SALARY NOW ESTIMATED AT $278,811—Highest paid bureaucrat in Yavapai County
Yavapai Community College President Penelope Wills received a $5,000 increase on her salary at the May 9, 2017 Governing Board meeting. The Board voted 4-1 to extend her contract for one year and raised her existing salary by $5,000. Board Representative Deb McCasland voted against the extension and the $5,000 raise.
If press reports regarding her salary are correct, her annual salary is now almost $278,000. She is believed to be the highest paid bureaucrat in Yavapai County. The increase came despite her less than stellar record. That record includes the following:
(1) Lost over $1 million in tuition revenue in the last two years because of the continuing slide in student enrollment.
(2) Allowed the aviation program to essentially collapse.
(3) Presided over an estimated 4% drop in overall student credit enrollment in each of the last two years.
(4) Failed to settle multi-million-dollar lawsuit with whistle blower who headed the aviation program before he was fired and now alleges the College failed to comply with VA regulations.
(5) Opposed giving the Verde Valley a semblance of independence via an Administrative College at the March, 2016 Board meeting.
(6) Apparently took a three-week vacation during the school year in March-April to New Zealand (staff refuse to disclose where she went but sources now say this is where she disappeared to).
(7) Imposed a fee on dual enrollment classes taught in high schools by high school teachers despite opposition from all superintendents in the Verde Valley, the Valley representatives in office at that time, and the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee. They argued it would adversely impact the poor in the Valley—their plea fell on deaf ears.
(8) Failed to properly involve the faculty or students at the outset of consideration of extending the semester by a week.
The following is a video of the Board report on the salary increase.