The Board of Trustees at El Camino College have expressed on multiple occasions that they lack important details for all Consent Calendar items both involving and not involving money.
In the past five months, $149,834,200.99 was approved and spent on a variety of miscellaneous Consent Calendar items within the BOT meeting agendas. An amount of $83,812,838.32 has also been approved in the month of October alone.
In a previous meeting on Oct. 21, President of the Board of Trustees Trisha Murakawa said the Board leans on recommendations from El Camino staff when deciding whether or not to approve a consent item due to the staff doing all the research.
The Union has concerns on how informed the Board members are to be making important decisions that affect the ECC community.
“We don’t get involved, our role is to do the governing part so in most instances we only know the same stuff that you do,” Murakawa said. “We don’t know all the details really deep down.”
During an interview on Oct. 30, the Board’s secretary, Brett Roberts, corroborated information Murakawa had stated beforehand regarding their lack of information.
“We can strive to get more but we get what’s in the agenda,” Roberts said. “We generally get just enough to make an informed decision.”
The Union is apprehensive about Board members stating they received the same amount of details listed in the agenda, yet each item’s description is very brief.
BOT members do not need to have any prior training nor do they receive any mandatory training processes to make sure they understand their position.
“There are training programs that are offered by third party institutions that we’re affiliated with, but there’s not a ‘okay you’re enrolled here’s the trustee 101 and you got to do that for a semester type of training,’” Roberts said.
On their own time, Board members can attend training workshops that include governing and institution, budgeting, protocols, and how to work with other Board members.
Some Board members have attended Association of Community College Trustees workshops and retreats to receive training and knowledge for their role as Board members, but are not mandatory.
It is listed in Board Policy 2725 that regular members are paid $400 per month for attending all Board meetings while student members get paid $200 per month. If they do not attend all meetings, they only get paid for the meetings they do attend.
According to the ECC website and Board Policy 2730, the college provides a diverse insured benefit program for staff members, medical, dental, vision and life insurance which would include the BOT members.
The community deserves to know more than only how qualified Board members are when overseeing a substantial amount of funding. Board members must not rely solely on staff recommendations, but information and training acquisition in order to govern transparently.
The Board seems to be informing the students and college community that they don’t know much, let alone important details before they approve huge financial decisions.
In addition, they also receive monthly payment for their duties. However, they are provided no mandatory training or required to have education on how to be a Board member before starting in their position, which should be required.
The Union believes it is important for the community to know exactly how qualified the people holding such high-power positions are, especially when they govern large amounts of funding.
Ultimately, there should be proper training processes that are required for the Board to take, not just to give them more work but to ensure they understand what they are doing and the community as well as the college’s money is spent wisely.
The Board should also be provided far more information when approving items rather than taking the advice of the unnamed staff they keep referring to and relying so much on.
