[Speaker 1] (0:00 - 0:27) Regular meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on August 21st, 2025 at 6 p.m. We do have a quorum. I'm gonna ask our folks who are monitoring, Regent Hensel's supposed to be logging in at some point in the near future, so please let me know. I'll be looking at you or something so we can acknowledge when he comes in. At this time, we'll begin with our invocation and pledge to the United States flag and pledge to the Texas flag, led by Regent Herron Thomas. [Speaker 12] (0:30 - 0:48) I bow your heads. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us here to work with this magnificent community college. Please let this meeting be effective, efficient, and let us make decisions that are in the best of our staff, students, and community. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Pledge to the U.S. flag. [Speaker 10] (0:49 - 1:03) 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. [Speaker 12] (1:03 - 1:06) And to the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. [Speaker 2] (1:07 - 1:13) I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. [Speaker 1] (1:17 - 1:22) Thank you, Regent Thomas. Next item is student spotlight. Who's handling that? [Speaker 3] (1:22 - 1:39) I'm handling that. I'd like to invite Dr. Rosemary Kaufman to the podium to introduce a very, very important person. You're very important too, I just wanted to. [Speaker 8] (1:39 - 3:20) Okay, there it goes, there it goes. Thank you, Dr. Villanueva and Regents in allowing me this opportunity to introduce Zoe Moore as a featured student in this month's student spotlight. My name is Dr. Rosemary Kaufman and I serve as the Executive Director of Student Success and Well-Being. Last month, I was grateful to you for approving the continuation of Timely Care, the virtual well-being platform available to all credit students. Today, Zoe has graciously agreed to share her experience with Timely Care so you can hear firsthand how the service can support our students. Zoe started Lee College last spring. She is majoring in education and psychology with the goal to eventually be a school psychologist working with special needs children. She started in the Access Center, our Disability Services Office, as a student assistant, and most recently moved into a part-time position working with College Connect, a program serving our newer divergent student population. What sets Zoe apart from other young adults in her is her authenticity. Her supervisor, Kaylee Villanueva, in the Access Center describes her as joyful, like a good cup of coffee in the morning. She is dedicated, consistently approaching her work with students with kindness and empathy. Zoe had a medical issue these past few days, and I couldn't convince her not to come tonight. So she really wants to be here. It caused her some pain, but she's here. And for that reason, she asked to remain seated in her address to you so she can minimize the pain and concentrate on the message she wants to share with you. So it's now my privilege to hand this over to Zoe. [Speaker 4] (3:26 - 9:26) Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. I apologize for me being seated. I would prefer to stand and address you all. As Rosemary had mentioned, I'm Zoe. And I'm an education and psychology major. What really started my love for education and psychology and just a passion for helping anyone with special needs is my great cousin. His name is Ryan Baranuski. He suffers from autism. And we're around the same age. And growing up, my great aunt, Tina Baranuski, she was so kind and supportive. And just her tender, loving care really inspired me. And she even now assisted him, and he is about to graduate from Penn State College in Pennsylvania with a culinary degree. And just so amazing. And also my grandmother. My grandmother has her master's in education. And back in the day, she actually taught the Vietnamese English during the Vietnam War. And that was also very inspiring. She tells me so many stories. And I also miss my family a lot. And I feel that my profession that I'm getting into and studying is my connection to them in Pennsylvania. I moved here about 10 years ago with my family for more opportunity. We hear all the time on the news that Texas has such a big, growing economy. But yes, and also as Rosemary mentioned, I am a transition specialist for Connecting to College. And so a little bit about what we do. Basically, we give students this tool. They come to us with an empty toolbox. And we give them the tools that they need to succeed for themselves, advocate for themselves, and not let their disability or whatever may be troubling them stop them from succeeding their goals. And how did I hear about Timely Care? Well, my wonderful boss, Kaylee Villanueva, she introduced me to Timely Care because I grew up in poverty and a low-income family. And I struggle a lot with anxiety and mostly related to my condition. And I addressed her. I was like, is there something wrong with me? And she was like, no, there's nothing wrong with you. Download Timely Care, it's normal. You can get help. And that's exactly what I did late at night. I used the Talk Now feature. And it really did, it changed my life because it gave me a new perspective. And also, it was so important that she was able to de-escalate me because the next day I had a final. And it was a math final, and it was very important for me to get that done because math is not my strongest subject, but it's becoming my strongest subject. It's complicated. We have a love-hate relationship anyways. But I accessed it late at night, and that was very beneficial because it's 24-7 access. Any student can benefit from 24-7 access. We don't know when, nobody plans when they're gonna have an anxiety uprise or upspring. And also, it being free is very beneficial to somebody like me who doesn't have the money to pay for that sort of thing. And also, it's virtual. I'm very nervous right now. It's a lot less nerve-wracking to be in front of your phone, talking on FaceTime to a trained professional than it is to be in front of their face. So that's another benefit to timely care, being virtual. And I also recognize the medical benefits of timely care, and I plan on using them to assist with affording medication for my condition. I have endometriosis, if any of y'all wanna look that up later. But medication can get expensive, and so can the numerous doctor's visits. So timely care is going to help a lot with that. And I've also told my students, recently we had a boot camp, a College Connect boot camp in the summer, and I told my students about timely care. Linda Torres-Mann did a presentation on timely care, and I asked them what their favorite part was, and they said that they liked the peer community aspect of timely care. For those who are unfamiliar, that aspect is one where you can interact with students and with the trained counselors and doctors with PhDs that can help give advice on what I need to help with de-escalation tactics, just stress management, things like that. And it's all anonymous and all monitored, so they liked that it was safe. But that's all that I have for you guys today. Thank you so much for the opportunity to come and address you all, and to advocate for free mental and medical assistance. Thank you. [Speaker 1] (9:27 - 10:23) Thank you. Hey, Zoey, just hang on right there, we're coming to you. We got a question for you, so. [Speaker 12] (10:23 - 10:37) Hey, just really quick, so first of all, love your story. Love that you're an education major. I was gonna ask, if you didn't have access to Mr. and Mrs. Villanueva or Ms. Torres as a student, how would you have found out about timely care? [Speaker 4] (10:49 - 11:31) left and right and also I went to a basketball game because I'm also in the music club and we had a booth like a table at the basketball game and I ran into the booth that had mental health awareness and they had a timely care flyers and they were handing them out and I kept grabbing them and I had a extra push so honestly it's just getting the courage to ask for help and you know admitting that you know it's normal to ask for help. [Speaker 1] (11:33 - 11:41) Thank you. Any other questions for Zoe? Our students are truly inspirational. Thank you very much. [Speaker 4] (11:42 - 11:42) Thank you. [Speaker 1] (11:44 - 12:47) All right folks moving on with our agenda next is disposition of minutes. Before us we have the special board meeting budget workshop July 1st 2025. Building committee meeting July 16th 2025. Audit and investment committee meeting July 21st 2025. We had a public hearing on the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget July 24th 2025 and our board meeting on July 24th 2025. If anyone's read all these minutes I'll accept the motion to approve. I got a motion from Regent Gerald's a second from Regent Warford. Any comments corrections or clarifications of any of these minutes? Hearing none all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed no. All right the minutes are approved as presented. Next item on the agenda we'll move to report of the chairman. I do not have a chairman's report today so we'll move to the building committee report. [Speaker 6] (12:48 - 13:41) Mr. Chairman we we met yesterday received an update on ongoing projects and everything is progressing on schedule. We also received a report that everything that was targeted for completion before the start of the semester was completed. The campus refresh continues. I'm sure everyone's noticed the new furniture that's going in around campus and and we've received compliments on how well the campus is looking. So it was a even though we didn't have any actions for the board meeting tonight it was a very informative meeting and it wrapped up with a I think it was our final tour of facilities. We visited the south plant and the maintenance headquarters and so very good meeting. [Speaker 1] (13:41 - 13:52) All right thank you. Any questions for Regent Fontenot for any of those who weren't in that meeting? Very much. Next we'll have the policy committee report. Regent Hall. [Speaker 5] (13:53 - 14:01) Mr. Chairman we have finally scheduled a our first meeting for August the 26th. We have a lengthy agenda to go over so it may last a while. [Speaker 1] (14:04 - 14:18) Okay well then we look forward to a well we look forward to a lengthy report next month then. Okay. All right Audit Investment Committee. Regent Geralds. [Speaker 7] (14:18 - 14:26) We did not meet this month but David will be reaching out to the committee. Thank you very much. [Speaker 1] (14:27 - 14:30) Next item on the agenda report of the president. Dr. Villanueva. [Speaker 3] (14:30 - 15:30) Thank You Mr. Chairman. I'd like to begin by discussing enrollment to date. So right now we are up 2% in overall enrollment. Main campus enrollment is up by a whopping 8%. So it has been a long time since we have seen that kind of growth at main campus and we're very pleased with that. I want to thank the board for supporting our first time free at program which is the centerpiece of our enrollment management plan and it's evidenced in the number of new students that we have this semester which is up 59% over last year which you know means okay that many more students thank you are an educational opportunity and access and and support from us and we're just very excited about that. Okay. Thank you. [Speaker 1] (15:31 - 15:39) So so I I'm sorry I think he was letting us know Regent Hemsel. Oh okay. Joined the meeting so we can record him in. [Speaker 3] (15:40 - 20:32) Okay so I want to thank the entire team that has been led by Dr. Bennett in leading our efforts with regard to enrollment and everyone is really involved but I especially want to recognize Dr. Bennett but I also want to end by saying that we are cautiously optimistic that we will have our highest enrollment for the fourth consecutive year. Let's see where we land but things are looking pretty good. I'd like to talk a little bit about veterans recognition. I'm pleased to share that Lee College has once again been honored with the Texas Veterans Commission Vera Bronze Award. This is a recognition that reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering outstanding educational programs and support services to veterans and to military connected students. It's a testament to the dedication and excellence demonstrated every day by our Veterans Center and their team and it's been led by Tiffany Winchester and we're very pleased to recognize her. Let me talk about report that all of the graduates have now taken the final NCLEX exam for their licensure and I would like to share that 36 out of the 8 have passed. 36 out of maybe I just moved it so maybe that helps I don't know 36 out of 38 of our students have passed giving us a passing rate of 94.7% so that's wonderful. On a related note I wanted to share that prior to Dr. Norris joining us at Lee College our retention rate was 30% that's the number of students who were able to stay in the program. Our retention rate as of our latest data collection has increased to 71% meaning that many more nursing students are becoming registered nurses and are actively working in the community so we're very happy about that but I'd also like to thank all of the nursing faculty and everyone who supports the nursing program for completely revamping our curriculum and achieving these milestones so thank you very much. Gala just a reminder that our 38th annual Lee College Gala is on September 26th. The cabinet is officially challenging the board to achieve 100% individual participation and raise a minimum of $10,000 so whoever whomever has full participation and raises the most gets all the bragging rights and just to say that so far the cabinet has won 1 to 0 that's our record so I hope that you guys beat the crap out of us because it just means that we're going to do more for our students but we have laid down the challenge. Okay branch campus this is the last item I want to talk about. I am delighted to announce that yesterday we fully executed our interlocal agreement to establish our new Lee College branch campus. Are pigs flying? Does anyone see them? So I want to thank pigs but more importantly our board and the Barbers Hill board for coming together to serve the students that we both care about. I'd also like to recognize several individuals that have completed the hard work to help us get to this point. Dr. Walser's, Annette Ferguson, Jacob Atkin, Dr. Loralaine Worley, Dr. Scott Bennett, Kelly Ford Spears, Dr. Helen Manon Buesen, Dr. Janina Norris and Dr. Tina Jackson from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. To the board you assigned me this task in 2020 and I'm grateful for all the support that you have provided but I will also say that I'm thrilled to say that I can check this off the box as completed so I'm happy. That concludes my report Mr. Chairman. Yes of course. [Speaker 1] (20:33 - 21:20) Thank you very much Dr. Villanueva. You guys are 1-0 because you didn't tell us there was a competition last year. That's that's that's how you that's how you jump ahead is you know just like tonight we're challenged and you started already didn't you? Okay that's okay it's on it's on. All right great. Challenge accepted. So all right we're moving on. Any questions for Dr. Villanueva on her report or anything she may have left out? Thank you. Next we'll move to informational reports report of Lee college resignations and or retirements. Dr. Villanueva. [Speaker 3] (21:20 - 21:39) I was telling you you're gonna just have to turn it right back over to me but but I was taking a little time to get to you so. Cynthia Lewis has retired faculty member and Maghalie Behar has also resigned in the recruitment and outreach department. Okay. [Speaker 1] (21:39 - 21:52) Thank you very much. Next we'll move to our financial report Jacob Atkin chief financial officer and vice president of finance. Always glad to hear from you. Thank you. [Speaker 2] (22:02 - 24:20) All right we'll move through this report fairly quickly today as you can see our cash position is declining as predicted during the summer. We are still well reserved and we'll start to see a slight bump in this as we move into September and start recording revenue from fall semester in terms of our total cash on hand. As far as our financial position through the end of July you'll notice that we are down about a million dollars a little over a million dollars in district taxes. That was as predicted. I have good news. Our tuition and fees are up and unexpectedly up during the month of July. As many of you know our Huntsville operations have slightly different start times than our operations here on main campus. In July we had an exceptional month at Huntsville so our total tuition and fees is tracking at a hundred and seven percent of originally expected in our budget for that for this year. State appropriations is on target and our other local income is tracking as expected. From the expense side we are still coming in under budget on our expenses and so you can see due large in part to the increase in revenue for July our expected surplus for the end of the year has has creeped up to six million dollars. Our capital projects are progressing on schedule as the president mentioned in her report with five hundred twenty six thousand dollars of work done in the cosmetology project during July and two hundred eighty six thousand in furniture and equipment. Finally our restricted funds are starting to level out as we get closer to the end of the fiscal year. Right now we're only waiting for a reimbursement of a net hundred ninety nine thousand. With that I'll take any questions regarding the financial position as of the end of July. [Speaker 1] (24:22 - 24:34) Any questions for Jacob? Thank you very much. Okay next item on the agenda is public comment. Do we have anyone signed up to speak? [Speaker 13] (24:34 - 24:36) No one signed up Mr. Chairman. [Speaker 1] (24:36 - 25:57) Very much. Items of action. Item we have under personnel. Yeah yeah consideration of new hires. The administration recommends that the board approve the new hires as presented below. We have Miss Davila, Miss Ivy and Miss Wittenberg. That tells you there was a first name I couldn't pronounce. Yeah. All right do we have motion? Motion for Regent Guillory. Second from Regent Gerald. So there any any discussion on this item? Hearing none all in favor say aye. Any opposed no. Consent agenda is approved. Thank you. Moving on to new business. First item consideration of interlocal agreement with the city of Baytown for use of the Wellness Center and swimming pool in the fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27. The administration recommends the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate the final terms and approve the agreement with the city of Baytown. Detail to present on this or it's in your packet. Everybody good? All right. [Speaker 6] (26:01 - 26:01) Second. [Speaker 1] (26:02 - 26:53) Okay got a motion for Regent Hall. Second from Regent Fontenot. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none all in favor say aye. Any opposed no. Interlocal agreement with the city of Baytown for use of the Wellness Center and swimming pool in those fiscal years is approved. Next item consideration to award to Texas Association of School Boards for property insurance coverage. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the award of property insurance coverage in the amount of five hundred and thirty three thousand seven hundred eighty one dollars per year. So moved. Post from Regent Fontenot. Second from Regent Warford. Any discussion on this item? [Speaker 5] (26:54 - 27:05) I have a question. I noticed there was one bidder and that was that typical is that the norm now that nobody else is competing with them as far as insurance? [Speaker 2] (27:11 - 27:22) But we've been using TASB as a state contract for many years. We did not bid this out with other vendors. This is a continuation of the service that we've been using for the last several years. [Speaker 1] (27:25 - 29:20) Any other questions? All right hearing none all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed no. Motions approved on the insurance. All right next item consideration of approval of subscription agreement with VitalSource to provide an inclusive access textbook system. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the subscription agreement with VitalSource. Motion from Regent Warford. Second from Regent Geralds. Any discussion on this item? It does say it here this is just covered by the my book fees right? Questions or comments? Hearing none all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed no. Motion to approve the subscription is approved. Next item consideration of contract between Wyndham School District and Lee College for educational services materials and supplies and support of post-secondary education programs serving students who are incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the contract between Wyndham School District and Lee College for educational services materials and supplies in support of post-secondary education programs serving students who are incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Regent Guillory over here this one got a motion from her was it Regent Cotton? All right got a motion Regent Guillory second from Regent Cotton. Any discussion on this item? [Speaker 5] (29:20 - 29:35) I do I have a question on that this is just one component of the total funding from our prison program am I correct? State component because I know our costs greatly exceed this. [Speaker 1] (29:35 - 31:22) Okay all right great question. Any other questions? Hearing none all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed no. Motions approved on the contract between Wyndham School District and Lee College. Next item consideration and review of the 2025 ad valorem tax anticipated collection rate certification. The administration recommends that the board receive and approve the certification of the anticipated ad valorem tax collection rate 2025 for Lee College District. A motion Regent Warford second Regent Geralds. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed no. Motions approved. Hear the end it's a good thing those Oreos are starting to kick in over here. All right next item. Tina knows what I'm talking about. Consideration of ordinance and resolution adopting the Lee College District operating funds budget. The administration recommends that the board approve the ordinance and resolution adopting the Lee College District operating funds budget for 2025-2026. So moved. Second. Motion from Regent Hall. Second from Regent Cotton. Any discussion on this item? Just to clarify this is the budget we looked at last month minus the fees since payment is that correct? [Speaker 2] (31:25 - 32:42) That is correct in addition to one other change. We received updated estimates regarding property valuations from Harris County which increased the total valuations for our district by over a billion dollars. So that resulted in an additional 1.3 million that would be collected on our M&O taxes. It also required that we reduce our rate by two-tenths of a cent in order to stay below the voter approval rate. We would like to use the that additional money to fund additional maintenance and repairs. We have been trying to commit about five and a half million dollars each year out of the operating fund. We had to reduce that for two reasons. One to cover the cost of a new ERP system and the implementation of a new ERP system this year and to address some of the other funding cuts that we experienced because of the state. And so this allows us to recapture some of those losses and ensure that we can continue to meet some of our capital improvement needs in the future beyond this year when we we can do so with surplus funds from prior year activities. [Speaker 15] (32:44 - 32:47) For clarification can you just state what the new rate will be? [Speaker 2] (32:48 - 33:27) So this is still based on estimated property valuations and so this is preliminary that will be finalized of course in September once we have certified rolls. But right now we are projecting an M&O rate of 0.17697 and an INS rate of 0.00623 for a total rate of 0.1832 or a 1.2 cent reduction in total tax rate. [Speaker 1] (33:34 - 33:36) Any other questions or comments on this item? [Speaker 5] (33:37 - 33:56) I do have a question. This is how do they do this preliminary when they give you a preliminary estimate maybe in June or July. I know this is your first year but this has happened several years in a row where they have underestimated revenue. [Speaker 3] (33:56 - 34:11) Is there a process that you know of that is to be expected year-over-year or have an extended deadline that they can use to provide the final certification correct? So September? [Speaker 2] (34:12 - 34:51) Unfortunately they are quite late and they haven't committed to get us certified rolls until September 5th which is much later than usual for Harris County. Unfortunately they're I mean we're really at their mercy when it comes to estimating the valuations of the property. Ideally their May estimates would be far more accurate than they are but unfortunately we don't you know we don't I don't believe that there's anything that we could do as an institution to improve those estimates in a more timely manner. [Speaker 3] (34:53 - 35:01) Chambers County also changed. We thought it was we received what we thought was flat right and then it that also went up. [Speaker 2] (35:02 - 35:10) This wasn't just Harris County. We got it early and in time. The big change was was due to valuations in Harris County. [Speaker 1] (35:14 - 35:20) Were those changes on existing property or new new values that came in? [Speaker 2] (35:21 - 35:35) So both. I can provide the board with the reports as they come in from the counties regarding new growth and then increases to valuations of existing property. There's always a mix every single year. [Speaker 1] (35:36 - 35:41) A minute ago you mentioned the voter approval rate. Did you mean no new revenue rate? [Speaker 2] (35:41 - 36:17) No the voter approval rate. So the no new revenue rate were in excess of that on the M&O side. The voter approval rate or the additional increase of up to 8 percent revenue. The reason that we're not simply cutting the rate by one cent by eliminating the early defeasance. The reason that we have to do the additional 0.2 cents is to stay below the voter approval rate. If we were to collect more than our estimated revenue that we have listed in the budget right now it would require a vote and approval by the general public. [Speaker 1] (36:18 - 36:43) That voter approval approval rate seems to keep going down. So without a vote. Without a vote and I'm assuming it's a calculation but it seems to continue going down. Is that part of the state's plan and lowering property taxes and all that or is values going up that's changing that number? [Speaker 2] (36:44 - 37:32) So the voter approval rate is a product of what you collected in the prior year right that that that's your base figure and then you would take that and times it by 1.08 to calculate what the actual voter approval revenue number is. Then the rate is calculated based on what we would need to set in order to collect that amount of revenue. So as the valuation for your property continues to grow your rate has to go down in order to meet the or to stay below the voter approval rate. So functionally anytime you have more than an 8% increase in valuations to stay below the voter approval rate you have to reduce your overall M&L rate. [Speaker 1] (37:33 - 37:36) And this just affects the M&O rate correct? [Speaker 2] (37:36 - 37:47) Just the M&O rate. The INS rate is not subject to the no new revenue or the voter approval limitations. That is based explicitly on how we manage our budget. [Speaker 1] (37:49 - 38:06) So just just to clarify the the budget ordinance and resolution of the budget we're adopting is similar to last month minus the fees since payment with an additional amount added to maintenance? [Speaker 2] (38:07 - 38:12) That is correct with an additional 1.3 million dollars added to maintenance. [Speaker 1] (38:12 - 38:23) Because we had reduced maintenance in the previous budget that was presented to compensate for other losses. How does this budget maintenance budget compare to last year's maintenance budget? [Speaker 2] (38:23 - 39:19) So last year the maintenance budget was a little over 5.5 million. This will bring the the repair and maintenance budget up to about 2.6 2.7 million. So so we're still down significantly. We've we've reduced our repairs and maintenance budget. Part of that was moved into a temporary budget to implement the new ERP system. Two and a quarter million dollars. So most of it's there. This gets us back to to where we needed to be. And and we had to reduce our budget in a few places in order to address our cut in revenue and also still provide things like a COLA increase for our employees. And so in trying to manage everything, this was a good place for us to target some reductions. We're grateful for this growth because it helps us to rebound some of those cuts that we had to make due to a decline in revenue. [Speaker 1] (39:21 - 39:56) Well I'm glad it's you know was allocated back to the maintenance budget. I am too. And we know we've had we've been very blessed with with funds to put into our not only our operating budget but other revenue that we've allocated to capital improvement. So it's been a lot of work going on in the last four or five years around campus and and we're we're hearing comments and this is not for this discussion. I'll leave it at that. Anyway thank you for explaining the change in the budget we're looking at today. Any other comments? [Speaker 9] (39:56 - 39:56) I do. [Speaker 1] (39:56 - 39:57) All right. [Speaker 9] (39:57 - 41:23) Just more for transparency I guess than anything else. I would have preferred the defeasant payment to have stayed in this year's budget. I believe that having it included would have set us up for better bond ratings in the future which I think we'll need. I also believe that the community would prefer us to continue to meet more of the needs of the students and their programs as well as improve, update, and provide a facelift for this campus rather than lower the tax rate. They've entrusted us to take care of all aspects of this college not to focus solely on the tax rate and in the late well the late I guess last 15 years or so except for the last few we were not able to take up to take care of all the aspects that we wanted to and needed to for the college and so now we're playing catch-up. Currently we're taking steps towards the completion of a facilities master plan and that will along with our academic master plan allow us to make informed decisions about the future of this college. We will likely tear down a few buildings and construct some new ones but I want us to be prepared and ready for those decisions and having a better bond rating would have been one of those steps to prepare us. Another step would not be would be not having to go back to the taxpayers and ask permission to raise taxes. I feel that not including the defeasant payment is short-sighted and it will not help us prepare for what's to come. The struggle for me tonight is that we have to approve a budget. [Speaker 10] (41:26 - 41:46) Thank You Regent Warford. Any other comments? I would just make one comment that evidently the community and our public is not too worried about our tax rate or anything because they've been given ample opportunity to make their voices heard and I haven't heard anything I don't know if anybody else has but it seems to me that if they don't say anything then they're proving what we've been doing. [Speaker 1] (41:48 - 41:49) Thank You Regent Cotton. Any other comments? [Speaker 6] (41:50 - 42:42) I would echo what Regent Warford said. I too would like to see us adopt a budget with the defeasance payment in there. I think it was a prudent plan that we adopted several years ago. We are making great strides through the financial management of the college the last several years and have been able to to put money towards deferred maintenance and but by also making the defeasance payment we're building that that debt capacity and just like the city is going out for a hundred and fifty million dollar bond without raising taxes I think that that would bode well for us to have you know gone down the same path and be able to ask whatever dollar amount that is that we could raise without raising the interest rate so I mean the bond rate. [Speaker 1] (42:45 - 42:46) I don't know any other comments. [Speaker 7] (42:46 - 43:02) I just have a couple of questions on the slide we have up here. Is keeping in the defeasant was is positive proactive debt management removing it is neutral what does that mean? [Speaker 2] (43:02 - 43:44) So in terms of our credit rating with S&P and Moody's right the credit issuing agencies as we pay down our debt early that improves our debt to all of our other ratios right our debt drops more quickly that actually increases our credit rating so early payments helps to increase our credit rating making our scheduled regular payments doesn't really have a net positive or a net negative impact on our credit rating right that we're expected to make that debt on an annual basis but if we make payments early that helps to improve our credit rating. [Speaker 7] (43:45 - 43:51) Is our current credit rating strong enough when we need to go out for a bond? [Speaker 2] (43:52 - 43:52) Yes. [Speaker 7] (43:54 - 44:19) And my next question is if we do the defeasance it says early payoff that would be 2032 and not would be 2037 is this saying that this one time defeasance would get us paid off five years sooner or does this mean a defeasant each year up to that point? [Speaker 2] (44:19 - 44:27) In order to pay off the debt by 2032 it would require a two million dollar additional defeasance payment each year through 2032. [Speaker 7] (44:27 - 45:03) Okay I didn't see where it said in this slide that we would need to make that defeasance each okay good that clarifies it for me thank you well also in not paying the defeasance does that mean that when we need to go out for a bond that we can't go out for a larger one that we're going to be constrained to a smaller one or do we still have everything in place that if we needed more that we're still in good standing to get more? [Speaker 2] (45:04 - 46:00) So we are in good standing and we can petition the taxpayers to increase our debt at any time. The strategy that was originally implemented with the early defeasance payment was ideally designed to pay down our debt early and to have sufficient commitment in our INS rate that when we paid the debt off we would be in a position to reissue debt without having to ask the taxpayers for a tax increase. If we wanted to go out to the taxpayers next year for to issue a new bond we could it would simply require an increase in the tax rate and so the strategy doesn't limit us by what we could issue it's simply an indication of when and how much we could issue debt for without requiring a tax increase in our INS rate. [Speaker 7] (46:00 - 46:06) Have any idea when we would be doing this one year two years three years? [Speaker 2] (46:07 - 46:55) So we are in the process of completing our facilities master plan. Sooner rather than later would be better. We have many needs as an institution. We've seen how much a successful addition like the tech building that Sand Jack added to their campus and what a tremendous impact that's had on their institution. You know so so we we have those needs and we would prefer not to delay too long. 2032 is is frankly longer than I think we would like to wait as as an institution. 2037 is definitely too long. We can't stagnate in terms of our capital development improvement for 12 more years before making another investment in a new facility. [Speaker 1] (47:00 - 47:48) Other comments questions? I'm gonna summarize. I've said this for the last three years. I think when Hemsel? Regent Hemsel you have something to say? Can't hear you. We can't hear you. Hold on. Can't hear you. Hold on we're working on it. Can't hear you yet. Can you hear us? Okay hold on a second. You're getting a you're getting a message. Change your microphone. [Speaker 16] (48:14 - 48:18) Try it. Not yet. [Speaker 1] (48:26 - 49:01) He had a test in him when he first came on. Think about that. Still can't hear you. So it's a microphone setting on your end. I should be on if it's a mic. If we can't hear him it's microphone. He can hear us. Where do we hear him from? Romero? Yeah he's I'm gonna just. [Speaker 13] (49:03 - 49:09) He needs to go to the little carrot next to the mute button and select his microphone from there. [Speaker 1] (49:11 - 49:15) Mark are you able to look it's like your microphone? [Speaker 13] (49:17 - 49:28) It's a little carrot next to the mute and then on the microphone select the headset microphone or the the webcam microphone. [Speaker 1] (49:30 - 50:04) See a left-hand microphone in your settings? All right let's let's talk away. Hey go ahead and go ahead and talk on the phone. He's got you at the microphone here. No I'm sorry guys. We got you. Go ahead. Hold on Mark. Mark Hall's having you know like technology difficulties over here with a phone. We're gonna get a ring around. [Speaker 12] (50:05 - 50:10) Yeah leave it on regular and put it up there. [Speaker 1] (50:10 - 50:12) We heard him at first. Okay. [Speaker 11] (50:17 - 50:35) Let's hear you Mark. I'm sorry guys my only question is We take the maintenance money back out? That we need to be at? [Speaker 14] (50:40 - 50:51) Mark Hensel if we could get Mark Hall to learn how to hold the phone we could hear you. My ears over here that's where I'm holding it If I put it on speakerphone it's gonna... [Speaker 11] (50:57 - 51:16) Can you hear me now? Yes. My question is and I apologize guys if we added the defeasance back in and we took the maintenance money that you added it in tonight back out would that satisfy the tax the tax rate that you need to get to? [Speaker 2] (51:21 - 51:59) So if we reduce the M&O rate by a penny I'm not sure what tax rate we need to get to that that would essentially take us very close back to the M&O budget that was presented in July right there would be no no additional funds really going back into the repair and maintenance fund but we would be able to make the two million dollar defeasance payment on the INS and the total tax rate would be still the eighteen point three cents. [Speaker 11] (52:02 - 52:17) You hear that? It just seems like that the defeasance was important to several people if we could put that back in and still get the rate at eighteen and a half or eighteen thirty-two we can have a win-win maybe. [Speaker 7] (52:21 - 52:30) I don't understand where that million goes if we out of the... [Speaker 1] (52:30 - 52:43) So we're we're currently discussing a motion on a budget that's been presented as Jacob presented without a defeasance with an increase in the M&O on the maintenance and repairs budget right? [Speaker 17] (52:43 - 52:44) That's correct. [Speaker 1] (52:45 - 53:27) And I think what Regent Hemsel is saying I believe listen to me well can you hear me? Yes. Okay I think what Regent Hemsel I think the point of removing the defeasance payment to begin with was to allow us the opportunity to consider lowering the tax rate one cent. If we are required to lower the the M&O because of the voter approval rate if we put the defeasance payment back on the INS side and we reduce the M&O back to where it was in July that still lowers the tax rate is that correct? That's correct. [Speaker 11] (53:28 - 53:34) Okay Mark did you hear that? Yes I think that's what up what I was getting at yes thank you. [Speaker 6] (53:36 - 54:05) So all right and so can I make a comment or ask a question? Jacob in the in our current fiscal year what is it I know the year's not over but what are we looking at as far as a projected surplus? So we're looking at around six million dollars. That's what I thought okay so and the budget we're being asked to approve has two and a half million in maintenance? [Speaker 2] (54:06 - 54:09) It does currently okay as presented today. [Speaker 6] (54:10 - 54:11) Okay okay. [Speaker 2] (54:12 - 55:02) Now if we remove a one cent if we if we reduce the M&O rate by one cent that's reducing the M&O budget by two million dollars. It only increased by 1.3 million dollars due to the change in valuations. So my recommendation if you want to lower the rate would not be to go to the full one cent on the M&O rate otherwise we have to go back and find seven hundred thousand dollars in the budget presented in July to cut out of the budget. If you were to cut the equivalent of 1.3 million dollars out of the budget you know about 0.6 or maybe 0.65 cents then it would be similar to the revenue projected in the July proposal. [Speaker 5] (55:05 - 57:11) I would just comment I would rather spend the money now the dollars are worth more now on improving our campus and not take money out of our maintenance and operation budget and I'm not in favor of the defeasance I've made that clear it's it's it's low interest money and to take additional funds from taxpayers who don't have the the ability to have funds available to them at such a low rates three or four percent. What is the interest rate on our debt that we're paying off? It's between four and a half and five cents. Okay four and a half or five percent most people are carrying debt well beyond that and so we are able to borrow money through bond proposals cheaper because they're tax-free bonds very inexpensively. So even the inflation once you figure the value of money and you consider that we're paying three or four percent or four and a half percent or even five and the inflation rates been two and a half to three percent the cost of that money in real dollars is very very low and so it's an excellent deal for us to fund things with debt and I I don't I mean from my perspective I don't think our our rate is going to be impacted by carrying this additional debt through 2037. It just seems foolish to pay to ask the taxpayers to pay off these very very low interest loans. I would rather I think our dollars will be better spent buying improvements today where the dollar is going to be worth more than it's going to be three or four or five seven eight years down the road. So it's just it's just a cost of money calculation in my view and I don't see where we're if am I correct we're not limited significantly by the small amount of debt that we have to go out for a future bond am I correct there? [Speaker 2] (57:12 - 57:25) We're not limited we just have to be prepared as a board and as an institution to ask the taxpayers for a tax increase to address the minimum bond payment for the new debt. [Speaker 5] (57:26 - 57:41) I think we build credibility when we try to keep our rate as low as possible when we have to go back possibly and ask them for funds to fund future growth that we need. I'm comfortable doing that. [Speaker 10] (57:41 - 57:51) Thank you. Any other comments? Just one that the cost of a bond election vastly overrides what we can save. [Speaker 1] (57:56 - 1:02:47) Any other comments? I'm going to summarize my comments. I'm not going to repeat everything. I think I've said this for the last three years but we've been very very fortunate as an institution and a community and as taxpayers to have to be in a very good financial position for basically last seven years and throughout that time we've been able to use our position to accomplish many many things at this institution. We have put a lot of money into our facilities. We've grown our operating budget in the areas that were needed. We've paid down debt faster than we that we had planned and we've lowered the tax rate from 25 cents to 19 and a half cents in a fairly short period of time. I think we've been in a good situation. We've had good years and we've had better years. When we started this conversation in our budget workshops we were presented with pretty much a flat growth year right and so that started our conversations flat. We weren't expecting growth like we've had in the past. I just wonder what would have happened if we would have had this extra billion dollars you know a couple of months ago when we first started talking about the budget and and considering again the tax rate. Would we be where we are today or we would we have already passed the budget like we always have. The defecents payment is a philosophy. It's not it's not a hard fact that we've got to do it. I agree with Regent Hall's philosophy on it. I agree with you know Regent Orford. I agree that that we have been considerate to the taxpayers and we have used their money wisely and every dollar we've collected from them that didn't get used in our operational budget we can account for every single dollar. It either went into facilities, it went into our cash reserve, it went into our insurance reserves. Every dollar we can account for. I feel very good about that. You know tonight we have before us a budget that has changed slightly from what we looked at in July. Not just the defecents payment but some adjustments on the revenue side right on the M&O side and it includes a tax rate decrease that we're basically forced to make not one we're choosing to make. The defecents payment in my mind could have been worked into this from the very beginning and again it was a long-term philosophy. You know this was presented to us by bond counsel that it wasn't just a CFO not just you know CFO presenting. Bond counsel came and explained this long-term plan and three years ago we we went on. We weren't all unanimous. I get it we weren't all unanimous but the majority of the board was willing to move forward. You know today if the majority of the board wants to go the other way and not have a defecents payment it's fine with me. We'll be doing things the way we've always done it. Just like Regent Hall said we will pay down the tax rate on the INS side as we go and when it's time to ask for more money we'll we'll ask for a rate increase and if everyone here is willing to commit to do that when it's time to go out for GO bond then we'll be doing business as usual right. We'll be doing what this college has done and most institutions do every time they go out for a GO bond and that's ask the taxpayers for more money for the additional debt. So it's nothing new. I think we were trying to find a way to build capacity, maintain stability in our INS rate for the taxpayer benefit and not have it go up and down over the course of time. So we do know that even though the tax rate doesn't change it is a tax increase anytime you incur additional debt. That's a fact. So we're only talking about the tax rate not being affected. So all I can say is that structurally we have a good sound budget in front of us. We will we will approve a budget tonight. We're all committed to that. I do wish the defeasance payment was in here and as far as lowering the maintenance I'm a proponent of maintenance just like Regent Fontenot is but we're looking at six million dollars of money left over at the end of this year that could be put into maintenance and repairs to sort of supplement that one year of the budget going down. I'm not sure at this time if we're at a point where we can make all of these changes collectively in this one motion unless somebody can figure out how to do that either through some amendment that someone may want to propose. Otherwise we're gonna have the budget before us passes great if it fails we're gonna reconsider but we're gonna have a budget tonight one way or the other. So that's all I have. Any other comments? [Speaker 10] (1:02:51 - 1:02:59) All right. Just for clarification a vote for the motion as it is now is voting to remove the defeasance. [Speaker 1] (1:02:59 - 1:03:03) It is voting to not include it because it's not correct. [Speaker 6] (1:03:04 - 1:03:55) But the vote that we're about to take has the maintenance budget at the level that's presented on this page which is yeah. So we have a half of the maintenance. Let me continue. By defeating this motion we would have an opportunity to reconsider another motion with the changes that Jacob has asked us to make. Is that correct? Because the motions already on the floor for this budget. We need to defeat this budget if we agree with what Jacob is asking us to do which is no defeasance and five million in the maintenance budget. We need to defeat this budget and present a new motion. Is that correct? [Speaker 1] (1:04:00 - 1:04:11) You just clearly stated that that this budget being proposed does not have the two million dollar defeasance payment and the maintenance and repairs budget is that two and a half million? [Speaker 2] (1:04:11 - 1:04:44) Yes so so we we had to reduce the maintenance and repairs budget for the July proposal. Right. With the additional 1.3 million we put that back into the repairs and maintenance. So we we increased it from one and a quarter one and a half million by the 1.3 million. So it's a little over two and a half million and to take it up to five million we'd have to find more money somewhere else. So so we are not advocating for that. We're advocating for the budget as proposed to be approved. [Speaker 1] (1:04:45 - 1:05:03) The budget in front of us is no defeasance payment and the adjustment on the maintenance and repairs budget from last July to today from 1.5 to 2.8 which is still almost half of what it was this this prior year. [Speaker 2] (1:05:03 - 1:05:04) FY 24-25 yes. [Speaker 1] (1:05:08 - 1:05:10) We didn't say would we said we could. [Speaker 6] (1:05:11 - 1:05:13) We will have the option at the close of the fiscal year. [Speaker 7] (1:05:14 - 1:05:18) We could still meet that full amount with the surplus. [Speaker 2] (1:05:18 - 1:06:15) I would also like to remind the board that in July you approved nine million dollars of surplus to go into repairs and maintenance for the upcoming year. So we you have already committed to do more this year than you did last year in repairs and maintenance. So we're not asking you to make up that difference. We have already done that with our proposal on the capital improvements project budget. So so we we feel very comfortable and very grateful for what you've already approved on that part. Keeping the 1.3 million in the repairs and maintenance operating budget is ongoing dollars and we want to keep ongoing dollars on there so that in the event that we don't have surplus at some future point we still have dedicated funds going in in out of operating so that we can continue our maintenance and repair and replacement activities even after our one-time dollars might have been spent. [Speaker 1] (1:06:17 - 1:08:03) Okay I'm gonna try to summarize before I call for the vote. We have before us a budget proposed by Jacob not not proposed as we requested. Removing the defeasance payment. Adjustment to the maintenance and repairs was simply based on the values coming back higher than we thought. That's correct. And that additional 1.3 was added to the maintenance and repairs budget which was cut to begin with in order to keep us a balanced budget. That's correct. Right. We're not talking tax rate tonight but this is a budget based on on some rate we'll look at next next month. So we're voting on what I just said which is this budget does not include a defeasance payment. That's fundamentally what we're voting on. Right. We have more money in maintenance repairs and we and we don't have the defeasance payment. So are there any other comments? Mark can you hear us? Okay he can hear us. All right. Yes. I'm gonna call for the vote. All in favor of the administration's recommending that the board approve the ordinance resolution adopting Lee College District Operating Funds budget for 2025-2026 as we've discussed and summarized. Please raise your hand. In favor. All right. We've got eight. Any opposed? Raise your hand. One. Motion passes. Eight for. One against. Told you we were gonna approve a budget. One way or the other. All right. [Speaker 15] (1:08:04 - 1:08:04) Jacob. [Speaker 1] (1:08:05 - 1:08:06) Jacob thank you. [Speaker 15] (1:08:06 - 1:08:07) Thank you so much. [Speaker 1] (1:08:07 - 1:08:36) Thank you for your patience with us. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. We have no other action items. We do not have executive session this evening. Thank you very much. So we're to matters of concern for future agendas. Any? Anyone have any concerns for future agendas? All right. We're hearing none. The next item on the agenda is adjournment. We're done.