WHY THE ODD CLOAK OF SECRECY OVER WILLS’ TRAVEL?

No formal explanation of absence from office March 21 to April 11

The cloak of secrecy around the whereabouts of Yavapai Community College President Penelope Wills from March 21 to April 11 is odd.  Staff, faculty and Board members either don’t know where she was or when asked refuse to disclose her whereabouts during that period or the purpose of her visit. 

Three sources have claimed to the Blog that she was in Auckland, New Zealand during a portion of that time. They also claim that Verde Campus Dean James Perey will visit New Zealand this summer–something about wine. 

It also seems odd that at neither the April nor May Governing Board meetings that Wills’ reported on the three-week absence from the District.  While her travel during the academic year is of little actual significance, the ability to cloak the travel and its purpose from the public illustrates the ease with which a bureaucrat paid about a quarter million dollars a year who runs a publicly financed entity can keep matters from the public.  The incident also illustrates the power Wills’ exercises over her subordinates to keep something as mundane as her travel from the public.   Obviously, this kind of behavior raises questions about what else is being kept from the public?