Jan. 22, 2010 • 7
The Ranger
Snyder chosen to replace McLaughlin By Vanessa M. Sanchez
receiving money in three different ways: as a student, an employee, Cutting next year’s district and reimbursed for a past expense. budget by 5 percent is the top This transformation is going task Diane Snyder will be facing to be taking people out of their this year as the district’s new vice comfort zones, she said, but it will chancellor for finance and adminaid employees by having a profile istration. She also plans a proacof each person that is accessed tive approach to other challenges, electronically. It also will ensure such as working toward everything that needs to a paperless system, she be paid is paid on time. said Wednesday in an In this fiscal year, interview. the district was in a James McLaughlin $7 million shortfall. In officially retired Dec. 31 2010-11, “the goverafter two years with the nor is expecting about district. The person tak$15 billion that they’re ing Snyder’s position will Diane Snyder going to have to cover be announced within somehow, and all of us two weeks. will have to share in that pain Snyder was associate vice chanthrough our state appropriations cellor for finance and fiscal services. potentially being hit,” she said. She has been with the district more “There are two things the board than a year and a half. Previously, could’ve done,” Snyder said. “We she worked at AT&T for 12 years in could’ve said our expenses are various positions including oversee$7.5 million higher than expected. ing 225 employees and managing a They could’ve said just go cut out $1 billion budget. $7.5 million out of the budget.” This is going to be a transition Instead, the board made up the year. Through the help of Banner, shortage from the fund balance. Snyder said, there will be more She also said where work is transparency and efficiency. done in five places today, there With today’s paper processes, needs to be a solution to complete she said, it is possible for somethat job in fewer places and apply one’s time sheet to get stuck on the money saved for instruction. someone else’s desk, and, there“We’re anticipating those fore, not make it to where it is supactions will allow us to bring our posed to be until it is too late. That expenses down in the coming employee will then be paid late. year, so that it helps cover that She said at the moment, the gap,” she said. system can have one person “We don’t want to put anyone’s
job at risk, and it’s not like we have extra money. We’re going have to take these actions in order to live within the funding we have, but we’re all working together.” Snyder said her office is asking for a staffing management plan to have more reporting on when a faculty or staff member moves to another college or position. “The salary expense of our budget is a huge portion,” she said, but the district can only give so much money to salaries depending on what is has. The chancellor forwarded a letter from Gov. Rick Perry to district employees and asked them to come up with ideas to meet a 5 percent cut in state appropriations. “That equates to about $3.5 million, so I’ll be working with the presidents and the district vice chancellors to identify looking at our existing budget, where could we cut, and how would we be able to balance it.” She said the first step is to make cuts fairly from all department budgets. “There are other challenges we expect to hit; we expect our tax base in San Antonio to feel the pressure.” Property taxes total 31.4 percent of the district’s revenues. “What we’ve been telling the board is the revenue side of our budget is expected to be tighter.” She said it is important to “find ways that don’t take as much labor
to accomplish the same services, and that’s the challenge.” Leslie asked employees to develop a road map for future employees and asked vice chancellors and presidents to review where cuts can be made. In the district administration, there are 15 vacancies, seven that need to be filled and eight that need to be closed, Snyder said. The names and titles of who is taking which job, however, have yet to be made public. “We really need to fill some critical vacancies within the accounts payable department,” Snyder said. The district will continue to hire temporary employees until the Banner transition is completed for finance and student services. “In light of that, because we’re transforming and training thousands of people to these new processes as we bring them up, we’ve consciously made the decision to hire temporary employees for the year instead of filling these fulltime so I can let them go when we complete Banner. “I think by the following year, with all the plans that are under way, we should be able to right size and get our expenses back closer to where our revenues are. If we do it right, it’s going to be a win-win situation. “We still have to do our dayto-day job while we prepare for the future.”
Board to vote on single versus joint accreditation By Vanessa M. Sanchez The regular monthly meeting of the district board of trustees, usually the third Tuesday of the month, was postponed until Tuesday in the district’s offices at 201 W. Sheridan St. Board liaison Phyllis Rodriguez-Williams said Wednesday she was working on the draft of that meeting’s agenda and said, at the moment, the
agenda states Chancellor Bruce Leslie is to give the board his final recommendation on whether the district should remain independent colleges or merge into a multicampus college. This was the topic that an overflow crowd addressed Jan. 12 in a public hearing. Speakers were unanimous in their support of leaving the district colleges individually accredited. The board will have the final say.
The agenda and meeting time will be finalized no later than today, Rodriguez-Williams said. Meeting notices and the agenda were not posted online by noon Thursday on the district’s Web site. Two board committees met Tuesday, the Policy and Long-Range Planning Committee and the Audit, Budget and Finance Committee. More on regular monthly meetings is at www.alamo.edu/district/board/board.htm.