We opened last week’s contract reopener negotiations session by reviewing Alex Jordan’s video breaking down the discrepancy between our step advancement cost calculation and administration’s higher cost calculation – roughly a $3.7 million difference.
Administration’s response was that Alex’s math was correct and their own budget was correct. They pointed to anticipated state budget cuts of up to 5% and emphasized that they are trying to avoid cutting positions or laying off employees. However, it is very clear that the jobs they are protecting are management positions and not faculty, academic professionals, and classified employees. Also, they can apparently budget an amount under one title (FFAP step advancement) while actually planning to use the money for something else entirely.
PCC’s Budget Director Aaron Hill joined by Zoom and clarified that when PCC budget underestimates expenses, whatever remains becomes a contingency, money that they can move around as needed. They also stated that this contingency is separate from the $37 million contingency they have already built into the budget. This leaves open and unresolved two big questions:
- What happens to the almost $4 million contingency tied to a lesser costing of step advancement which FFAP uncovered?
- What other budget line items are overinflated?
After many previous requests, the College finally walked us through the President’s budget’s sudden increase during 2023-2025 from $30 million to $42 million. Their explanation was that after the Strategic Policy and Integrated Planning (SPIP) became operational, they needed to move money into the budget to cover the special projects and new management positions required by SPIP. That accounted for about $6 million. The other $6 million went to salary increases and COLAs for a number of management and confidential employees. The budget grew again when Finance and Business Services was moved under the President’s budget – though, because many of the fields in this spreadsheet were left blank, we will need to do more of their math for them to get clear answers on this.
Despite the lack of specifics, the message is clear. During a self-declared budget crisis, PCC administration is directing resources to projects and bloated management salaries while refusing to invest in courses, programs, instructors, and academic professionals. The budget is a choice – and they are choosing neither students nor workers.
Notably and predictably, administration brought no proposals to the table.
We did present our Trupp Study proposal. Administration appeared receptive to this proposal, which is promising.