So much happened yesterday and I have information about the CDA City Council/Planning Commission joint workshop and the CDA School District Long Range Planning Committee meeting but those subjects will have to be for another time. The topic of today’s email is the NIC Board of Trustees meeting.
Note: The CDA School Long Range Planning Committee meeting ran long so I got to the NIC trustees meeting after it had started; the constituent reports were being presented when I sat down but I missed the very beginning of the meeting and public comments portion.
Main Points of the Meeting
The appointed board members, in their last meeting before the election, bulldozed over the elected trustees and voted to buy more land adjacent to the college. David Wold, Peter Broschet, and John Goedde voted to buy a little piece of property at 737 Military Dr. with a tiny, run-down house on it for the low low price of $626,000. No walk through has been done on the property, and the trustees voted on the price based on the one appraisal they got in August from Lakeside Appraisals.
Greg McKenzie asked if this was like when they bought the mill site, which led the college into being sued for purchasing that property, and Steve Widmyer resigning from the NIC board. (I am just writing what McKenzie said, I don’t know if this is true but based on the Fort Ground Grill transaction, I can’t put it outside the realm of possibilities. If someone wants to do research on NIC/the old mill site/Steve Widmyer be my guest.)
NIC enrollment is down overall 6.2% although dual enrollment is up. The healthcare programs are thriving and there is a great need in the region for nurses, radiologists, etc.
Appointed trustee Chair David Wold took an opportunity at the end of the meeting to make remarks. I am not sure if they were legal to even make because there was electioneering, campaigning for candidates, and criticism of the public, but the lawyer Marc Lyons allowed it to happen. This was a shocking display of events that even made Christie Wood look like an angel – even though Wold went up to hug Christie Wood after the meeting was over.
Video of the last 15 minutes of the meeting is below; the full transcript is below the video thanks to Kootenai-RGMT.com.
No matter what, please encourage everyone you know to go out and vote in person on November 8th.
Transcript
Wold: and I would like to share some observations and concerns I have gained over the last six months. Six months ago I entered into this board situation because of the chaos that was going on at the college that they were unable to conduct business because they went from five trustees to four which was two to three they could do nothing to two and they could not even have an agenda the State Board of Education stepped in and did a very good job of calling for volunteers and 37 people volunteered to take on the uh the board trusteeship for six months they invented all these people they interviewed and the three of us were chosen to serve and I want to thank both of them for their service for this last six months period. So it’s been my privilege to really serve as chair I’ve attempted to facilitate the meetings of the board so that we could get the business done. I have tried not to interject my opinions so that we could get the information through to
McKenzie: You Just Did. You just did! It was reported to the NWCCU that the 2-2 split board with passing policies, and was a functioning board. You guys don’t know your facts.
Wold: Would you please…
McKenzie: And you keep lying!
Wold: Would you be quiet you’re just a little bit. or do we have to turn your microphone off?
McKenzie: You can turn it off but it was reported to the accreditation board that the 2-2 split board was passing policies and was a well-operating functioning board.
Banducci: Is this going to be 30 seconds or 5 minutes? ‘Cause I don’t want to hear a diatribe from you.
McKenzie: And think remarks of the good of the order are supposed to be well less than 30 seconds.
Wold: There is no there is no rules with you
McKenzie: There is no rules with you sir, it’s whatever your power gives you.
Wold: Well I have more to say.
McKenzie: Go ahead dictator Wold. You’ve done it all six months.
Wold: I attended both candidate forums: The one that the Chamber put on, and the ones on (Inaudible) so I listen to all six candidates their views and their qualifications. this is supposed to be a non-partisan election and a non-partisan board but it appears to me that there’s a Kootenai County Republican Central Committee group that has been recruited and vetted by that group. I’ll call them the Central Committee group.
Banducci: How inappropriate is your comments?
Wold: There are three other candidates
Mike Waggoner: Inappropriate!
Waggoner: Sir!
McKenzie: You are inappropriate
Wold: Please allow me to speak.
Wold: If you are elected the board you can set up here and speak at your turn.
Banducci: You weren’t elected to the board!
Mckenzie: Yeah, that’s true.
Wold: The Central Committee group have lived in Kootenai County one year, two years and three years. They have had no interaction with NIC within any of that time and no Community involvement. The friends of NIC group…
McKenzie: This is so disgusting
Wold: are long-time residents of Kootenai County with extensive NIC and Community involvement.
McKenzie: You should be embarrassed.
Wold: All six candidates are very concerned about accreditation.
McKenzie: All of them claim to be “conservative.”
Banducci: lol
Wold: I want to thank candidate Hartman for his verification of the board’s work in terms of taking care of accreditation problems. He feels that the board has accomplished most of the requirements set down by the accreditation agency let us look at some of the ideas of some of the areas that he has proposed as having been solved. let me first of all though say that accreditation has not been threatened by anything that is done with the students faculty, it’s all been on the board.
the number one thing that he stated was that the hiring of a long-term president was extremely desirable
Banducci: Wow. You guys are evil. This is ridiculous
[Gap In Video]
they went through a long process of Vetting candidates and brought five names to the board for interview.
the first stumbling block that I found as chair was that trustee Banducci wished to to delay any choice of president until after the election.
McKenzie: that’s because the accreditation agency gave us time to do that and the
Banducci: and the letter originally was to not «inaudible» by November. With a search committee.
Wold: Hiring a long-term president as quickly as possible was the recommendation of the agency.
McKenzie: the accreditation agency specifically gave us time.To let the community weigh in. and you guys specifically…
Banducci: Look at the national program’s original letter and their plan, so this has gotta change.
McKenzie: The presidential search advisor even recommended it before Christy started coordinating with her.
Banducci: You’re embarrassing yourself and diminishing yourself sir.
Wold: Turn off their microphones so they will not interrupt everything.
Banducci: you’re just ridiculous
McKenzie: You just want to give one side of the story. You just want to be the Arbiter of truth.
Wold: fortunately your president was chosen three votes by the three trustees appointed two negative votes by the two members of the Central Committee the first Major goal was then accomplished by this board, at least by the three of us the second had to do with a policy necessary to deal with conduct By the board this policy had been presented tabled and moved on back and forth but it responding finally the discussion by a three to two three votes once again for the appointed trustees two negative votes by the two Central Committee trustees guidelines that they mentioned that they wanted to see us try to do as a board was to work with fellow trustees in the Spirit of Harmony and cooperation in spite of differences of opinions
McKenzie: Which you haven’t done.
Wold: respect the majority of decisions of the Board! maintain the highest standards of Civility and respect according to public office in the absence of unwarranted criticism of fellow members the board, NIC Administration and employees the agency has also asked us to send them a tape of each of the board meetings so they can evaluate the board’s actions and activity Of Each board member in terms of their behavior at times break that language which is a apprehensible because the third big area that Mr Hartman said was to hire senior leadership once again they ask that we try to do this as quickly as possible through the proper ways pleasantly we were able to hire Dr Swain in a reasonable time and he is well into that process so this is being done the next item is one that’s been really Troublesome for this board and that is the delineation of the role of the board as a trustee and the role of the president demonstrate respect and consideration of the recommendations of the college presidents while it is understood that the board may not agree with all recommendations in the president is imperative as the board demonstrated respectful consideration of the recommendations of the president to consider an act of the recommendation of the president in all manners of policy revealing to the governance of welfare of the college and the welfare of the student that is the trustees are responsible for recreating and maintaining the spirit of true cooperation and a mutually supportive relationship with his CEO Dr Swain has tried to reach out to all the trustees over the last three months and with multiple calls you if you have never responded any missed calls
McKenzie: We emailed regularly!
Wold: That is to provide overall direction to their college by setting policy while allowing the president the authority to provide daily Administration that said policies
McKenzie: I’m lucky all of my family members were alive this month
Wold: individual trustees with questions regarding the operations of the college as inquiries concerning deployment of admissions College complaints about students complaints from faculty or staff complaints or questions about Administration complaints or questions about facilities shall convey to the office of the president for consideration a possible action the report stated that in the past the board chair had actually tried to hire non-ceo administrators and had actually gone through a
McKenzie: That was refuted!
Wold: faculty member to try to change his students writing so this is the area that he’s made a great deal of work in terms of this board is not applying with what they want to do
McKenzie: You’re lying!
Wold: so now this brings us to the election of November 8th we have three Central Committee candidates that attest to very close ties similar values and ideology and the ability to work closely together with the two incumbents Central Committee trustees if one of these is elected there will be a majority the trustee Banducci has promised he will be able to reverse all we have done in fact I was unfortunately present at a at dinner tonight and I heard trustee Banducci negatively go after uh trustee Geodde saying that we will control this board after November in 15 days
Banducci: That’s not what I said.
Wold: We will control most everything in this city.
Banducci: That’s not what I said. You’re lying.
Wold: We already control school boards…
McKenzie: Lies!
Wold: … and the hospital board…
McKenzie: after lies,
Wold: The only problem that we have…
McKenzie: after lies.
Wold: We may not be able to control the school or the hospital board or maybe even the city council, but we’re out to control everything else. I have voted and I will closely watch this election for it’s results. I’m not the only one that’s going to be watching this election results. we have young people and their parents in their high school years looking for a place for dual enrollment and future study they’re all going to be looking at the results of this election we have students and prospective students in our professional technical areas and work study programs they too are you watching this election we have local employers who depend upon Nic for their Workforce they’re going to be looking at this election. The Northwest CCU the accreditation agency is going to be looking into this election to monitor governance of the trustees before their April revisit because actions in the past have cost this college hundreds of thousands of dollars because of their actions. The State Insurance Agency is going to monitor what happens this election they are monitoring governance to see if they are willing to give us Insurance once again which would save us hundreds of thousands of dollars that we’ve had to go to a different Insurance Company the Nic Foundation donors are going to be looking to this this election
McKenzie: That’s what it’s really about
Wold: if they can once again safely donate hundreds of thousands of dollars for student aid and college needs the state of Idaho and beyond are going to be looking at this election to see if the ideology of a certain number of people can flourish within like-minded individuals and control and A county and a state in the future this meeting is adjourned
[Applause]