Fresno Coaches Face Furlough From Budget Cuts

((HT: Fresno Bee-Hostetter/Brooks))

Fresno State athletic director Thomas Boeh has been authorized to create and implement an employee-furlough process in Bulldogs athletics. The executive committee of the Fresno State Athletic Corp. board on Friday morning charged Boeh with the task of doing the seemingly impossible: Figure out a way to send coaches home without pay two days a month, even when their sport is in season.

It won't be easy, Boeh told the committee, because coaching "is, in essence, a seven-day-a-week endeavor."

Boeh said he is working with officials at other state universities, including San Jose State and San Diego State, to create a process that is fair and consistent within the California State University system. He said the process may have to take into account the unique requirements of a sport in season.

In other words, does it make sense to send football coach Pat Hill's defensive coordinator home for a day on the Tuesday before Boise State comes to town?

Boeh didn't say as much, but left the distinct impression that athletes in all Fresno State sports would be spared something like that. The committee meeting was brief, no more than 15 minutes, and short on details about the uncertain direction of Fresno State athletics. Less than 24 hours earlier, university president John Welty had described the stringent steps Fresno State must take over the next 11 months to close a nearly $45 million budget gap.

The entire university will feel the pain. Higher student fees, fewer class offerings, staff reductions and two-day-a-month furloughs for most employees are all but inevitable in the 2009-10 fiscal year that began July 1.

As Boeh and committee members made clear this morning, athletics will share the burden. Boeh said he's only in the "draft" stage of his plan, and could report back to the entire Athletic Corp. board as soon as September.

The meeting closed with university chief financial officer Cynthia Matson advising the committee that the September board meeting may include a revised 2009-10 athletic budget.

The public has yet to see the current 2009-10 budget. The Athletic Corp. board approved it this spring and sent it up the chain of command for Welty's review and signature. University officials said the budget would not be made public until it has the president's signature.

But board Chairman Paul Oliaro said recently that the original 2009-10 budget anticipated revenues and expenditures of about $23.6 million.

Revenues were $24.4 million in 2006-07 and $23.6 million in 2007-08. Expenditures were $22.6 million in 2006-07 and $25.5 million in 2007-08.

The 2008-09 budget anticipated revenues of $25.4 million and expenditures of $25.3 million. But Boeh admitted midway through the year that revenues were on a pace to come in at $24 million, and he was responding with a variety of cost-saving measures.

Here's KSEE-TV's coverage of the budget mess in Fresno...

Justin Willis was at President Welty's town hall...

Wasn't President Welty's joke about football a funny one...???