Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Open Board of Directors Meeting
San Bernardino Community College District
114 S. Del Rosa Drive
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Minutes
Present: Deborah Barmack, Peter Barmack, Carole Beswick, Tom Brickley, Ann Bryan, Jake Coin, Louis Goodwin, Mark Kaenel, Lowell King, Pam Langford, Patrick McClenahan, John Mirau, Lou Monville, Dan Murphy, Cid Pinedo, Kristine Scott, Steve von Rajcs and Ray Wolfe.
Guests: P.T. McEwen, Sheriff John McMahon, and Ross Sevy.
Announcements: 1) P.T. McEwen, CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Redlands-Riverside was welcomed as a guest. 2) GO-Biz (the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development) is holding a California Competes Tax Credit workshop for small, medium and large businesses on Thursday, July 21, 2016. The workshop will be held in the Council Chambers in San Bernardino City Hall from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30p.m.. Participants will receive instructions on how to apply for this tax credit program. 3) Real Journey Academies has been proposed as a member. Jason “Jay” Jimenez, formerly representing Inland Leaders Charter School, would serve as the representative. There will be a second announcement next week. 4) Chairman Kaenel requested a vote on the following two changes: Ciriaco “Cid” Pinedo, President of HOPE through Housing Foundation (the social service arm of National Core) is proposed as the Alternate representing National Core Renaissance. M/S/P: Cid Pinedo will serve as the Alternate for National Core Renaissance. Kirk Franks, CPA & Partner, Rogers, Anderson, Malody & Scott is proposed as the Alternate representative. M/S/P: Kirk Franks will serve as the Alternate for Rogers, Anderson, Malody & Scott
M/S/P: Minutes from June 21, 2016.
Pam Langford introduced Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, California’s 33rd Assembly District Representative.
Assemblyman Obernolte recently completed research on education and poverty. His research is based only on facts and statistics. Poverty in California is at 16%, the highest in the nation. In San Bernardino County the number is a whopping 21%. If you add the residents that are near the poverty line the total jumps to 45%. The numbers indicate that over the past 40 years poverty overall is actually increasing. Yet the state spends 3 times as much now as it did in 1980 to reduce this figure. Estimates show that it costs $23,000 per year for each person in poverty. The current approach is clearly not effective and must be rethought.
Education is the key to lifting people out of poverty. In California many do not have high school diplomas, of this group 54% live in poverty. For those with a college education the number drops dramatically to a mere 10%. The earnings discrepancy between those with college and without has never been greater. Additionally, for families in poverty there is a preponderance of continued generations remaining in poverty. The practice of pushing more money at various services is not working. A different set of tools and programs are needed to break the cycle. The Assemblyman quoted Maimonides “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. One suggestion from the Assemblyman was to bring back the once popular apprenticeships which are low risk for all parties and help students learn if a career is a good fit. Technology will continue to rapidly expand and we must try to create a mindset of lifelong learning.
The Assemblyman is Vice Chair of the Budget Committee and discussed the State budget process. He is very pleased that the budget reflects a substantial increase in pre-K and elementary education. He is also in favor of adding to the Budget Stability Account (BSA) also known as the “rainy day fund”. Overall, however, the total state budget has been increasing annually by 6-7% when inflation has been maintaining annually at 2%. Approximately 2/3 of the state’s income is from income tax. When an inevitable economic downturn happens, tax revenues will decrease disproportionately, as half of that money come from less than 1% of our tax payers. Those in the 1% will experience long range tax reductions as funds are traditionally from investments.
He favors a zero based budget but stated it would not work for the entire budget. The budget could, however, be divided into manageable pieces that could use the zero based formula. Currently reoccurring programs automatically receive the same funding as prior years. He suggested that many of these reoccurring programs should have to justify their funding annually.
His bill, AB 2341 allows for up to five vacant judgeships to be reallocated to superior courts with fewer authorized judgeships than their assessed judicial need. This bill has been approved by the Senate and now will go to the Assembly. Successful passage will equate to 2 additional judges in both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. He is cautiously optimistic of its passage.
Transportation issues will likely be revisited in the fall or after the election. He views the vehicle miles traveled (VMT), or something similar politically difficult, a probable part of the future. First he would like get current transportation revenue dedicated back to transportation funding.
He opposes the increase of South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) board members as mostly a political move since the board majority recently change to Republican. The bill will have difficulty passing in the Assembly.
He understands the discontent in society that has been growing for many years. Racial, religious and social intolerance is more dramatically expressed as many do not feel we are all playing on the same team. He expects that some will simply vote against the status quo in the next election.
A Q & A period followed.
Meeting adjourned at 8:30 a.m.