there's not pieces in place that can manage that and you're down in your payroll department by 50%, there are some just structural pieces that can cause some real pains for the college. fortunately, the college hasn't had the -- i mean, there could be fraud. there could be criminal -- all of those things have so much potential and i think the college is very fortunate that that hasn't happened. we haven't had issues with our trustees being engaged in that process. there hasn't been -- but there's potential. and there's the foundational component of it that needs to be put in place. and this is years -- so, this isn't two years ago, this isn't since the last election. this has been years that the college has been going down this path. i mean, you know, so -- and

those things haven't been addressed. and as the standards rise and things need to be met differently and the population changes and we have more students at the college, all of those things, you know, tighter structures are all thing i think we would all want in place. you know, san francisco unified is a much better place for it. and we're seeing now the school district actually is very focused on student achievement and you're starting to see those improvements. but we had to make some really hard decisions around how we were going to make sure that the places where there's some potential for our institution to fall on its knees were addressed and that's what this opportunity is. and it's another 12 months to show significant improvement. and i do want to just quickly say that the improvements that the trustees that are elected trustees and the staff made over this last year was huge.

(applause) >> and it should be acknowledged because they worked really hard to make sure that they were addressing so many of the recommendations. but they also had 14 recommendations that they needed to address in a very short period of time. >> having worked on and being an important player in the changes that happened in the school district, i'm all for those standards. but let's take that example, the payroll as an example. one of the things that does worry me, and i wonder if the mayor has this concern, if you guys have this concern, right, we have known about this payroll issue i think for quite sometime, have hadthctionv we? ~ haven't we? >> i don't know -- not with the example that i gave. >> okay. >> but we know that, we know that the structure of many of the departments at city college are not on solid ground. >> the thing that i don't understand is that the state

chancellor had, you know, people from that department, that agency at city college for the last year. supposedly working on these things, right? and now it turns out that city college supposedly didn't do enough, right? even though it was following the guidance of these people who were advising them. and now the same people have been assigned to work with city college to address the deficiencies that city college could not address with these people advising them. (applause) >> so, i'll tell you, in terms of common sense, having been a counselor on the school district, if the school district hired someone to help it comply with some of the deficiencies, an agency finds that the deficiencies are still there, i would question the school district rehiring that consultant to address those deficiencies. (applause)

>> and, so, that's a fundamental concern that i have here, is that city college has been following the guidance and the advice of the very people that are now assigned to help it get out of this predicament. i think that's a concern. does the mayor's office think that's a concern? >> with all due respect, i'm going to give you a different perspective in the way in which we're looking at it. so, yes, the state chancellor's office provided the ability forfeit map to come in. fit matt identifies what your problems are. they don't come in to fix your problems. and then the special trustee that was appointed a year ago, who is the same special trustee that is appointed now, now has different authority. so, when dr. arduella was appointed the first time around, it was a [speaker not understood], and it was basically to help the trustees move things along and to ensure that the decisions that were being made were not going to be

contrary to what the college -- the direction the college was going in. so, the special trustee certainly respected the role that the elected trustees played. he not once had to veto anything, and that was really the power that he was given, was just to veto any decision that would have been made that was not in the benefit of the college. he did not have to do that. the trustees made proper decisions. they moved things along. it's the pace in which things are happening and some of the areas that they were stuck. what the trustee now has is, you know, what is considered extraordinary powers. so, so, he can now make decisions more swiftly. there isn't a board that has to debate it and have deeper conversations around it, that it actually -- and he's following a plan. so, recommendations have been put forward about how to fix many of these issues. so, the difference between what he had before and where he is

now i think is different. >> let's talk about specifics. what is it that the special trustee wanted to do before that did not happen? >> so, that -- that's something that dr. arduella is going to have to take into consideration. but he wasn't -- the supervisor wasn't put there to say, this is what you need to do. he was there to guide the trustees on what it is that needed to be done and that didn't unfortunately -- despite all of the great work and amount of work that was accomplished, it wasn't enough. >> what i hear from the trustees and maybe they can speak to this when they have an opportunity to say something, is that they basically gave him carte blanche, that it was sort of like we're going to follow your guidance. and, so, if you're saying that that's not really what happened, i think that i want to hear the specifics. what exactly is it -- because i think it's one thing to make comments, but it's one thing to actually point specifically to what it is that wasn't done. and i would want to know that before i go down the path of

simply saying, you know, i agree that this is the right way, you know. and, so, what is it that didn't happen? >> well, clearly in all of the reports that came back in terms of -- have you had a chance to read the acc/jc report? there are clearly areas that have not been accomplished. and, so, specifically -- >> yes. >> -- there are -- i mean, a lot of that is the fit matt portion of it. >> so, what specifically, though? >> having measures in place around payroll, around, around the financial stability pieces of it. this is -- so, this is, this is the interim counselor working with her board of trustees to implement policies that will address those pieces. that's not the special -- at that time, the limited power that the special trustee had, that wasn't his responsibility to say, you need to go and get

your staff to do this. the trustees were still -- our elected trustee were -- were very much in place to do those pieces. >> so it's the mayor's decision because of the trustees that we are where we are? >> no, we're not -- we're not interested at all in placing blame. what we're interested in is moving forward. so, these are the kinds of things that we are not interested in getting caught up in. we want to provide supports to the special trustee and to the interim chancellor to ensure that they don't get stuck on some of these -- in some of these areas that are moving forward. >> i appreciate that. look, i do think it's a good thing that you're involved. i think that it brings a certain expertise and knowledge. but one thing that i would say, it's interesting to have this conversation because, you know, there is clearly things that need to be addressed. you know, the question is does it rise to the level of losing accreditation. a little while ago, this committee had a hearing where we heard from our external

auditors, and the successor agency to the redevelopment agency was actually found to have a material weakness, which is as high a noncompliance of the audit as it gets. and it had to do, by the way, material weakness around finances. and, you know, what i -- i'm not happy that that happened, but instead of saying, let's close down the successor agency, i would simply say, let's figure out how we make it better, which was actually what we were trying to do here. (applause) >> and, so, i am not going to justify any fiscal financial mismanagement by anyone, but i do want to make sure that i know what it is but it is based on facts. [speaker not understood]. (applause) >> and that's why -- that's why the mayor's office the matt report is important. if we can get reports from persons in various areas -- and that's exactly why we have ben's office engaged and why we have kate's office engaged. so, these are going to be ways

in which, again, we look at it from a very different perspective, being mindful about the fiscal responsibility that is put forward. and then having said that, you know, the other area that the mayor just wants to really push around is enrollment. and i know, supervisor avalos, you asked what is it that we can all do that kind of brings us all together. we clearly have some differences of opinion in which each of our energies want to be focused. but i think the best thing that we can do for our students is to, is to calm them and let them know that the college is open, that we're registering our kids -- (applause) >> that enrollment is going to be really important. if we continue to have our kids and all of our students concerned about whether or not we are really invested in keeping city college open and that we have this one-year period in which to make it happen, the drop-off for city college will continue to shift.

and when we do secure, retain our accreditation in the coming years, the drop-offer of enrollment from this year will have deep effects for the following year and going forward ~. so, i know that we all want to kind of focus on areas that we think that we can really tackle, whether it's, you know, questioning the acc/jc -- by the way, you know, the mayor hasn't thought about whether we're being differently than anyone else because all the other colleges have met the standards of the acc/jc, except for -- except for content. [multiple voices] >> and if there are other colleges -- if there are other colleges that have not met those needs, then they're going to have to contend with the acc/jc as well. our focus is to get city college out of the situation in a very short period of time and to really encourage our kids to stay in school. >> i just want to interject real quick.

i know this is an extremely important topic for all of us and we all have our passions are running really high. we have to maintain a certain level of decorum and respect. so, if we have a difference of opinion it's okay, but i guarantee everyone in this chamber will have at least two minutes to share their differing views. so, please don't yell out or heckle or be disrespectful to all the speakers. and i will promise to protect your right to speak when it's your turn to speak. >> thank you. >> and related to president's admonition to people in the audience, what can people in labor and community do to support the efforts of the mayor? >> so, we are again really focused on the enrollment piece. we want to assure students that are enrolled that we are accredited -- that the college is accredited and that we are enrolling. we really want people to speak to that piece of the college. again, i know that folks will do what they feel they need to

do in order to address whether the accc/jc or anyone else. but we really want to just try to stay as positive as possible in making this go forward. ~ you know, we want to -- there are -- from where the mayor sits again, it's about resources we're going to be trying to make available to the college. so, we want to do some beautification on the school. we want to make sure there are some fiscal auditing and support pieces there. >> i have a lot of questions whether the mayor was doing anything as well. what do you think is a good way of communicate thattion in the future? we can have hearings and the hearings help to present that. >> i am certainly happy to talk -- to come into a venue like this to tell you what it is that the mayor is doing. i -- you know, it's me. this is the office of education in the mayor's office. so, i try to -- >> like a town hall, meeting in the mission -- [multiple voices] >> i try to communicate to supervisors the work that the mayor is doing, but this is a

really good forum for us to share some of those pieces because we're working on this stuff. we're not going to come and, you know, do a press event and say the mayor has done this and that. we're working on it. we're geting what they need. we're trying to be supportive, trying to be respectful of the trustees' time and of the chancellor's time. so, we don't, you know, we don't want him or [speaker not understood] to be coming in three times a month to tell us what they're doing. we have a way of communicating that doesn't involve that. and the special trustee through gohar and some of those other staff that have authority and knowledge can be available as well. >> i think with the amount of, you know, collaboration work that the mayor's office is doing, it makes sense that there is a real connection to people on the ground, the community, people who have a stake in what happens to city college. so, providing those forums is important. (applause) >> sure, i'm happy to participate. >> thank you. >> but just understand we're doing -- you know, we want to really focus on getting the

college through in the next year. and it becomes difficult to come into situations where, you know, why are thection we doing this, this and that. i really want to be able to share the positive pieces that are happening and wanting to stay on an up note during this really short period, but the period of time we're given to get city college back on track and for them to maintain their accreditation. ~ aren't >> thank you. >> anything else? [speaker not understood]. >> next speaker we have is cecilia tran from the office of assembly member tom ammiano. [speaker not understood] an update on the state level role assembly member tom ammiano is playing. >> thank you, supervisors, for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the assembly member today. like all of you, the assembly

member has been gravely concerned about city college losing accreditation, and part of that comes from him being a former educator. he understands that the city college is the epitome of democratized education. it is a place where everyone can access affordable quality education. and i noticed there's been a lot of discussion about our kid who are trying to transfer to four-year colleges and that's definitely true, but it's also a place for everyone else as well, including seniors seeking post work options, folks trying to seek vocational training, or even immigrants learning english for the first time. they've always had a place at city college and to lose that color of our community would be devastating to everyone. so, knowing full well what's at stake, our office has co-sponsored a community forum last week with supervisor avalos alongside san francisco labor council and the american federation of teachers.

the intent to provide that space for stakeholders was to really give a space -- give testimonies and strategize our next steps to save city college. and to that end i think we were successful in bringing different communities together who oftentimes have different views on how to approach things, but all really care about city college. and then, you know, we are also continuing to work with other state legislators from both sides of the aisle to push for an audit of the accrediting commission of community and junior colleges, acc/jc and that's something that we will be submitting and presenting in august to the joint legislative audit council. and the assembly member is also working with other elected officials to explore the possibility of a hearing around the role of accjc. additionally, our office has also been keeping open lines of communication with our

constituents to garner ideas about possible legislative actions in the next session. at the end of the day we all want to ensure that city college remains open, accredited, and accessible. and i just want to close by saying that we're not going to let city college close because city college is san francisco. (applause) >> with all of the outstanding values and commitment to serving the community. and we really look forward to continuing collaborating with local and state officials to do whatever we need to do to defend our city college. thank you. and i'm open to answering any questions you may have. >> i have no questions. do other -- thank you for your presentation. >> thank you. (applause) >> i wanted to provide a space for our elected trustees to be able to talk as well, and there are four who are here and would like to give a moment to come

into the room. if they're not in the room, i'll read their names. john rizzo, raphael [speaker not understood], anita greer and chris jackson. if you could approach, come in the room, please, just maybe a brief statement from each, thing that we may be able to focus on, where the support of the board of supervisors and mayor's office may help in supporting the efforts to keep the school open. why don't we start with the president first. >> thank you, supervisor and supervisors. first i want to extend my appreciation to you for having this hearing, supervisor avalos, and for your support, supervisor mar and campos, for coming out and to all the elected officials who have rallied. >> [speaker not understood]. >> sorry, thank you very much. >> [speaker not understood].

>> first i want to start by correcting some misstatements that gohar mumjin made. the acct -- the accrediting agency is not part of wasc. it is no longer part of wasc. that is just a fact. they removed themselves from that. >> what is it again? >> western association of schools and colleges. so, they are now their own independent body. they actually are a private entity. they are a private nonprofit. i know she said that wasn't true, but that actually is true, just for the record. also -- i also have some information, she could not answer the question about timeline in the appeal process. i have some information on that. we have until the end of july to file the first part of an appeal which is called the review. and then there is a 52-day

period where there is a review by the agency of the information basically that we have now, the current state of thing. so, after that review period ends, we go to the appeal process. i'm told that may be heard by the commission in january. that's the information -- >> is the review going to be filed by the 31st? >> yes, it will. it's the deadline. >> and who is taking the lead on -- >> that's dr. arduella is trustee. i also want to emphasize enrollment and what that means. so, our budget was looking very good this year. you were talking about fiscal issues, supervisor campos. we have a balanced budget with actually $2 million surplus. we have a very healthy reserve fund, $10 million over what is required by the state of california.

the problem is that with the announcement of the accreditation -- revoking accreditation in a year, that has called the -- caused a drop in enrollment. it is now 13.9% lower than normal what it should be, which can translate into a $20 million loss in state funding from city college. so, if the enrollment story doesn't change, that healthy budget surplus goes into another fiscal crisis and cuts. >> what is the form of the $4700 per student who has 12 units a year? >> i don't know that off the top of my head. i'm sure there's lots of people in the room who do, but that's kind of the ballpark envelope figure. i also wanted to, to mention some of the things that we have done, just to focus on what we've done in the past year. as hydra mendoza said, we have come a long way. first of all, the board of

trustees brought in fcma, this agency of the state ~ before we got the news of accreditation of the show cause. so, two months before last year, we thought would be a good idea to bring them in and it's fortunate we did bring them in because they gave us lots of information. that's one thing. in the past year we have completely reorganized management. a lot of managers lost their jobs, are no longer there. we eliminated every dean position and wrote new dean positions. all the deans had to reapply for jobs because their positions were technically eliminated. so, there is a new management structure in place. in june, when the commission met, not all the hirings were done yet. the administration had not finished hiring. i believe that is almost complete now and if it's not,

it would be complete shortly, shortly. so, you know, another big issue with accreditation important is student learning outcomes. this was an area where the college had really fallen down on, and this is the collection of data to show how classes and student services are performing. you collect the data, then you evaluate to see how well you did, and then the next year you use the data to make improvements to the classes. and we went from going almost to nowhere, not quite to where, but almost nowhere to creating an organization within the district that is in charge of student learning outcome data. and it's been significant -- faculty have put in tens of thousands of hours collectively into this effort. and it is a year long planning process. this process can't finish before a year. it started when the semester

started last fall of the school year. so, it's a year-long process. there's no way, by the definition of it, it can't be finished before a year. that is going to be finished. i'm very confident of it, very proud of the faculty for that. i also mentioned about our audit. our last audit was clean. this was at the -- earlier in the year. it was clean. and i was here for that. i was listening to the audit item on this committee's agenda earlier and thinking, boy, we don't have that at city college. we had a clean -- the only thing the audit picked up was our opab, the retiree medical benefit fund which the city has several billion dollars of unfunded. and city college also has that unfunded, but we now are funding t. we are putting money into it every year starting this year.

so, our audit was clean. so, with that, i guess there's a lot of people behind me. that's all i had unless there's questions. >> thank you. betsy greer. >> good afternoon. i really want to thank supervisor avalos, campos, cohen, and mar for being here, am ms. tang -- supervisor tang, i'm sorry. it is helpful that you're giving us an opportunity to talk about what's happening at city college. i was going to read the speech that i gave to chancellor harris in sacramento before we were told that the board would be sanctioned and that we would not be in operation any more.

so, i talked about a lot of things and i just don't think i should take up all that time to do that. so, i'm just going to talk about a few points. one of the things that's important to know is that i'm a graduate of city college of san francisco. and for that reason, it's very important to me and to everyone, i'm sure, in this room and listening that we save city college. so, this is a great forum to start with, but then also to expand as supervisor campos said. like in the mission, in district 5, in district 8 and 11, to talk to people in both communities, to talk about how important the campuses that we have in their neighborhoods are to them. so, i hope that that will be part of our next steps. i want to just give you a little bit of history about the accreditation. i've been on the board for 12

years and the accreditation takes place if you're successful, every six years. so, for the first time when i was on the board, we had accreditation for six years, meaning that we met all the requirements, meaning that we met all the standards. and, so, we were very happy and we were successful. and then for the next six years we were successful in the accreditation, so, we were accredited for six more years. and that means full accreditation. there were a couple things they needed to correct and for some reason they were lost and we didn't do them. but it came to our attention, and certainly we started doing the correction when we started this accreditation period. unfortunately, this accreditation period we were at the bottom of the rung, meaning that we were in the show-cause

position which is as low as you can go, except for not being accredited. so, while i cannot tell you all of the 14 items that we [speaker not understood] on, i can list three that we worked very hard on and we also worked with the supervision of our special trustee with our mission statement. it was very painful to -- as the accjc said, work within our means. what that means was that when we did our mission statement, we had to narrow many of the course offerings we gave. we also had to cut programs and not offer what we had been offering to students and for the community. but we did that, we did what we were supposed to do. and then one of the other areas that we had to pay attention to

what the collaboration of the board of trustees. we needed to work more collectively and we needed to collaborate better. i noticed a change. people that i talked to in the public noticed the change. and even among the board members we agreed that we were working collectively, collaboratively, and effectively. and we did that. so, the third thing that we were told we needed to do was we needed to get professional development and we needed to learn more about the accreditation. and, so, a lot of workshops were offered. we were also told that we needed to do more training related to being a good trustee. we did that. and, so, it's a little disappoint