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STUDENT
ASSGCCIA TION
EMPOWERING THE STUDENT VOICE
Student Association Board of Finance
Meeting Minutes
March 25", 2020 — 6:45 PM
Video Conference Call
I. Call to Order and Roll Call
II. Approval of the Minutes
1. Motion to approve by Zhang
2. Second by Simon
Ill. Public Comment
1. No public comment
IV. Chairs’ Report
1. Samuel Salazar, Chairman of the Board of Finance
i. [hope everyone is well during these tough times. Town Hall
tomorrow, therefore, might move meeting up to 5:00 pm.
Senate budget meeting will be through zoom. Rollcall over
zoom and I will Chair. External and Internal. Two groups have
appealed so far. I helped one of the groups fix their budget. Last
Board of Finance is April 14" and then we will adjourn forever.
2. Molly Donelan, Vice-Chairwoman of the Board of Finance.
i. No report.
V. Comptroller’s Report
1. Tony Kelley, Comptroller
i. Life is a mess, a lot to deal with. President and Chief of Staff
and I started a student association covid-19 task force. We need
to represent the students. Tax returns are signed virtually, got it
finished. Trying to get the audit going. Payroll will be direct
deposit. Ready to get the next Comptroller and Deputy
Comptroller approved and get this budget going.
Oo Ol ve
. Zhang — The University has its own COVID-19 task
force, does it have students?
Kelley — There are no students on the university task
force.
Salazar — Audit letter?
Kelley — Credit, vacation policy, and
Salazar — How is the COVID-19 SA Task force?
Kelley — We are getting it done. This University is
making a lot of mistakes and we are trying to the voice
the student’s concerns. The SA task force is just trying to
help our people
Salazar — Refunds will be done for housing and dining.
What about the student activity fee?
. Kelley — No, it’s not feasible and it would only be around
$20 per student. We would have to jump too many
hurdles I can use that money to better the experience
when they come back next semester. We are going to
have Parkfest the beginning of next semester and the
normal 2021 parkfest in the spring semester.
Zhang — CUNY allowed a longer spring break, but
SUNY didn’t. We need to talk about this tomorrow at the
town hall. Any vetted questions?
10. Kelley — Although we are angry and passionate, we need
VI. Senate Report
to respectful tomorrow and professional at the town hall.
Vet questions for sure.
1. Sabra Simon, Chair of the Appropriations Committee
i. No student groups have come yet, except one for new and
unfunded. We will be having a meeting
dL.
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3.
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Daquial — For new and unfunded groups, are they going
to get penalized for not spending it?
Simon — No, you shouldn’t get penalized.
Daquial — Can they spend it next year?
Simon — No.
VII. Budgetary Business
1. None
VIII. Unfinished Business
1. None
IX. New Business
1. Comptroller interview — James
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Isaiah James — Junior at UAlbany and an Albany local. Been in
Student Association since Freshman year in Senate and in the
Office of the Comptroller.
i. Kelley — What was my worse quality as a leader?
iii. James — You put way too much time into it.
Kelley — How will you avoid that?
James — That used to happen to me last year, but I worked on it
this year. This next year I have less credits to obtain so I will be
more free to put in 25-30 hours a week.
i. Zhang — What has been the most effective change?
i. James — This year we focused more on helping student groups.
. Zhang — Will you have a financial leadership summit again?
James — Yes, it was very successful. After we do that in the fall
though, we end up seeing new student group e-boards in the
spring. We need to provide training sessions before they take
the exam.
Kelley — What experience do you have in internal financial
controls?
i. James — KAS, tutoring services, and other orgs. I also worked
for the Office of the New York Comptroller. I learned how
internal controls can be operated and operated well.
ii. Kelley — Name a time when you had to convince either myself,
Nick, or the past comptroller to do something?
James — I had to convince Pat to fix a huge pile of PRs before
the next administration took office.
. Zhang — What do you plan to do as Comptroller?
. James — More care for Student groups and get more turnout to
Dippikill.
Kelley — How much is in our reserves account?
James - $50,000, 30% of whatever is left over goes into our
budget.
Kelley — Clarified** it is $600,000. What is our insurance
umbrella?
James — I don’t know.
Kelley - $6,000,000 is the answer.
Zhang — What was your biggest teaching moment?
James — Going from the Legislative branch to the Office of the
Comptroller. The amount of responsibilities I had to take on
was a teaching moment.
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1,
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Kelley — Name of the company that oversees our investment
account?
James — Northwestern mutual
Kelley — How much is in that investment account.
James - $3,000,000
Salazar — What reports does the BOF need and how do you plan
on delivering them?
James — Internal expenditures reports need to be given to BOF
and the Senate.
Salazar — How do you plan on keeping Amy and Tanner in the
loop?
James — Even though it is just two I need to keep them in the
loop. I will email the Board when I have to and I will give my
contact info.
Salazar — How do you plan on working with the next Board of
Finance Chair?
James — I think it is extremely essential to work together. I will
try to go to every Board meeting and also have one-on-one
meetings with the BOF chair.
Kelley — How much money did Dippikill bring in last year?
James — Less than the year before.
Kelley — What is the Comptroller’s dippikill position?
James — CFO, Chief Financial officer
Kelley — Who is the Director of Dippikill?
James — Justin
Kelley — AD of Dippikill?
James — Heidi
Kelley — How much do we pay UAS in the Contract?
James — $120,000
Kelley — How much do we pay Campus management?
James — $30,000
Kelley — How much do we pay Campus rec?
James — $120,000
Kelley — Programming budget?
James — $80,000
Kelley — Shannon’s salary?
James — $45,000
Kelley — Dulces?
James — A little less, around $35,000
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Zhang — How will you prevent small student groups from
falling through the cracks?
James — Monthly I want my Assistants and Deputies reaching
out to all of these groups.
Kelley — Who operates Summer stipends?
James — Comptroller with the campus designee.
Donelan — A time you disagreed with your boss?
James — State Comptroller asked me to do a task, upload a data
into a listserv. They wanted one by one but I showed how
algorithms could get it done quicker. I did it nice and respectful,
I didn’t just say “you are wrong.”
Kelley — How much was surplus last year?
James - $70,000
Kelley — What percent of Student association funds comes from
the student activity fee?
James - 85-90 percent.
Kelley — How much is in the SA Bank account?
James - $1.3 million
McCracken — Five Quad has a line for emergency supplies.
Would you be in favor of policy that prioritizes Purchases
requests from this line?
James — I have to think about it. I want to take viewpoint
neutrality into account before I prioritize any request.
Kelley — How much is FQ’s budget?
James — $150,000
Kelley — Middle Earth?
James — $60,000
Kelley — Next three largest budgets?
James — Fuerza Latina, ASUBA, and ASA
2. DISCUSSION —
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Kelley - I wish he had better knowledge of some of the
accounts. He got A LOT of my answers wrong. The person
responsible for the safety of all student groups will be him. He
needs to know this stuff about programming and UAS.
Zhang — I’m happy we are doing this early. So we can teach
him these answers.
McCracken — I believe these two can work as a team and use
their pros to mesh together well.
Kelley — If a million other people applied for this position, I
would still endorse Mr. James every time.He works so, so hard
i.
at everything he does. He was been in the Student Association
longer than even Shannon. He has put in more PRs more than
anyone else. He is a phenomenal candidate for this position. He
lacked in customer service last year, but I have seen him
improved in that aspect. He communicates really well.
v. Motion to approve Isaiah James for Comptroller nominee
by Zhang, Seconded by Donelan.
3. Deputy Comptroller interview — Ortiz
Adam Ortiz — Junior at UAlbany, have spent the last time as the
assistant comptroller to Comptroller Kelley. I learned how to
serve my student government. I went from Suffolk county
community college to UAlbany which was a $2,000 budget to a
$2.73 million dollar budget.
1.
2.
Kelley — Three reasons why there is a backlog of PRs?
Ortiz — Student groups with signatory powers send in
their PRs late. There is a lack of communication between
student group and Office of the Comptroller.
. Kelley — Lack of communication you cited, how you
would you fix that?
Ortiz — Make myself available longer than the required
amount of office hours. Make sure my assistants are
staying in close contact with out student groups.
. Kelley — What was the most challenging project I have
ever gave you?
Ortiz — The inventory management. I have taken the
initiative to get the 2015-2016 ones done. The usability
of a lot of the items don’t give clear indication of what 1,
2, 3, 4, and 5 means. So I need to reach out to student
group leaders all the time to figure that out.
Kelley — How did this project help your growth?
Ortiz — Understand an aspect of what organizations
needed. When they are looking for an increase, I now can
understand why. I learned why Five Quad and Middle
Earth need certain items as well.
. Salazar — The BOF and the Comptroller work very
closely. However, we never work with the Deputies.
What will you do as deputy?
10.Ortiz — Very crucial that they are able to attend executive
meetings. I also believe deputy comptrollers should give
reports to the Board of Finance. A required report, or a
sent in report at the very least. More elaborate reports in
Senate as well.
11.Zhang — As a deputy you are going to interacting with
Student orgs and administration. Can you give an
example of when you really worked with a student
group?
12.Ortiz — The college democrats needed a PR approved ina
weeks time, and the current dems president didn’t know
that the credit card wasn’t in use. I contacted the
Comptroller to sign off on a credit card authorization
form. I have expedited appropriations requests for
ALPHA working with Chairwoman Simon and
ALPHA’s E-Board. Also, We need a ByLaw that has an
emergency clause for student groups in case something
like this happens (COVID-19).
13. Zhang — Any experience working with Administration?
14. Ortiz — I have talked to Zumbo about contracts. I
explained that only the Comptroller could sign contracts.
Ihave also talked to Pam many, many times in regards to
Purchase requests.
15. Kelley — What was my worse quality as a leader?
16. Ortiz — You always took on more than required. And
that can have an effect on your mental and physical
health.
17. Kelley — How will you avoid that?
18. Ortiz — Delegate the right amount of work to assistants.
To deal with stress I am going to read.
19. Zhang — Give me an example of a time when you took
the initiative to make positive change.
20. Ortiz — I went ahead and made sure the Korean Student
Association got their questions answered. I went down
and met with them to help them get access to their
budget.
21. Salazar — Doing what is right and what is popular; we
witnessed the impeachment of a president. If you see an
error in financial records, who would you go to?
22. Ortiz — I would go to the Board of Finance, and then Ray
and Pam. We need to keep the financial integrity of the
Student Association to be strong.
ii.
23. Kelley - The BOF and Comptroller work together, they
oversee the finance. Can tell me the structure of the
Board of Finance?
24. Ortiz — The structure of the BOF is the Chair of the
Board of Finance is appointed by the Chair of the Senate
and one member is the appropriations chair and there are
three appointed by the president and three from the
Senate chair.
25. McCracken — Are you free Wednesday nights next
semester?
26. Ortiz — I will always be free Wednesday nights. Fall
2019 I went to every senate meeting and Spring I went to
as many as possible.
27. Zhang — What was your biggest failure?
28. Ortiz — I am in Mock Trial and I wasn’t able to delicate a
lot of time to SA during regionals, I also wasn’t
transparent to the office about my problems with some of
the processes.
29. Kelley — What is the process for using the credit card?
30. Ortiz — Supposed to sign up for a credit card request to
the office. Then you send it to OSI (Pam). After that
approval, the office of the comptroller would notify the
group to schedule an appointment.
31. McCracken — Five Quad has a line for emergency
supplies. Would you be in favor of policy that prioritizes
Purchases requests from this line?
32. Ortiz — I would favor that line. They should be funded
by the University, but I will make sure that we are always
helping them out.
33. Zhang — What lesson did you learn as an Assistant
Comptroller?
34, Ortiz — People with more experience are the best people
to go to. They give the best advice, just like respecting
your elders.
35. Salazar — Teamwork is important. Are you ready to be a
team member?
36. Ortiz — Yes, of course. I am also ready to be a leader in
times of conflict. I am ready to direct traffic and ideas.
DISCUSSION
1. Kelley — If he doesn’t know the answer, he will never say
that. He will just fill in the blanks. It is okay to not know
the answer. He didn’t really know a lot of the key
policies and procedures. Even if there was more people
who applied, I would still endorse him for Deputy
Comptroller over anyone else. When I first met him he
told me he wanted to work for me and even since he
came on he has been reliable, professional and
intelligent.
Zhang — How would you go about training in that area?
3. Kelley — The best thing to do is hip-to-hip training
between me and the next comptroller and the next
deputy.
4. Salazar —I understand when you don’t know the answer.
I didn’t know everything when I ran for Chair.
5. Motion to approve Adam Ortiz for Deputy
Comptroller nominee by Donelan, Seconded by
McCracken.
N
X. Closing Roll and Adjournment
1. Motion to Adjourn — Donelan
2. Second — McCracken
