Sedona Mayor (as private citizen) urges Governing Board to support Committee recommendations

Mayor Moriarty

Sedona Mayor Sandy Moriarty, speaking as a private citizen, thanked the Governing Board for creating the Verde Valley advisory Committees. She urged the Governing Board at its March 3 meeting to support the recommendations of the [Board Advisory] Committee that were made just a few minutes before she spoke. She said that the original reason for creating the Committees (Advisory Committee to the Board and Advisory Committee to Executive Dean Perey) was that citizens in Sedona and the Verde Valley realized that the Ten-Year-Development-Plan did not receive the input it should have from them.

She asked that the Board allow the Board Advisory Committee to comment on the capital budget and comment on the College’s strategic plan. Mayor Moriarty’s comments to the Board may be viewed by clicking here.

Governing Board Chair lectures Verde Committee on Board “limits” and independence of College in deciding operations

Showing less than enthusiastic support for the first report to the Board by the Verde Valley Governing Board Advisory Committee, the Chair of the Governing Board made clear the restrictions on the Board and impliedly the Committee when dealing with the Community College administration. The comments by the Chair can be seen and heard by clicking here.

The Chair said that “the Board’s role is policy, . . . it is not operational.” She continued that the “Board does not dictate to the President . . . the way that those . . . goals are carried out.”

She said that the recommendations given to the Board by the Committee involved details “on how you would like the needs that you have identified to be resolved. . . . That is not the Board’s job.”

She also said the Board is not going to decide or dictate to the [College] president how to carry out the activities that need to be done. She said she wanted to “make sure” everyone was on the “same page here.”

District two representative, Deb McCasland pointed out that the Board sets the budget, which dictates whether it will follow the proposed operational plan put before it by the College administrators.

Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee recommends Governing Board halt Ten-Year-Master Plan development; create a strategic plan

The Chair of the Verde Valley Governing Board Advisory Committee, Mr. Paul Chevalier, reported on the Committee’s work over the past several months at the March 3 Governing Board meeting. The full videotape of the report given to the Governing Board can be accessed by clicking here.

The Committee recommended that  no further capital construction be approved by the Board until (a) the College produces a strategic development plan for both sides of the mountain and (b) the Advisory Committee has had a reasonable opportunity to comment on it before any action is taken. 

Mr. Chevalier expressed concern that the present capital improvement plan, like last year’s Ten-Year-Plan, strongly favors the west side of the County. As a result, there is little capital improvement money for the Verde Valley. He said the Committee may be recommending capital improvements for the Verde Valley “but such recommendations would be moot if all the money is [already] allocated” to the west side of the County.

The Committee also asked for the opportunity to study whether some of the capital improvements proposed in the Ten-Year-Plan on the west side of the County might be better put in the Verde Valley. He explained that “this is why a strategic plan for both sides of the mountain, with our comments about it, should be submitted to you” before any further capital improvements are made. Read More→