“What we are all hopeful of is that we all have adults in
the room that will use their appointed position as president or their appointed
position as a Board of Trustees member in a way that most effectively promotes
FAMU and protects the resources and tax dollars that are entrusted to them to
make sure that FAMU is producing quality graduates,” Williams told the Florida
Times-Union.
BOT Vice-Chairman Kelvin Lawson, who made the motion to deny
a bonus to Mangum, said that the shift of the $12.9M core operating budget of the
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering (COE) from FAMU to FSU was a problem that
Mangum needed to work to fix. That change was made without a vote of approval
from the FAMU BOT and was supported by Mangum. A number of other FAMU trustees have also said that the shift of the COE budget to FSU shouldn't have happened.
Williams could help Mangum with this problem by publicly clarifying
the fact that the General Appropriations Act didn’t state that the Joint
College of Engineering Governance Council is charge of that $12.9M.
The Florida Legislature originally placed that core
operating money in the FAMU general revenue line at the beginning of the 2015 session
as it had for nearly 30 years.
But on February 19, Mangum gave her support to a Florida
Board of Governors (BOG) proposal that asked the legislature to create a new budget
entity for the COE. The Florida House of Representatives and Senate both
shifted the $12,996,539 operating budget for the COE from the FAMU general
revenue line item to a new budget entity entitled “FAMU/FSU College of
Engineering” in March.
The new Joint College of Engineering Governance Council has
now started to claim that it is in charge of the $12.9M budget. Back at a May
20 meeting, the Joint Council voted to move the $12.9M COE core operating
budget to FSU. Mangum told FAMU trustees on Sunday that it was clear to her at
the May 20 meeting that even if the entire FAMU delegation had voted to keep
the budget at FAMU, the majority of the Joint Council members would have just
out-voted them and moved the budget to FSU anyway. BOG
Chancellor Marshall Criser, III has the tie-breaking vote on the Joint Council.
The General Appropriations Act doesn’t include any statement
that says that the new Joint College of Engineering Governance Council is
supposed to be calling the shots about what happens with the $12.9M COE budget.
The Senate originally placed the BOG language about the Joint Council
in its version of the bill, but that language was not part of the final bill
that Gov. Rick Scott signed into law because the House asked for those paragraphs to be removed.
Williams is a member of the Appropriations Committee in the Florida House of Representatives. He should make sure to explain to the BOG, FAMU, and FSU that the General Appropriations Act didn’t put the Joint Council in charge of the $12.9M budget for the COE.
 |
| Final version of law signed by Gov. Rick Scott |
 |
| Senate language on Joint College of Engineering Governance Council removed from final bill |