Southern Section Needs to Cut Costs

With CIF Commissioner Marie Ishida in the audience, an independent auditor told the state’s Executive Committee earlier this week that the Southern Section lost $106,000 last fiscal year and stands to lose about half that this year unless labor costs are curbed.

The section, which claims that a state marketing proposal could cause it to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, still has $1.1 million in reserves. But auditor Roger Carmody said that costs of pensions, rising disability insurance and unused vacation time for the section’s 14-member staff threaten to eat into that annually. He said that losses in 2002-03 were largely a result of the section relocating from a rented building in Cerritos to property it purchased in Los Alamitos, and from a $30,000 settlement of a lawsuit over the section’s association rule.

Southern Section Commissioner Jim Staunton said the section has taken steps to cut costs by capping employee medical insurance premiums and is in the process of finding a new carrier for disability insurance, which increased 45% this year. Employee pay raises have been held to a combined 3% over the last two years. But the section faces an additional $15,000 to $20,000 in property tax assessments on the new headquarters that was not included in the figures presented by Carmody to the executive committee.

Later in the meeting, section Treasurer Susana Arce of Ojai Nordhoff told the panel that another source of financial concern is that about 90 schools are more than four months behind in paying dues. Staunton said schools that have not paid by Jan. 1 would be ineligible to participate in playoffs. The section has charged 23 cents per student per school since 1986.

Southern Section Council President Paul Breit of the Pomona Unified School District said the section, given its current economic situation, hoped to resolve marketing differences with the state office without threatening the future of the 10-section federation. But he said that Southern Section marketing, which makes up 21% of the section’s revenue, cannot take the hit being proposed by the state. Among other things, the state’s proposal would eliminate the section’s $165,000-a-year title sponsor.

Paul McLeod

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Sophomore Emily Spiker, who led Ventura to a second-place finish behind Hesperia Sultana in the state Division II cross-country final last year, will not run today in the Southern Section preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College or in the section championships because of patellar tendinitis in her knee.

Spiker finished 11th in the state meet last year but struggled to a 17th-place finish in the Channel League finals Nov. 6. Ventura girls’ Coach Bill Tokar said Spiker might run for Ventura in the state championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 29 if the Cougars advance to that meet with a top-seven finish in the Division I final of the section championships.

-- John Ortega