College schedules executive session regarding lawsuit for July 16—Will the multi-million dollar aviation employment dispute be settled?
Lawyers for Yavapai College and other defendants involved in the Hamilton, v. Yavapai College, et. al. lawsuit met on July 11 in Flagstaff for a settlement conference with the plaintiffs. Whether the lawsuit was settled tentatively at that time is unknown. However, the Community College has posted a meeting for July 16 at 1 p.m. on the Prescott Campus where the Governing Board will meet in executive session to discuss the case. Any settlement on behalf of the College would have to receive final approval from the Governing Board.
The Complaint was filed in federal court by the former director of aviation programs at Yavapai College, Dan Hamilton, and alleges, among other things, that Yavapai College and its airplane program partner, NorthAire Aviation, violated the Veteran’s Administration funding rule that limits VA beneficiary enrollment to 85% in any program. (In other words, the program must have at least 15% of its enrollees as civilians.)
The Complaint alleges schemes wherein NorthAire improperly paid for students whom the program certified were not receiving any institutional aid and that the program improperly counted students who were not in the airplane program including part-time, non-flight training, high school students for whom YC waived tuition. The 85% enrollment limitation is the VA’s safeguard to guarantee that the programs have real world relevance, demand and market driven pricing.
The case has dragged on for almost 6 years and neither the Community College nor NorthAire or Guidance Aviation have been able persuade the federal district court to grant or dismiss all of the claims. If successful, the Defendants might have to pay millions of dollars in damages.
Hamilton, the Plaintiff, seeks personal damages in the amount of at least $1 million for contract (salary) damages, plus recovery on various tort damage theories.
Based on the remaining claims, the defendants may be exposed to many millions of dollars in damages.
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July 16 1 p.m. notice from Community College.