William Kiel, the Yavapai College Governing Board District 1 representative, submitted three open meeting law violation complaints to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, all directed toward Deb McCasland, the former board chairwoman from District 2.
Kiel’s complaints, which were submitted to the AG’s office on June 14, followed then-Chairwoman McCasland’s April 3 Open Meeting Law allegations, which were dismissed on May 27.
The first complaint alleged she broke open meeting law by dismissing the board’s attorneys from Osborne & Maledon on April 21.
“She terminated our board counsel outside of a meeting and, in my belief, without the authority to do so,” Kiel said before the board’s special meeting on June 30, during which the board unanimously placed President Lisa Rhine, Ph.D, on paid administrative leave.
There was no public discussion or vote on the matter.
“In addition, Board members were not informed in advance that Board counsel was being terminated and were not given an opportunity to deliberate or act on the matter in a public meeting,” the complaint reads. “As a result, Board business was conducted outside of the procedures required by Arizona’s Open Meeting Law, depriving both the Governing Board and the public of the transparency and participation contemplated by the statute.”
The other two complaints allege McCasland broke open meeting law by initially refusing to put the chair election on the agenda for the April 21 meeting, which the board had previously voted to have on the April 21 agenda, and continuously refusing to place individual items on the agendas when board members requested they be put on.
“By repeatedly refusing to place requested items on meeting agendas, the Chair prevented the Governing Board from deliberating on matters of public business in an open meeting and prevented the public from observing those deliberations,” the complaint reads.
The repeated use of agenda authority to block discussion of Board business effectively denied the Governing Board the opportunity to consider matters brought forward by its members and denied the public the opportunity to observe and participate in the conduct of public business.”
The complaint form accused only McCasland, no other member of the board.
HLC Complaint
As chairwoman, McCasland, submitted multiple complaints to the Higher Learning Commission, a private, Chicago-based accreditation company, on April 15 alleging certain board members were acting out of line.
After the complaints were filed, the college issued a response to the HLC without providing a copy of said response to board members, including the ones named in the complaint.
During the meeting on June 30, the board voted 4-1, with McCasland opposed, to submit a letter to the HLC requesting it provide the board with information, specifically on how the college responded to the allegation.
“Make sure the letter goes from the four of you and not from me” McCasland said following the vote.
“The resolution was approved by a majority of the board,” college attorney Jon Paladini replied.
The details of the complaint are not publicly available because the HLC is a private company, not a government agency subject to open records law, which is part of the reason the board is seeking more information.
“It is a fundamental tenet of due process that people accused of wrongdoing be able to participate in their own defense,” the resolution reads.
