Points out Hypocrisy of what amounted to essentially a Secret Vote during Governing Board Retreat
In an editorial by editor Dan Engler in the September 15, 2016 Verde Independent, he pointed out the hypocrisy of the vote taken in the late afternoon on Monday, September 12 by the Community College District Governing Board. That 3-2 vote, which was engineered by the three members from the West side of the County that control the Board, eliminated the blue ribbon Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee. There were no citizens present and unlike a general session, there is no video record of the proceeding. Both Verde Valley representatives opposed the vote.
Mr. Engler questioned whether Arizona’s Open Meeting Law was violated because the Agenda for the retreat contained no languages suggesting a vote on the future of the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee was to be considered. He also pointed out that earlier in the year, when an item was discussed by the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee under the heading “Ownership Linkage” that President Wills questioned whether the efficacy of an Administrative College could be discussed because the heading was so vague.
Mr. Dan Engler
Here, in part, is what Mr. Engler wrote about this issue.
“. . . [B]oard members were wrong in dismantling the VVBAC, and probably even more wrong in the way they went about it. It bears emphasis that when VVBAC members were pushing for a separate Verde Valley administrative college district under the agenda heading Ownership Linkage,' college President Penny Wills agreed with this newspaper that the committee was playing fast and loose with the state's Open Meeting Law.' ‘It’s supposed to be clear enough so people will know what they are going to be discussing,’ Wills said at the time.”
“Guess what? At their Monday retreat, college board members voted 3-2 to suspend the VVBAC under the very same agenda item: Ownership linkage. Was that ‘clear enough so people will know what they are going to be discussing,’ to use Wills’ words. Board member Deb McCasland claimed she was blind-sided when her colleagues moved forward on suspending VVBAC. The agenda did not make it clear that such action was being considered.”
You may read Mr. Engler’s editorial in its entirety by clicking here.