In today's Fact of the Week, we look at the cost of doing business.
Misleading Narrative: PFF costs the District over $250,000 for the work they do in support of labor relations.
At the 1/14/2020 Governing Board meeting, Trustee Halcón voted nay on the entire 2019-2022 PFF/District contract due to his assertion that the 4.0 FTEF of release time provided under Article 6.17 to the PFF leadership is outrageously high, and costs the District over a quarter of a million dollars each year.
Facts:
The PFF does receive 4.0 FTEF release time to carry out the business of the Union as it relates to the District, such as required negotiations and contract enforcement.
The PFF negotiates on behalf of all Palomar faculty members, not just PFF members.
1.0 FTEF backfill (the cost of a part-time faculty member covering the classes vacated by a full-time faculty member on release time) costs the District approximately $40,000 a year, therefore 4.0 FTEF is unlikely to be more than $160,000 per year.
Indeed, according to the Palomar College official budget, for FY 2018-19, the actual expenditure was $129,427.08 (see Palomar College’s Budget book, budget line 123500)
Faculty members who do the work of the PFF can choose to take release time or a stipend, but not both. There is a set stipend amount associated with each 20% release time. (Article 6.17).
The 4.0 FTEF provided to the PFF was previously negotiated in the 2018-19 contract. Trustee Halcón voted to approve this release time in that contract negotiations, and also voted this past fall to approve the Tentative Agreement (TA) of Article 6 in this contract round. Changing this amount was never discussed during any negotiations during this round.
The Faculty Senate also receives 4.0 FTEF for important work and positions held by faculty members to perform academic and professional duties.
Bottom Line: Functional labor relations are extremely important to any institution and are very time consuming to conduct appropriately. The District has historically understood that faculty working conditions are our students’ learning conditions, and has always supported PFF’s work. Misinformation at Governing Board meetings does not help to move this work forward.