1 2 3 -----------------------------------------x 4 MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 5 SUFFOLK COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE 6 AMMERMAN CAMPUS 7 FACULTY DINING ROOM - HUNTINGTON BUILDING 8 SELDEN, NEW YORK 9 August 24, 2006 - 8:30 A.M. 10 -----------------------------------------x 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Court Reporter: Lori Anne Curtis 22 23 24 25 2 1 2 3 4 A P P E A R A N C E S: 5 6 WILLIAM D. MOORE - Trustee/Chair 7 JERRY KANE - Trustee/Secretary 8 FRANK C. TROTTA - Trustee 9 DAVID OCHOA - Trustee 10 JOHN L. KOMINICKI - Trustee 11 BELINDA ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN - Trustee 12 AVETTE WARE - Student Trustee 13 DR. SHIRLEY PIPPINS - President, SCCC 14 CHUCK STEIN - V.P. Business and Financial Affairs 15 MARY LOU ARANEO - V.P. Institutional Advancement 16 ILENE KREITZER - Executive Director Legal Affairs 17 LAURIE SAVONA - Executive Assistant to President 18 ET AL 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 August 24, 2006 2 3 (THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER AT 4 8:56 A.M.) 5 MR. MOORE: I'd like to call the 6 meeting to order. Let's have Mr. Kane lead 7 us in the pledge. 8 (Salutation.) 9 MR. MOORE: Good morning. This is 10 Thursday, the second meeting of 11 August 2006. 12 All kinds of news today. Let's see 13 here, shall we start with Chuck and our 14 budget update? 15 MR. STEIN: As was reported at the last 16 meeting when the resolution for the budget 17 was tabled, the county executive had ten 18 days to offer a veto of the actions of the 19 legislature. The veto was delivered on 20 Monday to the legislature, and Tuesday, the 21 legislature met, and at around a quarter to 22 twelve, midnight, the legislature overrode 23 the vetoes offered by the county executive 24 by a vote of 18:0; which meant that the 25 resolution that you tabled at the last 4 1 August 24, 2006 2 meeting, could now be reintroduced for your 3 approval. And that resolution provided an 4 operating budget for 2006-2007 consisting 5 of $152,247,069, the operating portion of 6 the budget; and 3,774,938 for the grant 7 portion of the budget. 8 And I'll answer any questions that you 9 may have. 10 DR. PIPPINS: We sat there from 4 p.m. 11 until ten minutes to twelve. 12 MR. MOORE: Any questions? 13 MR. TROTTA: Did they have any 14 questions at -- 15 MR. STEIN: No. 16 DR. PIPPINS: No. They were so tired 17 by then. It was late; right, Kevin? 18 KEVIN: Absolutely. When it's 18:0, 19 it's something to smile about. 20 MR. TROTTA: If you weren't there, they 21 would have had questions. 22 DR. PIPPINS: Yeah. 23 MR. MOORE: All right, thank you. 24 This happened last time, too. We were 25 all so washed out and wiped out by the 5 1 August 24, 2006 2 process that when we got to the point, you 3 know. But I want to thank -- 4 (Applause.) 5 MR. MOORE: I want to thank the hard 6 work of the president, of her staff, of the 7 faculty and of the members when they go and 8 make the push. And it says a great deal 9 when the legislature supports education and 10 eighteen of them stand up for the process 11 and continues to support education. So, 12 hats off to the legislators. 13 And we did send letters out to them, 14 after their first action -- and also thank 15 you to the Union. I thought I said that, 16 but if I didn't, Kevin and everyone -- 17 thank you for all your efforts, and 18 especially the late night process of 19 government. 20 But I have more news for you in a 21 little bit, but this is the beginning of 22 some great stuff. So, thank you all, and 23 we are more excited than we show. 24 With that, let's turn to our 25 resolutions. We have one. It's 2006.62, 6 1 August 24, 2006 2 and it is the resolution to approve and 3 adopt our budget for 2006-2007. I'll 4 entertain that motion. 5 MR. OCHOA: Move to approve. 6 MR. MOORE: Second? 7 MR. KANE: Second. 8 MR. MOORE: All in favor? 9 (Whereupon, all respond "aye.") 10 MR. MOORE: My turn. 11 I don't know if we need a resolution 12 for this or not, but if we do, you can tell 13 me. We've got the NYCCT Trustee Institute, 14 September the -- is it 13th through 15th or 15 14th through 16th, Avette, do you remember? 16 I left my notes in my office. 17 MS. WARE: I think it's the 14th and 18 15th. I think. 19 MR. MOORE: Okay, 14th/15th, all right. 20 There's a couple of us who wanted to go 21 and haven't indicated our desire to go, 22 Avette being one. And we have a trustee 23 meeting as well, but it doesn't begin until 24 the afternoon, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. 25 Do we need a resolution to authorize a 7 1 August 24, 2006 2 couple of us to go and to make the plans to 3 make that happen? 4 MS. KREITZER: We did one last year, 5 but I don't think we have to. 6 MR. MOORE: You don't think we need 7 one? 8 MS. KREITZER: No. 9 MR. MOORE: Okay, then we won't do one. 10 MR. KANE: What's the date of the 11 dedication of the culinary school? 12 MR. TROTTA: 28th; 21st? 28th. 13 MR. MOORE: I was going to say the 14 21st, but... 15 MS. ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: It's the 21st; 16 right here. 17 MR. KANE: I thought it was changed. 18 MS. ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: It was. But 19 that's the new one. 20 MR. KANE: The newest one is 21st? 21 MR. MOORE: So I guess we have to get 22 our paperwork in order to say we want to go 23 to Albany for that. 24 MS. WARE: We have to call Terri. 25 MR. MOORE: Terri's on vacation, so 8 1 August 24, 2006 2 maybe Laurie can help us with that. 3 MS. SAVONA: Oh, she's coming back on 4 Monday, so that will be all taken care of. 5 MR. MOORE: I saw it in my packet of 6 stuff because I serve as one of the 7 directors of NYCCT. I take it we are still 8 dues-paying members of that organization? 9 DR. PIPPINS: We never dropped out. 10 That's all been taken care of. 11 MR. MOORE: Okay, good. Because, that 12 would be embarrassing. 13 Last thing, and this is really good, 14 but I don't know if you heard it already or 15 not, but a decision came down from the 16 Third Department Appellate Division in the 17 Westchester litigation of Plan C. This is 18 really, really big stuff. All of the SUNY 19 regulations have been upheld, all of them, 20 and -- 21 MR. TROTTA: Wow. 22 (Applause.) 23 MR. MOORE: This has been going on, 24 well, for years and years and years, but my 25 entire tenure on the board has been the 9 1 August 24, 2006 2 frustration of this discussion and the 3 sponsor and who has what authority, and so 4 forth. So five years of me waiting around 5 to see what the courts said, and it makes 6 sense and it's a decision that I actually 7 agree with. 8 But, if you get a chance, read that. 9 And the suggestion has been that our 10 executive committee sit down with the 11 president and your staff to see what does 12 that mean. Because, it's really going to 13 change the new learning curve. Among the 14 things in there is that it makes it really 15 clear that the College has authority to 16 transfer money within its budget without 17 going to the legislature for approval. 18 That's one example. So to meet the needs 19 as we see them; that we should be doing 20 this to adapt and adjust. 21 DR. PIPPINS: No preaudit. 22 MR. MOORE: No preaudit of bills, so 23 that the comptroller having a person 24 inhouse to review something beforehand, 25 that's not appropriate. 10 1 August 24, 2006 2 MS. KREITZER: No line item vetoes. 3 MR. MOORE: Right. The budget as it 4 goes over from us is a budget total, and 5 that's all they are to approve is the 6 budget total, not to move money around and 7 saying well, we think it should be here and 8 here. So it's going to be a whole new way 9 of approving things. 10 MR. TROTTA: It's going to be a rocky 11 transition, too. 12 MR. MOORE: It's going to take some 13 time, but at least now you have a court 14 case. It's not just us saying it's the 15 law. You have a court saying no, this is 16 how it's supposed to work. 17 And it gives us an opportunity for us 18 to actually work in alliance with the 19 county to make sure the state is paying its 20 fair share. Because the one thing that the 21 state does is turn right around and exempt 22 itself from the very structure that it 23 created. So now the county and the college 24 can work together to make sure that the 25 State of New York stays on board with its 11 1 August 24, 2006 2 participation in this. 3 So we should set that time up, because 4 there are going to be some how-to's and 5 working with getting this across to the 6 county of how it's going to go. 7 DR. PIPPINS: Maybe before one of the 8 board meetings that starts at 9:30, maybe 9 9:00 before one of the board meetings, or 10 do you want to do it sooner? 11 MR. MOORE: That would be fine. We've 12 got a meeting September 14th -- 13 MR. TROTTA: Is the county aware of 14 that decision? 15 MR. MOORE: I don't know. 16 MR. KANE: Should you be making them 17 aware of this? 18 DR. PIPPINS: We've got a conference 19 call -- 20 MS. KREITZER: I want -- 21 MR. MOORE: Wait, let Dr. Pippins 22 speak. 23 DR. PIPPINS: We had a conference call 24 with the president of the college that is 25 the college that will be most directly 12 1 August 24, 2006 2 impacted by this, and their feeling was 3 that the National Association of the County 4 would be the ones who brought this to the 5 forefront of the county. I mean the New 6 York State Association, I'm sorry. 7 MR. MOORE: So they are -- 8 theoretically, they can appeal but they 9 have to make a motion to the Court to get 10 permission to appeal because the decision 11 was unanimous. 12 DR. PIPPINS: Right. And their feeling 13 was that they would not be granted the 14 right to appeal because it was a 6:0 15 decision. 16 MR. KANE: It's going to be a whole new 17 way of life. 18 MR. MOORE: Yeah. And I will be 19 optimistic and presume that it will lead to 20 a whole new collaborative negotiation and 21 discussion of the college's budget because 22 all they're talking about is approving what 23 our bottom line is, and we can talk about 24 it there rather than make the motion and 25 push and shove and erase and strike out. 13 1 August 24, 2006 2 So there should be some interesting times 3 coming up in the next few budget cycles. 4 DR. PIPPINS: Yes. 5 MR. MOORE: But this was very positive 6 news for community colleges in New York 7 State. And I think that the September 8 meeting up in Albany, there should be some 9 excited college presidents and some excited 10 college trustees as they kind of have a 11 chance to digest this. 12 DR. PIPPINS: All of us who were the 13 main colleges, Nassau, Westchester, Erie 14 and Suffolk, were the ones on the 15 conference call because we're the ones with 16 the major challenges. So we're all very 17 happy. 18 MS. ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: Is Mary 19 Aronson (phonetic) president of -- 20 MR. MOORE: I don't know. 21 MS. ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: Because she's 22 Nassau County. 23 DR. PIPPINS: I think she is. 24 MS. ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: I think she's 25 the elect. 14 1 August 24, 2006 2 MR. MOORE: I'm having a hard time 3 hearing you with this blower behind me. 4 MS. ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: I'm sorry. 5 MR. MOORE: It's not your fault, I just 6 have to listen carefully. 7 So that's my big news. It's in your 8 packet there. Enjoy reading it. 9 MR. TROTTA: Can we all get copies of 10 it? Not today, but... 11 MS. KREITZER: It's in your packet. 12 MR. TROTTA: Oh, there it is. Geez, if 13 you lift up, there it is. 14 MR. MOORE: So that's good stuff. 15 Happy reading. 16 MR. KOMINICKI: Get your attorney to 17 interpret. 18 MR. TROTTA: Yeah. 19 MR. MOORE: That's good. That wraps it 20 up for me. 21 MR. KOMINICKI: Are you available today 22 to reporters and stuff? 23 MR. MOORE: Oh, to talk about this? 24 MR. KOMINICKI: Yeah. 25 MR. MOORE: For a little while, yeah. 15 1 August 24, 2006 2 I'm hoping to hit the woods soon. I have a 3 backpack ready to go. I'm leaving this 4 afternoon. 5 DR. PIPPINS: This is big. 6 MR. MOORE: Any comments or 7 observations, concerns around the table as 8 we take a moment? 9 MR. TROTTA: Doesn't get better than 10 that. 11 MR. KANE: Again, Bill, I'd like you to 12 send something off to the legislature 13 telling them how much we appreciate what 14 they've done. 15 MR. MOORE: Excellent idea. 16 DR. PIPPINS: I'm making personal phone 17 calls individually. And as part of the 18 Opening Day exercises, we'll be making a 19 presentation to the legislature thanking 20 them for their support to the college, and 21 I'm hoping some of you will come. 22 MR. TROTTA: I'll be in the Bahamas. 23 DR. PIPPINS: Oh, this is not good. 24 We'll probably have about 650 people in 25 Opening Day exercises, so this is the big 16 1 August 24, 2006 2 thing that people come up Island, living 3 down Island -- I don't know what that he 4 feels like -- so they are coming all the 5 way from East to Grant. This is huge. 6 So we're really happy about that, how 7 this turned out. And I think this would be 8 a nice opportunity for us to publicly thank 9 the legislature. We'll be giving them a 10 framed medallion that will rest with the 11 chair of the county legislature. 12 MR. MOORE: Excellent. I think we will 13 have some representation there. 14 DR. PIPPINS: Yes. Well, I started 15 calling back and saying 650. 16 (Laughter.) 17 MR. KANE: What day is that? 18 MR. MOORE: That is next Tuesday, the 19 29th, August 29th, Opening Day. 20 MS. WARE: You are available; right? 21 I'll be there. 22 MR. MOORE: You're going to throw out 23 the first pitch? 24 MS. WARE: Yes. 25 DR. PIPPINS: Are you ready for me to 17 1 August 24, 2006 2 talk about... 3 MR. MOORE: Yeah, is there anything 4 else around the table that we want to toss 5 out for discussion or awareness? 6 (No response.) 7 MR. MOORE: I will remind you of the 8 trustees' retreat November the 2nd. Hope 9 you can all come. 10 MR. KANE: At the East Winds? 11 MR. MOORE: Is that where it's going to 12 be? 13 MS. SAVONA: We don't know yet. 14 MR. MOORE: Don't know yet, okay. If 15 you have some suggestions of topics and 16 things we ought to be working on, let us 17 know. 18 MR. KOMINICKI: Gurney's to Montauk, 19 crisp salt air, great stake. 20 (Laughing.) 21 MR. MOORE: All right, hearing nothing 22 else on the round table, we'll move on to 23 Dr. Pippins' remarks. 24 DR. PIPPINS: Just real quickly. I 25 wanted to update you, I was at Grant 18 1 August 24, 2006 2 yesterday, very exciting. I've been 3 visiting all of the college success 4 sections, and I started with them, but they 5 had a student orientation session 6 yesterday. And this was in the daytime, so 7 the auditorium was basically full of 8 students and parents, so this was really 9 exciting. And they had tables and centers, 10 where students could learn about clubs and 11 activities. 12 I wanted to also tell you -- Belinda 13 may want to elaborate -- that the 14 partnership with the high school system may 15 improve. 16 MS. ALVAREZ-GRONEMAN: I attended a 17 meeting on August 16th with Dean McKay, and 18 Chuck was there as well, and we spoke in 19 front of the school board. And we left 20 before the voting, but it looks as 21 though -- I don't have confirmation -- but 22 it looks as though we have a partnership 23 with every high school in Suffolk County. 24 So I have to give accolades to people who 25 work here, because we had a meeting with 19 1 August 24, 2006 2 the superintendent of the Central Islip 3 School District as well as the principal. 4 I think we had three meetings, but they 5 were wonderful. 6 I actually have for you, Bill, this was 7 the agenda for the meeting (handing). And 8 I received a phone call that the Central 9 Islip School District is really interested. 10 So it's very exciting and dear to my 11 heart. 12 DR. PIPPINS: And you will see us 13 moving forward with more dual enrollment 14 programs. We had a meeting scheduled with 15 the superintendents and the education 16 committee from the legislature at the end 17 of September, but it conflicted with the 18 date that we were opening up the culinary 19 arts program. 20 I wanted to also share with you that 21 the assembly, the democratic caucus, I 22 guess it is, asked us that we have a press 23 conference on September 7th to discuss the 24 $3.3 million they are giving us. So I hope 25 all of you are available on the 7th. And 20 1 August 24, 2006 2 let me just say that they approved 3 college-wide -- major renovations to 4 Shinnecock 101, which will bring it into 5 ADA compliance; college-wide signage 6 improvements; college-wide building 7 upgrades; building modifications in the 8 downtown Riverhead site, including the 9 nursing laboratory; safety lighting 10 improvements; instructional equipment for 11 the Islip Arts building -- oh, I have the 12 wrong slide, Slide 52 -- and I know we're 13 planning on doing something with the 14 Cottage; the athletic fields at Grant and 15 the athletic fields at Ammerman will have 16 irrigation. 17 MR. TROTTA: How much money is this? 18 DR. PIPPINS: Three million. It's 19 going a long way; isn't it (laughing)? 20 MR. KOMINICKI: I was going to say, "A 21 lot of bang for the buck." 22 DR. PIPPINS: But I did -- because 23 we're looking at trying to get them to use 24 part of the money to upgrade the Cottage, 25 so they will be in shape for our May 15th 21 1 August 24, 2006 2 meeting. 3 And in addition to recognizing our 4 local legislators, I have invited the 5 Democratic Caucus to be here, and I will 6 recognize them. 7 MR. TROTTA: Who is the money from? 8 DR. PIPPINS: From the New York State 9 Assembly Democratic Caucus. 10 MS. AREANO: It's the Long Island 11 Democratic Deligation of the Assembly. 12 MR. TROTTA: What happened to the 13 republicans? 14 MR. STEIN: In finalizing the state 15 budget, the caucus set aside this 16 $3 million for Suffolk County. 17 DR. PIPPINS: And now that they have 18 done it, maybe the other side of the house 19 may do the same. 20 MR. TROTTA: They have to top it. 21 DR. PIPPINS: Yes. But I'll settle for 22 a match. We want to say "thank you" seven 23 times. 24 MR. TROTTA: What day? 25 MR. MOORE: September 7th. 22 1 August 24, 2006 2 MR. TROTTA: And where is it? 3 MS. AREANO: At the athletic field at 4 the Grant campus, at 11:00 or noon. It's 5 eleven or noon. We're still working that 6 out, but it will be one of the two. 7 DR. PIPPINS: I think we have to keep 8 in mind that Senator LaValle was very 9 instrumental in getting us the science 10 building, so we're happy to have support 11 from all sides of the aisle. 12 I would really like if any of you are 13 available, to be there. I will also be 14 recognizing Al Hamilton and Mr. Van 15 Nostrand for laying the foundation in my 16 remarks. I'll talk about how we're able to 17 do so well today because we're on a very 18 strong foundation from the leadership of 19 the institution, and I'll be giving them 20 presidential awards, also, Tuesday. 21 The only other thing is as -- I don't 22 want to say that. I think that's it. 23 MR. TROTTA: Oh, you can. It's just us 24 (laughing). 25 MR. OCHOA: Bill, will we have an 23 1 August 24, 2006 2 executive session? 3 MR. MOORE: Yeah. 4 MR. OCHOA: Anything we need to vote 5 on? 6 MR. MOORE: Nothing is going to happen 7 outside of the executive session. After 8 the fact, no action will be taken. 9 Anything else, Dr. Pippins? 10 DR. PIPPINS: That's it. 11 MR. OCHOA: Bill, I'd like to be 12 excused? 13 MR. MOORE: Sure. 14 MR. TROTTA: Take care. 15 MR. OCHOA: Thank you. 16 MR. KANE: Good luck, David. 17 DR. PIPPINS: David just gave a nice 18 donation to support our Challenge Grant. 19 (Applause.) 20 MR. MOORE: Good. 21 I'll entertain a motion to go into 22 executive session. We've got Collective 23 Bargaining issues and contracts. And as we 24 will be taking no action when we come back, 25 if anybody wants to disperse, go ahead. 24 1 August 24, 2006 2 DR. PIPPINS: You want to look at the 3 Veterans Plaza for a second before we do 4 that? 5 MR. MOORE: Sure. Let's go. We'll 6 take a ten-minute break and then executive 7 session. 8 9 (Whereupon, the meeting of the 10 Suffolk County Community College 11 Board of Trustees adjourned at 12 9:18 a.m.) 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 1 August 24, 2006 2 C E R T I F I C A T E 3 4 STATE OF NEW YORK ) :ss 5 COUNTY OF SUFFOLK ) 6 7 I, LORI ANNE CURTIS, a Notary Public within and for 8 the State of New York, do hereby certify: 9 That the Meeting hereinbefore set forth is a true 10 record of same. 11 I further certify that I am not related to any of 12 the parties to this action by blood or marriage; and 13 that I am in no way interested in the outcome of this 14 matter. 15 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand 16 this 5th day of September, 2006. 17 18 19 LORI ANNE CURTIS 20 21 22 23 24 25