just some absolutely amazing news. I am just thrilled to begin my report by announcing that we have officially achieved Lee College's highest recorded enrollment in its 89 year history. 

And I could... Scott, what exactly is the number? Pretty good, because we'll be hitting 9,000 very soon. I'm just confident. So I could not be more proud of this amazing college team, and I just want to thank everyone who does amazing work to ensure that these kinds of milestones are achieved and these kinds of opportunities are available to our community. 

So this is just a wonderful achievement, and we look forward to many more like this. Moving on, I wanted to tell you about a couple of grants that we have received. One is from the Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 

It's in the amount of $94,275, and this is going to allow the college to train college students, faculty, and staff to respond effectively to students with mental and substance abuse disorders, but it's also going to allow us to provide outreach services to inform college students about available mental and substance use disorder services. So that is a wonderful thing. We've also been awarded a Jet Grant Award from the Texas Workforce Commission, and the board is going to be considering that tonight in the amount of $285,000, which will allow us to purchase two truck cabs for the Huntsville truck driving program. 

So that's also very good news. I want to also share with you that Dr. Norris, our Associate Vice President of Health Sciences, has negotiated a joint BSN program with Texas Women's University, where all of the TWU courses are online, and our students can earn a BSN in four years without ever leaving Baytown. And so we expect our first cohort to begin in the fall of 2024, and of course I was delighted to share the news with David Bernard, CEO of Houston Methodist in Baytown, and the Chief Nursing Official Becky, and then Jennifer Bear as well, and they were very excited about this news as well. 

I want to also recognize that Lee College is proud to have received the Bronze Veterans Education Excellence Recognition Award. So the Texas State Legislature established what's called the VERA program to recognize public colleges and universities for their excellence in providing education and related services to veterans and the military connected community. A digital token is placed on our website denoting our status, but I want to thank Tiffany Winchester and her team for earning this recognition on behalf of Lee College. 

It's a wonderful thing. I want to tell you that the Small Business Development Center has been actively promoting their monthly orientations to local business owners to introduce them to all of the free services that we offer, and in the past three months we have had about 10 business owners at each meeting. This is growing our presence and helping our business community, and I want to thank Linda Jones-Zabranek for her work to provide our services to more local businesses. 

I also want to talk about our community volleyball program that's attracting around 60 community members each night twice a week, so it's incredibly popular. Gary Englert was one of the community members who was like, you know, we just have to do this, and we didn't think we would be able to, but Jordan Smith, who works for us, was able to build this program, and he and 59 other people are having a great time playing volleyball. So I also wanted to talk about Lee College hosting the Texas Rice Festival Welding Exhibition and Contest. 

That will be on Wednesday, October 4th. We had over 400 high schoolers last year, and we expect similar numbers. It's a great event, and of course everyone is welcome, and I believe Regent Santana attended last year, and he may have showed off some of his own welding skills. 

I don't know. Underwater welding. Submerged arc welding.

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I fell in. Someone was welding. That's impressive. 

The Educational Opportunity Center provides personalized help to students completing their FAFSA and one-on-one counseling on financial literacy and how to pay for college, and the EEOC is partially funded by a Title V grant, and it has a target of serving a thousand students each year. So this past year, they exceeded their target by 15%, and more than 69% of the students they served were low-income, first-generation students, and I just want to extend my thanks to Jim Todd and his amazing EEOC team for the great work they do in providing information to our community. I also want to recognize Chris Coates and Sebastian Troitano for earning awards from the AACC National Council for Marketing and Public Relations District 4 area. 

The awards are going to be presented at the district conference next month in Colorado, but the winning entries were for promotional video in short form, video shorts, television video, paid advertisement, and social media or online marketing campaign. They do incredible work in promoting the college and it's being recognized nationally, so we're very, very proud of them. I also want to recognize Dr. Marissa Moreno, who has been reappointed to a research commission for the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, and that is just a very important research team with well-known researchers in the field of higher education, and she is just doing great work with that team, so I wanted to recognize that. 

And finally, I wanted to thank Kelly Ford Spears, who took time at her very busy schedule to help me host Representative Terry Leo Wilson and her husband on campus today, who toured the Student Resource and Advocacy Center and got to see up front and ask a lot of questions about everything that we do there, but they were extremely impressed with the services that we provide there and were just very, very happy about the work that we're doing here at Lee College to support all of our students, and I think they're going to want to come back, Kelly, so you did so good, so thank you for that. So on that very positive note, that concludes my report. Next, we have a report of Lee College resignations and or retirements. 

Dr. B? Yes, I have three to report. The first is Courtney Byers, Assistant Director of Dual Credit. The second is Heather Patt, Buyer and Purchasing, and the third is Dana Bile, full-time faculty in business at the Huntsville Center. 

Next, financial report. Annette. Thank you, Chairman Fontenot, Board of Regents. 

So we've reached the end of the year, and so this report will be our operating results as of 831, and I will just remind you that these are not final numbers. These numbers will change. They're changing as we speak. 

There's a lot of entries that we still have to do at year end. Also, we keep the ledger open, per se, through I think next week, actually, so any invoices that came in that actually applied to last year, even though they're being paid in September, they'll be posted into the prior year. So just keep in mind the numbers that I'm sharing with you tonight are not in any way final numbers. 

Cash. Cash still remains very strong. As of the end of August, we had about $12 million available for operating, $25 million, $25.7 for board reserves, and then other funds, which includes the lost revenue and allocated funds for construction projects of $6.8 million. 

Looking at our tuition and fees compared to our budget, overall, we are almost 7% above what we had budgeted for tuition and fees, so not quite a million dollars over. Date appropriations, they tell us that number, so we do pretty good at budgeting that one. We seem to be able to get that one. 

District taxes, we are about 2% over what we had budgeted, most of that coming as revenue in lieu of tax. And then other revenue, our interest, of course, is well above what we had originally budgeted. Our other revenue is also above what we had budgeted. 

So we did very well in the revenue side of the house. Looking at our grants, our restricted funds, we have about $56,000 that still needs to be pulled down between all of our funds to balance everything out, and those will be balanced by the end or the close of the fiscal year. Budget versus year-to-date projected actual, again, you can see tuition and fees were above, taxes were above, other were above. 

Projected net revenue, right now we're projecting a operating surplus of a little over six million dollars, however, I do want to remind you that not all the expenses have been posted to this, so I would anticipate that the projected operating revenue will be closer to five rather than the six million dollar mark. Looking at the breakdown between our expenses, everything pretty well aligns. Our debt ended up being about 12% of our overall budget. 

Operating expenses were about 27, and salary and benefits right at 61% of our total budget. Looking at the monthly budget versus actual, we were slightly over on salary and benefits, slightly over on operating costs, and then debt service was pretty much right on. Year-to-date, we were under our salary and benefit number. 

Operating costs were less. Our debt service was a little bit ahead, and that has to do with the refunding costs, and we talked about that a couple of months ago, that we had not accounted for in our budget initially. So, looking at expenses, year-to-date versus budget, salary and benefits came in at about 97.8% of our budget. 

Operating costs, just a little over 92%, and our debt service slightly over. And that is my report, and unless anyone has any questions for me? Yeah, you'll give us a final next month after everything's done? Usually, the auditors will be here next month. They'll come in October 23rd is their first day on site to begin their audit, and they'll be here for two weeks.

(25:52 - 38:30)
So, they're here from about the 23rd to November 4th. So, it will probably be in November when we have some final numbers. Thank you. 

Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have the upcoming tax rate adoption. I think it's important, you know, I think everybody here does does an excellent job. You know, Lee College is very well run. 

I think you're very responsible with the money. I just want to put a few things in perspective, and I think it's important that we define our terms, and so that we can have a reasonable discussion. The Texas Comptroller says the no new revenue tax rate enables the public to evaluate the relationship between taxes for the prior year and for the current year based on a tax rate that would produce the same amount of taxes if applied to the same properties taxed in both years. 

So, that means the no new revenue rate, which you've been given, it's a calculation that's required. If you're above that rate, you're going to collect more revenue from taxes. It's very simple. 

That's a tax increase. We can say it's not a very big tax increase. We can say we need the money, and it's going to a good place, and that's a reasonable discussion. 

You know, we can definitely have that discussion, and if, you know, everyone feels comfortable running later on saying I didn't raise your taxes that much in an election, you know, that's entirely up to you. I think it's also important to put things in perspective. Yes, it is a small increase, but it is an increase, and look at some other stats right now. 

61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Right now, people are taking money out of their retirement funds and paying penalties on it or putting everyday expenses on credit cards. Yes, it's not a very big amount, and yes, you probably could use the money for some certain things. 

You know, there's no doubt about that, but let's put everything in perspective and just say this isn't the time that we impose new taxes, and a few weeks ago when it was said from the dais nothing we're proposing is above the no new revenue rate, nobody objected to that. Everyone thought that was a great idea, it seemed like, and I understand that the numbers that you were using changed on you, that Harris County, you were basing it on bad information. I understand that. 

No one's faulting you for that, but at the time, everyone thought being at the no new revenue rate or below was something good. It still is. I think that's something to work towards. 

I think we can get there. It's a very small difference, and it would be a good feather in your cap, and I think we can figure out a way to get there. Thank you very much. 

I hope you figure it out. Thank you. Okay, moving into items of action agenda for consideration of new hires. 

The administration recommends that the board approve the new hires as presented below. Move for approval. Okay, I've got a motion by Regent Santana and a second by Regent Guillory. 

Is there any discussion on this item? Okay, hearing no discussion, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Next, we have new business. 

Consideration of resolution affirming that supporting basic needs is a valid use of public funds. The administration recommends that the board approve a resolution affirming that supporting basic needs is a valid use of public funds. Second. 

Okay, I have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Terrell's. Discussion on this item. Is there a policy issue on this or a limiting factor? No, it's Annette's fault. 

She raised the issue a long time ago about just how it might be perceived as a gift at one point in time and so we thought it was important to seek legal counsel on that and just to put a dot on that he suggested that we just go ahead and get this resolution just to be very clear and said we were fine and so we're bringing that forward. But this is what essentially most colleges do. We are just signaling that this is an appropriate use of funds and doing this based upon our advice from legal counsel. 

For example, like the gentleman earlier, the college used tax money to pay his electric bill. Not tax money, no. But whose money was it? You want to talk about that Annette? I thought all we had was tuition or tax money and grants. 

So we have a lot of different sources of funds but basically anytime the funds come into the college at that time it becomes public funds no matter what the source of the funds were and so when we use grant funds or any other fund to support our students again under the advice of counsel they felt like it was in everyone's best interest to put forth that resolution so that if there was ever a question about the use of the funds or about the gift of public funds is is not allowed and so this resolution just clearly states that any funds that are distributed to students to support them with their basic needs is not a gift. It is in alignment with the college's mission and to support our students so that they can complete their education. That was a good clarification but for instance we we've had donations specifically to the Student Resource Advocacy Center for supportive students but once we received them you said technically they now become public funds but yet they were given specifically to be distributed to students. 

That's correct. I mean a lot of times we have restricted funds that have to be used for grants. That restriction is lifted or? No. 

No if we if we receive any type of funds that have a restriction that restriction stays with those funds throughout the use. Nothing nothing changes nothing's lifted. This is merely a housekeeping issue. 

It's it's crossing a T and dotting an I and it's really not changing anything that we are doing in our process and procedures. We still have very very defined processes that are used for students to apply for any type of aid and where that aid can come from and so none of that is changing. This is merely a housekeeping step. 

And our auditors review these practices every single year as Annette said this is simply a housekeeping issue to ensure that this is aligned with our core educational mission. About how much do we do we give out in last year? Is that a budget line item somewhere? No because as people have mentioned a lot of this comes from grants and you know grants are not part of our operating budget. I can get that number for you Mr. Hemslaw. 

I'm sorry I just don't know off the top of my head what that number would be. In the past yeah we we distributed a lot of money from CARES and and you know the money we received from CARES you may recall half of it we were required to give directly to the student but then we as an institution also allocated some of the institutional money that we received from CARES back to our students to to help support those needs. I'm just looking for a limiting factor so money that we hand out it is coming from these grants and so forth like that it's not coming from taxes. 

No we're not using tax money for for these types of allocations. Again we have we have processes in place that where there's limits to the amount that's given to a student. There's limits on how those funds can be used. 

There's an application process that they go through and request funds for be it child care or maybe maybe a utility bill or something of that nature but there is a very defined process application process review of the application and then award if it meets all the criterion. If we had a large influx of demands on the budget or what we received in grants what we would allocate or we would potentially allocate we might go to the foundation ask for additional resources look for additional grants that we might be able to apply for that sort of thing. Next item consideration of the first time free at Lee program for spring 2024 that will provide tuition fees and textbooks to students attending Lee College for the first time since finishing high school. 

The administration recommends that the board authorize funding for tuition fees and textbooks for qualifying students for spring 2024. Do we have a motion on this item? Okay that was a motion by Regent Hall and a second by Regent Guillory. Any discussion on this item? Just real quick item number four on the requirements what would be an example of meet other requirements as determined by the president? Do you want to give an example? Best practices for students so that they are acclimated to the college culture. 

Any other discussion on this item? Yeah it does say and meet other requirements not that the president just gets to decide that's right. They never let me decide anything anyway. Sounds like Scott decides.

(38:33 - 41:47)
Appropriately so. Any other discussion on this? Okay all in favor of this item please say aye. Aye. 

Any opposed? Okay. Consideration of approval of tuition discount for employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who are approved to participate in the TD CJ tuition assistance program. The administration recommends that the board approve a tuition discount of $35 per credit hour for employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who are approved to participate in the TD CJ tuition assistance program. 

Do we have a motion on this item? Second. Okay motion by Regent Guillory second by Regent Charles. Do we have any discussion on this item? Just real quick it mentioned in here that in order to do in-person we had to get approval from Lone Star. 

Did we talk to them at all about any of this? We're not proposing anything face-to-face. But we didn't. No. 

And I actually serve as the chair for the Gulf Coast Consortium and that would be my responsibility to inform the entire consortium if I were to do that but I'm not doing anything that's out of line. Any other discussion on this item? Hey all in favor please say aye. Any opposed? Consideration of purchasing two semi trucks with grant funds for the Huntsville Center CDL program with from Houston Freightliner for two hundred thirty six thousand thirty six dollars. 

The administration recommends that the board approve the purchase of these two vehicles using two hundred thirty six thousand thirty six dollars in grant funds. Do we have a motion on this item? Okay I've got a motion by Regent Cotton and was that Regent Hall? And a second by Regent Hall. Do we have discussion on this item? Just a curiosity question. 

So this is purchasing the the tractor part the truck part. Where do they get the trailer from? And I've seen them. They're huge. 

I've seen him actually driving them. It's very impressive. But we have trucks now right? We do. 

To pull them with already. We're just getting new ones. They're pretty old. 

How many are in this program roughly? How many students? Yes. I don't know exactly. It's it's a very popular program in Huntsville. 

Well yeah you put a prisoner in a truck and come back if you can. They bring the truck back. You what? They bring the truck back.

(41:47 - 42:11)
But that is that is a good income source and it's something that they can qualify and it puts them on the right path. And we prefer to refer to our students as students. And it is important to point out here this is funded by a grant.

(42:13 - 45:44)
Can you clarify that they are modified so that and there's a guard that rides with them that they don't just we don't just turn students out onto the freeway in a truck. Is that my understanding? Is that correct? That's a trustee. Okay. 

There were students. Trustee status. Trustee. 

Or driving out on the highway. No it's actually in the units. Acres and acres. 

The picture showed these trucks they have two cabs, four doors, so I guess they take several at a time. If that picture was accurate. I'm aware of actually the number that they take. 

I do know that they're accompanied in there. They do follow the very strict TDCJ rules. Can you find out how many are in the program and let us know roughly? I mean if it's 50 or 250. 

And this is only at Huntsville, right? That we do this? Correct. Okay. Any further discussion on this item? All in favor say aye. 

Aye. Any opposed? Next. Consideration of approval of resolution receiving the certified appraisal roles for Chambers and Harris counties for the 2023 tax roll year. 

The administration recommends in accordance with section 26.04 of the state property tax code the submission and subsequent approval of the appraisal roles to the governing body. The 2023 certified tax appraisal role reflects for Chambers County five billion eight hundred and eighty four million four thousand four five hundred and seventeen taxable value and the certified tax appraisal roles reflects for Harris County thirteen billion two hundred and sixty six million eight hundred and nine thousand seven hundred and sixty eight taxable value and nine hundred and thirty million eight hundred and sixty seven thousand seven hundred ninety seven in remaining uncertified estimated taxable value pending property value appeals. The resolution attached adopts the certified Chambers County and Harris County certified appraisals as the 2023 certified tax roll for the Lee College District. 

Do we have a motion on this item? Move for approval. Second. I have a motion by Regent Santana and a second by Regent Cotton. 

Any discussion on this item? I will say I practice saying those very large numbers before the meeting. I'm not ashamed to admit that. So those numbers when it says 13 billion for Harris County that's just our our taxing area right? That's not all Harris County.

(45:46 - 56:35)
And the same with Chambers. Just our little piece of Chambers. I would dare say if it were for all of Harris County it would have been a trillion for Chambers. 

It's just our area also. Our taxing district. Any other discussion on this item? All in favor say aye. 

Any opposed? Next. Consideration of proposed tax rate and setting date for public hearing and meeting to adopt tax rate for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. The administration recommends in accordance with the current legislation that the board propose by recorded vote the 2023 proposed tax rate for the 2023-2024 fiscal year and set date for public hearing and meeting for adoption of the tax rate. 

Do we have a motion on this item? I've got a motion by Regent Charles. Would you be the second? And a second by Regent Hemsel. Discussion on this item? Accurate that this that the proposed rate is higher than the no new revenue rate? That's correct. 

And I have a question about are we we're doing the defeasance program again to the tune? That's correct. I ask if my understanding of defeasance is that we're buying some type of financial instrument that will pay the bonds off when they're callable. Is that is that a correct? Part of the tax rate. 

The bond? Part of the tax rate. Yes the INS rate goes towards this so if your question is related to the INS rate. Is that what defeasance is? That's where the money is coming from. 

It's my understanding but I'll let Annette weigh in on that. So I believe Dr. V shared with you some information that we received back from Post Oak who is our our advisors but the way the defeasance would work is we would we would remit whatever amount we're wanting to pay down on the debt to the to the bank that actually holds these bonds and what happens is those funds are placed into an escrow account. There are very defined investments that that money can be put into. 

It must be guaranteed by the by the U.S. government so that there's no chance of loss. Like treasury bills or something? Exactly. And so the funds are put into guaranteed investments and then at a point in time when those bonds become callable then those funds are used to pay those bonds off. 

That is all handled by the escrow agent which is the same agent that is that we remit our normal bond payments to. Once we as an institution remit that payment that defeasance payment if you will to the escrow agent at that point in time that debt comes off of our books. It's paid. 

So our liabilities as far as our financial statements go is reduced by that payment and it basically becomes the liability of the escrow agent. One further question the the escrow account I'm assuming that's some type of an interest bearing or they're investing in the treasury bills or whatever. Does the benefit of the interest earned on those treasury bills come exclusively to Lee College? No it stays it stays with that with that deposit and it is included in the payment of the bond debt. 

So so we're getting the benefit because right now there's the interest rate that they're most likely earning on treasury bills is greater than the interest cost of our bonds and I just want I want to make sure we're gaining that spread and it's not. Well the college doesn't gain it directly. We can't legally gain it directly. 

But it is included in that escrow account so when that account is used to pay down the debt any earnings that came from that escrow is included with that payment. So if if treasury bills stay high we could actually escalate some of our debt retirement beyond what the current estimates are. Am I understanding this correctly? Yes you know it but you know as well as I do that rates change every every minute of every day. 

Yeah and when Dr. V sent that information out to you I don't know how close you looked at it but there is there is a group of bonds that are not callable. I think I okay okay here we go. Yeah there is about there's about 10 years of bonds that are not callable. 

So we've got about five years of debt that are callable at different points and so basically if we continue with this program as we have proposed what will happen is over the next four to five years we would continue to make our normal payments. We will escrow the money to pay down early the other parts of the debt and so when we get to the end of that four or five year period what's going to happen is that we're probably only going to have about four years left or five years left of full debt payments because we're going to continue to make our normal payment plus we're going to pay down the other part so we're going to end up within a period of about five years of only having about five years left to make payments on that current debt. Well I wanted to make sure that if there was any interest variance arbitrage if I can use that term that the Delta between right what can be earned today and what works costing us today that that benefit is coming to our account escrow account yes and which would either pay our bonds off quicker or reduce it our required contribution yes any more discussion or questions on this item when one clarification is we do need to state the date that we will hold the hearing for the to adopt the tax rate and I would recommend to you that we do that on the day of our next regular board meeting we typically do it 30 minutes or so before the regular board meeting so I would propose to you that that would be the date that you would look at setting the public hearing to adopt the tax rate okay recommended I'll read it out loud so it's in the record recommended date for the public hearing and meeting for adoption is the October 19th 2023 regular board meeting and what the vote we're taking now is to get the recommended rate is that correct I think we're just setting the date the date for the public hearing you're accepting you're accepting the proposed rate that's currently you're accepting a proposed rate you're not adopting the final tax rate you're accepting the proposed rate and setting the time and date for the hearings and then in October we will come back to you and ask that you adopt the tax rate and legally we can't do that until after holding a public hearing that's correct any other questions okay all in favor please say aye any opposed okay so that would be okay so we just for the record we have seven in favor and one opposed and one absent okay our next item is executive session okay 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 closed meeting has adjourned and we are reconvened in open meeting are there any matters of concern for future agenda hearing none I move that we adjourn