Delegate Assembly resolution on the Proposed Early Reauthorization of the CCSF Parcel Tax (November 2016)

Proposed Early Reauthorization of the CCSF Parcel Tax (2016)

Adopted unanimously by the AFT 2121 Delegate Assembly, May 17 2016

Whereas the CCSF Administration has denied the will of the voters by misspending Prop A funds, including not spending a single dime in the classroom in 2014-15, and failing to establish the Citizen’s Oversight Committee as required by the law; and

Whereas the CCSF Administration has played a shell game with Prop A monies to keep faculty salaries low and spend more on administration by sidestepping the state’s 50% law, which requires 50% of a college’s funds to be spent on instruction; and 

Whereas the CCSF Board of Trustees’ 2016 research poll shows that over 74% of those polled feel tough accountability requirements, mandatory independent audits, and a citizens’ oversight committee should be components of a parcel tax; and

Whereas the Board of Trustees is considering reauthorization of the parcel tax four years before the current legislation expires, even while continuing to ignore the law passed by voters in 2012;

Therefore be it resolved the Delegate Assembly recommends that the AFT 2121 Officers and Executive Board take appropriate action to inform the Board of Trustees of faculty dissatisfaction regarding the misappropriation of parcel tax monies; and

And be it finally resolved, that the Delegate Assembly recommends that the AFT 2121 Executive Board communicate to the Board of Trustees opposition for any parcel tax renewal unless and until the Board of Trustees:

• creates and convenes the legally required Citizen’s Oversight Committee, which has the “responsibility to review the expenditures of the District from the special tax to ensure the special tax is expended for authorized purposes, and to prepare an annual report to the District and the public concerning the expenditure of the special tax proceeds” and provides the public with the promised reports;
• establishes accountability and provides greater transparency over distribution of these monies by creating a separate, trackable fund for all parcel tax revenues and expenditures as required by the State Chancellor’s Office and the language of the ballot measure;
• ceases the use of parcel tax monies to sidestep the state’s 50% law and commits to using the funds the way the voters intended and were promised.