(0:00 - 0:07)
It is 6.03. We will call the meeting to order. We do have a quorum. It's nice.

(0:08 - 0:16)
Everybody's present. And we will, no, I'm meaning, we had different regents that didn't know if they were going to be here or not. Oh, okay.

(0:16 - 0:20)
I thought you meant me. I was not referring to you. Even though I was late, I'm sorry, it's your meeting.

(0:22 - 0:33)
So, we will begin with invocation and pledge to the flag and led by Regent Gina Guillory. All right. Please bow your heads in prayer.

(0:33 - 0:59)
Father God, we come to you this evening with the most humble spirit, God, just thanking you for this day, thanking you for the opportunity to serve your people and to lead by example, God. We ask that you continue to give us wisdom and knowledge, God. We ask that you continue to bless this campus for those that serve this campus, for those that work at this campus, those that currently attend and those that are coming to this campus.

(0:59 - 1:11)
We ask that you increase our territory so that we can impact the lives of other students, adults all over this community. We thank you for your spirit. We thank you for your leadership and your guidance.

(1:11 - 1:16)
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Come with me.

(1:16 - 1:40)
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. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.

(1:40 - 1:51)
Thank you. That's two, isn't it? Please pray for the Dallas Cowboys. You know what, Gilbert? You're not very funny.

(1:51 - 1:55)
I know, but that's my team too, so back off. You're screwed up. Yeah, right.

(1:56 - 2:02)
Well, that's good because it is God's team. That's true. Okay, next on the agenda is student spotlight.

(2:04 - 2:29)
Mr. Chair, I would happily like to introduce our speaker, who is Tracy Williams. He works with us at the Huntsville Center, and I'm going to ask that Donna Zuniga, our Associate Vice President of the Huntsville Center, come up and introduce them. And by the way, I want y'all also to, you may have seen this in the agenda, that Tracy is going to be coming forward again to visit with us under informational reports and talk to us about the reentry services.

(2:30 - 2:45)
Okay, well, thank you so much for this opportunity to come to the board. And before I introduce Tracy, I just want to tell you how grateful I am to have such a supportive board and administration. The Huntsville Center is really doing well.

(2:45 - 3:02)
We're nationally on the spotlight with our program. We get calls almost every week to, yeah, every week to find out how we do what we do. So, that wouldn't have happened without you as a board and the boards before you and our president.

(3:02 - 3:16)
So, thank you so much. It's really a pleasure. So, tonight I'm very privileged to introduce Tracy Williams, the Director of Reentry Services for Lee College Huntsville Center.

(3:16 - 4:00)
Prior to coming to work for Lee College, Tracy served as the Director of Policy and Outreach for the Texas Incarcerated Families Association, a nonprofit where he worked with justice impact families, underserved communities, and congressional offices to help facilitate change in the criminal justice system. Tracy holds a bachelor's degree from Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary and a master's of public administration from the University of Texas at Arlington. He is also a state certified reentry peer specialist with certifications in finance, budgeting, grant writing, and nonprofit management.

(4:00 - 4:25)
Tracy is an author, playwright, actor, producer, motivational speaker, panelist, and presenter on higher education and criminal justice issues. Tracy was awarded the Lee College Distinguished Alumni Award in 2022. Selected to the Vera Institute of Justice for Correctional Education Leadership Academy Cohort 2023.

(4:26 - 5:08)
Appointed to sit on the Texas Prison Education Program Advisory Council, a group of stakeholders for the state in 2024. For almost three years, Tracy has brought notoriety to Lee College, the Huntsville Center, and the Reentry Department as a subject matter expert for the Vera Institute of Justice, the Department of Justice Bureau Justice Assistance, Texas Workforce Commission, Education Service Center 6, Correctional Education Association, and Sam Houston State University. Tracy's faith in Christ orders his life as a husband, a father, a grandfather, and an associate pastor.

(5:08 - 5:43)
Please welcome Tracy Williams. I'd like to thank the board, thank the president for allowing me this opportunity just to give a spotlight. Booker T. Washington once said, I've learned that success is not to be measured so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.

(5:43 - 5:54)
You realize second chances matter. This board gave me a second chance. Ms. Zuniga gave me a second chance.

(5:56 - 6:21)
Many years ago in the 90s, 1990s, I was a high school student who was headed to the Air Force Academy after graduating. I was slated to go to Officer Candidate School. But one bad decision in my life, in an era of tough on crime, changed the trajectory of my life for a long time.

(6:22 - 6:57)
I had never been in trouble before, but I made a bad decision because I didn't have an identity, I didn't know who I was, and that bad decision, you know, when I stood in front of that judge in Smith County, Tyler, Texas, and she sentenced me, and I thank God I didn't cause bodily harm. No one was killed in the commission of the crime. But I realized that trauma goes a little bit deeper or farther than just physical harm.

(6:57 - 7:16)
So with that bad decision in front of a courtroom, the judge sentenced me as my mother watched on. She said there's only three things that can happen to Mr. Williams. He's going to die of AIDS, he'll be so old you'll never have to worry about him, or the gangs will get him.

(7:16 - 7:30)
And she sentenced me to 50 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. But prison was a second chance. Prison was a second chance.

(7:31 - 7:53)
So in prison, I found my identity of who I knew I was purposed to be, which was in Christ. But not only that, that was always the foundation of our family. I realized that our other core values of our family was family, was hard work, and of course, you guessed it, education.

(7:54 - 8:16)
Because I came from a family of educators. And so inside a prison, in one of the toughest prisons in Texas, I did not allow my bad choice to dictate or stop me from being who I was purposed to be. I remember quickly achieving two associates degrees.

(8:17 - 8:48)
Not knowing I had a gift to write, I wrote, and at this time funding for Pell was being taken away, so programs like Lee College was scrambling to keep prison education alive. I won a scholarship, a prison scholar fund, Van Velsen Prison Scholar Fund, from writing a two-page article. Transferred, I went to Sam Houston, but I also went to Lee College.

(8:49 - 9:02)
Went to Lee College, and I remember Paul Allen was my teacher. I'll never forget his class. The stock game that we used to play in his game, you know, I was pretty good at it.

(9:02 - 9:47)
And the only reason why I didn't finish Lee College and achieve that third associate's degree, at this time, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Heart of Texas Foundation, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Houston Mayor John Whitmire. They had an idea to start a seminary in prison, and it succeeded, and I was a part of that inaugural class. And I received a bachelor's degree and graduated, and the whole purpose of this was to go out and serve your fellow residents.

(9:47 - 10:27)
And so for five years, I served on the largest prison unit in Texas, creating job skills curriculums, doing these plays, doing plays, not knowing I had the gift to do plays, preaching, being on call 24-7 to help people that were in need, that were suicidal, or they got a bad letter from home. So I remember in December 16, 2020, I walked out the front door a free man at the height of COVID. And because of the work I had done in prison, I had a job when I walked out the door.

(10:27 - 10:44)
Most of the time, this is not the case of someone that had served over 25 and a half years in prison. I worked with Texas Incarcerated Families Association, a nonprofit organization, one of the oldest in Texas, and we worked with congressional offices. We helped craft policy.

(10:44 - 11:10)
Many of these legislators I still have good communication and relationship with today. But when the opportunity to work for Lee College came about, I thank God for Donna, giving my predecessor, Brandon Warren, a chance. And when the department was expanding, I was hired as a reentry specialist in 2022, January.

(11:13 - 11:29)
Being hired, TTCJ had never allowed somebody with a violent crime, such as my own, to come back and be a state-contracted employee. They gave me a second chance. The board gave me a second chance with this job.

(11:29 - 11:46)
Donna gave me a second chance to work for Lee College. And so God never forgets your work or service. And so now the door has opened for several more people now to come on board, not only at Lee College, but also in other places.

(11:47 - 11:56)
And it's all because of a second chance. So finally, I just say this. Thank you for that second chance.

(11:57 - 12:35)
And because I found out who I was from that second chance, you heard all the different things that I've done. The master's degree, the subject matter expert, working with Vera Institute of Justice, writing a memoir, stage plays, and even applying for my Ph.D. So God has been good to me in giving me a second chance, and I thank y'all. Thank you, Tracy.

(12:35 - 12:50)
We have a certificate that we'd like to present to you. I didn't mean to cry. No, you got us crying, too.

(12:50 - 12:53)
Yeah, you do. You got us crying. It was a wonderful story.

(12:54 - 12:57)
It was a wonderful story. It is. I'm so glad.

(13:11 - 13:21)
To give students. I don't think anyone could do the job he's going to do better than him. Yes, he's good.

(13:24 - 13:50)
He is a talking, talking example of hope. He is. Chairman, what did you give to him? What did it say? Oh, we've been giving these out for a few months now.

(13:50 - 13:59)
It's a certificate of recognition. Thank you. And those are done here on campus, right? What department puts those together? Marketing, right? Yeah.

(14:00 - 14:05)
So it's a beautiful certificate. Glad we started doing that. Okay.

(14:10 - 14:23)
All right. Disposition of the minutes. We are approving the minutes from board retreat, March 31st, 2023.

(14:23 - 14:34)
Board retreat, May 31st, 2024. Board retreat, June 1st, 2024. Building committee meeting, August 13th, 2024.

(14:34 - 14:45)
Public hearing on proposed tax abatement, August 22nd, 2024. Board meeting, August 22nd, 2024. Policy committee meeting, August 27th, 2024.

(14:46 - 14:50)
Do we have a motion on the minutes? So moved. Second. Okay.

(14:50 - 14:59)
Hearing a motion and a second. It was a motion by Regent Santana and a second by Regent Warford. Is there any discussion of the minutes? Okay.

(14:59 - 15:03)
Hearing none. All in favor of approving the minutes as submitted, say aye. Aye.

(15:04 - 15:11)
Any opposed? Okay. All right. Next up, report of the chairman.

(15:11 - 15:28)
I have a brief report. I just want to say, as of last Tuesday, I want to thank the board for their contributions to the upcoming gala, which will be a week from tomorrow night. So far, eight of the nine of us have supported the gala.

(15:28 - 15:45)
Hopefully, in a week, we'll be at 100%. But the early reports are that we're ahead of last year's support for the gala overall, not just talking about the board. And so it looks like it could be a... But behind the college's cabinet.

(15:45 - 15:54)
Yeah. Just wanted to... I mean, not that we're competing against one another, but the college's cabinet has exceeded the board's contributions. Which is wonderful.

(15:54 - 16:03)
Yeah. So anyway, let's support our gala. All right.

(16:03 - 16:12)
Building committee. Mr. Chair, the building committee met yesterday, September 18th, 3-3 in the afternoon. It was a called meeting, a public meeting.

(16:13 - 16:25)
All regents were invited. And so we had the meeting here. We focused our meeting on a report from our facilities group on the hurricane barrel impact to the campus.

(16:26 - 16:40)
We got a play-by-play, day-by-day review over what our Lee College team did during that time period. I think a couple of weeks that we were without power. It was good to hear some of the details.

(16:40 - 16:57)
And as I said yesterday, I think everybody was there. But as I said yesterday, basically, us understanding the details of what you went through just helps us continue to strengthen our support for what we have going on at this campus. I mean, every person did a great job.

(16:58 - 17:16)
You know, we are working to the future of hardening our facilities and trying to limit those type of impacts to our facility and our students. So I thank you for bringing the details to us, letting us ask some questions, kind of taking care of some of the questions we had in our minds. And that was our entire meeting.

(17:16 - 17:32)
And it was very – thank you for the information you provided. Anybody else have any comments on the meeting we had yesterday that was there? Well, Regent Santana, I just had one question. You said letting you guys have questions or ask questions? Yes.

(17:33 - 17:40)
Because that's not the way it seemed to go yesterday. Well, you know, we have to have a meeting for us to ask questions. So yeah, we do that.

(17:40 - 17:48)
No, but you said you thank you for letting us ask questions. I don't think it really goes that way. You guys are great at asking questions.

(17:50 - 17:57)
It's a two-way street. Anyway, thank you. Thank you for the information and allowing us to catch up on what took place.

(17:58 - 18:01)
That's all I have. Thank you, sir. Regent Guillory, Policy Committee.

(18:01 - 18:15)
Yes, sir. We met at the end of the month and went over some local policies. And we have another meeting that will be scheduled probably next month because of some scheduling conflicts with conferences and things like that.

(18:15 - 18:25)
And we'll bring more items to you later. And Regent Gerald, Audit and Investment. Yes, we met on September 3rd.

(18:25 - 18:37)
And Mr. Goings, our internal auditor, presented the Internal Audit Foundation build, internal audit objectives. The committee members, I hope you've checked your email. I think it was last week.

(18:37 - 18:49)
We got sent a lot of documents that the auditor is building for the college. And we will meet on October 8th to review the audit priority list. And then that will come to the full board at the October meeting.

(18:51 - 18:54)
Thank you. Okay. Report of the President.

(18:54 - 19:18)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I'm absolutely thrilled to begin my report by announcing that we have officially achieved Lee College's highest recorded enrollment for a third year in a row in our 90-year history. So just a little bit of information.

(19:18 - 19:27)
We're up 2%, which represents 204 students from last fall. Our enrollment is now 8,943. Do the math.

(19:28 - 19:41)
We're 57 students shy of hitting 9,000. So we're so close, and it's quite possible that we may get there for two reasons this semester. One is Huntsville is not done with enrollment.

(19:41 - 19:59)
They've suffered the most with the financial aid fiasco that the Department of Education has given us. And then we have an eight-week semester that is going to start midway. And so we will likely, hopefully, surpass that number.

(20:00 - 20:16)
But what a great milestone for the college. And I just could not be prouder of the efforts of our entire college team and Scott Bennett. Dr. Scott Bennett, I want to give you a special thanks for leading in strategic enrollment management.

(20:17 - 20:36)
And for our efforts, this has been a long-term plan. A lot of colleges have knee-jerk reactions and continue to change. And the worst thing that can happen is you see something going down, and then you go, what do we got to do different? So we did not do that.

(20:36 - 20:49)
We have been invested in continuously improving our efforts over the years, and it has produced significant outcomes. And so, again, thank you guys so much. It's such a privilege to serve such an amazing college.

(20:51 - 21:06)
I want to congratulate Regent Susan Moore Fontenot on her appointment as the new CAT chair for the next two years. The gavel was handed over last week. Darryl and I were there at the annual CAT meeting in Amarillo.

(21:06 - 21:20)
Got to see the sod poodles play some baseball in Amarillo, which I guess refers to prairie dogs. Darryl had Chairman Fontenot look that up for us. So the sod poodles, but really nice stadium.

(21:21 - 21:31)
And it was a lot of fun. That's Annette's hometown, and so $46 million investment there in little old Amarillo. Yeah.

(21:32 - 21:57)
So moving on, more great news about Huntsville Center. One I wanted to share that I had the good fortune of being able to speak on a panel, and I'm usually not the one speaking on a panel for Huntsville Center. It's usually Donna and Dr. Walser, who's leading so many of our efforts in that area, and Tracy just described his many efforts to support all of these different speaking engagements.

(21:57 - 22:17)
But I had the privilege of speaking at the CAT conference about our program and just supporting prison education programs in general. And supporting on that panel was also the lead for the Windham School District. That is kind of the channel that feeds students to us.

(22:17 - 22:59)
But also someone from, also who was a former incarcerated student to, or incarcerated person who is now finished with her master's degree and is looking to move on to her doctorate. Dr. Walser, you're pretty close to her, right? Yeah, so she's just done a remarkable job working with them as well, the Educate Trust Institute. So one of the things that we came to the conclusion of is that there's 130,000 incarcerated individuals in the state of Texas, yet there are less than 3,000 students that are in these programs.

(22:59 - 23:09)
And so we need everyone in Texas to be supporting these programs. And so it just benefits everyone. All boats rise.

(23:09 - 23:34)
And so we got to talk about strategies that support that. But anyways, I wanted to really focus on more great news about the Huntsville Center. And I'm proud to report that the Huntsville Center Peer Tutoring Program was awarded certification as a Level 1 Certified Tutor Training Program by the Internationally Recognized College Reading and Learning Association, or CRLA as we formally know it.

(23:34 - 24:04)
And having sought this recognition at my former institution and being over tutoring at the time, I can attest to just how difficult it is to achieve this recognition. And I'm confident that we're going to achieve even higher levels of recognition and certification through them. But I'm proud of our Huntsville team's efforts, especially Amanda DeVore, who worked, our Student Success Coordinator, who worked on the application for the certification for over a year.

(24:05 - 24:19)
And we are very, very proud of this accomplishment on her part and for the entire college. So thank you so very much. And I want to talk about, finally, marketing awards.

(24:20 - 24:35)
You hear me have talked about this several times in a year, but this department just keeps performing. And it's just amazing. So congratulations to our marketing team, particularly Chris Coates, who is here.

(24:35 - 25:05)
Right, Chris? Stephanie Sanchez, Sebastian Troitano, and Rich Palacio for being honored with six AACC National Council for Marketing and Public Relations awards for District 4. District 4 covers six states, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Arkansas. Lee College is among a handful of peer institutions to earn six awards and only one of two colleges in the Gulf Coast region. So we're very pleased.

(25:10 - 25:44)
So the awards are for social media, marketing campaign, computer-generated illustration, photography, Chris, photography, we're talking about that good side thing, video short, e-cards, and e-publications. And also, I want to wish congratulations to Brian Waddell, who was named Communicator of the Year for District 4. And we're very, very proud of him. So his award and others will be presented in Fort Worth next month at the NCMPR Medallion Awards Luncheon.

(25:45 - 25:56)
And, Mr. Chairman, on that very positive note, that concludes my report. Okay. Informational reports.

(25:56 - 26:02)
Report of Lee College resignations and or retirements. None. Very good.

(26:02 - 26:08)
First time I think I've been able to say that. I think so. Okay.

(26:08 - 26:30)
Report on Huntsville Center Reentry Services. Tracey Williams, Director of Reentry Services. I have some reports for you all.

(26:31 - 26:58)
You all want to look at the numbers? So, once again, my name is Tracey Williams, Director of Reentry Services. And thank you for this opportunity to be able to give this overview. I will be brief with it.

(26:58 - 27:08)
But I have these informational data. Huh? I have this information, this data. I actually have it here.

(27:09 - 27:27)
But I wanted you to be able to have it firsthand to look at and see what we are doing at the Huntsville Center. So the reentry department comprises myself. We have an administrative assistant who just accepted the offer, Michelle Banusky, to be a reentry specialist.

(27:27 - 27:37)
Mr. Calvin Green, who is over the New Beginnings grant. And Demetria Hunt. She is our reentry specialist for the Pathways grant.

(27:38 - 27:51)
So many of you here in Baytown, you all see Demetria. She is leading our effort with the Pathways grant. It is a grant from Greater Texas Foundation as well as Trellis.

(27:53 - 28:15)
And so that grant ensures that our ladies that are at Plain State are able to transfer to campus and they have the different wraparound services that they need while they are trying to achieve their degree or credential of value. So that's kind of small. You probably can't see that.

(28:16 - 28:45)
So Dr. V said it, that TDCJ has now 135,000 people, residents, and that number is increasing. Of those 3,000 students that are in post-secondary education, guess what, Lee College has a third of them. So usually we have about 300 students of ours are released every year.

(28:45 - 29:04)
And so you think about the number, how long we've been doing this. We are the oldest correctional education program in the state, one of the oldest in the country, to continually do correctional education, as well as one of the largest. So we have a lot of students or alumni that get out.

(29:08 - 29:46)
So some of the dynamics of reentry, when people think about reentry or reentering back into society, reentering society is usually not a cookie-cutter approach. You have many national organizations or individuals, non-profits, that believe that there is one size fits all, but everybody's needs are different when they're coming out of prison. And so some of the most important factors when you think about that is obtaining your ID, employment, transportation, housing, some people education, job experience.

(29:47 - 30:33)
Even collateral consequences, people face those when they get out, and those are regulatory or different stipulations, whether they're state, local, or federal, that keep individuals from obtaining licenses. And so this is kind of the barriers now that TDCJ and other state institutions are trying to go beyond, because all they do is keep people from being successful. So some of the other factors that we look at when you're thinking about reentry is family support, the parole risk level, and just general things like that.

(30:34 - 30:40)
So here's our mission statement for Lee College. I believe that's in the packet. Maybe not.

(30:41 - 31:14)
So we were tasked with the strategic initiative to be in line with, have our own mission statement, and it was one that Dr. Horne asked me to come up with that was in line with Lee College as well as Lee College Huntsville Center. And it says, the mission of Lee College Huntsville Center reentry department is to provide our current and former students a pathway to successful reintegration back into society through providing wraparound support services. I'll say what that is in a minute.

(31:15 - 31:31)
These services help students facilitate connection to their community through social interactions, reducing recidivism, and fostering desistance. I'll say something about that. By producing self-efficacy, which improves public safety.

(31:32 - 32:18)
So second chances, as I spoke about earlier, in education is smart public safety. And that is the key, isn't it? So two benchmark studies which allowed Pell to be reinstated is the RAND study, which says 43 to 48% of participants, any participant who participates in any type of education, is 43 to 48% less likely to return to prison, any type of education. And of course, desistance, which is a study that was done by the National Academy of Sciences in 2022, it goes beyond.

(32:18 - 32:38)
It's not a pass or fail measure. It's how a person decides or desists, starts to desist from crime, which is many factors, self-confidence, as well as education and many more things. So this is kind of a chart, just a breakdown of kind of what we do.

(32:39 - 32:51)
Alumni services, student services, and we collect data and we do a lot of community engagement. So I'm going to go past that. Let's go.

(32:52 - 33:30)
So if you would take a look at the packets that I gave you, right now, recidivism is measured by a person getting out of prison and the three-year window of if that person returns or not. So right now, TDCJ, their recidivism rate is 14.7, even though the executive director, Mr. Collier, says it's much higher because of COVID. The COVID numbers made it go down.

(33:31 - 33:58)
And so every year, well, every two years, the legislative budget board, they figure these numbers every two years because session is in session every two, every odd number year. And so within the legislative budget boards, their report that they do and uniform cost report, they have the recidivism numbers. So I want you to look at ours at Lee College.

(34:00 - 34:28)
So we measure everything by cohorts of three years and you see that our completers, people who complete a Lee College degree and who have gotten out for that cohort of 2020 is 11.7%. It's pretty good. It's real good. For non-completers, it's a little bit higher, 15.9, and 13.8 for the combined number.

(34:29 - 35:13)
But if we look at our numbers from 2015 to 2021, sometime our numbers have been as low as 8%, 6%. And so all this to say that giving people a second chance contributes to our recidivism rate being much lower than national as well as the state average. So how much money does Lee College save taxpayers? So the uniform cost report that the legislative budget board puts out every two years, they give an average cost daily of what it costs to incarcerate somebody.

(35:14 - 35:32)
So you see for 2021, it was $77.02 a day. The annual cost was $28,000. So that number will be much higher when they put out their report at the end of this year for the next legislative session.

(35:32 - 36:09)
But if you look at the column all the way to the right, you see each year of how much, because of the non-recidivists that we have had that were Lee College students that stayed out longer than the three years that counts recidivism, is these are the numbers of what we have saved the state of Texas. Even though that money has already been allocated, I guess they could shift it somewhere else. So those are some pretty staggering numbers, and then when you add them up, it shows that it is working.

(36:13 - 36:55)
So all that to say this is, why is the reentry department important? So according to House Bill 8, which we know changed the new funding structure, Lee College, of course, Huntsville Center, we do have a lot of completions. And according to House Bill 8, it says that credentials of value, credentials of value for high-skill, high-growth jobs, as well as transfers to four-year colleges and dual credit is how the new funding structure works. So the Department of Education reinstated Pell in 2023, July of 2023.

(36:56 - 37:16)
Ninety percent of our students are on Pell at the Huntsville Center. Of course, we have a high completion rate. And why that's important is because we are the only reentry department for any correctional education program.

(37:17 - 37:43)
Why is that important? Because the best interest determination for Pell or Pell funding is you have to have a reentry component. You got to have a reentry component because after two years, these colleges will begin to be evaluated. And if they don't have these wraparound services, then they might be in trouble.

(37:45 - 38:09)
So looking at the student services, you can see some of the numbers from your packet. And with our student services, we have inquiries from students on the inside. There's almost 4,000 inquiries in the last three to four years.

(38:09 - 38:24)
And we keep these numbers on a spreadsheet. Unduplicated students served, 26, 29 plus. Classroom presentations, over 1,500.

(38:25 - 38:31)
Reentry class completers. So we teach a reentry class. We have nine different units.

(38:31 - 38:47)
Nine different units that we serve. Eight men's units and one women's, female's unit. And so of these units, every year we give, we do a six-week reentry class.

(38:48 - 39:10)
And this reentry class is to teach individuals how to job search, how to use critical thinking skills, how to use soft skills, resume writing. And so what we're now focusing on also is mental health. Talking about decision making with substance abuse use.

(39:11 - 39:29)
But also, we need to start focusing on digital literacy. That's one area where we're lacking. And Donna and myself, the grant team here, Sella and the foundation, we're looking for grants where we can bring that digital literacy inside a prison.

(39:29 - 39:46)
There's many times we get calls with people that don't know how to set up an email. You know, I know that sounds strange or foreign, but people don't know how to work a phone. So we're literally the boots on the ground, 24-7.

(39:46 - 39:57)
We get calls of people always in need. You see, here are some of the resources of what we give out. Reentry resources, the bookmarks.

(39:57 - 40:09)
Here is our book for the class that we teach. But not only this, we teach classroom presentations. We give these to the technical classes.

(40:10 - 40:20)
We've done over 1,500 in the last three years. This is informational to them. That way they know about the reentry department.

(40:21 - 40:37)
So let me say something about the alumni services. So the alumni services, on the other hand, is for individuals that have gotten out. We have over 738 alumni contacts, 106 non-alumni.

(40:37 - 40:55)
And what I mean by alumni, anybody that has taken classes at Lee College or anybody that has completed Lee College. And non-alumni means people that formerly incarcerated that were in other colleges. And so we have something that is real big, is the alumni support groups.

(40:56 - 41:08)
So we have a general support group on Wednesdays. Calvin and I do a long-timers group for people that were locked up over a decade. Because their issues are a little bit different.

(41:09 - 41:18)
And so we do these support groups weekly. And there's also the ladies group. So the ladies will have a safe space together.

(41:19 - 41:34)
And many of these calls, Michelle Banusky is on, as well as Demetria and Donna is on these calls. And so it's a safe space for ladies to talk about different issues or traumas and things that they can relate to one another. So we usually do these in the evening.

(41:35 - 41:50)
But not only that, the student engagement events that we have as well, you can look and you can see some of the numbers in your packet. Networking events. Unfortunately, we are having the Texas Correctional Education Conference.

(41:50 - 41:56)
This is our 10th annual. The same day as the gala. We will make sure that does not happen next year.

(41:57 - 42:10)
And so this Texas Correctional Education Conference we do every year. It brings all the stakeholders out. TDCJ, we have a board member, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, Sidney Ziker speaking.

(42:11 - 42:29)
We will have two of the three state representatives, Steve Toth, Trey Wharton there. It brings all the stakeholders, and we have the correctional education programs. In the last three years, the reentry department has had to lead and organize this correctional education program.

(42:30 - 42:59)
But it allows us also to do alumni functions. And these alumni functions is we are able to get people that were formerly incarcerated together and just allow them to see what life feels outside of prison. Something new that we're doing, we have a clothing pantry, and now through the foundation, we have been able to get us a reentry link for emergency funds.

(43:00 - 43:28)
Because not having, sometimes people have emergencies out there. And when we can validate these emergencies, we want to be able to help out where we can. So, basically, to end this, you know, why is this important? You know, we want a talent-strong Texas, and our education has shown that it does.

(43:30 - 44:03)
It prepares our students for high-skill, high-growth jobs. And the DOJ put out this statistic that 95% of all incarcerated people, let me say that again, 95% of all incarcerated individuals get out one day. So we have to ask ourselves the question, what type of person do we want getting out to be our neighbors? Or working in stores or restaurants? So education has been shown to help.

(44:04 - 44:24)
And so those wraparound services of putting people in contact with potential employers, helping people find housing, helping people navigate and get their IDs, this is what we do. And just being there to support, just to talk to them sometimes. That's what we do.

(44:25 - 44:44)
And I would invite anybody from the board, anyone that is in attendance to come visit one of our reentry classes. We had a Texas Tribune reporter, Neha Day, that is doing a story on the reentry department that shadowed us for a day. And she was blown away.

(44:45 - 44:58)
Ms. Summers and her whole team came to Huntsville Center to see what we do. They didn't know we worked with students on the inside and the out. So I encourage you all to come one day maybe to see what we do.

(44:58 - 45:13)
We invite you. Thank you. I think on that note I would say that we're waiting for Donna to extend the invitation for us to come back out.

(45:15 - 45:26)
Oh, okay, okay. We'll talk. Okay, next up we have our financial report from our esteemed Annette Ferguson.

(45:29 - 45:47)
Thank you very much. Well, it's hard to believe, but we've got another year under our belt. Somehow, someway.

(45:48 - 46:10)
So I'll just remind everyone these results are very, very preliminary. We have lots of year-end stuff that'll come. And we will bring back to you a reconciliation from the numbers that we present tonight to what actually ends up on the audit report.

(46:11 - 46:30)
So just a reminder. Cash remains strong. We've got over 25,000, I mean 25 million, sorry about that, in reserves in U.S. Bank, another five million in Lone Star.

(46:31 - 46:46)
And that total includes all reserves that we have. Remember, we have a capital asset reserve, we have an insurance reserve, and then we have the board operating reserve. So the total of all of those is the 31 million.

(46:47 - 47:09)
Other funds that have been set aside for construction projects, we still have four million left from the lost revenue that we got from the CARES program. And then our operating funds, we have about 10 million as of the end of August. Tuition and fees, we've talked about this pretty much every meeting.

(47:10 - 47:28)
And so we were slightly below our budget. We missed it by about $182,000. State appropriations, we knew what that number was, so no surprise there.

(47:29 - 48:00)
Our district taxes and our revenue in lieu of tax, we end up with about 2.1 million above what we had budgeted. In lieu of tax, that one's pretty much a guess. The district tax, we had some adjustments in valuation back in June, July, and that increased the valuations, and so that's one reason why we did have an overage in that area.

(48:03 - 48:25)
Other revenue, our interest income, we've done very well. Other income, we were right on track. You know, we changed up our investment sum this year with laddering out our investments for a longer period of time and been able to increase the return on some of those investments.

(48:25 - 48:50)
The reserves, we try to ladder out longer, and then we keep the operating funds more current, more liquid. But we're still putting those in investments as well. Our restricted funds, we have about 500,000, almost 600,000 of federal funds that we'll be pulling down as we complete all of our year-end reconciliations.

(48:51 - 49:19)
The state grants and the private grants where it shows that we've received more money than we've spent, those funds will roll over to the next year and continue to fund whatever that grant was intended to fund. Looking at budget versus year-to-date projected actuals, again, tuition we're going to be a little light. District taxes we were over and other we were over.

(49:22 - 49:48)
Overall, our total projected net revenue right now is showing about 11 million operating surplus. And that 11 million is about 2.3 million that is directly associated to unfinished projects. And so we will be coming to the board asking the board to roll those funds over and provide funding for the projects that have already been started.

(49:49 - 50:20)
And then we'll see where that number really ends up after we do all of our year-end adjustments. Overall, our salaries ended up at about 60% of our total budget, I mean, yes, of our total operating budget where we had budgeted to be 56%. So we came in a little bit higher but that's because our operating expenses were a little bit lower than what we had budgeted.

(50:20 - 50:59)
Operating expense versus actual, I think you may recall last month on the debt service we had a swing the other way so that was just a timing issue for the monthly report because then when you look at year-to-date we're right in line with where we are. Operating costs are going to end up a little bit less than what we had budgeted and then salaries as well a little bit less than what we had budgeted. So as a percent, salary and benefits will be at about 96% of what we budgeted, operating costs 76 and debt service is right on line.

(51:01 - 51:12)
And that is it, sir and madams unless y'all have any questions for me. Thank you very much. Thank you.

(51:19 - 51:36)
Okay. Next on the agenda is a report on the collection of delinquent taxes by Mr. Brandon of Reed, Strickland and Gillette. Good evening board, Dr. Villanueva.

(51:37 - 51:46)
I genuinely appreciate the opportunity to visit with you this evening. I've been looking forward to this for several months. I do regret, however, I had to follow Mr. Williams twice.

(51:47 - 51:59)
I feel that was a distinct disadvantage I suffer from this evening. I come tonight to make a presentation about the delinquent tax collections that we do for you guys. I want to quickly go over the process of delinquent taxes.

(52:00 - 52:16)
I will tell you I have a slide at the end that asks for questions, but I'm open to any questions as we go through this. If you have any, just stop me and ask and I'll be happy to go into more detail. So what are delinquent taxes? Well, if you own property within the boundaries of Lee College's district, you're going to pay taxes.

(52:16 - 52:29)
Those taxes, the bills go out late October. Those bills are not technically due until January 31st of the next year. So your 2023 tax bill becomes due January 31st of 2024.

(52:30 - 52:49)
If you do not pay that bill by January 31st, 2024, you are now delinquent. And what happens is after February 1st, penalties and interests begin to accrue on the base tax. And so the numbers we're going to see tonight are the base tax levy, the original bill balance that the college sends out to the citizens of this community.

(52:49 - 53:08)
Now, while those taxes become delinquent on February 1st, they don't become subject to a delinquent tax collection contract for the law firm until one of two dates. And we'll talk more about these two categories in a moment. But with respect to business personal property, those become subject to our control or our collection on April 1st.

(53:08 - 53:33)
So if business personal property taxes for 2023 were not paid on time, on April 1st, 2024, we're now tasked with going and trying to collect those taxes. For real property, that's your land, your houses, the things you normally would think of being taxed, we don't get the ability to collect on those really until July 1st. So again, for the 2023 tax year, our ability to collect on that began on July 1st, 2024.

(53:34 - 53:47)
This slide kind of goes over very simply the collection process. So we get the delinquent tax collection roll from Goose Creek, they're the tax collector for the college and for the school district. And based on that delinquent tax roll, we begin our collection process.

(53:47 - 54:00)
The first step in that is to send a demand letter out to the taxpayer. It may be that somehow they've forgotten about the tax, they may have overlooked it, they may have thought the spouse sent the check in, but maybe they didn't. I know that's happened with my brother once.

(54:01 - 54:17)
And so we send a demand letter that notifies them, hey, you owe tax and it's now due. We give the taxpayer at least 10 days to provide some response to that. Honestly, this is where the most communication we have with taxpayers lives.

(54:18 - 54:37)
We'll send out a demand letter, someone will call us and say, I didn't know, or, hey, I'm struggling to make my tax payment, is there something we can do? And so you'll see down below all of these categories resolution. And we deem resolution to be one of two things, and those are two differently colored shades of green. A payment agreement is something we'd enter into with a taxpayer.

(54:37 - 54:52)
Taxpayer can't come up with the full amount of the taxes, let's work with you. If you will agree to pay a certain amount per month, as long as you're making payments faithfully under that payment agreement, we won't take any action to collect on those taxes. And by that, we won't go to the next step in the process.

(54:52 - 55:16)
And so that payment agreement is available at any of these steps as we go along. Now, it may be that while they intend to make the payments under that payment agreement, at some point something happens or they just decide to stop paying, if they breach that payment agreement, then they get put back in the top level and we continue with the collection process down the road. That's why that's a soft color green, because it's not a true final resolution.

(55:16 - 55:25)
Full payment would be obviously the final resolution for our tax collection process. Someone pays the taxes in full, it's done. We count that as being good.

(55:26 - 55:37)
If the demand letter does not work, then the next step that we take is to file a lawsuit. And we try to avoid that if we can. If a taxpayer is willing to communicate with us, we do not want to file a lawsuit.

(55:37 - 55:52)
And there's multiple reasons for that. First of all, when we file a lawsuit, just by the filing of a lawsuit, there are court costs that become due to your taxpayers. $600, $700 immediately that get added to a tax bill that they have trouble paying to begin with.

(55:52 - 56:05)
So anything we can do prior to the demand letter phase, we want to do that. But that lawsuit phase requires several things for us to do ahead of time. With respect to real property, we've got to find out who the actual record title owner of that property is.

(56:06 - 56:31)
Who holds the title? Who's the record owner of that property? Who has a lien against that property? That can be your mortgage loan that you have or maybe you took out a loan with cons and they took a judgment against you because you didn't pay them. We've got to notify all of these people and notify them that we may be foreclosing on this property. So the lawsuit process begins by us doing a title search to figure out who all needs to be notified that a lawsuit is being filed.

(56:32 - 56:45)
We file that lawsuit and then we begin to try to serve those people. Sending a constable out and serving them with papers. As that process goes through, and I'd love to tell you that that process takes some specific period of time.

(56:45 - 57:08)
But as you can probably suspect, depending on who we're trying to serve and how many people we're serving and where they might be, it's hard to gauge how long that may take. But ultimately, when we get everybody served, we're ready to set the case for trial and ultimately to take a judgment. Again, at all steps along this process, if the taxpayer is willing to work with us, we will work with them and slide down into the resolution phase.

(57:08 - 57:26)
But a judgment ultimately says you owe us a judgment, you owe the money, and that the college has the right to foreclose on the property if the taxes are not paid. That judgment is not a foreclosure. The person continues to own the property, and again, if after judgment the taxpayer shows up and says, hey, I want to get into a payment agreement, we'll be happy to do that with them.

(57:26 - 57:38)
Again, we try to work with the taxpayers to avoid that last step. And that ultimately is the foreclosure step where we ask a constable to sell the property at a public auction. And for sake of time, I'm not going to go through that entire process.

(57:38 - 57:58)
But the taxpayer is made aware of that, has opportunities to prevent that, and we try to work with them very diligently to avoid foreclosure. It's the ultimate remedy that we have, but it's not something we want to pursue. One important thing that as we think about this collection process, your total tax roll is collected through the year.

(57:59 - 58:12)
About 1.6% to 2.4% historically has been turned over to us for delinquent collections. And so that's kind of the nugget of our collection process. So that's the nugget that we're going after whenever the taxes have been paid in the due course.

(58:12 - 58:28)
About 1.6 of your total roll to 2.4 gets turned over to us for delinquent tax collections. For 2023, that percentage is 2.08, just to give you some frame of reference of what's outstanding. This next tab is going to show or next slide is Yes.

(58:28 - 58:50)
Since you said it would be okay if we ask. From what's the typical length of time from demand letter to foreclosure assuming no response from the taxpayer? How long does it take to go through that process? If you're talking about a single defendant who's easily tracked down, you're talking with Harris County. Again, we deal in Harris and Chambers County.

(58:51 - 59:08)
You're talking somewhere in the six to nine month range on an aggressive front. Partly because we've got to get them served, but partly because we're subject to the dockets that are available in Harris County. The Harris County tax collection system, there are two tax masters for the entirety of Harris County.

(59:09 - 59:23)
You can imagine how many delinquent tax suits are filed. It can be a little bit before you can get in front of a judge and get a judgment on that. After the judgment is taken, it takes a little while to get what's called an order of sale that allows us to foreclose on the property.

(59:24 - 59:48)
Really quick and getting it done would be six to nine months on that process. On the payment agreement, do you folks negotiate that? The terms? Do we collect the payments or do we collect the payments? How does that work? We certainly will negotiate with taxpayers. The tax code allows the tax collector to go up to three years for a payment agreement.

(59:49 - 59:59)
This is not something where you've got a 10-year payout where we can work with you. We will route taxpayers who need that type of arrangement. There are specified tax lenders that will make that kind of loan to them.

(1:00:01 - 1:00:12)
The taxes are paid through the tax office just like your normal tax payments. taxes every month. John Smith is showing up with his check for $132 to pay that month's installments.

(1:00:12 - 1:00:22)
That payment gets made through the tax office. This shows the delinquent tax levy collected. This is the base.

(1:00:22 - 1:00:36)
These are all as of September 3rd of 2024. You can see a wide range of taxes that have been collected. 2023 is obviously low in part because we just were handed over the delinquent tax collections.

(1:00:36 - 1:00:45)
We've already collected $132 to $241 through September 3rd. We'll continue to work that tax roll. These numbers are affected by two things.

(1:00:45 - 1:01:05)
One, what was the total tax levy that was made? Your tax values, as Annette just brought up, fluctuate from year to year. But as we said, depending on what percentage is turned over to us for delinquent, you may have a tax year where the economy is really good and people are able to pay their taxes really well. The amount is going to be less because it's not delinquent.

(1:01:05 - 1:01:17)
It's quite as much. Tax years where the economy is maybe not so great will have more delinquency and so you may see an increase in payments that are made. This is going to show you the base tax that we've collected for each of these years.

(1:01:18 - 1:01:46)
This next slide will show you what's remaining of the non-deferred. What I mean by non-deferred is if you're over 65, you're entitled to a deferral on your taxes, which means you don't technically have to pay them until either you pass away or you sell your home. And the Texas tax code does not allow us to foreclose on someone who has one of these deferrals and that can be the case for someone who's over 65, someone who's disabled, and so Texas law says leave them alone.

(1:01:47 - 1:02:04)
And so this kind of reflects what that remaining tax balance is. I will tell you that there have been some in Baytown, I won't name names, who have really abused this. We had a taxpayer who passed away owing about $270,000 worth of property taxes and there was nothing we could do to them because they had an over 65 home situation.

(1:02:04 - 1:02:16)
Of course, once they passed away, we were then able to collect on it. We collected the entire tax, but there may be a lapse because we've got to wait until this person either sells the house or passes away. So this will show you what's remaining.

(1:02:16 - 1:02:43)
As you can see, the number in 2023 is pretty high and again, that's because, one, we've got 2.08 that was handed over to us, but also it was just handed over to us. You can see pretty quickly we knocked this number down and we get pretty aggressive in trying to collect the taxes. By the time we have a few years out, the collection process is able to work through the system, demand letters, lawsuits, judgments, foreclosures, and so we're able to reduce the delinquent taxes down pretty significantly.

(1:02:44 - 1:02:54)
And this chart shows that. This chart is going to show you what's left of the tax roll based on a real property. Again, that's your land in your house versus the personal property.

(1:02:54 - 1:03:03)
And you will notice that the vast majority of the taxes that are owed delinquent are real property. This is people's homes. This is where their kids sleep.

(1:03:03 - 1:03:13)
And so we try to be very careful with that. We're going to have to collect the taxes at some point, but we try to give people as much time to save their homes. I do want to point out a couple of things about this chart.

(1:03:14 - 1:03:29)
First of all, again, you can see we're pretty flat as we work our way to the right as we get through the years. It takes some time to get through this process. But in 2021 and 2022, on the personal property side, personal property consists of any business personal property.

(1:03:29 - 1:03:39)
So at our office, we have desks and computers. And those all have a value. And the Texas tax code says I have to pay taxes on those things.

(1:03:40 - 1:03:51)
Inventories in a warehouse, that would be business personal property. Also included in this category are manufactured homes that are not affixed to the real estate. So a mobile home, as most people would call it.

(1:03:51 - 1:04:09)
Those are all things that are personal property. For 2021 and 2022, we were blessed, I'll say that somewhat sarcastically, with a warehouse occupant, someone who was in a warehouse here in baytown from China. And they stored apparently a bunch of stuff.

(1:04:10 - 1:04:29)
And so for 2022, the total tax that is owed by that entity is $21,417 of personal property. And so you can see that that makes up a pretty significant chunk of what's left of that tax roll. As a matter of fact, of the total tax roll, it makes up 8.96 of the total tax that is left owing for that year.

(1:04:29 - 1:04:44)
They also had stuff there in 2021, and it makes up 17% of the 17.4% of our 2021 roll. To collect against an entity that is located in China requires quite a bit more to the normal delinquent collection process. We have to actually translate our pleadings into Mandarin.

(1:04:45 - 1:05:02)
We have to send it under the Hague convention over to a governmental office in China and hope that that office will deliver the citation to this office in whatever province of China it resides in. And then they have to return it back to the court, and once we have that, well, we've served them. You can see how this becomes problematic.

(1:05:02 - 1:05:18)
And so I do want to point out that 2021 to 2022 are going to be a little bit skewed because of that. This chart will show kind of giving you an idea of the blue is the work that we've done being able to collect. The yellow is going to show what's left.

(1:05:18 - 1:05:36)
And this is kind of a combination of some of the previous slides to give you an idea of what percentage of the delinquent roll is left versus what we've collected. And so, again, as we move from left to right, you're going to see a pretty significant drop in the yellow portion of this chart. And that's to show the reduction in the outstanding taxes that are due and owing to the college.

(1:05:37 - 1:05:48)
This is going to show our delinquent collection percentage. Now, this is our percentage of what was handed over to us, what are we collecting. And, again, in 2023, we've just started, so you're going to see a really low number right there.

(1:05:48 - 1:06:10)
As we work, as we go through the process, as the demand letters and lawsuits and all of that goes forward, you can see it as we reach kind of a normal process, we're going to collect anywhere from 95 to 97 percent of the total taxes. So what's left over? Because that's a fair question. Well, you've got mobile homes that's hard to collect on.

(1:06:10 - 1:06:30)
Unless the college or school district want to buy a lot to store mobile homes, it's very hard to foreclose on a mobile home and take it with you. And so a lot of our tax roll left over is going to be items like that. It may be items where businesses have gone into bankruptcy, places like crafts, et cetera, or Hancock's that were once very thriving businesses and had lots of inventory.

(1:06:30 - 1:06:56)
One month they're operating and the next month they're in a chapter 7 bankruptcy or chapter 11 bankruptcy and it's hard to collect against a company that's liquidating its assets. And so you can see how that would be a potential threat or challenge to collection. Yes, sir? Does a bankruptcy supersede your tax collection efforts and halt them completely? So it halts the collection efforts, but we do have the and we do go into the bankruptcy court and make our claim.

(1:06:57 - 1:07:08)
We're owed X number of dollars. Now, the practical standpoint, a lot of times those businesses, especially with business personal property, there's nothing left over. They've liquidated before we ever get there.

(1:07:09 - 1:07:32)
But, you know, if you were to file for bankruptcy on your house, we make a claim with the bankruptcy court. We then have to wait for that process to go through and in a chapter 13, and I'm getting beyond the scope of this, but I want to answer the question fully, in a chapter 13 you have five years to pay the bankruptcy trustee. So we collect a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, and a little bit, and it just takes time to work that way through the process.

(1:07:32 - 1:07:54)
But, yeah, we still have our, it does not wipe out our lien to the extent there's stuff left for us to have a lien against. This next chart is going to show the whole tax levy. So it's going to show what the total taxes were for each of these years and show you in a frighteningly small portion the total outstanding taxes that are left.

(1:07:55 - 1:08:01)
So the blue is what's been collected. The yellow is going to be what's outstanding. And if you're looking at the monitor, you're sitting at the bottom and you're going, I don't see it.

(1:08:01 - 1:08:13)
And that's because the college is really good at collecting its taxes. And so there's very little left of the total tax roll as we get through this process. Of the total tax, again, this is not what I'm collecting.

(1:08:13 - 1:08:38)
This is just to give you an idea of what the college is doing. Again, you're going to see, if I went back two slides, kind of take a snapshot mentally of what this looks like. I'm going to go back two slides and you'll see it's roughly the same arc, right? So this is going to show you that when the college is done collecting the base levy, this is the originally billed taxes, no penalties and interest included, you're collecting 99.95 percent of what's outstanding.

(1:08:39 - 1:08:58)
When we factor in those penalties and interest, the college is actually collecting more than what is originally levied. And so the college, again, does a very good job of collecting its taxes. And we would anticipate, as the collection process continues through, that those years, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, those will come up as we go through the process.

(1:08:58 - 1:09:23)
This shows kind of a pie chart of the same thing we just talked about. Your 2022 levy, the total levy that was originally sent out, you have 0.62 left to collect, a very small sliver of that. For 2023, a little bit bigger sliver, 1.51 of your total tax bill, your total levy, is still outstanding for taxpayers to pay and that's what we're heading after as we try to collect these taxes through this process.

(1:09:25 - 1:09:36)
So with that, and I know I've gone through this very quickly and there's so many things we could talk about, but I want to open the presentation up to any questions the board may have. I've got one. Yes.

(1:09:36 - 1:09:43)
So our Lee College's taxes comes on the Goose Creek tax statement. Yes. Okay.

(1:09:46 - 1:10:00)
A couple of different ways I'm thinking about this. Let's say you have a taxpayer who is struggling, but they want to pay something. Does a person have the ability to go to the tax office and say, well, I'm not going to I want to pay my Lee College taxes.

(1:10:00 - 1:10:04)
Absolutely. And I don't want to pay my Goose Creek taxes. Absolutely.

(1:10:04 - 1:10:16)
I imagine it probably doesn't happen a lot. It actually happens a fair amount because the Lee College tax is so much smaller than the Goose Creek tax. I just want to pay that bill and know I'm good with the college.

(1:10:16 - 1:10:21)
Okay. It does happen, I wouldn't say regularly, but... They save a lot of fees that way. Certainly.

(1:10:22 - 1:10:31)
Certainly. Okay. Well, on the subject of fees, so let's say a person didn't do that and they're just delinquent on Goose Creek.

(1:10:32 - 1:10:43)
So there's a set of Goose Creek fees and a set of Lee College fees when you go through your legal process? So, no. Okay. Because we're filing as one taxing entity.

(1:10:43 - 1:10:52)
Okay. All of the tax costs, the court costs, are unified. And so... And then in that case, the collections are just divvied up proratably.

(1:10:52 - 1:11:06)
That's right. If somebody shows up and pays $100 without saying I want it to go here or there, based on the total tax bill, the tax collector will say okay, $64 goes here and $36 goes here. There's only one set of fees because you do both of them, right? Correct.

(1:11:07 - 1:11:31)
And... If you did Goose Creek and some less did Lee College, there could be two sets of fees, right? There would be two sets of fees, but it's not the $700. It would be... So there's an intervention fee, which is someone jumping in saying, hey, I'm owed two. I will tell you all, every pleading, and I think I talked about this the last time I was a pleading attorney, every pleading that I sign includes Lee College.

(1:11:32 - 1:11:54)
And so you're riding piggyback with Goose Creek on every case, so your taxpayers are not filing that intervention fee because it's all one pleading. For instance, the city of Baytown is handled by a different tax collector, and so there's an $80 charge every time they jump in on a Goose Creek, Lee College case that if it were separate, the taxpayer would pay both. I'm sorry.

(1:11:54 - 1:12:20)
You mentioned earlier about, you know, working with the taxpayers, and trying to come up with a payment schedule. Is that your firm working with them and coming up with a payment plan, or is that a set of parameters that you're working with that's legislatively given to you or whatever? It's in part both. So again, we can't extend any longer than three years, and so we're hamstrung to go four, five, and six.

(1:12:20 - 1:12:41)
And again, we're talking to the taxpayers to say, here's what we can do and here's what that looks like on a monthly basis. And those conversations are happening with taxpayers with our office. Our paralegals and I talk with people all the time about, we stress, what can you reasonably afford? Let's not get you in a payment agreement that you can't make because it doesn't do any of us any good.

(1:12:41 - 1:13:15)
But those conversations are happening, taking the taxpayer where they come to us and saying, what can you do? Can we work something out that benefits you and benefits us? If they come and say, I can pay $50 a month and they've got a $25,000 tax bill, I'm going to refer them over to one of those tax lenders that might be able to make them a loan that gives them 20 years to pay that tax and those companies charge for their services. The interest rates are high on those. Do you have folks typically that are delinquent year after year after year? Absolutely.

(1:13:16 - 1:13:27)
Absolutely. We have repeaters. And we have some that are, I will tell you, when I first started doing this back in 2005, there are some taxpayers that the judges in Harris County knew by name.

(1:13:27 - 1:13:51)
They knew before we even mentioned who their spouse was. And so we have taxpayers that, speaking of recidivism, these are repeat taxpayers and delinquent taxpayers who just, I don't understand the business model, but they just don't like to pay their taxes. And so it's better for the college in some respects because you get penalties and interest off of these people that just refuse to pay their taxes on time.

(1:13:55 - 1:14:03)
Yes, sir? Where do you earn your money? So it's important. It's a really good question. I haven't talked about how we get paid.

(1:14:04 - 1:14:14)
The Texas tax code assigns what's called a collection penalty. And it's a percentage of the total tax that the taxpayer has to pay. And so when a taxpayer shows up, they've got to pay us.

(1:14:14 - 1:14:24)
Now, that means that we're budget neutral for any tax entity that we represent. So you'll notice on your budget there's no line item for delinquent tax collection firm. That's because it's built into the tax bill.

(1:14:25 - 1:14:41)
Part of that, and Harris County has moved away from this model I will tell you very recently, but part of that is the taxpayers of our community shouldn't have to pay for those who won't pay their tax. That's kind of the thought process. And so it causes that burden to be placed on those who do not pay the tax.

(1:14:45 - 1:14:54)
Brandon, I just wanted to thank you for responding to the questions that we sent at the last minute today earlier. But that was helpful. Thank you.

(1:14:54 - 1:14:59)
No problem. I'm always glad to answer any questions you all have. And again, there's so many more things that we could talk about.

(1:15:00 - 1:15:08)
And I appreciate you all taking the time this evening. If you all ever have any questions, feel free to let me know. And I'd be happy to come back and address anything you guys need me to address.

(1:15:08 - 1:15:15)
This was very informative. And I think we've got a lot better picture of what you do for us. So we appreciate that.

(1:15:15 - 1:15:29)
Thank you. Real quick, Annette, we initially were needing some additional information or reports. Are we now getting what we need from our tax collector as far as you can tell? Excellent.

(1:15:29 - 1:15:37)
Thank you for doing that, Brandon. Absolutely. Again, that's part of ‑‑ I answer to Annette and to the board and to Dr. Villanueva.

(1:15:37 - 1:15:41)
I'm happy to do that. Thank you. Thank you all.

(1:15:41 - 1:15:48)
Thank you. Okay. Next up is public comment.

(1:15:49 - 1:16:07)
No one signed up to speak? No one? It is. My hands are freezing. Okay.

(1:16:08 - 1:16:10)
Next. Yeah. I'm cold.

(1:16:10 - 1:16:15)
It is cold in here. The chillers are working wonderfully in this building. Too wonderfully.

(1:16:17 - 1:16:21)
It was not this cold yesterday. Philip, that's not good. It's too good.

(1:16:21 - 1:16:26)
Too good. We need heaters underneath her now. Or blankets or something.

(1:16:26 - 1:16:42)
Okay. Agenda item, consent agenda, consideration of new hires, the administration of the board approved the new hires as presented below. I won't read them, but do we have a motion on the new hires? So moved.

(1:16:42 - 1:16:48)
Second. Okay. I have a motion by Regent Warford and a second by Regent Gerald.

(1:16:50 - 1:17:06)
Any discussion on this item? I just have a question. Just are these an annual cycle or are they out of cycle? Or are they why is it just this group of six? Because they were hired midyear. So it is a cycle.

(1:17:07 - 1:17:12)
Yeah. Okay. Or just before the anniversary.

(1:17:12 - 1:17:20)
Just when we get them. Okay. Any other questions? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

(1:17:20 - 1:17:27)
Aye. Any opposed? All right. We will move into new business.

(1:17:28 - 1:18:03)
And I am going to step outside while our Vice Chair handles this agenda item. Okay. This agenda item is consideration of approval of authorized brokers, dealers in accordance with board policy CAK legal and CAK local.

(1:18:03 - 1:18:21)
The administration recommends that the board approve the list of authorized broker dealers for investment purposes in accordance with board policy CAK legal and CAK local. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second.

(1:18:22 - 1:18:35)
Okay. It has been moved by Regent Cotton and seconded by Regent Guillory. Any discussion? Okay.

(1:18:35 - 1:18:46)
Hearing none, we will call for the vote. All in favor vote by saying aye. Anyone opposed? Okay.

(1:18:46 - 1:18:59)
So that motion carries 9-0. Okay. We can call Regent 8-0.

(1:18:59 - 1:19:28)
Sorry. Okay. Consideration of adoption of board policy revisions for local policies.

(1:19:28 - 1:19:45)
The administration and board policy committee recommend that the board revisions to local board policies as presented and recommended by Texas association of school boards update 47 and one other policy. Second. Okay.

(1:19:45 - 1:20:19)
I have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Moore-Fontenot. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Any opposed? Consideration of non-renewal of contract for fiscal year 2024-2025.

(1:20:20 - 1:20:42)
The administration recommends that the board approve the non-renewal of the contract for fiscal 2024-2025. Do I have a motion on this item? I have a motion by Regent Himsel and a second by Regent Cotton. Discussion on this item? I have one thing.

(1:20:42 - 1:20:52)
How badly did I butcher the name? A little bit. How is it pronounced? Dr. Walzers. Okay.

(1:20:53 - 1:21:06)
I figured I was saying that wrong. I think you got the last one. Did you say Kai? If there's no further discussion on this item, all in favor say aye.

(1:21:07 - 1:21:43)
Any opposed? Consideration of professional services contract with global source. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president and approve the contract with global source for an annual amount not to exceed $295,000. I have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Cotton.

(1:21:43 - 1:22:40)
All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Consideration of Oracle license and technical support services. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president to negotiate final terms and approve the annual Oracle people soft support contract in the amount of $187,004.25. The contract is through the state of Texas department of information resources contract .

(1:22:40 - 1:22:48)
Do we have a motion on this item? Second. You got through. I did.

(1:22:45 - 1:22:57)
I have a motion by Regent Morfano. Who was the second? Second by Regent Jarrell. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

(1:22:58 - 1:23:27)
Any opposed? Consideration of campus data center redundant firewalls technical support to with solid border inc. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve a contract with solid border inc. The the amount of $116,938.

(1:23:27 - 1:23:42)
I have a motion on this item? Second. I have a motion by Regent Gillory and a second by Regent Santana. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

(1:23:42 - 1:24:03)
Aye. Consideration of comcast internet upgrades. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve a contract with comcast in the amount of $177,680.

(1:24:04 - 1:24:26)
Do I have a motion on this item? Second. I have a motion by Regent Warford and a second by Regent Cotton. Any discussion on this item? My only comment is I hope that their service is better for the college than it was for me during the storm.

(1:24:27 - 1:24:35)
I was only out of power ten hours but I was without internet for five days. That's seven for me. How come you got specialty? I don't know.

(1:24:38 - 1:24:55)
Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

(1:24:56 - 1:25:27)
Consideration of approval of resolution adopting the certified appraisal roles for Chambers and Harris counties for the 2024 tax roll year. The administration recommends in accordance with section 26.04 of the state property tax code that the governing board receive the submission and issue the attached resolution adopting the 2024 certified tax appraisal roll for Chambers county and the Harris county certified tax appraisal roles. Do I have a motion? Second.

(1:25:27 - 1:25:41)
I have a motion by Regent Cotton and Regent Guillory made the second. Discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye.

(1:25:42 - 1:26:24)
Any opposed? Okay. Consideration of a proposed tax rate and setting date for a public meeting for to adopt tax rate for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The administration recommends in accordance with current legislation that the board propose by recorded vote the 2024 proposed tax rate for the 2024-2025 fiscal year and set the date for a public meeting for adoption of the proposed 2024 tax rate.

(1:26:25 - 1:26:37)
Do I have a motion on this item? Second. I have a motion by Regent Santana and a second. Do we read that now? Yes.

(1:26:38 - 1:26:45)
By the person who motions. And the person that made the motion? Regent Santana. He had a reading assignment.

(1:26:45 - 1:27:15)
If you would read that document. All right. The board of regents proposes the tax rate for the 2024 tax year of .17597 maintenance and operation rate and .02413 debt service rate for a total tax rate of .2001. The proposed rate is below the voter approved rate and the no new revenue rate.

(1:27:15 - 1:27:25)
The board will hold a public meeting on October 17th to finalize the proposed 2024 tax rate. That's my motion. Thank you.

(1:27:25 - 1:27:36)
It was seconded by Regent Warford. Okay. Discussion on this item? I have discussion but I don't want to necessarily go first.

(1:27:36 - 1:27:46)
Okay. Annette, could you come up and make I think I should. Annette has a report that she will make and that may improve the conversation.

(1:27:51 - 1:27:56)
I just have a quick question. It said the Regents make that proposal. That comes from us.

(1:27:58 - 1:28:27)
Is this the first time we've done it this way? We did it this way last year. You have to adopt a proposed rate but you're not actually adopting the rate. And then what will happen, of course, is there will be notices that will be published saying this is the proposed rate and so then if anybody wants to come and speak out against whatever the proposed rate is, they'll certainly have the opportunity to do that at our next meeting.

(1:28:27 - 1:28:31)
There will be an opportunity. That will be our October 17th meeting. Yes.

(1:28:34 - 1:29:11)
So when we presented our budget back in June, we had an estimated tax revenue amount of $42,292,533. And that was based on the valuations we had at the time and our current rate. Now, since that time, we have received certified values, right? So as values have changed, so too has this calculation.

(1:29:12 - 1:29:57)
So our no new revenue rate is actually .20657. That is the calculated no new revenue rate. If we were to adopt that no new revenue rate based on our current budget number that is in there, that would create an additional 1.5 million dollars in tax revenue. By lowering the overall tax rate by one penny, that generates the an equal amount in tax revenue to our current budget.

(1:29:58 - 1:30:36)
There is a difference of $105,000. So we can lower the rate by one penny and still fund our budget as adopted. And because the proposed rate that we are proposing is below the no new revenue rate and it is also below the voter approved rate, we do not have to have a public hearing, but we do have to publicize the meeting that the tax will be adopted at.

(1:30:37 - 1:31:09)
And that will go out in the paper and the community will be notified of what that proposed rate reduction would be. And my little calculator says that is approximately a 4.8% reduction in our tax rate for anyone interested. Since it has been the motion is for the proposed rate to come from the board, then I would like to speak.

(1:31:10 - 1:31:22)
I requested some information. First of all, I want to start out and say thank you for all the work that you have done and the information that you have provided. Me, just in the last few days, holding a line on spending.

(1:31:23 - 1:31:55)
We have had several discussions about taxing and tax rates and maybe we have different approaches and different philosophies and that doesn't mean one is bad and one is good, but it is a different approach. And I would like to give this perspective and the information that you provided, I think, can help us to give some context or a broader look in the way I look at things to where our tax revenue is and what our needs are. First of all, we have had a presentation about delinquent taxes.

(1:31:55 - 1:32:15)
So it becomes apparent that we force people to pay taxes. And so every year we create a budget and we have had budgets for the last six or seven years that we have some numbers on. And we present a balance budget presentation.

(1:32:16 - 1:32:36)
And every year for the last, and I am going to use six years, we have had surpluses. And so I notice in the we have had a surplus this year, you shared it could be as much as 11 and a half, but we have got some spending we are trying to do, I understand that. So I am going to use a nine and a half or 10 million dollars just for rounding.

(1:32:37 - 1:33:06)
In fact, I used nine and a half in some of my numbers that I ran today. And so if we have a budget surplus this year, the budget that has been prepared for 2025 is based on last year's or the current year's we just finished budget, which produced a 10 million dollar or nine and a half million dollar surplus. And so I am concerned about that because it seems that this surplus keeps getting rolled over and over.

(1:33:07 - 1:33:27)
And let me talk about the surpluses. Over the last, from 2019 to 24, 24, 2019 to 2024, six years, we have had cumulative of 43 million dollars in surpluses. That is an entire year's property taxes based on what our values are today.

(1:33:27 - 1:34:05)
If you break it down by year and you divide it by the cents that each year derives, and that changes every year, we have on average, I'm just giving you averages, taxed 4.44 cents above what our actual spending needs, not what the budget was, but what the spending needs. And the average surplus annually for the last six years has been 7.16 million dollars. That may not divide out exactly evenly, but those are the numbers that I ran based on the information and I printed out a sheet for everybody.

(1:34:06 - 1:34:37)
My concern is, is that when we tell the taxpayers that we're presenting a balanced budget and we have a surplus of this magnitude, year after year after year, we clearly have a pattern. And my argument has been, I wasn't surprised that we had a 10 million dollar surplus this year because the state funded us additional money. And I didn't go back and listen to the recording, but I clearly said, I bet we end up with 10 million dollars at least in surplus.

(1:34:38 - 1:34:57)
We can give the taxpayers a break. We have built our reserves, we've not misused money, but we have accumulated a healthy financial position thanks in part to what the team has done. I'm not saying it's anyone, but I think we've met those goals.

(1:34:58 - 1:35:22)
And we need to give the taxpayers a break. To see a pattern of four, four and a half cents of taxes collected each year on average, in excess of what our needs are, and tell the taxpayers that it's a balanced budget every year and then it's not, is not being accurate. And I think we can do a better job than that.

(1:35:23 - 1:35:44)
And my proposal is that we give, in addition to the rate that was proposed, that we take half of this and just take an additional two cents off. We're still going to have a surplus. We have built in, if our budgeting model is based on last year's budget, we have built in, baked in a surplus into this year's budget.

(1:35:45 - 1:36:05)
And so that's my approach when we're, you know, the business model for Lee College is tuition and state funding does not cover the cost. Roughly half, I think that's what the percentage, 40-some percent's coming from the taxpayers. Most of those taxpayers do not receive any services from Lee College.

(1:36:07 - 1:36:23)
Now, I hope, like me, that they support Lee College because I think it's absolutely essential for our community and beneficial for our community. I don't want to, I don't want to leave that impression at all. But it's not like the city, it's not like the school district where a larger number of people receive services.

(1:36:23 - 1:36:44)
It is a smaller, and we need to be extra careful that we take just what we need to make up the losses because the funding model from tuition and state funding is not covering it. So we're going to a group of taxpayers that, by large, are not receiving any services from Lee College. We don't need to take any more than what we need.

(1:36:45 - 1:37:08)
And over the last six years, we've taken four and a half cents more than what we needed. Now, I'd rather have surpluses than deficits, but I think we're at a point now we've arrived where we have a very comfortable margin that we can experiment with a two cent additional tax rate, and we still, we'll still come out with a surplus. I can assure you.

(1:37:09 - 1:37:25)
That's my philosophy and approach. I think we heard our credibility. We're looking at a future bond program, and we need to be able to face the taxpayers and say we're being accurate and straightforward here, and that's what I think is important.

(1:37:28 - 1:37:52)
I would ask that the board reconsider their proposed rate and drop it to about, what is it, 18.01. Yeah. 18.01. I guess my remark would be if we reduced it by a penny, am I correct that we would meet our budget as it is? It's the budget that we approved. And I certainly appreciate you wanting two cents.

(1:37:53 - 1:38:08)
But if we can meet our budget, I think it's by reducing a penny, why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't we? Are you saying another penny or the one that they're already done on here? Oh. Oh, I thought, I'm sorry. So y'all are proposing we reduce it by a penny? Okay.

(1:38:08 - 1:38:24)
You're saying another penny, right? Well. Half of what he's saying. I would be very comfortable with reducing an additional penny so that we stop having budgets that we always end up with surplus money.

(1:38:25 - 1:38:45)
But we don't budget for that. We wait until we have the surplus and we spend it, which is great because we do good things with it, with the college. But I don't typically understand if that's really the way you should build the budget, knowing that you're always going to have a surplus.

(1:38:47 - 1:38:53)
Okay. And I would just respond. I struggle with basing a budget on previous budget.

(1:38:53 - 1:39:13)
We shouldn't be spending levels. And I think that would possibly correct the problem, because we would have started out $10 million less this year and would require four to five cents difference in the tax rate. Well, I'm going to let Regent Santana speak, but I have something to say to that.

(1:39:13 - 1:39:31)
Yeah. I think the information you provided is all accurate. I think if we were looking back today at what we probably should have done six years ago, we would have been budgeting four or five million dollars a year to put in our reserves instead of using the excess revenue that we created.

(1:39:32 - 1:39:48)
Probably would have been a better approach on how to budget for a reserve. We made an attempt the very first year, and we budgeted $403,000, right? I thought that was a lot. That was our first budget attempt in a budget that said we've got to build a reserve, start with $403,000.

(1:39:49 - 1:40:38)
And I think after that, what we found out was the excess revenue was probably a lot less than And if you look at the information we were given the first three or four years, that's where the excess revenue went. It went to build our cash reserves, right? And then we reached a point where as we were getting close to meeting our policy on four to six months and determining whether four was better or six was better, we began to use some of the excess revenue for some of our deferred maintenance items. And again, had we budgeted two or three million dollars a year for deferred maintenance, which is where the money has been used, we would have a balanced budget in your perspective, right? So what we've done is we've used the excess revenue that may have been built into it historically has shown to be there, but we've allocated it to only three areas.

(1:40:38 - 1:41:01)
And that's cash reserves, self-insurance, and fixing our facilities. So, you know, I agree that maybe the perception is we're over budgeting and we have excess revenue, but every dollar of the excess revenue is traced to those three buckets. And all three were desperately needed.

(1:41:01 - 1:41:21)
And once we reached our board reserve balances is when we started shifting money over towards facilities, which we haven't had any kind of general obligation bond in 11 years, but yet we put over $30 million into this facility. And maybe we could have budgeted. You know, we're not building new stuff.

(1:41:22 - 1:41:26)
We're doing maintenance. We don't need to do maintenance. That's what we're here for.

(1:41:27 - 1:41:46)
And maybe we should have put $3 million, $4 million into the budget, you know, and the pennies are needed to cover that dollar value to do the maintenance we've been doing. So I think it's a matter of how we've been using the money and what it looks like. You know, given our taxpayers a break, okay, we do that.

(1:41:46 - 1:41:59)
And then what happens when we need to take the break back? You know, I think what we've been working towards is a philosophy where we keep it constant. They know what they're paying. And when we do go out for a GO bond, there's little to no impact on the tax rate.

(1:41:59 - 1:42:21)
Everything just keeps going smooth. That's the other philosophy that we adopted or talked about a couple years ago. So I can see the perspective of it looks like we've been overcollecting, but everything we've overcollected, every dollar has been used in those three categories, which I think have been very beneficial to this institution and was lacking the decades prior.

(1:42:22 - 1:42:29)
So thank you. Okay. I have one thing I want to say in response to what you said about a budget is based on your past expenses.

(1:42:29 - 1:42:39)
In my estimation, a budget is based on your future needs. It's based on your needs, not based on what you spent in the past. It's based on your needs.

(1:42:39 - 1:43:17)
It's a planning document forward. Yeah, I was just using Annette's assumptions, that's all I was going off of. Annette, do you ask the departments to submit a zero-basis budget? Yes, we provide every department with what their budget was for prior years, what their actual spend was for two to three years, and we ask them to present to us what their needs are for the next budget period.

(1:43:17 - 1:44:22)
We meet with every budget manager and we go through their budget request line by line by line, and there's plenty of them here that can say, but we go through, we go through the request line by line by line, then after we have met with all the budget managers, we put it together as a total college budget, and then the cabinet goes through that, and, you know, if we need to make cuts in some areas, then based on what our projected revenue is and what the asks are, then we as a cabinet make those decisions, and then the results are put back out to the campus so that they know what they requested was either approved or not approved. Thank you. Yes.

(1:44:23 - 1:44:47)
So, I believe we, this is a reoccurring theme, we have this conversation every year, and I would agree that Gilbert made comment, which he does, about how we use what's the excess. So we do. We take the excess.

(1:44:47 - 1:44:54)
It's not wasted. It is there. We do put it to good use because we do have needs, and so we do.

(1:44:55 - 1:45:52)
So I agree with that. I agree with Mark that we are still taking more than what the budget need is because what we should do, since we know we have needs facility-wise, then why aren't we making that a part of the budget process so that that figure, that amount is there, and then we're not continuing to have year after year of this level of spending that we have to use for other purposes outside of what we've actually budgeted for. So I am in support of a two-cent tax reduction.

(1:45:52 - 1:46:39)
I believe that with us doing that, we will still have the funds for the budget, we will have a decrease to the taxpayer, and we will still end up with funds to where we can still dedicate those funds to continue with our building facility needs. So, Annette, could you also answer maintenance in the maintenance area? Have we gone in the red over the last several years? And should we have increased that budget anticipating? What we really don't know is going to happen yet, but we know that it probably will because of the age of our facilities. Right.

(1:46:39 - 1:47:19)
So, last year was the first year that we really put significant money into the facilities budget, always before we were barely putting enough to even try to keep the campus together. And last year, as you know, we ramped up our staffing in maintenance as well. And I know that the building committee has let us know that we're moving a little slow for them, and they would like for us to speed up some of these projects.

(1:47:20 - 1:47:42)
And so, we're looking to add still yet another project manager or someone to help us get some of these things going. So, this year, for our facilities budget, we did beef it up a little bit more. We're at $5.6 million.

(1:47:44 - 1:48:40)
If we go back and look at what the calculation was based on our evaluation of properties and the recommended 3 to 4 percent of the valuation, I think it should be closer to 7. I was a little hesitant to go that high initially just because, you know, it's going to take us some time to get people on staff and to actually spend that money, right? And so, but certainly, we can, as we get our staff built, we can do more projects. And so, we have not gone in the red last year. I did not anticipate we would go into the red this year.

(1:48:40 - 1:49:02)
But we certainly have many more projects on campus that we could be doing. We just need staff to go along with that. I was just going to make a comment.

(1:49:02 - 1:49:25)
So, you know, you guys know I was in budget and stuff in my previous life. And one of the other things that goes into, so we can budget an amount, and I'm sure we have not spent those amounts because there's so much that goes into once you do the budget, then you have to go out for the contracts, and then you have to do, and all of that stuff takes time. You got to have the manpower.

(1:49:25 - 1:49:57)
And so, you can budget for something for an entire year knowing that you won't even start working on it until you're almost halfway through the year. And so, there's no way you could possibly spend those funds in that time frame because of the process of going through the bids and making the selections, and now getting the resources and getting everything shipped to, and the price goes up during that process. And now, you can't even get it because there's a, you know, high demand and a low production.

(1:49:57 - 1:50:35)
And so, all of these things go into play to where it's nearly impossible, the amount that you budget, that you're actually going to spend it in one year. So, having, no, we're not talking about that, but having a plan to where you project out over several years and you start funding it knowing that it's going to roll from one year to the next is a better approach to addressing those needs, even if we don't do a bond. But to try to get it set up to where you know it's going to cross more than one year, and then you still have those funds that's dedicated, and we should commit to something like that in the future.

(1:50:36 - 1:50:53)
But all of those things go into play. We can, even if she would have done 7 million, we still have 4 or 5 million sitting because you can't get the projects out of the door within that one year time period, which is the reason why I'm proposing what I said. Go ahead.

(1:50:54 - 1:51:28)
And just to somewhat tag on to what she's saying, we have, I mean, we have 4 or 5 cents actually in my mind that we can play with. We also have a 11 and a half, but let's reduce it because of work in progress and use 9 and a half or 10 million dollars left over from this year that we haven't talked anything about what to do. We can say, okay, that's going to be our capital excess spending and kind of ensure that lowering our tax rate by additional 2 cents.

(1:51:28 - 1:51:51)
Are you recommending 2 more cents from what they said? I'm not recommending 2 more, I'm recommending 2. Well, I would say 2 more and go down to 18. But we have a substantial fund we would have just from this year's surplus to cover us for several years on this. And it would, if we are undertaxing our citizens, we would have plenty of time to respond.

(1:51:51 - 1:52:08)
I don't think that'll be the case. Our tax values based on the numbers that we got, I just want to give you some perspective from 2019, I used that year to 2025. Our tax value, what we receive in taxes went up 56%.

(1:52:09 - 1:52:30)
And our response has been to reduce our tax rate 16%. There's why, that is exactly why we have enjoyed this comfortable situation of being able to rebuild our reserves and so forth. But that's a substantial real dollar tax increase on our citizens.

(1:52:30 - 1:52:39)
Now, that's mitigated somewhat by inflation. And I think that's fair to mention that. You do have inflation, our budgets need to go up to cover that, but it hasn't gone up 40%.

(1:52:40 - 1:53:08)
Regent Santana. Yeah, just to clarify a couple of things. One is, when we look at the reason we have excess revenue, which if we were to break this down, you know, it wasn't that we over collected, it's we had more collections than what was budgeted, right? One year events maybe historically may give some better data to better predict what the tax in lieu of revenue, what's it called? In lieu of tax.

(1:53:08 - 1:53:24)
In lieu of tax, revenue in lieu of tax, right? That's a number that, you know, we got a lot more than what we budgeted. So you can take a million or so there, you can look at the interest we made, another million or so there. You can take about half of what's left over and say, you know, there was no way of knowing we were going to get that.

(1:53:24 - 1:53:41)
Now, I want to say historically, you can look at the numbers, but we've adjusted. If you recall a few years ago, we quit doing 100% of personnel and 95%, right? And so that number has gotten a little closer, a little tighter. So we've been making these adjustments throughout the last several years.

(1:53:41 - 1:53:57)
I think, you know, as an institution and as a community, you know, we've been very blessed and I, and I agree that, you know, the taxpayers, we, we always consider the taxpayers. I mean, we, we know that that's who we live with. That's, those are our neighbors.

(1:53:57 - 1:54:07)
Those are our friends. I've not had one person tell me that they felt that, you know, we were blowing money. All they're seeing is what we're doing, the success we're having.

(1:54:07 - 1:54:22)
You know, our operating budget has gone up significantly when you look at, but, but look at what we're doing, you know, for this community. And I just want to also clarify on the, the projects that we're talking about. These are not bond type projects.

(1:54:22 - 1:54:48)
These are just maintenance items, right? These are things that, that, you know, if we could have had $5 million every year for the last 20 years, we wouldn't have near the need we have today. So I can see where we've got a fund and we've got a pot and yeah, it could carry us a few years. But, you know, I think when we look at long-term strategy, are we better off maintaining our taxpayers expectations on what the tax rate is or going down and going up when we need to for, for different reasons.

(1:54:48 - 1:55:00)
So it's different philosophies. Well, and there's two responses I have keeping the tax rate as high as it is. The real dollar cost to the homeowners in particular and business owners is going up.

(1:55:01 - 1:55:10)
So there's the stability is not there. It's rising because their values are increasing at such a substantial rate. But we have reduced, right? Well, we're at the no new revenue rate.

(1:55:10 - 1:55:28)
Did we not keep the tax rate in line with the values going up? Our tax income has increased 56%. Because of the, because of valuations, right? Now we keep the rate the same, but there's not just property owners values, additional value. It includes growth.

(1:55:28 - 1:55:29)
Additional taxpayer. That's true. Right.

(1:55:30 - 1:55:48)
And I think I made, I tried to make that clear, but in this past budget year, we have, and if my memory's right, we had 80, eight and a half million dollars of, of budgeted expenditures that we didn't use. It wasn't an income side. Most of this didn't come from the income side.

(1:55:49 - 1:56:22)
As far as a surplus this year, didn't, I don't, I'm just going straight from memory from our budget, this budget year, and I can't get it up quickly on, weren't our expenses eight and a half, $8 million under, and that's where the majority of our surplus is coming from. And we only had about two or $3 million in exit or interest income and tax, extra taxes collected. Am I correct there? We had a little over $3 million in revenue.

(1:56:23 - 1:56:25)
Revenue side. Okay. On the revenue side.

(1:56:25 - 1:56:47)
And then, then the remainder would have been on the expense side. And then of the amount that was still on the expense side, there was about 2.3 million that is related to rolling over projects. So what's the, on the expense side, we've got millions of dollars there, maybe, okay, let's use six million.

(1:56:47 - 1:57:08)
There's a big portion. Where's that coming from? That is related to the new FAST program and the new funding model. We were still, don't have clear direction on how the FAST program is going to impact us as a college.

(1:57:09 - 1:57:39)
And so there were some excess funds set aside to address that. But we started the program in the spring term, right? And so now we're trying to get through how that is going to impact us. You know, when we, when we offer those courses, the revenue is, is a little bit higher if you only compare what the state pays to what the student used to pay.

(1:57:39 - 1:57:58)
You're like, oh, we got a raise. No, we didn't. Because now for that same money, you have to not only provide instruction, but you have to provide all the materials associated with that where before the schools or the students would pay for those instructional materials.

(1:57:59 - 1:58:36)
Now we have to absorb that cost. And so there is some, some concern about as this program continues to grow, what does that do to us on the expense side? And again, I'm still trying to really get a model where we can estimate that accurately. The other side of that is, so you may say, well, then maybe we shouldn't do that, right? But the other side of that is you may get additional funding then because you have completers and all this other stuff.

(1:58:36 - 1:58:58)
So it's not a simple calculation the way it was before where it was just students in seats. You've got all these if, and, and buts that you're trying to, trying to estimate and project. So far we've done very well because we've only done it one, one semester, so it's hard to say.

(1:58:58 - 1:59:11)
I guess I'm trying to determine where this extra six or why our expenses were so much under our budget. And I'm trying to get to it. And I think that's why you're looking, I think that's what I'm saying.

(1:59:11 - 1:59:26)
It's not all the nine or ten million dollars that was just over collected. It's, it's, right? The expense side was. Every dollar, we go to the taxpayers for all of the extra dollars that we need.

(1:59:26 - 1:59:53)
All of it comes from the taxpayers. The state's going to fund theirs, the student has an option to pay tuition, the homeowner doesn't have an option. And so my, my thought, my approach is we shouldn't be going to them consistently every year and we've got a six-year pattern, seven-year pattern of lowering the rate, of putting a rate up here and building in every, well, you know, what if it happened and we got, it hadn't happened.

(1:59:53 - 2:00:09)
And now we've got a very comfortable margin in every area. I don't think, I think it's time we give a little margin back to the taxpayer, just because they deserve it. Can I, can I add just one comment from, from our side? Five cents over six years is not bad.

(2:00:10 - 2:00:15)
Huh? Five cent reduction over six years is not bad. And then I just want to add. We'd be making big money.

(2:00:15 - 2:00:21)
But the values have gone up way in excess of that. That's a really, not a really good argument. Growth has gone up.

(2:00:21 - 2:00:27)
Not, not my personal value hasn't gone up that much. My house went up double last year. Oh, you were getting a deal.

(2:00:27 - 2:00:30)
Not mine. Well, mine did. Are you kidding? Mine didn't double.

(2:00:30 - 2:00:31)
No. Mine didn't. No.

(2:00:31 - 2:00:36)
You need to go talk, you need to fight your taxes. Well, yours isn't supposed to. You're over 65, man.

(2:00:37 - 2:00:38)
So I'm, I'm. Okay. You're over 65.

(2:00:38 - 2:00:42)
It's not supposed to go up. But I'm saying other values. All right.

(2:00:42 - 2:00:43)
One at a time. Okay. All right.

(2:00:44 - 2:01:11)
We're going to hear from our president. So I just wanted to add on to what Annette spoke of and to, to tell you that what we're not comfortable with, with regard to HB 8, which is what provided a significant boost to our budget, is that we don't know, even the next legislative session that will begin in January, we have no idea if the legislature is going to continue to fund this new model. We're going to fight really hard.

(2:01:12 - 2:01:25)
We are losing money and fast currently. The only change that was made was what, a dollar and something that they increased it? $1.67. Yeah. $1.67, which does not cover our expenses whatsoever.

(2:01:25 - 2:01:50)
We did budget to, to just see there will be still a settle up process whereby, whereby institutions who either perform will, you know, increase, you know, have higher performance will increase, or if we don't, they'll take the money back. So there is money at risk. We've got 36 new legislators in, in the legislature.

(2:01:51 - 2:02:09)
We now have to educate 36 new, and now we also have to work with those that passed this to reinforce and develop some muscle memory. So the $20 million that we got is not guaranteed. This is going to be a fight that we have every single legislative session.

(2:02:09 - 2:02:16)
I just want, I just want that to be clear. And we budget annually. So if that number changes, then you change it when you do the next budget.

(2:02:16 - 2:02:25)
It's an annual budget. Chairman? Yes. So my long-term concerns are this.

(2:02:26 - 2:02:48)
We are on a trajectory to have a facilities plan in the next nine months, perhaps, and then we would begin the process of planning for a bond. That takes some time too, maybe as much as a year. And so that bond might cover some of the major buildings that we need replaced, depending on what the plan ends up being.

(2:02:48 - 2:03:05)
But it doesn't really take care of everything. We can't, we can't fix this entire campus in one bond. So what do we do with all the rest of it? And I had asked early on that this entire board walk through all the buildings that are in, I'm going to call them disrepair, very old.

(2:03:05 - 2:03:25)
We still have not done that. Just as a reminder of what the staff and the students are dealing with every single day. I just feel like we need cash to be able to continue to fix whatever is going wrong on campus that we don't even know about, like what's going to happen tomorrow.

(2:03:26 - 2:03:43)
And where are we going to get it if we don't have enough in the budget? Which is why I ask if we've gone in the red, how much do we have? You know, I feel secure with your judgment. I don't know if what you put in the budget is going to be enough for this coming year. So those are my concerns.

(2:03:45 - 2:03:59)
And I would just add another thing, and that is currently we can tell you that we don't even have space to put people that we're hiring now. We don't even have the space. That's an urgent need for us.

(2:03:59 - 2:04:11)
We're doing the best that we can, but we don't even have that. And that's a need for us financially. And then, I know you guys all know this, but I just want to emphasize that a budget is a plan.

(2:04:12 - 2:04:36)
We don't know what will, as Gina was talking about, we don't know what will happen. And so, as we develop, as we respond to hurricanes and other things like that, we manage that budget differently and according to our needs. Can I ask a question? How many vacancies do we have? Vacancies.

(2:04:37 - 2:04:47)
Oh, vacancies? Yes. People that would have had offices that don't have to have offices for because we don't have them. Well, we currently have people that we've hired that we don't have.

(2:04:47 - 2:05:01)
I'm just asking, how many vacancies do we have approximately? Maybe eight or nine. I think I just saw the last one from Cynthia come out or not. 70? Okay.

(2:05:05 - 2:05:35)
Yes, ma'am. One of the problems I've got is that if you give the money back and next year we have a major catastrophe or the year after, trying to get that money back means that you have to go through a process. You have to sell the need for the tax and then you have to pay for the privilege of having your voters come in and approve or disapprove it.

(2:05:36 - 2:06:03)
And I don't know the last time I tried to do or looked at the cost of one, it's roughly $200,000, which if we've got the money now and we're getting the money now and if we carve out all of these special dispensations and everything, we're not taking a whole lot of extra money from the taxpayer. This other money is not guaranteed. We don't know that it's coming.

(2:06:04 - 2:06:38)
My problem is that we have deferred maintenance for so long, we've got to get a new building. Once we get that new building, we've still got to maintain it and it is a new building with new needs, new requirements that we have to keep it up or else we're going to be in this cycle of letting the building deteriorate and then just replacing it, which I think is a really bad use of the taxpayer's money. I would just add one comment.

(2:06:39 - 2:07:01)
We have had a surplus over the budget of whatever else we've planned of almost $7.5 million a year for the last six years. That's a pattern. We should be able to carve out a few cents and give some of that back and we're still going to have $4, $5 million a year.

(2:07:01 - 2:07:07)
In a year from now, we can raise it back up a penny or two if we need to. We haven't used the money. We don't want to do that.

(2:07:07 - 2:07:12)
No, it's not that easy. I don't want to do that. And then we might have to go back to the voters, though.

(2:07:13 - 2:07:17)
There's a voter rate that we have to get to. There's nothing wrong with going to the voters. That's fine.

(2:07:17 - 2:07:25)
How far away are we from that? We can do that. I think that's our plan is to go to the voters to do the big projects. But not for an annual rate.

(2:07:25 - 2:07:46)
Well, we're not doing those things now. But it seems like to me, I agree with Gina, we ought to be able to carve out an additional penny and get us below that $0.20 that I've always wanted to get us below and show those taxpayers that we're really trying to make an effort to give everyone that needs a relief because we don't need the money right now. We really don't.

(2:07:46 - 2:07:57)
Yes, we do. Any taxpayer that looks at what we've done... Come to the building committee and we will give you a list. I was out there yesterday and no one mentioned it.

(2:07:57 - 2:08:13)
That was not discussed yesterday. You know as well as everybody at this meeting that yesterday was not a regular building committee meeting. That was to hear an update on Barrel.

(2:08:13 - 2:08:20)
Period. That's what that was. So do we have a plan to spend millions of dollars right now? Yes.

(2:08:21 - 2:08:25)
Show it to us. Bring it to a vote. I don't think we have it.

(2:08:25 - 2:08:30)
But... We don't need a vote. It's normal maintenance work. It's in the... We don't need to vote on that work.

(2:08:30 - 2:08:33)
Then we have that in the budget. And we have an extension. We do.

(2:08:33 - 2:08:42)
And we have allocations of surplus funds for these projects that we've all voted on. Yes. That we've always brought to the board but we always bring to the building committee first.

(2:08:43 - 2:08:47)
But that's history. We're talking about next year. And we're already... I understand it's history.

(2:08:47 - 2:08:53)
I'm educating Regent Hemsel on that history. That's what I'm doing. You don't need to educate me on it.

(2:08:53 - 2:09:03)
But you... That's... That's how we built all this money up. It's because we've overtaxed and we haven't had a need to spend it. We haven't agreed to spend it.

(2:09:03 - 2:09:07)
Spent. That puts it in a negative context. We have not overtaxed.

(2:09:08 - 2:09:18)
Okay? We collected money that we needed to meet our policy to strengthen our financial position. That is not overtaxing. They were undertaxed for decades if you want to look at it.

(2:09:18 - 2:09:27)
We were at the highest, almost the highest rate of any college in the state of Texas. Still didn't have a strong financial position. How can we be almost the highest? How did that happen? In Texas.

(2:09:27 - 2:09:31)
How did that happen? And still be undertaxed. How did that happen? You tell me. You were here.

(2:09:31 - 2:09:33)
I wasn't. I try to bring it down. You were here.

(2:09:33 - 2:09:35)
I wasn't. You were here. I wasn't.

(2:09:35 - 2:09:47)
I agree. I think the discussion's gone to its end now. We have a motion on the table that we need to vote on.

(2:09:47 - 2:10:02)
Can I offer an amendment? We have a motion and a second to vote on. Okay? If this motion fails, you can make a motion. We have a motion and a second on the table.

(2:10:03 - 2:10:24)
Okay? So, all in favor of the motion that has been read to have an effective, have a tax rate of .2001 cents, all in favor of that motion, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Aye.

(2:10:24 - 2:10:31)
Okay. Let's take a, let's raise our hands so we can get this on the record. All in favor, raise your hand.

(2:10:33 - 2:10:41)
Of the motion. We're voting again because I can't do it by verbal. So I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Okay.

(2:10:42 - 2:10:51)
All opposed to the motion, raise your hand. I have 1, 2, 3, 4. So that's Jarrell's and Guillory, Hall, and Hemsel, right? Yes. Okay.

(2:10:52 - 2:10:58)
Now, keep in mind, we're not approving the tax rate tonight. Correct. We're approving, we're proposing the tax rate.

(2:10:59 - 2:11:02)
We get to do this all over again. Okay. Absolutely.

(2:11:02 - 2:11:12)
Yes. So. And I just want to make sure, I just want to say, because of what you said, is that the proposal still is a decrease in the tax rate.

(2:11:12 - 2:11:14)
Right. By almost 5%. I just want to make.

(2:11:14 - 2:11:17)
Yes. You're still getting a decrease. Absolutely.

(2:11:17 - 2:11:20)
Absolutely. Okay. So that motion carries.

(2:11:22 - 2:11:27)
Executive session. Do we have? Yes, we have executive session. We should have did.

(2:11:29 - 2:11:33)
Just when you thought we didn't. Well, it's not. Okay.

(2:11:34 - 2:11:39)
All right. You're welcome to stay now. You got to do your script.

(2:11:40 - 2:11:44)
Jarrell, you got to do your script. Oh, yeah. Thank you.

(2:11:44 - 2:11:46)
Yeah. All right. I'm sorry.

(2:11:46 - 2:11:51)
I'm making the way. Let me read my script. Okay.

(2:11:52 - 2:12:56)
The meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on above listed date after prompt 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 into executive session. Get out here and get all this puppy down.

(2:13:00 - 2:13:05)
One, two, three, four, five. We have a quorum. He still lives down.

(2:13:06 - 2:13:14)
Three, four? Twenty-nine. Okay. The closed meeting will adjourn and the board will reconvene in an open meeting.

(2:13:14 - 2:13:22)
Next agenda item. Matters of concern for future agendas. Hearing none, we are adjourned.

(2:13:22 - 2:13:24)
Good job. Thank you. Thank you.