Don't you recognize a selfless act when you see one?
I resigned as Board President of the Rio Hondo College Board of Trustees at a regular meeting on Wednesday, June 12, 2019. Admittedly, it felt good to resign and I feel accomplished. For full transparency, i will tell you why. Instead of being constantly attacked by a board member and checking her undue influence on the Superintendent, I choose to step aside and let others lead hoping the mean spirited vindictiveness will cease.
In sum, I met my main objective which was to assure that Rio Hondo College hired a good and unbiased Superintendent/President. This was not an easy task. It was filled with skirmishes, clandestine chicanery and pitch battles. It was known a year out that two board members, possibly four before the change in the board, and a group of employees that they had predetermined who they were going to hire as the next superintendent/president. The votes and structure was all in place before November. The champagne bottles were poping. However, the group was careless in who they brought into the scheme not realizing that leaks will always occur when a sinister plan is in play. People like to talk. The gang talked about stacking the search committee but with twenty-three members they were unable to acquire a majority. Mistake one.
The remaining two conspiring board members proceeded with their end of the scheme. First, was the development of questions from the board. The process agreed by the board was that the development of the interview questions was to occur in closed session, as normal usual, free from any employees and administered by the Search Firm only. The first move by the conspirators was to bias the questions with a movida to change from questions to requiring the candidates to make a presentation on "equity". First hint on who they were helping by skipping questions and just asking for a presentation. Defeated. The two board members tried to force it on the board twice to only be defeated. After the board agreed on its questions, it was understood that the search firm would type it up for the board to review and make any changes, and print on the day of interviews. It was agreed that the search firm would would walk over to HR and copy them for the board.
So on the day of interviews the search consultant copied the interview questions and a dean walked into our closed session and handed them out. Some found it odd that a dean would be handing us our confidential questions. Members of the board noticed that the interview questions now included a rubric scale one to five with specially designated boxes for notes. What's this I asked? The dean said, "this is how we do it at Rio Hondo". I said, excuse me but I've been here for over twenty years and we have never done it this way. Besides, the board agreed on the instrument of interview questions and finalized them this morning. Who gave you authority to change our instrument? His reply, "I did". Who are you and what gives you the right? Dean you need to leave right now. Cease and desist! He replied, I have to be here, im the EEOO. I said, no you are not, the consultant is by contract. I went to the Superintendent/president to inform her that I asked the dean to leave and you need to make sure he does. Superintendent/President replied, "oh..i didn't know he was in the room or what he was doing there". Nice try but no. He never came back.
So, the interview questions were heavy on equity due to two board members. We knew why but so be it. At the end of all interviews came the accolades for the predetermined candidate of the conspiring board members. The truth was that their candidate bombed and bombed big. The two highlighted the smallest positive attributes. The selection phase came and the two were dumbfounded that their candidate came in close to last. It was straight forward objective on who were the best candidates and theirs wasn't. So the two continued to fight to place their chosen candidate on the top ranking and it failed each and every time. The two continued to put obstacles up throughout the process and came up short.
Then the board discovered that staff had the interview questions in their possession the day after we developed them. Why would staff want a copy of the interview questions? You may have guessed. It turned out that the search firm had forwarded the draft interview questions to staff without the board knowing and staff explained that "that's how we do it here". Very suspicious, right?
It gets more intriguing. The board also found out that after our interviews, and before the board made any determination of candidates, staff had scanned all its interview notes. It was caught by a board member who noticed that the questionnaire paper was unstapled and restapled. Did someone unstapled the instrument, made copies and restapled? Perhaps the intention was accidental and "that how we do it here"? You got to think.
The chicanery didn't stop there. They continued to the last day.
Now, I resigned because I did what i needed to do for my college. I kept the process as objective as possible. We hired a good decent Superintendent/President who will start after July 10th, 2019. Oh..one more thing. The current superintendent/president will be retiring on June 30, 2019 and I thank her for all her years of service. I'm grateful for her contribution to Rio Hondo College, truly. However, voted four to one that the Vice President of Academic Services will assuming the duties as superintendent/president till the New superintendent/President assumes the position. I know she will serve us well.
It's back to farming for me. Transparency, right?
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Monday, June 24, 2019
Safety & Security at Rio Hondo Delayed
In January 2019, the Board of Trustees initiated a Safety & Security Assessment by contracting a former police chief and former arson investigator to perform an independent assessment of Rio Hondo College. This was primarily in response to the gun incident at Rio Hondo College that occurred months before and which left many wondering if the college was safe. This coincided with a change in the board composition where new board members were calling for an intensive review of safety and where incumbents board members wished just to put that in the past without any further inquiry.
The superintendent was reluctant against any safety assessment where the gun incident might be investigated. The gun carrying dean claimed that the superintendent allowed him to carry the gun on campus without notifying the board of trustees. The superintendent made herself clear to the board president that she was adamantly against any inquiry related to the gun incident and that she would strike out any focus from the scope of services. However, the board directed the superintendent to allow the assessment firm to do a full comprehensive review of safety and security at Rio Hondo College without any interference. In private, however, the superintendent demanded that the safety and security assessment occur only after she leaves which was counter to the board’s wishes and directive. The safety and security assessment passed five-zero on the board. The urgency was clear from the board.
Two months passed, and the superintendent stalled and delayed the signing of the contract of the assessment firm. She further delayed the contract and gutted the scope of the assessment thus obstructing a full independent evaluation. She now prescribed that the investigators only talk to two people on campus; the VP of Finance and the HR Director. All other communication was prohibited.
Five months passed until the two investigators of the assessment firm informed the board president of all the delays, stalls and gutting of the contract. The Superintendent was unresponsive. The board president met with the superintendent to ask about the status of the contract and she claimed ignorance. She did not know about the status. When asked further for a status update, a week later, she indicated that the contract “wasn’t ready”. Six months later, after the original contract scope had changed and the delayed continued, the contracted investigators communicated to the board president that the delays had now limited the scope and time frame. Where the original scope was for twelve months now they have only six months to do a year’s amount of work, if the contract ever gets signed.
On or about June 10th 2019, The board president received an amended contract to forward to the superintendent since she was unresponsive. The board president met with the superintendent to discuss the status of the contract and modification requested by the firm given that six months had passed and still no contract had been signed. In discussion, the superintendent agreed that a years’ worth of work must now be done in six months warranted a modification. The conversation about the importance of safety and security was mutually agreed and that the assessment was needed. The Superintendent informed the board president that the modification will be placed on the consent agenda by her recommendation. However, the story of the safety and security assessment was told differently by the superintendent at a board meeting.
The bottom line is this, Rio Hondo College students and employees deserve to study and work in a safe environment. After the gun incident and other reoccurring circumstances like stalking, now is the time to conduct an independent safety and security assessment so that we can identify our weak points and strengths to begin to address them. Why should we wait till a serious safety crisis arises? The stall and delay were a tactic to prevent any scrutiny of the gun incident. The delay was successful. The assessment will not be conducted while the sitting president is in office. However, the assessment must continue without delay or obstruction. Our students and employees deserve to be safe.
The superintendent was reluctant against any safety assessment where the gun incident might be investigated. The gun carrying dean claimed that the superintendent allowed him to carry the gun on campus without notifying the board of trustees. The superintendent made herself clear to the board president that she was adamantly against any inquiry related to the gun incident and that she would strike out any focus from the scope of services. However, the board directed the superintendent to allow the assessment firm to do a full comprehensive review of safety and security at Rio Hondo College without any interference. In private, however, the superintendent demanded that the safety and security assessment occur only after she leaves which was counter to the board’s wishes and directive. The safety and security assessment passed five-zero on the board. The urgency was clear from the board.
Two months passed, and the superintendent stalled and delayed the signing of the contract of the assessment firm. She further delayed the contract and gutted the scope of the assessment thus obstructing a full independent evaluation. She now prescribed that the investigators only talk to two people on campus; the VP of Finance and the HR Director. All other communication was prohibited.
Five months passed until the two investigators of the assessment firm informed the board president of all the delays, stalls and gutting of the contract. The Superintendent was unresponsive. The board president met with the superintendent to ask about the status of the contract and she claimed ignorance. She did not know about the status. When asked further for a status update, a week later, she indicated that the contract “wasn’t ready”. Six months later, after the original contract scope had changed and the delayed continued, the contracted investigators communicated to the board president that the delays had now limited the scope and time frame. Where the original scope was for twelve months now they have only six months to do a year’s amount of work, if the contract ever gets signed.
On or about June 10th 2019, The board president received an amended contract to forward to the superintendent since she was unresponsive. The board president met with the superintendent to discuss the status of the contract and modification requested by the firm given that six months had passed and still no contract had been signed. In discussion, the superintendent agreed that a years’ worth of work must now be done in six months warranted a modification. The conversation about the importance of safety and security was mutually agreed and that the assessment was needed. The Superintendent informed the board president that the modification will be placed on the consent agenda by her recommendation. However, the story of the safety and security assessment was told differently by the superintendent at a board meeting.
The bottom line is this, Rio Hondo College students and employees deserve to study and work in a safe environment. After the gun incident and other reoccurring circumstances like stalking, now is the time to conduct an independent safety and security assessment so that we can identify our weak points and strengths to begin to address them. Why should we wait till a serious safety crisis arises? The stall and delay were a tactic to prevent any scrutiny of the gun incident. The delay was successful. The assessment will not be conducted while the sitting president is in office. However, the assessment must continue without delay or obstruction. Our students and employees deserve to be safe.
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