Despite numerous technical difficulties throughout the Yavapai College Governing Board’s Oct. 28 meeting that lasted nearly three hours, the board voted against returning to in-person meetings.
District 2 Representative Deb McCasland, the board’s chairwoman, said the reason for the virtual meetings was explained in an executive session, which wasn’t open to the public, and that those minutes “must remain confidential.”
Decision Made in Executive Session
In the executive session, which happened in February, District 1 Representative William Kiel was not present, choosing instead to stay in the public room. Toby Payne, the District 3 representative who represents Sedona, Clarkdale and Cottonwood, was also not present during the executive session.
“I’m open to meetings maybe not until after the first of the year, Steve [Bracety, District 5 representative and the board secretary] and I are both still working and it takes time to go, and the meetings that we did have in person, there was no folks from the public that were interested in attending,” District 4 representative Patrick Kuykendall said. “So I think this gives them a better opportunity, virtually.”
Kiel said his guess of the reason for the virtual meetings was because of a trespass order against him from earlier this year. The order bars him from campus on personal business or as a student but does not block him from being present in his official capacity as a board member.
“That order rests on three incidents none of which involve misconduct and certainly none involve any threat or danger,” he said. “The first occurred before I was even seated on the board when I asked the board secretary for financial information so I could better be prepared to serve after being sworn in. That simple request for public budget data was later displayed as ‘improper conduct.’”
Kiel had contacted the board’s assistant, Yvonne Sandoval, to request the numbers from the board’s secretary, Bracety, who claimed he didn’t get a request from Kiel. The attorney, Lynne Adams, said Sandoval didn’t need to defend her “mischaracterization” and they could do it offline.
The other allegations came from two interactions in a classroom, which Kiel claimed were overblown.
McCasland claimed the trespass order was a Student Code of Conduct response, not a board response, to which Kiel disagreed because the Student Code was just to bar him from the class and that professor, not the whole campus. McCasland also said the decision was before the trespass order happened.
“It is time for this board to demonstrate integrity and accountability, let’s return to in-person meetings, conduct our business in public view and show we are governed by facts and not fear,” Kiel said.
Payne said he feels the public meetings are good not only for the public involvement but also for teamwork. He said he would vote to have the inperson meetings as soon as they can, whether that’s this year or not.
“The only thing they [the public] don’t have as much of is open call but we don’t have to,” McCasland said. “Most of the open calls are about operational items and the board does not respond to those.”
Kiel and Payne voted in favor of returning to in-person meetings, representatives Kuykendall, McCasland and Bracety opposed.
No In-Person Campus Visits
In an action item that was continued from the previous board meeting, it discussed visiting the campuses in person, related to Arizona Revised Statute §15-1444 (A)(4).
“The motion we’re voting on right now is to allow the board either as a group or individually to tour the campuses,” McCasland said.
Kiel and Payne voted in favor, Kuykendall, McCasland and Bracety opposed.
The statute’s language is: “Visit each community college under its jurisdiction and examine carefully into its management, conditions and needs.”
At the previous meeting, Adams, said in-person visits were not a requirement to fulfill the statute.
“You can visit them by video, you can visit them by photos,” Adams said during the Sept. 23 meeting.“I think you do get a lot of that information.”
“We do not do the assessments,” McCasland said, adding that President Lisa Rhine conducts them. “So I am going to be voting against it. But I would support putting in an amendment that board members if they wished to visit a campus would be escorted; they could arrange that through [Sandoval], or Dr. Rhine but we do not have the privilege to go to any campus.”
Payne said the college’s YouTube videos are insufficient in assessing the campuses.
“Every one of the videos is over three years old,” Payne said. “There’s nothing current. … If I’m going to a campus, I will notify the president that I wish to do that and follow that rule. On a personal integrity base, I want to let everyone know that I’ll be following the state statute as written.”
McCasland said she’s been on the board for 12 years and has never been required to do a campus visit.
“When the board moved to policy governance they took all these different state statutes into consideration and the interpretation of that one is that that goes to the president,” she said.
Kiel said he’d like to do it in any way possible through proper procedure, whether that’s through the president or whatever it may be. His motion was also to let it be for whichever board members want to, not as a requirement for the rest of the board.
“I don’t see why it needs to be tabled; it is a very straight forward motion, we don’t need to make it a 10-page study,” Kiel said. “It is outlined pretty clearly and I think tabling it is just an attempt to keep this board from actually visiting the campuses and doing our due diligence as we fulfill our roles as a board member … this is ridiculous.”
Clarkdale Contract Kept Secret
The Oct. 28 meeting began with an executive for “discussion with the college’s attorney to receive legal advice and consider its position and instruct its representatives regarding its position on a potential contract related to the Clarkdale campus”.
“Everybody remember that what we discussed is confidential and not to be shared,” McCasland said after returning from the executive session.
Bracety made the motion to “follow the legal advice received in the executive session as it relates to the Clarkdale campus.”
