In attendance: John Ramil, Board Chair; Paul Colee, John Frost, Carole Philipson, and Kelly Underhill, Members; USF Vice President Carl Carlucci, Attorney for Lakeland Board matters, Hank Lavandera, and Preston Mercer, USF Lakeland Vice President/CEO and Board Corporate Secretary.

Call to Order and Introductions

John Ramil called the meeting to order and introduced and welcomed the Lakeland Campus Board members to the conference call meeting.

Preston Mercer reported that while he was in Tallahassee for USF and Polk County Days this month, he heard widespread support for the new USF Lakeland campus and assured the Board members that Senator J. D. Alexander was working hard to help make the campus a reality.

Capital Improvement Plan For Year 2

Dr. Mackey referred the Board members to the draft of the capital improvement plan form 2 which is the legislative budget request for 2006-07 through 2010-11. The next five year request is required to be put through the university so that the request will make the state deadline for submission.
The $3.4M in 2006-07 is for planning purposes for the above and below ground infrastructure and non- building phases of the project, including utility connections, parking, ancillary work, entrance and circulation roadways, utility corridors and all the work that has to be done before the first building can be started. The request for $20.17M in 2008-09 is for the first 100,000 net square feet. Phase 2 will also require planning money for the second facility. In 2009-10 the furnishing and equipment money would be funded for Phase 1 (the first building) and will also require $60M for construction of the Phase 2 facility followed in 2010-11 by furnishings and equipment money requested for the second facility. In summary, the Phase 1 total in the original five year request was actually a little over $51M and so the total funding for the three year request as it stands at this point for Phase 2 would be $78.5M producing double the square footage of the first building. The functions that would occupy the Phase 2 building would be growth in each of the building spaces in Phase 1, increases in classrooms, teaching labs, library and study area, and the student and academic support services as well as addition of auditorium, exhibition spaces and gymnasium. The furniture and equipment costs are included in the total project budget.

Kelly Underhill requested clarification regarding the five year plan and asked if the plan the Board members approved last year could be changed. She had expected the dollars for this year’s approval process to increase. Dr. Mackey indicated that, under normal circumstances, there might be an inflationary factor attributed to the Phase 1 funding but that is not calculated until the basic approval and premise are actually logged in the facilities planning office on the Tampa campus. There are inflationary factors applied so the numbers today might be adjusted in a normal way to account for those inflation factors later on.

Usually, an effort is made to request adequate funding within the boundaries of what seems reasonable at the time. Unforeseen increases in the construction industry may cause shortfalls which can be increased by other funding sources (such as Capital Outlay) but if not, then the scope of the project may be redefined.

Carole Philipson referred to the USF Lakeland request and indicated that, for 2009-10, there is a request for $60M and asked if there is the potential that this request might be phased over a longer period. Dr. Mackey indicated that is was an option that could be considered at a number of decision points along the way. There have been occasions like that when large dollar construction projects have been spread over multiple years and it might occur to this one.
Dr. Mercer reiterated that J. D. Alexander has indicated that he wants to fund the new campus project as rapidly as possible. Spreading out this project over multiple years doesn’t appear to be something that Senator Alexander desires. As the chair of the education appropriations committee, he is working hard to bring this project to fruition. Dr. Mackey indicated that this is precisely why the project is listed the way it is. Mr. Ramil asked Dr. Carlucci if the plan that is being presented today is compatible and coordinated with the rest of the USF system, and he responded in the affirmative. Dr. Carlucci indicated the funding request for the new USF Lakeland campus was very reasonable, with good foundation on why the funding request needs to be structured in just this way. With no indication from the BOG or Governor’s office that this may be a “bad” year for PECO funding, he thought Dr. Mackey had done his homework in developing the request.

Dr. Mackey requested a formal motion from the USF Lakeland Campus Board to approve the recommendation as it is shown on the CIP request and to advance the current CIP funding request for review through USF Tampa Facilities and Planning, Board Committee and for review at the next regular UBOT meeting. Motion was made by Carole Philipson and seconded by both Kelly Underhill and John Frost. There being no discussion, the vote was unanimous.

The recommendation will be processed and moved ahead to Facilities Planning in Tampa immediately. Mr. Ramil asked that all review bodies at the university be involved at the appropriate time in moving the request forward. Dr. Mackey assured the Board that it would be done. Mr. Ramil said that anything the board members could do to involve the Legislative Delegation to help advance the request would be done.

Dr. Mackey announced that the anticipated work on the current PCC/USF site to bring the Joint Use Facility out of the ground has begun. The Board congratulated Dr. Mackey.

There being no other business before the Board, the meeting was adjourned.

Minutes recorded and transcribed by Lorie Miros