Councilmember Harlan. Here. Councilmember Bertrand. Here. Councilmember Bottor. Here. Councilmember Peterson. Here. And Mayor Termini. Here. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, and indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Are there any additional materials for this evening? Well, I just want to make sure everybody got the spreadsheet I handed out on the capital. Everyone have their spreadsheet on CIP? Yes. Tonight's meeting, our technician tonight is Lynn Dutton and the meeting can be viewed from the website as well. Thank you, Lynn. Let the camera be kind to me and the rest of the council members and we'll go on to additions and deletions of the agenda. Are there any? Staff has no changes. We'll move on to public comment. Anyone who would like to address the council on items not on this evening's agenda, please step forward. Seeing none, we'll go on to city council and staff comments. Mr. Treasurer, do you have anything to say to us tonight? Yeah, I suppose I do. Since we're talking about the budget, I thought it would be a good time maybe to solicit public comments or suggestions as to how to weather the storm that's ahead of us. So was it last council meeting which I missed, but I thought I heard somebody came up and just mentioned risk and mansions. You know, why don't we turn that into some sort of profit making or deal? And it was like, I don't know if we'd thought about that and I don't know whether it's even practical, but the notion of people, you know, the public and we have a lot of old officials and people have been around here a long time who could come to us and say, you know, here's an idea. Maybe we haven't thought of or here's an efficiency that we did back in the old days or here's a department that we used to do differently because for those in the listening audience who don't appreciate yet what our budget crisis is, that's looming. It has to do with the PERS obligation, right, which is the basically government tensions. So the state has burdened us with a larger share of that obligation more recently and it's going to hit us harder in the next coming year. So I think the numbers are half a million dollars next year and then two million dollars every year thereafter. So that's like 13 percent of our budget, 15 million is what we have. So that's a sizable chunk of money we're going to have to come up with and some creative ideas might be worthwhile. Good news is we did talk to the auditor when we were looking at, you know, selecting different audit agencies and they all said that we were in good shape. At least we were thinking about this. I mean, I know this has been on our radar for a while and we have the emergency funds and we've been, you know, we've been planning for this for a while. But we are not there yet. It's going to continue to be a problem.  But what worries me is that, you know, there's, we're just going to end up doing the obvious things, which is, you know, more taxes, either sales tax or hotel taxes or reducing services, which is either a layoff or eliminating some department. And I know we've talked about cannabis tax, maybe that's our saving grace. But again, the notion of soliciting the public for some input, maybe, maybe we'll get some good ideas out there. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to address the rest of the staff. Staff, any comments? I just wanted to let the council know that today I received a call from the supporters of the ballot initiative and they expect to be bringing the petitions in end of the week. The rail trail spending capital, spending money. Okay, great. And now council members. Ed. I just wanted to address the treasure. Oh. I mean, I do the wristband. I have no other comments, but just. That's good enough. Just with regard to the wristband, the term that I like to use, which might help you when we start thinking about other uses is when you say the word wristband, think of the word Titanic. And I think that it's best to leave it alone at the bottom of the ocean. Best to leave the wristband in tune. I don't think it's a revenue source ever. I don't think it has a lot of I think that I'm going to go beyond think I think this council, many generations this council has tried to do many things with it and the useful use of it other than possibly if we get it into a park and are able to turn it over to some lessy that wants to take care of the maintenance. Once we get it all done and we go down that road could be possible, but don't be thinking that that's somebody that's going to come to the podium is going to have a miraculous new innovation that hasn't been thought of. Thanks. And times change, but for 30 years, wristband was an albatross of potential profit. I didn't mean to belabor the wristband. I just started the notion of a, you know, a clever idea. Sure.  Here's here's our third rail. Don't whatever you do, don't touch our special projects. I mean, if there's the more input we get like that, I think the easy it'll make our decision. And, you know, the subjects are the the activity with the budget is going to go through the financial advisory committee. Right. They're going to come to us first and we're going to have get to call through the ideas and maybe come up with some new ones. But but I as a member of this as the chair of the financial advisory committee would welcome even crazy ideas like like the wristband to at least to evaluate. I read. Kristen. Anything. Jock. We were we were filmed a couple of meetings ago. Did you know who that was? Anybody know about that? He was in the chambers. It was for the footage for the man of the year award. Oh, I'm trying to get some footage of Ed in action. Oh, good. And there was great footage. It was action shots. They're nicely done. Congratulations Ed. Congratulations. Getting man of the year. And I have no comments except next Wednesday, our concert start. So come on down there. Let's go to the consent calendar. There's only one item. The minutes from our last meeting. Approval. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? It's unanimous. Move on to general government public hearings, continued discussion and possible adoption of our next budget. Mr. City Manager. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'm just going to give a quick recap sort of a summary of where we're going to go this evening and then our finance director is going to pick up the ball and start running with it. What we're going to do is we're going to just quickly touch on the budget sort of summary that we touched on last meeting. We'll skim through it pretty quickly because I know the council has all seen it. We do have an update then to present about sales tax data and some proposed cuts to bring the budget back into balance. At that point, then we're going to pivot and talk a little bit more about the CIP and the workload within public works. We'll be then focusing on the response to the council questions raised at our last budget hearing. And we will be focusing on some of the items that the Treasurer mentioned during his comments about sort of long term per strategies. And then lastly, we'll be pivoting, I think, to the council actions and the direction staff needs for this evening. So with that, I'll turn it over to Jim for the presentation. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. So real quickly, just to kind of recap from our last meeting, our local economies remaining relatively stable, but we're starting to see some of our major revenue sources slow down and even decline when we talk about sales tax. Our budgets, our status quo, same as last year, no net new positions, no new revenues and CalPERS still is our major threat on the horizon as far as city resources are concerned. And then again, we're heavily relying on sales tax and now that we're seeing sales tax dip a little bit, it's causing a lot of concern from our side. On the proposed budget, we're estimating an ending fund balance roughly at $931,000 for June of 2019. Contrary to recent articles, our reserve levels are fully funded and remaining intact. The Keptola Library will begin this year. This is our first year of Measure F money and also our first full year of the SB1 Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Act money. And this is a general fund summary and I'll touch on a couple of these on the next slide, but you'll see here that we're estimating that our ending fund balance for the current fiscal year, here ending in a month, is right around $908,000 and that our balance, our budget is balanced and revenues exceeding expenditures by just slightly under $23,000. So again, on the revenue side, we're seeing sales tax slowing other than property tax. Really all of our revenue sources are really kind of flattening out. Property tax is kind of propping them up a little bit right now. You'll see a decline in charges for services. It was really kind of a spike last year as the State Department of Finance allowed us to get the rest of the money for the risk and loan paid back to the general fund. And then on uses of money and property, the increase there is primarily due to interest rates rising. And actually CalPERS just put one out right before this meeting and we're at a big 180 now, 1.8%. So it's been probably about seven or eight years since we've seen it at that level. On the expenditure side, personnel, the increases are primarily due to the CalPERS cost that the Treasurer mentioned in the UAL specifically. Contract services, as the City Manager mentioned, we did do some reductions from our last meeting in order to get the budget balanced and we'll go over those as well. And the other financing uses, you'll see the big decrease there is really that last year we had a one-time transfer of fund balance over to the library project. This is the graphical picture of that, if you will. And the takeaway on this slide is the last time we showed you this slide, the sales tax had 1% growth annually and you can see we've zeroed that out right now. We won't get the sales tax data for the most recent quarter till probably the end of June and we may come back and revise at that point. But right now we're really not sure exactly what's driving it down. So revisions from our last meeting a couple of weeks ago, as I mentioned, we reduced sales tax revenue projections both in our current fiscal year as well as our proposed budget and plan budget. And in this fiscal year that's a direct hit to our ending fund balance. So last meeting we were just a little bit above a million dollars ending fund balance. Now we're down around 900,000. It also our district sales taxes measures O and F also take a hit on those 48,000 in the current year and then 10 just almost 11,000 in the 1819 and then just under 22,000 in 1920. On the expenditure side, so we reduced contract services by 93,000 and I have there was a list in the agenda packet and I have a slide on that as well. Also we adjusted down on the CalPERS payment. We're planning on making the annual payment in July rather than spreading it out over the full 12 months of the year and we save about three and a half percent by doing it that way. I think this will be the fourth or fifth year in a row that we've done the prepayment. The police department cut $10,000 from their overtime budget and we reduced the measure of expenses just simply to match the measure of revenues. So measure of full 100% of measure of revenues are still programmed to the war of jetty and flume just at $11,000 less than previously. So this is the list that was in your agenda packet with the contract services and I don't want to read each one but we're happy to answer any questions if there's any questions on any of those reductions. I'd like to talk about it but I'll wait till you're finished. Okay, certainly. So I'm going to shift over to Steve right now and he's going to cover the capital projects. You're still driving. All right. At the request of the treasurer and city manager we kind of looked at public works work plan or distribution of administrative time that we spent and we came up with this pie chart that kind of shows how we split out our time. This is what we would hope to achieve and it breaks it up into administration, permits inspections, public assistance, stormwater program, development review and then the two that kind of stick out there are the community projects and the CIP. And the reason we showed it this way with the community projects and the CIP kind of separate is those are really the ones that we can adjust. All the other ones for the most part are pretty stagnant and you're in and you're out basis. We spent 17% of the time administration. That's mainly on my end, managing crews, managing staff, permits and inspections. A lot of that is, you know, building permit, doing the inspections of projects as they're going through and issuing encroachment permits. They're a big one. Danielle in my office spends quite a bit of her time doing that. Public assistance is, you know, calls, emails, people coming to the counter. We all spend a great deal every day doing that. Stormwater program, I kind of want to highlight that. That's, you know, the unfunded state mandate that we reduce stormwater pollution, water that enters the creek in the ocean. And we spend a good chunk of time doing that. It's almost Danielle's, the majority of Danielle's time is doing that. Development review is strictly looking at building permit and planning applications. So that takes us to the community projects and the CIP. So the community projects we want to talk about, these are projects that we end up working on that aren't really scheduled anywhere. Best example is probably Topaz and Jules Street traffic. That's obviously taken a large amount of time over the last year and a half. Village employee permit parking program, which we've implemented, took a large amount of my time in getting it set up. Parking and loading issues along Capitol Avenue. Trees doing issues of our trees and Park Avenue and at the wristband. Creekside access at the railroad. We built that fence. It took several meetings and negotiations with the property owner there to get that taken care of. Perry Park restoration and code enforcement. Those are just examples of projects that kind of pop up that eat away in our time. So this is the same slide that we showed you two before. This is our distribution of labor. Like I said, the administration through the development review kind of stays the same. And as we develop more community projects, we end up taking away from our CIP project. So that's what happens. And the point here is just make us all aware that these community projects while certainly important, we need to be cognizant in the amount of time they take up in the public works department. So this is the handout I gave just before the meeting. This is the top part of the existing projects that we're working on that were funded in previous years.  You can see it kind of gives the amount of money that was identified for it, how much we spent, where it came from, and how much is left to keep it going. With Kailash on my staff now, we are working on all fronts to try and get these projects completed and feel good about that. These are the projects that have received funding allocations this year. As Jim indicated, there's no general fund allocations to any of the CIP projects this year that's either grant or measure D, RTC measure D, or SB1 funds, or measure F funds. And so that's the allocation of new funding we have coming into the CIP for this year. And one project we haven't talked about is probably the biggest drain of time, and we're not drain of time, but use of time, and money in the city as the library. We will be opening bids on that a week from today. It was delayed as supposed to be today, but we had to delay it to get some attendems out. And early indications are we should be getting some good bids. We anticipate getting six bids on that project. Come back to Jim now. Yes. So at the last hearing, there was a couple of items that the council requested that we follow up on. So the first of those was the community grant program. So the council adopted the improvements to the community grant program in 1617, setting up a two-year grant cycle. And the idea was to separate the budgeting from the allocation of the award. So we do the budgeting in March through June, and then once we have the total amount fixed, then in the April, or I'm sorry, August through September timeframe, then we allocate the money, council allocates the money to the various nonprofits. Staff's proposing that the budget remain at 275,000 for both fiscal year 2018-19 as well as 1920. The second item was the home reuse fund. So the balance in that fund is just a little bit shy of 206,000. Those funds can be used for down payment assistance for first-time home buyers, for health and safety improvements, rehab projects for existing owner-occupied properties, and as well as we can do housing assistance for affordable housing projects within the city. And we can work directly with developers on those. And I'm going to hand it off to Jamie for these next few. So the next question that the council asked about was coming up with some options for the long-term PERS issues. I don't know what the city is going to face. And I think the number one thing I want to stress is that this is the beginning of a dialogue with the council. This is going to be an issue that we're going to be confronting for years to come. I don't expect that we're going to end it tonight. In addition, when we're talking about potential tax measures, our next regular meeting coming up in two weeks, we will have on the regular agenda is discussion of items to direction to staff about what we may want to put on the ballot for the November election. So loosely, you know, we can talk about the PERS options and what we'll do about the increased expenditures. And really there's a couple of different ways to look at it. One is as we can grow revenue and two is as we can cut expenditures. That's at its most basic level. So we've listed out a couple of different ideas here on new taxes or ways to grow revenue. I don't think they'll come as a surprise to anyone identifying the cannabis tax, which is when we spend some time talking about this spring. New hotels, new hotels generally bring in between three and $600,000. Of course, those aren't within the control of the city as the city isn't a developer. And they obviously take time to come to fruition should one come to pass. The TOT each 1% of TOT is about $150,000 a year to the city. And it does require again going to the voters for approval if you were to change our TOT. Obviously, the city is heavily reliant on sales tax. It's a strong revenue stream to the city. Each quarter percent local sales tax is about a million dollars in annual revenue, which is what we see in measure F. Looking long term, frankly, we have identified sort of a weakness in the city is that we are heavily reliant on sales tax and going and increasing our reliance on sales tax when we imagine where sales tax may be in 10 years, whether that's going to be a revenue stream that's going to keep up with inflation. I think that those would be factors that the council would want to take into account. We can take a look at our fee schedule again. I know we went through that. It feels like just the other day, but the fee schedule is obviously an opportunity to take a look at what our actual costs are for services and whether there's more cost recovery we can achieve. Contract services, whether it's looking for opportunities to contract services out. Street sweeping example is one that we've obviously explored. Shared services. We're exploring that with the building department right now with Scotts Valley. And then in other cases, whether it's more cost effective to bring projects in-house. We've been very successful the last several years in doing some CIP type projects with our own staff. We have very capable public work staff and they were able to repair the Hooper stairs and do the upper Esplanade Park project for significantly less than it would have been for contracting with contractors to do that. And then in the long term, you know, it's really dependent on other expenditure reductions coming down to council priorities and what the impacts are to service levels and what the community is willing to accept and what the council is willing to accept. So like I said, it's an ongoing dialogue that's going to evolve over years, I think. And it's going to be refined as we get more revenue information and we see where our taxes actually end up coming in over time. This is touching very quickly on the sort of the big picture work plan items. Steve talked about the CIP projects. Those CIP projects are obviously priorities for the council. Whatever we decide we're going to be putting our money in, those are important projects for the city. In addition, these are sort of the non-CIP type projects the staff has identified as priorities. If the council wishes to amend, add, subtract from this list, certainly that's something we would look for feedback on. If we've gotten it right, that would also be helpful. We've also talked about the general fund balance ending at about $900,000. The FAC has reviewed this and recommended leaving it intact at this point in fund balance to offset potential future budget shortfalls as we struggle with the PERS increases. Other options the council could consider would be transferring some into the PERS trust. It does increase potential rate of return the city could achieve but it really isn't intended as a short-term investment vehicle. It's really investing in the market. Do you attach a dollar to that? Hypothetically, if we put $500,000 into the trust fund, what would we net? What would it gain us? So what it really gains you is the delta between the lay freight, which is 1.8% as the finance director mentioned earlier this evening and then whatever the market does over the intervening time period that you have it in there. The risk, of course, is sort of classic financial advisor advice is don't invest in the stock market if you're expecting to only leave it there for a year or two, right? Because we all know stock markets go up and go down. If your time horizon is 5 to 10 years, obviously being in the market is a much better place to be than be sitting in lay. It really comes down to the time horizon. I think off the top of my head, I wouldn't recommend moving more than about $300,000 out into something like the PERS trust. I think that we're going to want that fund balance because the last two quarters, we've seen sales tax declines and we're projecting a flat sales tax into next year and if we continue to see declines, we potentially would be eating into that fund balance. Would you explain the mechanism of the trust fund simply? Yeah, so the mechanism behind the trust fund, this is a relatively new thing that was authorized by the state several years ago and what it essentially allows us to do is to move money into a third party's hands that's holding it in trust for the city to be used for a specific purpose and in this case it's for PERS costs only. Now, it's quite flexible in the sense that right now our balance in that fund is about $9,000? It'll be a little over $800,000 by the end of the year. A little over $800,000 by the end of the year and we have more than $800,000 a year in PERS expenses in any given year. So, in any given year we could fully deplete the PERS trust to use to pay our PERS bill. Of course, it doesn't pay the bill the year after or the year after, but it can be used for that and our PERS bill every year exceeds the value of the trust at this stage so it's fully liquid in any given year. If we ended up in a position where we had more than $2 or $3 million in there then it would be more than enough to cover one year's PERS bill so it wouldn't be fully liquid in any given year. What was the rate on it in the last 12 months? I would have to look that up. I know they had a down quarter at the beginning of the year. I did see that. Was it as low as the late rate? Over the course of the year I would guess not. It's hard to do. But they did have a down quarter. January through March they did have a down quarter. To think about this, this is a lot like you probably invest in your own 401k back home is the city authorized putting $600,000 this year? $500,000 last year into the PERS trust and so what we've done at a staff level is we've broken that up into individual payments over the course of the year, basically dollar cost averaging rather than taking the $500,000 and transferring it on day one and then watching the stock market decline 30% the next day just like you do with the 401k sort of moving in $100,000 in chunks in time just to avoid the situation where you move it all in and you're betting everything on the market performing well in the very short term. The other option would be to put money into the facilities reserve. Again, that's fully discretionary. There's obviously a lot of deferred maintenance around different city facilities and it certainly could be put to use and could be pulled back into fund balance at any given time. So for this evening there's a couple things. One is you've received the presentation. Two is provide us any direction. Are we headed in the right track? Is this what the council would like to see? Are there changes that we should be making? Are there more questions that we can answer? We do as soon as we get feedback about the community grants whether or not we're going to allow new community grants to grant recipients to apply this year. We're prepared as staff to release the Notice of Funds available to our grant recipients and then determine whether or not we want to hold the June hearing if we need to have a June 6 hearing on the budget or if we're prepared for adoption. So with that, staff is available for questions. Let's go through questions. Stephanie, questions? Well, first I want to do the community groups in July rather than August and September because their budgets all start July 1st and they need the money they need to know what's going on. Well, they need time to apply. Hypothetically, if we gave you direction as far as new grantees tonight you could open up the application process and what do we usually give them? 30 days? By the end of June we have all the applications in and I can get a committee formed I can name them tonight and we can have them in July taken care of. Sound right? Yeah. We might not even have to give them 30 days if it's a shorter form they can do it in a week. They're anxious to get the ball rolling too. I understand. Mayor, council members, they do have other items and we get turn over within those groups so sometimes that takes long. I think 30 days is a fair amount of time for them to in fact we just had a notice today of one of our agency is a new person taking over so when that happens you generally have to add some time so I think there's going to be a number of organizations that can get it done relatively quickly but there's also other ones that don't have the resources to do it that way. At this juncture for clarity perhaps we can get a consensus in the council on whether or not we want to allow any new applicants personally I think that the applicants are there and no one wants to drop out that's fine we can always use that money to give to others but I'm not in favor of opening it any new applicants. Anyone else want to chime in on this? I'm fine with that position. Kristen? Okay so you've received direction we are not going to accept any new applicants we can open the application period and then as soon as it comes back and we close it then I'd like Ed and Kristen to be the subcommittee to see where all the dollars lie in the council in July. Good. Carry on. Okay I have some other questions. Go ahead. On the changes to the contract services I'm just going down the list the first one is United Way $1,000 I think isn't that for the community assessment project that we use every year we participate in? It is. Interestingly enough we discovered when we were going back through this with the fine-tooth comb that we were double budgeting it both in the community grant program and here and so we realize every year we were contributing I think it's actually $2,000 in the community grant program for the community assessment this was frankly a vestigial it was just an old line item that wasn't getting built and wasn't getting used. Okay so we're just eliminating that. So they are still funded and we are still contributing to the community assessment project. I would like to add have full funding for the recycling media it's a Central Coast Tri-County project that I think Monterey County, San Benito County and Santa Cruz I used to be on this committee but I haven't been for a number of years but they pool their money to buy add time on the radio and on television and I haven't seen very many of them but I think it's a good cooperative effort do you want to give us an update on that Larry? I'm sorry which line item? The recycling media and the recycling New Brighton Middle School I think we should add that back into the middle school unless that has been a double line someplace else. The Air Council the New Brighton we tried the last few years to get someone there to run the program and they haven't had that person so that's one of the reasons we took it out this year we just haven't had the response from the middle school the other line I would have to look at to see if we can cut that or not so we get funding from CalRecycle that we use for the Central Coast media recycling as well as other types of recycling if someone steps up from New Brighton you can bring that back to us have you talked to the principal? I have not talked to the principal have him shake the tree and find a teacher to carry on this because that was a good program that we had for years anyway I think that was sort of a contract with the recycling media people and that was our portion was $5,000 down to the Soquel Creek Fish Monitoring why are we reducing that? that was based on the actual contract amount we realized we had a little fund balancer that we could reduce same thing with the Soquel Creek Water Monitoring it was the same those are my only questions on that questions? none? any questions? last week or time we met I was unsure if they were fully funded I just want to make sure one was the sidewalks on park and the other was the wristband you said you were looking into it and you weren't sure are both those projects fully funded or is there still a shortage? I suspect in the wristband we're going to have a funding shortage and then on the sidewalks I think we'll be fine do you want to ballpark the shortage on the wristband? at this point probably about $100,000 we're revising the plans right now trying to tie that down that's why I don't have an exact number but park you think it's going to be okay okay Steve? so on the wristband this is just for the portion of the proposed plan that we're doing right now I think it's the wall so we have many more things like the pool and the bocce cord no this is the full park project except for the fountain I think we're back the fountain we'll use the arena okay great I didn't realize okay alright you haven't gone down the road yet I do have a question so in terms of the grant programs we lost our person who broke grants and CBDG grants the lady that did that so that was an income stream also so what are we doing with that are we reaching out to an agency are we trying to get another person so a couple things Carolyn Flynn is no longer with the city we have contracted with a group Paul Ashby group and they actually ended up preparing the most recent CDBG grant application that we submitted which was the $2.7 million I believe for the Clairs project and then to restart our housing programs that we used our last CDBG grant allocation for I expect that if we are successful with that grant application you can't apply for another CDBG grant until you've expended the prior funds so we're good for a couple of years where we kind of burn through those funds but if the relationship works well the Ashby group has been a real good partner so far and we'll see if the grant application is successful but has been a good partner so far with that process that was the first time we've used them in this capacity they may have helped with some other elements in CDBG in the past but this is I think they've stepped up into a bigger role okay thank you one of the questions that staff is looking for direction on is the fund balance do we have a consensus on leaving it all in the general fund putting any event in the trust fund putting a portion each the finance advisory committee has recommended putting the entire keeping the entire amount in the general fund and not putting any in the trust fund is that accurate okay Ed do you want to comment on that I would be open to putting a little bit of money into the purged trust fund but if the fact is recommended against it I'm okay with that decision the concern I have is a lot of the money the general fund was spent on completing the library which means that a lot of the projects which I could go down the list things like the bathroom in Monterey Park and other too many to name are being put on the back shelf the one concern I have is that we've put quite a bit of money and if that fund is short I would be willing to authorize depleting the general fund by the amount necessary to augment that to make sure that that project can be completed I think although the citizens have kept them waiting for a long time for the library so have they for the completion of the wristband so I would be in favor of depleting that number to fully fund the wristband is this an appropriate time or should we wait Steve until we actually have numbers come in on bids and see how short we really are that would be my recommendation yes would be to wait until we have bids and final pounds I feel good about it that concept if we were not to put money into the purse fund other places and we were to leave it whole then I would go along with that recommendation to wait until as long as we I wanted to bring it out for discussion absolutely and that we don't go to the purse fund and the money is still whole there with the understanding that the other things just the wristband for now we can get greedy on all kinds of other baby steps I think the wristband is a big thing we need to live on Christian do you want to comment on the fund balance I was going to say I think we should go with the fact recommendation to leave all 900,000 in but I am not against the idea of taking the $100,000 and putting that towards wristband either one of those two I am fighting with when the time comes I am not sure how I feel about the purse trust fund it doesn't sound like it is one of the greatest investments it is a good mechanism for the long term I guess that is sort of the take home message on that it is a great mechanism for the long term the question becomes is this something we are going to be tapping into in the next two or three years and if that is the case probably not the right time I am not hearing a lot of love from the finance director and that is always my bell weather I am not going to say anything else on to you Jacques part of the discussion was the liquidity of the money if it went into that fund maybe you comment on that we were very concerned that because of reduced sales tax and all of the various crises that are looming that we should stay as liquid as we can this coming year so that we don't have money tied up and some fund that we can't get too quick I would point out that we have enough money in the trust fund now to fund a single year of purse so anything we put into it we would most surely use next year so it is not like this trust fund is in a locked money way that we can't use for purse which is why it is there but I go along with the will of the council one more comment in conjunction with the library it would be nice to have both projects sort of in sync in terms of risk pin in the library because that is going to be a whole new area just all priorities I realize Stephanie I don't have any strong preference about it I agree with the treasure though I want to have a discussion about the long term financial plan for the city I think it is great to increase the TOT put that on the ballot I think it is great to try to look for other sources but we are not looking at our service for fees we have raised them and raised them and we always used to have them just a reasonable level but I understand we need money but I am not crazy about it I have argued against the $500 fee to appeal something I think some of our fees have gotten too high for the average member of the public but I would like to have a discussion about what we think we are going to do in a couple of years but I like some of the ideas but who knows we will just have to wait and see what that does my comments are thank you very much Jim I see all the department heads here thank you chief for preemptively reducing your overtime budget that is wonderful thanks for being part of the team all the department heads really jumped on this and saved us a lot of money and have always done that are there any questions of any of the department heads I would say don't hold your breath about that one I don't know whether the theater site can actually hold 75 rooms with everything else they are going to do there that would be a massive development so I would say 45 rooms project something like that we will give you 80 rooms on 41st avenue I will trade you trade you a Baltic place for park place then I would like to entertain a motion at this time if it is not too crazy for the adoption of this budget I still move to adopt this budget as a point of clarification we do actually have to bring back the resolutions or some specific resolution understood but we want to tell you where we are so I have a motion to approve the budget is presented and amended is there a second for the discussion may I have a roll call vote please councilmember Harlan councilmember Petrand councilmember Peterson I Mayor Termini anything else to tell us I think the next action would be to cancel the remaining budget hearings that we have on June 6th 6th and 21st and then what we will do at a staff level the June 14th agenda is looking pretty rough so I think we bring back the resolutions for adoption of the successor agency budget and the city's budget on June 28th that's perfect thank you very much great work and final comments from our esteemed council I just want to echo what you said I want to commend the finance director for it makes our job simple when you come I mean obviously if there's not a lot of things to do it makes our job easier so I appreciate all the time and effort from all the department heads including Steve, Katie, every chief so I appreciate that effort so thank you very much anyone else good night staff record that's right


Apart from McLean, he looks up early and finds Pookie, edge of the box. Pookie onto his left foot, Kelly goes to ground, lays it to to Buendia, who toe pokes it past Asmir Begovic and opens the scoring inside the opening. Five minutes for the team, they're flying back to the Premier League. Norwich one, Bournemouth nil, John Williams. Well, they just make it. In possession now Pearson lays it off to Brooks down the right. Pearson's there as well with a solid tackle, a crunching tackle. Janouless was in as well, they're both diving in, it's a straight red for Demetris Janouless. He's been given his marching orders by referee Graham Scott. Dan Juma skips away from his man, brilliantly down the left, to the edge of the box, back onto his right foot, lays it off to Lloyd Kelly. Lloyd Kelly finds room across the face of goal and tapped in in the back post by Sam Surridge, and again the flag is up for offside. The goal's been given, Bournemouth have themselves an equaliser. Sam Surridge with his first touch of the game, having come on it half-time, taps it into the back post. Look at the cherries, had a goal disallowed. Dominic Solanke tapping it on the goal line for offside in the first half. Here's Dan Juma, edge of the D, pulls the trigger from distance and finds the top corner. What a strike from Arnold Dan Juma, magic! And Bournemouth are spinning the decks, playing the tunes at Norwich's promotion party. Well from a Bournemouth point of view, I think we may just have seen one of the goals of this season. Again he's going to have a run at the centre back, just held up as Aaron Jones in as well to defend, back to Lloyd Kelly, who shoots from distance and fires it down low past Tim Crawford into the bottom corner. Lloyd Kelly opens his cherries account, you have to say that's been coming, he's had a fantastic game.


It is my pleasure to welcome our viewers around the world to today's EducationUSA interactive series web chat on exploring community colleges in the United States. My name is Alfred Boll, representing EducationUSA in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the United States Department of State. EducationUSA is the department's network of international student advising centers in nearly every country of the world. Our more than 550 dedicated advisors help international students and their families navigate the American College and University admissions process by providing accurate, comprehensive and current information about the full range of higher education options offered by the more than 4,700 accredited American higher education institutions. Today's interactive webinar is part of a series aimed at providing you with up-to-date information about current topics related to American higher education. Throughout the program, our panelists will answer your questions submitted in the chat space next to the video player. You can also share your questions and comments on Twitter using the hashtag EducationUSA. Today's online discussion will include information on how two-year programs of study offer high-quality academic and technical training, cost-saving options, and opportunities for easy transitions into four-year degree programs for international students. We are pleased to have two panels to answer your questions. The first is made up of two community college administrators and will be followed by a panel of two students currently studying at community colleges in the United States. Dr. Anisa Pell is the Assistant Director for the Center for International Education at the Northampton Community College located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She assists in the development, management, and implementation of international programs and supports the network of international students on campus. She also facilitates the study abroad programs which provided Northampton students with opportunities to visit and study in over 10 countries this year. Heidi Russell Calcofen has worked with students coming to the United States for over 30 years on both coasts of the country and in both small, private, and large public associate degree granting institutions. She is currently an international student coordinator at Montgomery College, a large community college of over 60,000 students located just outside Washington, D.C. I would like to begin by asking each of you the same question. What is most special about the community college experience in your view? Anisa? Well, I find it interesting that Northampton Community College, we have about 10,000 students that are enrolled and we have a 600-bed facility. We are the only community college in the state of Pennsylvania to have a residence hall. And the important word to focus on is community. I think about last year, a student that had been traveling for three days who came from Eastern Africa and he arrived at our doorstep. He had been accepted to the college, but he didn't realize he needed to fill out the paperwork for a residence hall. So what we like to do is build a relationship with the individual. So for that particular student, we made sure that he was fed for two or three days. We made sure he had accommodations in a nearby hotel. And while all of that was happening, we filled out the paperwork to make sure that he could move into the residence hall. So for us, a community college is about the relationships that we build with each individual. Heidi? Thank you. I think the word community is important because when we talk about our community, we're part of a community. So our community college doesn't have its own hairstylist or its own post office. You live in the actual community. That's what you're there to do. And then you come to the college. What that means as well is that we're really connected to our county. So in Maryland, where I'm now, the counties run the community colleges along with the state. Where I was in California, it was a community college district, but it was still its own entity. So it wasn't connected to the federal government. It was connected to the state and the local area. And what that means is that those colleges then are responding to the local area. So for us, for example, we have Marriott international hotels in our county. So we have a very robust hospitality management program. We also sit where the Human Genome Project does all of its magic in biotechnology. So we have an amazing biotechnology program. We need to respond to that in order to prepare our students for the rest of their education because that associate degree is really just the first part of that whole bachelor degree program and moving on in higher education. Thank you both. Very interesting. Let's go back for a moment and tell our viewers, what are community colleges and how do they fit into the U.S. higher education system? Well, North Hampton Community College, and I'll speak a little for Heidi as well. The community colleges offers the first two years of the higher educational degree. And for North Hampton students, and I'm sure as well for Montgomery, students can come in. It's an intensive English as a second language program. So even if you have already an advanced degree from the country that you're from, you can come to North Hampton and finish a credential and improve your English skills, which would then allow you to move on to additional programming. In addition to that, it also serves as a pathway for a diverse community to gain higher education. We serve a diverse community of learners from those who are English as a second language speaker, and myself, I actually attended a community college because I didn't have a prerequisite to go on to a master's program, and this was many years ago. But it really serves the community in a broad variety of ways. So I think what's special about the associate degree, because I've worked at public and private institutions doing the associate level education, is that it focuses in the United States. We want to have a liberal arts education to liberate the minds of our students. A lot of that is focused and concentrated. That wide variety of courses that students take is concentrated in those first couple of years of education, the first half of that bachelor degree. And so that means that all the students on your campus are really looking at doing that very important work of deciding what they're studying and getting that basic broad grounding in all the other areas that allows students to be creative and innovative by being able to make connections between different types of things. So that associate degree has a very special purpose. It's also its own credentials, so that if you need to complete and stop for a time before you move on, you can do that. But I don't know about Pennsylvania, certainly in California and Maryland. It's also something that the states do when they fund to say, we want our students at the lower division level to go to the community college because that saves our money for our universities to focus on higher research and upper division work and PhD research. And so they really guarantee Maryland and California both basically guarantee that if you get an associate degree, you move directly into the state university system. They are really just the first part of that whole state university system. Is that the main difference between two and four year, between two year community colleges and four year institutions? Or what would you say the main differences are? I think there's a couple of things to talk about in terms of the differences between a two year and four year college at Northampton. We like to say, although we're a two year college, it has a four year feel. And that's because we have many articulation agreements with state colleges. We've had graduates of Northampton Community College to move on to prestigious universities, some of them even in the Ivy Leagues. So it is great for an international student in particular whose transcript may not reflect the rigor, the academic rigor that we look for, for a student who perhaps finished their high school lessons here in the US. But it's a great pathway for them to enter, get the two years. In fact, we had a student who won the Jack Cook Kent Scholarship, which was $100,000 and he had a choice to attend any college in the nation. So as an international student, it's a great pathway for you to enter the higher educational system here in the US. Thank you, Heidi. I agree. I think that we've had students that move on to all kinds of institutions because we're in the greater DC area. They go to Georgetown and America and all kinds of great places. And so I think we have to help our students understand that the academics are exactly the same as the lower division coursework that they would get at any high quality institution university. For us, many of our faculty are the same. But in addition to that, we serve the community in other ways. So that we have credential programs and specialized programs where we do training that may be for a shorter time than just the beginning of university study. And that means we also have professionals in fields that come in and teach for us. So we have the faculty that we may share with our neighbor universities that are teaching with us with their academic rigor. But we also have people directly from the field. And that's particularly useful, of course, in things like business that come in and can teach to our students in their community. So do community colleges have the same high quality academic standards as for your institutions? Absolutely. I definitely say that North Hampton Community College has had three of the last seven professors of the year for the state of Pennsylvania. And that is a huge accolade to the quality of the instruction, the academic preparation that our instructors impart upon our students. Absolutely, and I agree. We have high quality students. But I think the articulation that you were talking about before is the other important part. If Georgetown University is going to take our courses directly and transfer and say they are exactly the same, they're recognizing that those are exactly the same courses. So why are community colleges a particularly good option for international students? Again, I'm a first generation American. So I understand what it may feel like to come into the United States and not be able to attend the college of your choice. My father, for instance, he had graduated from high school in his home country. And when he came to the United States, it was challenging for him to get accepted into a four year university. So he attended a community college. It is a great pathway to prepare yourself for the continued study that you'd like to pursue. In addition to the fact, again, a community college is a community. Particularly at North Hampton Community College, it's a family. Our associate dean for the Center for International Education, Dr. Manuel Gonzalez, as well as Patty Bullis, who's been at the they've been at the college between 26 and 30 years, collectively together. They they have built a rapport and a relationship with our alumni. And we've seen marriages. We've seen children. So it is a community is not just come, get this credential and move on. We actually keep in touch with you and we, you know, encourage your success. Well, I do excellent. Do two year institutions have the same accreditation process as four year institutions? It's the same one. We're in the middle of going through ours now. So institutions in the United States are regionally accredited. And therefore they are accredited by their peers. And it's exactly the same process. They're looking at all the same things and they are seen in the same way. And again, since all of that coursework does transfer over, in fact, for many institutions, if you achieve your full associate degree, it just transfers as a block of courses, then it really has to look exactly the same. OK, going back to international students at community colleges, what would you say are the are the biggest opportunities for them at your institutions and at community colleges generally? I would say much like even the native born American students, the idea of pursuing general studies and Northampton Community College, we have preferred deadlines, but we really bend to meet the need of the students. So our spring semester deadline was November 17th, but we may have students that apply in December. And again, this goes back to that personal relationship where we work with the student independently to assure their success, to make sure that they're accepted and they are pursuing a pathway that will gain them what their ultimate goal is. I think for us, again, it goes back to that community so that we do have that relationship with the community. So students who want to pursue their education and also get some experience in their field have the opportunity to do that. And it's very local and it's very connected. The other thing that I think is important, at least at all the institutions I've worked at, is that those lower division courses, if you go to a large institution, you may be in an introduction to psychology class with a thousand other students. We don't have a classroom that even seats that many on our campus. So I think our largest classroom is probably 80. So one of the greatest opportunities is the chance for students to get to know their faculty, they're expected to get to know their faculty. And their faculty are there to teach. They're not there to do research. They're not there to do anything else. They're there for their students. So they get that opportunity to really get to know faculty and to have those connections in the community. It's very interesting. Sorry. I just want to add one other thing. I believe also community colleges, we have open enrollment policies. So for at least for Northampton, you don't need to have IELTS or TOEFL scores.  But the idea of knowing that if you apply, you meet the basic criteria of the age and the high school diploma, you're accepted. So, yes, I think most community colleges want just completion of the equivalent of secondary education as their academic credential for admission. At our particular institution, we have a variety of wonderful language schools near us so that we do have a floor for English level before we can accept students. So we do need things like IELTS and TOEFL. But each community college is going to have, again, that brings in a diversity of students, too. So you've got students who are looking for a variety of different outcomes. They may want technical training or they may want their university degree so that we can offer that to all of our students. Before we move on to our next question, just very quickly to go back to English language training. Can you talk a little bit about the specific training that you do in English for students? Is there any for prospective students or is it once students arrive and then what happens as they proceed through their studies? OK. And Northampton Community College, again, you don't have to have TOEFL or IELTS. You apply, you meet all of the guidelines for the application process. We accept you. Once you come in, that's when we conduct the placement test. The placement test will tell us where you sit on the scale of reading, writing, speaking and listening. And once we once you've taken those tests, we place you in the appropriate coursework and you have basically someone who's holding your hand through that whole process. Some students may complete English one through four in the first year and a half, depending on the student. But again, we we work with each individual student. We meet them where they are to help them to get to where they want to go. So on our campus, we have basically three levels of English. So we have English as a second language, which is designed for students who are really preparing to start academic study. We have English courses that are college level English, but for non-native speakers. And then we have students who are native level English speakers. So in that middle level, our students are able to sort of mix both English and other courses. So I say you may start with your English and you mix in with some of your degree courses and then you move to all degree courses eventually. So it allows students to transition.  But they're also working on their English as well as continuing to prepare themselves for their degree level study. So our next question from our viewers goes to something you just mentioned, being part of a community and how special that is of the experience of being at a community college. Why do your institutions seek to enroll international students and how do they become part of your communities? Well, our president Northampton Community College feels that internationalization is a very critical component. It's actually one of our strategic priorities. It's diversity and global engagement. So we are actually seeking to increase the number of international students so that the experience of our traditional students in parentheses is enhanced. The opportunity, again, to build these relationships with individuals and not the idea of just a paper. Our study abroad program works through that as well. We've had international students participate in our study abroad program, which may be something that may not have been able to do previously. And that's how we build those relationships one person to another person. Yeah, absolutely. I every year I say to our students that are getting ready to graduate at graduation rehearsal that when we pull our American students, our U.S. born students, that one of the things that they highlight most specifically about being at Montgomery College is that they've had the chance to meet all these people from all over the world and how exciting that is for them, that they really appreciate that. We are fortunate where we are to be in a very diverse community. So the diversity is reflected. It also means that there's somebody around to tell you where the really good food from home is. But that allows us then to really highlight and focus in on why we want to have these students because we also have immigrants from those countries for many of those same countries. And they also want to understand what's going on in their countries currently, so it makes for a lot of good conversation. So is it fair to say that international students fit into your strategic plans and vision for your colleges and if so, how do you see things developing? Oh, they definitely do North Hampton Community College. We have over 60 clubs and organizations for our students. And one of those organizations is the International Student Organization. And in fact, today at this moment, actually in about an hour, there is an international student presentation in alignment with International Student Week. So as a college, we come together, we enjoy the diversity of the cuisine, the music, the entertainment. And it really helps us to become a better, more connected community. Yeah, I think for us, about 30 percent of our students are are not born in the United States overall. And so it really is a very important part of our community to celebrate that diversity, every opportunity that we get. And our students appreciate that and our staff and our faculty and our president all appreciate that. So we too are celebrating International Education Week. So at this point in time, we've had celebrations on all of our campuses and we're very excited to make our students a part of that. That's that's quite an impressive vision. Our next question is if you could tell us about the International Student Support Services that you have on campus. Are there clubs, special programs that students can take advantage of? How do they meet American students? Do they? So we we have students from 45 different countries at North Hampton Community College. And again, we have over 60 clubs and organizations for any student who's able who would like to join. And it ranges from the International Student Organization to the Muslim Student Organization to a variety of others. So through those opportunities, the students can meet and connect with other students. We also have twice yearly what we call a quad fest where the whole campus we have three locations plus online where each campus can meet. They can they can get together, meet each other, enjoy music and fun. It's the support services in terms of tutoring. They're all free. So we have a learning center. So if they need some additional tutoring with their English or maybe they're taking chemistry, all they have to do is go to our a learning center and make an appointment and they can meet with someone who will help them to study and prepare for the exams or any other stressful. We also have counseling services that's available to our students that's free. Sometimes we don't always realize when we're undergoing culture shop. So it might manifest in a variety of ways. So our counseling department makes sure that they get to know each individual student. Again, it's that person to person connection to make sure that we can help them along their way. Right. So we too have our own offices that we work with our international students. We have some special programs when they first come in to help them get settled and get oriented because our general community is so diverse. We also have counselors that speak several different languages. We have a lot of opportunities for students to get involved with clubs and organizations. But I think one of the special things where we are right now in the Greater Washington, D.C. area is that we have good connections with our embassies that are in the D.C. area, too. So there are lots of community events. Most of I believe most of the dependents and employees of the embassies live in our county. So we have lots of opportunities to come together. We just have big Diwali celebration at our civic center that our students were a part of and that we were able to be at. So we get involved with the community as well to get those kinds of programs working to support our students. Very interesting. Our next question is about how students move from community colleges to four-year institutions to complete a bachelor's degree. Could you talk a little bit about that process and what you've seen students experience? I think what you were talking about earlier with articulation agreements, articulation agreements are discussions and probably contracts between institutions. So some of it is very simple, as I was saying, in California and in Maryland and in many other states in the United States.  It's a simple transition at our institution. Now you fill out an application when you first come in and tell the university, the state university system, I want to go to you when I'm done. And then they know.  They don't recruit as many students because they know they have students coming in from the community college. They have saved a place for you. As far as the transition, we work also with the University of Maryland system to assist our students who are transferring. So we are developing a special international student transfer program because our students go there in such large numbers that we need to make certain that we have a very specific pathway. We don't have to repeat all the things they learned from us about how to deal with having a student visa and living in the United States. They just need to know what's different and what those transitions mean because it really is a pretty simple transition for them. For us at Northampton Community College, we like to say we're in the center of the action. We're about an hour and a half, an hour and 15 minutes from New York City, about an hour from Philadelphia and about two and a half to three hours from Washington, D.C. So the transfer process does not just affect the Pennsylvania colleges. We have sent students, in fact, an international student from Kenya recently graduated from Columbia University. So we work hand in hand with the individual to make sure that their end goal is what we're working towards. Our transfer office works very closely with them. And again, the Center for International Education, we're a team of individuals that are there to support you, not just through the educational process, but through some of those challenging times as well. Thank you very much. With so many good options in terms of community colleges, how do students find the right community college for them? And what factors should they consider? That whole community thing, you've spoken about how you're working individually with students. Your population is different than our population. So some of it is about location and about size. Some of it is going to be about urban versus suburban versus rural. But certainly also want to look at the programs, because all community colleges specialize in something, because they often do reflect that community. So again, for us, if it were biotechnology or hospitality management, then you'd be looking for something specific. If it is something more general, a lot of community colleges are going to be responding to the general needs that are seen all around the country. And you also want to see where they do have articulation agreements with, where you can transfer easily to always tell students, figure out what your final goal is. And then when you step back, we can help you figure out how to get there. So I agree. North Hampton Community College, again, we have over 100 programs. We have micro-cadentials. We have specialized diploma certificates. So you really have to look at what the institution is offering and make sure that that's the pathway, the foundation that you'd like to utilize to spring to your next step, even if the micro-cadential is the next step that you want to take. Thank you. So we have reached the final question for this first part of our program. Could you tell us a little bit about what makes your respective institutions unique and special, North Hampton Community College and Montgomery College? Again, I think it's the relationships. Again, the associate dean, Dr. Manuel Gonzalez, has been there for 26 years. Patty Bullis, who's doing international admissions for 30 years. We have someone who works in our admissions office. His name is Mark Ors. He also, he's the advisor for the International Student Organization. So our international students are different but the same in the sense that we embrace the diversity, but they're just like every other student. And building those relationships, we're excited about having international students throughout our homes. We have people that volunteer as host families. So it really is, if you're looking for a family feel with someone who's going to hold your hand when you're in crisis and someone to kind of help you move along when you're stuck, that's what North Hampton Community College is. Thank you, Anise. Heidi. Montgomery College is really so fortunate to have its location and its connection to the county and the state be such a central part of what it does. So our students can do internships at the Library of Congress, National Institutes of Health, the National Institutes of Science and Technology. And so because we have those connections and we have those opportunities for students because of where we're located and because of our connection to the community, we're really able to offer students a lot of chances to get experience in their fields, which I think is a unique part of our institution. Thank you both for such valuable insights for our viewers. We are now going to move to the second half of our web chat to speak to two international students currently enrolled at community colleges in the United States. But first, we would like to show you some remarks by Dr. Jill Biden, second lady of the United States, and a proud community college instructor. Classroom, I have students from all over the world, from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe. Most of my students are immigrants and many of whom have left behind their families, their friends, and everything that was familiar to them to get an education in the United States. Because there's something I think very special about our institutions. They're open, they're diverse, and encourage free thought. We have such a vast and vibrant system that allows students to reach their full potential. I often say that my students are my heroes because many of them have had to overcome so many obstacles in life, conflicts, tragedies, heartbreaking losses, but they're turning the page on their past. Regardless of their circumstances, they show up. They work hard and they believe like you do that anything is possible. I'm now joined by Camila Matamoros, who is a student at Montgomery College. Camila is from Cali, Columbia, and is in her last semester as a business major. She told me she chose Montgomery College because of the diversity of students at the college, especially the opportunity for her to meet people from cultures she was not familiar with. Kevin Osoria is a student at Northampton Community College. He's the second of four children in his family and was born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He is a participant in the Community College initiative program, a program sponsored by the Department of State that provides a quality academic experience at U.S. Community Colleges intended to build technical skills, enhance leadership capacity capabilities, and strengthen English language proficiency. Kelvin is a business administration major. I'd also like to begin by asking each of you the same question I did before. What is most special about the Community College experience in your view? Kelvin. Well, basically I can say that the experience of being in a diverse community, and in this particular institution, Northampton Community College, I have the opportunity to not only meet new Americans, but also I have the opportunity to meet a lot of people from other countries, which is very awesome. Camila. I mean Montgomery College, we have the opportunity to have people from all over that world. It's not only meeting the person, but also meeting the religion, their opinion about that world. So that's amazing for me. Okay, thank you very much. Why did you both choose to study in the United States and at a Community College? Well, basically I am participating in the CCI Program, Community College Initiative Program, which is a wonderful experience to basically be in an American environment and have an American education, which is wonderful because as I come from a third world country, sometimes it is not really in my country, sometimes we don't really have the opportunity to experience the different things like we do here, but this particular program that I am participating in, I didn't have the opportunity to choose the college that I was going to. However, based on the interviews that I had before, based on my interest, they said that this is gonna be the most convenient for me because here I have the opportunity to participate in different leadership programs, which is basically an open door to success. Yes. Thank you. Camila. Well, I choose the United States because in my opinion it's a great place. Colombia is also very nice, but we don't have that much opportunity that the United States can give to us, especially to a student. My major as well is business, so this country, it's a pathway exactly to success, especially in that career. Just picking up on that, that links to our next question. Can you tell us a little bit about your areas of study, about your interests, about how you envision your career? Well, basically the opportunity of being here is to have an experiential learning in my business field. So I can say that Northampton Community College have given me the opportunity to not only know about the American culture, but also to know how you do business. So through the leadership programs, I am able to grow not only professionally, but personally, and it's a wonderful opportunity, I think. Camila. Same, in Montgomery College, I was part of the business club. So in here we have learned, well, I have learned how to do relations with people in order, like connections with people in order to grow your business. Same as leadership, it's very important. So I have learned all of those aspects in Montgomery College. That will help me later with my career. Okay, thank you. We have a question from the US Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. Could you tell us about programs that your community colleges offer students in general? What are the wide range of offerings that you have, not only that you found interesting, but that you see other students, international students studying or looking at? Well, basically the opportunity to engage with the community and be able to volunteer in the community, I think it's a wonderful experience. And also, we have the opportunity in Northampton Community College to go to different museums. And basically, I think it's a great opportunity to expand the skills. And in terms of programs itself, as I mentioned, I was participating in the leadership program, which I find very interesting. And it gives me the opportunity to know people from the area and from other different countries as well. And I also was participating in the etiquette launch, which I had the opportunity to meet managers and business owners from the Lehigh Valley, which is a great opportunity to basically growth. Camila. Montgomery College has a program that is named Five Data Kappa. This program is for owners, for students. So it doesn't give you only the opportunity to meet great people, but also to get involved with the community. So they have very, like, where we can go and help people from the church and, like, different activities to help the community as a whole. So both of you are studying business. What are some of the other areas that international students choose to study? What are some of the best offerings or interesting courses that you have at your colleges? Well, in Montgomery College, we have pretty much everything. We have nursing. We have computer science. We have, what else? Yeah, those are, like, the most common ones. I'm sure some languages. Languages as well, yes, for sure. Okay, excellent. Yeah, in Northampton Community College, we have the opportunity to participate in the second language program. So, basically, it gives us the opportunity to strengthen our abilities in the proficiency of English. And I think it's a great opportunity to basically interact with others. And also, not only that, but we also have the opportunity to participate in a communication program where the college put us in the spot of being able to speak in public. So it's a great opportunity to basically growth. And you're both doing a fantastic job about speaking to our viewers in public. I'm really pleased at this. So can you tell me, have you gotten involved in campus activities and activities in your community that are not just related to your studies, but related to what Anise and Heidi described to us as the community itself, that is, community colleges are so linked to their communities and students become a part of the community? Absolutely, yes. That is one of the good things about Northampton Community College, that Northampton Community College gives you the opportunity to not only being a regular student, but also get involved in the community. For example, I am right now volunteering in a church and in some other institution as well, and I am a senator, I am from the student senate. So as part of our duties, we are actually the connection between the college and the students as well. We are their boys. So basically we make decisions on their behalf. And what we're trying to do is that we basically approve clubs, we fund clubs, and also whenever our students have a great opportunity, they have an opportunity to basically bring their ideas of activities that we can have in college. So basically what we do is that we give them support, we give them their financial resources as well, and we help them to contribute to our community as well because sometimes their ideas is to basically help the community. So they come for advice and we give them the opportunity to have the funds and also the people that can get involved in their activities as well. Let me quickly follow up because you are a member of student government. How do you feel as an international student being part of the leadership of the whole college in terms of deciding what students want to do, what their priorities are, communicating with the administration, that's a lot of responsibility. What does it feel like to have come from the Dominican Republic and then to be involved in the leadership of your college? Well, I could say that it is very challenging, very demanding because I have to, let's say as I am an international student, I have to be able to communicate effectively with them and also as I have different point of view because I'm coming from a third world country, the Dominican Republic. Sometimes I could say that one of the challenges that I have here is that they're basically the environment, their culture is different than mine. So sometimes I have to adapt to their culture and also bring my culture beliefs. Sometimes I could say that in this particular position, this is a leadership position which I think is very challenging like I mentioned and well it gives me the opportunity to basically grow within and also give my ideas and my voice to be heard. Thank you, Kelvin, Camila. Well, in Montgomery College we also have a club that is called Voice for Animals where we're trying to raise funds for animals to take them to the shelters or to make people like a little bit more conscious about these animals. Same in the business club, we were trying to raise funds for some women in Africa so the whole idea was they created some necklaces and then in here we were selling them and then with that money we were able either to buy things for them or to send it back to their country in order to help them. I have to say I find it very impressive you are both very involved in your local communities in your colleges, you're certainly ambassadors for your countries in your colleges and in the United States. Do American students reach out to that?  Do they, do you find that it goes both ways? Yes, I think that, yes. I mean, I think that they feel, I don't know, like that word, but I think that they feel like engaged in order for them to be also helping, help with us. Yes, absolutely. Whenever it comes, whenever I go to an activity and I talk they say, hey, what are you from? And whenever I say that I am from the Dominican Republic they always, oh wow, you're from the Dominican Republic, tell me about it. I mean, how is the weather there and everything? So basically I see that it goes both ways. So their interest in knowing our culture is the same interest that we have to know their culture. Yes. That's fantastic. It's very cool. So our next question is, I think is a crucial one. How did you both convince your parents to let you study in the United States? You start with you, Camila? Well, yes. Well, actually my father, he was here. So, but he didn't want me to stay here, especially by my own. I don't have any family in here. And I had only a few friends. So at the beginning I had to make a PowerPoint presentation explaining like the pros and cons of why I shall stay here. Of course, more pros than cons. So that was for him. And then for my mom, she was also a little bit nervous because she was like, I mean, you're going to be there by yourself, the language, that culture, and then, but I was able to convince her as well. So it ended up good. Okay. Well, this is the first time that I'm away from my country. And I could say that my parents, they know that I am very independent. So when I told them that I wanted to come here to study, they said, Kelvin, are you sure? And I said, yes, I am positive. I will go and I will do it and I will succeed. And they said, well, we always say yes to whatever crazy idea you might have. So yes, we're going to say yes to this one as well. And we hope the best. Thank you both very much. I mean, this makes me think back to my own college experiences and the fact that all of us, it's a crucial time in life. Lots of things are changing, lots of challenges. We're trying to imagine, what does this mean for me? What am I going to do in the future? There are difficulties as well as opportunities and great experiences. Can you talk a little bit about the struggles or the challenges that you faced in college and how you've overcome them or how you've dealt with them? Basically, my biggest challenge has been adapting to this new culture, like in the classroom, for example, because in my country, I didn't have the opportunity to work the same way I am working right now. Let's say in terms of my studies, like right now we have an online platform that we have to submit, our assignments and all that. So basically that was very challenging for me at the beginning. But then when you started to realize that in my particular college, Northampton Community College, I have a lot of people that are able to help me and able to help me succeed. It's basically kind of something good. So this is how I overcome that challenge. Basically, the learning center, I have been there a lot of times because I was struggling in the beginning with some classes, but they helped me out and thankfully right now, I am on a good path right now in a good way. Excellent. Camila. Well, my challenge at the beginning was the language. I knew a little bit back home, but when I got here, it was totally different. But thanks God, the American people, they have been very, very nice with me at college. We have high quality professors who have been there since the beginning to help me move on to where I am now. So now I'm already almost near to graduation, which is very good, yeah. Yes, and also not only that, but the professors in Northampton Community College, they have office hours. So they always motivate you to visit them in their office hours. So besides class, you also have an opportunity to talk to them in one-on-one, having a one-on-one conversation so you can succeed. If you're struggling with something, you have the opportunity to let them know so they might know that you're from a different country. Maybe you don't understand a term because as English is our second language, sometimes we don't understand everything. But as we have the opportunity to talk to them directly, you know, it makes it easy. The American College also has those office hours and they are great because we have the opportunity to be near to our professors. So they might know the struggles that you might have either because the language or because you had like a culture shock. So I mean, it's great. They are very good people. That's great to hear. What are some of the things that have surprised you after coming to the United States and how have your impressions of the United States changed since coming here? Well, I had realized that you guys are very open to new ideas and very open to new cultures. So basically at the beginning, I thought that you were not like that, but now I realize that I have been treated as a family member right now. So I could say that everybody here is very friendly, very nice, very open, and they are able to teach you and guide you through the process of being in a different country. I'm glad to hear it, but Camilla. Well, at the beginning, I thought that you were like a little bit disorganized, but when I got here, I was Catholic and I went to the church and in my country, we didn't do a line to receive the communion. But in here, you got to do a line in order to receive a communion. So at that moment, I was like, oh my God, these people are very straight and even with the traffic, that respect that you have to the police, it's amazing for me.  Keeping that idea, what is different about American classrooms and about the professors that you have different from what you were expecting or what you had imagined? Well, I could say that in the American classroom, we have like an interactive conversation. So it's not only the professor saying in the class, but you have the opportunity to say your own ideas, which is wonderful. Sometimes in our countries, we don't have that opportunity. We just sit there and listen to the professor, but here we have the opportunity to say something and give your own opinion. Does your opinion count? Sometimes back in our country, they're like a little bit more conservative as you said in here, you guys are a little bit more open-minded. So what do you think, even though it might be different, it's also important and they take it into account. So given that interactive nature of the classroom, what do you do if you don't understand something? What do you do if there's a, let you said if you don't understand a word or something isn't clear? I raise my hand. Yeah, I'm like, otherwise I'll get behind. And I mean, the professors are so good that they have already gave you like that. They let you do that.  As well, because the other students who might be American, they understand that this is not your first language. So, I mean, it's amazing to have that support from the professors and from the students. Yes, I also raise my hand. I ask a lot of questions whenever I don't understand a term, I say, hey, can you please, can you please give me a little bit of explanation of that term? And no one has ever said, oh, come on, let's move forward. No, they are very open. They actually give you the opportunity and say, okay, what I meant was this and that. And for example, there are a lot of things that maybe sometimes because of a time we don't have the opportunity to cover it in class. So there, when it comes their office hours, so we can be able to see them after. And so you're meeting with the professor, her, or himself in office hours. That has been actually my experience right now. I'm taking Economics 202. I have, at the beginning, I wasn't struggling a lot, but I started going to the office hours and my second midterm, it was great. Thanks to that, because the professor was open to explain me after class. I'm like 101 situation, which is even better. Fantastic. Now, you both sound like very busy people in terms of studies and interests and your lives. How do you balance school, family, and work and all the opportunities that you have outside of school, like sports and your volunteer options, all the things that are available to you at your community colleges? Well, at the beginning I was struggling with it, with it before, but then I realized that organization is the key. So I have an agenda with me all the time and whenever I have an activity, I write it down. Okay, on Thursday I have an activity, I write it down. So basically I divided the activities by time. So I will say, okay, right now I'm gonna study marketing and I'm gonna assign two or three hours a day so I can complete that assignment. And once I am done with that, I can move forward with the other activities during the day. And that is basically how I organize myself and right now I am succeeding because of that. But at the beginning, I was struggling because I didn't have like a natural plan, but then when I realized that organization is important, then I decided to have a plan and write down everything so I can be able to accomplish more and be patient as well. Thank you, Calvin, Camila. Same, I think that writing everything in an agenda is the best option. Just because at the end of the day, when you have already completed that assignment, you can just cross it out and that's the best feeling that you can get. Crossing it out because you're already done with it. So it has worked also for me. It sounds like you're both very entrepreneurial that is you're interested in many things, but through good organization, you can balance lots of opportunities. Do you, are there things that you would still like to do in the future in terms of what is available to you where you've said I just don't have time or I have too much going on or do you find the balance about right in terms of the way your lives are right now? Well, right now I have a balance right now, but I can say that right now I am working in a project. So once I go back to my country, I am gonna travel the country delivering motivational speeches. So what I'm doing, I am in my preparation stage, let's say. So right now I am attending different leadership conferences and I am reading a lot so I can be more prepared and give more to my country once I go back. So also here, I am working in a project to do kind of the same thing, like go to different nonprofit organizations like Boys and Girls Club to basically deliver motivational speeches, but this time I am partnering with an ex-convict. So he's gonna give his basically life, changing experience, a speech about how his life have changed since he has been working, he has been in a different program to basically overcome their obstacles, his obstacles before. So I think that it gives me the opportunity to not only get the experiential learning here, but also I'm gonna be more effective once I go back to my country because of this great opportunity. That's fantastic. So right now I'm working in the International Student Office at Montgomery College as the manager. So this experience has been amazing. So right now I'm trying to finish this period with that, onto graduation. And then after that I'm hoping to do OPT which is also another opportunity for international students to work in any field in our major. So for now, right now I think that I'm balanced with what I'm doing. So I mean, I hope that in the future I can start getting some more experience towards my field. But for right now I feel that I've done well. So speaking about the future, how do you think that your current experience at a community college is going to impact your future when you are looking for jobs? Well, I can say tremendously. This opportunity, oh, it's a huge opportunity. And also not only it looks good on a resume, but gives me the basically notion of the environment that I'm gonna be working in the future. Same, I mean this opportunity working at Montgomery College give me the experience of how to do an interview because it's totally different back home same as writing a resume. So I mean, this has been great because all the skills that I have acquired from this job will benefit my future in other jobs. Thank you both. So we have reached our final question which is what advice would you give prospective students, viewers or anyone else who is thinking about studying in the United States and considering studying at a community college? Well, I can say never stop dreaming. Everything is possible. I was back in the days like around this day in time back in the years. I didn't even know that I was going to be here and look where I am. So never stop dreaming. Focus on the things that you would like to do. Don't focus on your basically general situation but see outside of the box. Yeah, that's true. I think that if you have that dream of being outside of your country or meeting some new people, just go for it because you don't know what's going to happen next and for sure it's gonna be good. If you follow your dream and what you wanna do, it will be good for sure. Well, unfortunately we are almost out of time but I wonder if each of you has a few parting thoughts for our viewers. Kelly, you gave a lot of encouragement. Anything you'd like to say about a community college to end? Well, basically Northampton Community College is not only an institution but a family. The first day that I went to that particular institution, I felt like at home. So I said, this is not going to be something different than my family. So this is my new family right now and I'm very proud of them. That's inspiring. Well, Montgomery College or our community college as its name says, it's a community where if you're struggling, there will be someone supporting you. So don't just let your thoughts go if you're feeling like that you're struggling, just go for it because there will be a family that will be able to support you. Well, thank you for joining us today, Camila and Kelvin and thanks to Heidi and Anise who joined us earlier in the program. You can find more information about studying in the United States by visiting the EducationUSA website at www.educationusa.state.gov. There you can find information on the five steps to US study, locate an EducationUSA center in your country, one of 413 around the world, connect with us via social media, learn about both in-person and virtual upcoming events, research financial aid opportunities and much more. Thank you and please join us for future EducationUSA interactive web chats.