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 disappointing to know that the accjc didn't think that we did it or that we did enough. so, our next steps will be the review that we can do and the appeal process. thank you so much for having this meeting today. >> thank you. commissioner jackson.

trustee jackson. >> chair cohen and members of this committee, i just want to thank everybody and thank supervisor avalos for having this hearing. i think it is very important. so, i just want to start off first by saying 25% of the california community colleges are actually on some sort of sanction, being warning or even more serious sanctions. so, i think the misnomer that we're the only college that the accjc has put a, you know, has put sanctions on is untrue. so, we must under that. i think many folks say that a lot of these sanctions are a lack of resources. city college lost over $53 million over the past three years and that has taken us from a college that served 110,000 students to a college

that serves 85,000 students. there was a statement that said that we didn't review our mission statement for the last four years. well, i just want to say that's false. we didn't review our mission statement, but what we prioritized in our mission statement was access. we said that the person that is getting their ged or getting their esl classes is just as important as a person that's getting their engineering degree or looking to transfer to u.c. berkeley or to stanford. those are our values. these mission statement might not have been to what they liked, but it was an expression of our values as san franciscans that we think everybody dunkelberg -- this should be a campus that's for everybody. and there were comments about our fiscal management that we have to say that city college is actually the first college [speaker not understood] to be the first college to return to pre-recession revenues thanks

to the parcel tax and prop 30, we were on track to get all the money that we lost back. so, i just wanted to clear some of that up first. the reason i believe that we're partially here is this is a difference of our values. we believe that -- we love our second chance program. it is a program that helps ex offenders get out of the criminal justice system return to city college, hopefully get their degree, and continue to, you know, contribute to our society. we have a college program that helps high school folks who drop out of high school get their high school diploma and get to their two-year degree. we also have our ged program, we fought hard. there was a recommendation to cut the ged program from our mission statement and we as an institution said no. i know that a young man who grew up in double rock, he went to southeast campus, very

fortunate. in bayview we're fortunate to have two campuses in our neighborhood. he grew up, went to southeast campus got his ged from our transitional space campus and went to evans campus and took a nine-month certificate program to get his certification for mechanic. he now works at an auto shop off of south van ness and he makes $45,000. that is the type of story that city college should always be like. that is a type of story that we try to prioritize. that is a type of student that we try to serve at city college. and i believe that that is kind of our clash of values. now, i understand that we all are fighting to keep city college open, but a lot of us kind of say, you know, we want to keep city college open. we also want to keep it -- save it the right way. and the right way is making sure that we have access for all students, not just the students who want to transfer to 2 and 4 year colleges because eventually everyone

might want to do that, but we should say it should be there for esl students, it should be there for everybody because education really does contribute to -- i think 60% of our culinary students end up within the first three months, they end up getting a job somewhere in san francisco hospitalities industry. these are like stories and these are statistics that we can continue to pump out. so, our institution actually does a very great job at educating students. i don't think that is at issue. in terms of governance, we just prioritize different things. when we lost $53 million, the first thing that we did was we looked at our administrators and we split the cost savings there. we looked at consulting fees and looked at cost savings there. that is drastically different than what some other colleges did. first they looked at their faculty to fire. then they looked at their staff to fire. then they looked at classes to cut. we said we don't want to balance the budget on the backs of students and our workers if we don't have to.

and that's the drastically different approach to looking at it. once again, that reflects our values as leaders and elected leaders here in san francisco. i know trustee -- i know supervisor avalos, you mentioned student equity. well, some of the things that we did look at, and i was happy to co-sponsor, was we actually had a resolution to first collect the data for student equity because we do know that our black and brown students are not succeeding even in community college at the levels of others. we also looked at accelerated basic skills courses and even though there is a lot of -- a lot of conversation, a lot of debate in disagreement. that's what a democracy should be. i think we get deemed in terms of the accjc because we're not smooth, democracy is not smooth. you have arguments, you have debates, but at the end of the day you come out with an outcome that is justified. we're improving these accelerated skills courses so

students who, yes, they did take three, four, five, six semesters to get out of basic skills. now we're going to hopefully see them get out of their basic skills courses a lot faster and that will lead to healthier outcomes. and so while we're not perfect and i don't think any institution s we were at least trying to make an institution that is -- that has educational equity as well. but i also get back to the part that you can't have any student equity if you don't have access. there is no achievement to excel in the classroom. (applause) >> and, so, you know, the impact in terms of city college of san francisco is you can demonstrate it. i would love to have an actual economic demonstration -- economic analysis of what that looks like. and i'd be very interested in continuing that. but i do know that, you know, from the folks that i talk to, especially at the southeast and evans campus and at the mission campus as well, the people that i talk to, you know, their

lives improve. you know, a lot of folks go into our early childhood education classes. they come out, you know, we have a deficit of actual child care slots and you can't go to work if you don't have affordable child care. we help in terms of comping out more a supply of child care workers so they can lower the cost of child care. i have a 2-1/2 year old. it's another rent to pay for child care these days. but we try to resolve that. we actually try to resolve that by having more child care slots available. so, i think if you just look at it, yes, everybody knows city college is, you know, important, but these are the things that let us secure -- we wanted to prioritize classes. and maybe we could have made some better decisions. i think so, yes, but really our decisions were made so we can provide access to everybody. and then my last point before i leave is i know that there was a comment about the real estate department.