Yavapai College Governing Board members don’t have to visit all campuses in person to comply with statute, the community college’s attorney Lynne Adams said during its online meeting Tuesday, Sept. 23.
The board met virtually to discuss whether the board should discuss in a future meeting on members’ visits to campuses to examine the management, its conditions and what the college might require to improve.
The agenda item brought some confusion to why the board was discussing it, rather than members just doing it as state law requires.
“Being as it is statute, wouldn’t this be automatic?” board member Toby Payne asked. “And not be something that has to go anywhere else?”
Payne represents District 3 which includes Sedona, Clarkdale, Cottonwood and parts of Cornville.
“I disagree that you haven’t done this,” Adams said. “You have looked at the community colleges, examined their management conditions and needs, you do that in a variety of ways. I don’t think ‘visit’ necessarily needs to be in person.”
The board doesn’t need to visit all at once, either. Each member is allowed to visit on their own.
“You can visit them by video, you can visit them by photos,” Adams said. “I think you do get a lot of that information.”
The board voted unanimously to agendize the topic in a future meeting. The next one being held online on Thursday, Oct. 28, at 1 p.m.
In October 2024, Sedona City Council held a special meeting to have discussions with the college about its Sedona campus. The college’s administration, however, decided it “didn’t want to.”
The NEWS reported in 2024 Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow requested to ask college board about declining enrollment in culinary courses in Sedona — from 169 students in 2018 to 49 students in 2021; the number of students attending in-person classes; the number of online students from Sedona and the Verde Valley; total in-person enrollment at the Verde Valley campus for fall 2024; the proportion of the $49 million the college receive in property taxes that comes from Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek taxpayers; why the president’s publicly funded salary is not made public; and what plans the college has for Sedona in the next three to five years.
The administration’s representative, Richard Hernandez, responded saying the college would rather interact with residents directly.
“The college is not interested in a repeat of how we were treated the last time we presented to the council,” Hernandez wrote to Jablow. “That meeting was inappropriate, and the line of questioning was not respectful for a public forum. Based on your questions, we are declining to present to the council on Oct. 9, 2024.”
In-Person Meetings
During the Sept. 23 meeting, the board approved discussing the possibility of in-person meeting during a future meeting, although like the agenda item for campus visits, it didn’t specify which future meeting the discussion will take place.
The board had met for virtual meeting at the end of 2020 and into 2021 due to COVID-19. By 2023, it had gone back to in-person meetings. Then in January, the board’s chair, Deb McCasland, decided to indefinitely make all future meetings virtual again.
“I certainly think there is some value in allowing the public to attend the meeting, and more importantly the public has never been given an explanation as to why all the, at least scheduled, future meeting are virtual as opposed to in person,” board member Bill Kiel said Sept. 23. “We spent a lot of money putting together a board room for such reason.”
Kiel, who represents District 1 including Prescott and surrounding areas, said he was also concerned with the lack of open calls to the public, when taxpayers speak to the board directly. The last open call was in November 2024, before Kiel was elected as a board member.
“The public has also not been allowed since November of —” Kiel said before Adams interrupted him.
“That is not on this agenda,” she said. “I’m sorry, Mr. Kiel.”
During COVID-19, virtual open calls happened virtually by submitting a request to join ahead of time, but since the college has switched back to virtual meetings, no open calls have made it to any meeting agenda.
