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. 

“Asinine decision is slap in face to the Verde Valley”

In a September 16  editorial by the Managing Editor of the Sedona Red Rock News, Christopher Fox Graham, the decision by the three West County members of the District Governing Board to dismantle the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee was characterized as an “Asinine decision.” 

Mr. Christoper Fox Graham

Graham wrote in part that “The move to kill the one committee that has staved off a full-on lawsuit to remove the Verde Valley from the yoke of bad governance smells of Yavapai College President Penny Wills, who has done everything she can to marginalize our residents.”  He also wrote that “The board has taken this prize show pony out back and shot it.” 

You may read Mr. Graham’s entire editorial on the decision to dismantle the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee by clicking here.

FEAR OF PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF INEQUITIES SPELLS END TO VVBAC

Commentary

The decision by the three-member West County voting block on the Yavapai College District Governing Board on Monday, September 13 to essentially dismantle the existing Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee (VVBAC) was an insult to every citizen in the Verde Valley. It was made almost in secret in the late afternoon of the Board’s retreat when there were no citizens present and without placing the item on the agenda in a recognizable fashion.  Unlike regular Board sessions, there was no video record of the proceeding being made.

Recall that the VVBAC is a blue ribbon volunteer committee made up of seven outstanding citizens from every corner of the Verde Valley.  When it was created 21 months ago, every effort was made to avoid bias and be all inclusive. Therefore, the towns, cities, Yavapai County supervisors and the Yavapai Apache Nation prepared a careful list of possible VVBAC committee members, which was sent to Yavapai County Education Superintendent Tim Carter. After Mr. Carter interviewed all the candidates, he made the final appointments.  It was an inclusive, transparent and honest process–a rarity in today’s ugly political world. Obviously, none of this mattered to the West County Board majority.

It is stunning that no one on the Governing Board had the common courtesy to call the VVBAC Chair prior to Monday’s retreat to inform him the issue of the VVBAC’s future was to be discussed.  No one on the Board even had the common courtesy to ask the Chair or any members of the VVBAC if the Committee’s work had been concluded prior to Monday’s vote. Of course, we all know the VVBAC’s work was far from done. The motive of the West County majority for not discussing the matter with the VVBAC and acting almost in secret is obvious.  

Good manners, simple courtesy, and civility took a back seat Monday to the growing fear held by the West County voting block that it might lose its 50-year grip on power over the Verde Valley because of continued public disclosures. The public was learning from an unbiased, trusted source far too much about the College’s wild spending spree on buildings and the educational inequities between the East and West sides of the County.

The West County majority also must have concluded that only by dismantling the VVBAC could it continue to maintain absolute control and distribution of the tax revenue coming from the East side of the County in support of the West County community college educational empire. Again, the VVBAC was revealing far too much!

For those of us who observe the Board carefully, it was clear that as the VVBAC’s voice grew on behalf of the Verde Valley, its existence was increasingly being placed in jeopardy. It had become the last thing the West County voting block could tolerate:  a trusted, democratic, open, strong, thoughtful and effective voice for the citizens of the Verde Valley concerned about post-secondary education. Furthermore, it was producing excellent documents to support its intelligent and thoughtful recommendations. Finally, it was continually offering a hand of conciliation and cooperation to the District Governing Board to resolve many of the post-secondary issues in the Verde Valley.  That generosity was never reciprocated and could not be tolerated.  

Now that the West County majority has dismantled the VVBAC, the College propaganda machine will swing into overtime to try and “fix” things.  The strategy above all else will be to pacify Sedona’s Mayor, Council, and citizens. They are feared above all else in the Verde Valley.  It will do this with “B.S. rhetoric,” and financial handouts. It will promise to return a small portion of the $6 million to the Sedona Taxing District it annually pays out to support the College. The handout will be applied to renovate the Sedona Center–probably $3.5 million or so of its $80 million annual budget with the promise to develop a culinary program. A drop in its financial budget bucket.

Recall that the “fix-it” phase of the relationship with Sedona is being done only after the West majority and President Penelope Wills created a public relations nightmare for themselves when they unsuccessfully considered closing and selling the Center.  And shuttering the internationally recognized film school.

Once Sedona is pacified and its political voices calmed, the controlling West County majority will quietly return to using the millions of excess discretionary dollars now at their disposal to build more and more facilities, athletic fields and programs for the West County.

The political lesson is clear. The only avenue left for the 70,000 residents of the Verde Valley if they are to ever develop a strong Community College is to seek help from the legislature. The legislature has the power to create a separate contiguous taxing district and Community College for the Verde Valley.  Something similar to what was done when the legislature created the Sedona high school district.

I encourage you to write your legislators and the Governor of Arizona demanding that the historic inequity existing between the East and West sides of Yavapai County in post-secondary learning opportunities be corrected. The remedy is for legislation to create a separate contiguous taxing district for a Verde Valley Community College. That is the only long-term solution to the continued absence of post-secondary learning opportunities in the Verde Valley.

Bob Oliphant