Urges transparency in strongly worded statement he was not permitted to read to the Board at General Meeting July 28; ruled not on agenda and no discussion of any kind could be held
Third District Yavapai Community College representative Paul Chevalier has consistently urged the College to produce a much more detailed, transparent budget to the public. The annual budget is estimated at about $85 million and over 90% of funds come from taxpayers in one form or another.
At the July 28 meeting he again raised this issue and wanted to express to the Board and President Lisa Rhine his views on the subject. Legal Counsel for the Governing Board ruled he could not read or discuss the issue because it was not on the Board agenda.
The Blog has obtained a copy of his written remarks and they are produced below (with Mr. Chavalier’s permission). There is also a brief video showing the ruling on the issue by the Board legal counsel.
Yavapai College Board Meeting Comment on Budget July 28.2020
I have an update comment to the Board and the President concerning the annual Yavapai College budgets that are presented to this Board for its approval. I have recently reviewed the annual budgets of other public entities in our county. I specifically reviewed four major Yavapai County cities 2019/2020 budgets, all of which are available on line. They are as follows:
First in alphabetical order is Cottonwood AZ’s annual budget that was presented to its City Council and is available to the public. It is 310 pages long. It is detailed and transparent.
Next, Prescott AZ’s annual budget – detailed and transparent – it is 307 pages long.
Next, Prescott Valley AZ’s annual budget – also a detailed transparent budget. It is 330 pages long.
Finally, Sedona, AZ’s annual budget – it too is a detailed transparent budget and it is 390 pages long.
All Yavapai County city budgets present in detail how public money is being spent and they offer explanations of why it is being spent.
What about nearby colleges and universities budgets? Are they also detailed and transparent?
To find out I reviewed NAU’s budget. NAU’s main campus is less than 30 miles from the Yavapai County border. NAU’s 2019/2020 annual budget can be found online. It is 187 pages long. Moreover, the print size on many of the NAU budget pages is much smaller than the Yavapai College or City budgets discussed above. If the NAU print size matched those budgets it would have been closer to 300 pages in length.
The NAU budget details individual expenses of each department and details individual expenses of its other major activities. Not only can one find in the NAU budget detail on how the money was spent for each academic discipline but also one can read the detail of how the money was spent on activities such as information technology and athletics.
The Yavapai College budget is neither detailed nor transparent. Its 2019/2020 budget is just 28 pages long. I do not have the exact length of the 2020/2021 Yavapai College budget handy but I am aware it is little different from its 2019/2020 budget length. It is impossible to be detailed or transparent in a 28 page Yavapai College budget.
Members of the public in my district have discussed why Yavapai College won’t provide detailed transparent annual budgets to its Board and to the public.
Our immediate past President had been blamed for not making the college budgets transparent. People now realize that if the blame were only with the past President then this situation would have changed when she left office a year and a half ago.
It did not change.
Members of the public has been discussing why this is so.
The prime reason discussed by members of the public is that the college leadership refuses to provide detailed financial information because with this knowledge members of the public or a member of the Board might challenge the college on how it spends some of the public’s money.
The less detail the Board or the public is given about how the college spends money the easier it is for college leadership to spend it their way without questions being asked. Yavapai College leadership doesn’t want checks and balances over its power.
This thinking, of course, ignores the fact that one of the key purposes of the rule of law is to control people in public power from abusing it. That is a key element of our democracy. Withhold transparency and democracy erodes. We need to insure our public actions support our democracy. Refuse to do that and we lose our freedom.
I will address another possible reason voiced by some members of the public that I respect. It is more even alarming than the reason already discussed and you should be made aware of it. It is this – some of the people in power at Yavapai College do not want the Board, or the public, or you, madam President, to know where all the money has gone that the College has or is taking in. The public audit required by law will not reveal it. It would take a transparent detailed public budget to account for all the money used and that is why some people believe the college is avoiding financial transparency.
I do not want to believe that corruption exists at the college but that belief is gaining traction. No good reason has ever been given for the college’s lack of budget transparency. It is not the practice of other major public entities in our county. I see no way to justify it. Neither does anyone I have talked with.
If there is nothing to hide, why hide anything?
We are in a time in America of anger, fear, frustration and distrust with public protests brought on by multiple factors coalescing including high unemployment, increasing poverty, a deadly pandemic, racial discrimination, police brutality, corruption and assorted other abuses of government power. Out of this environment the public’s cry for transparency is permeating activist America.
Our local public’s suspicion generated by Yavapai College’s refusal to be financially transparent needs to be acknowledged not ignored. The college needs to maintain and further gain the public’s respect and trust. Refusing to disclose complete detailed financial information does the opposite.
All the Yavapai County City Governments discussed here provide detailed transparent budgets to the public and their elected city councils. NAU provides transparent budgets to the public and its Board. Yavapai College needs to join them and become totally open to the public’s financial scrutiny and it needs to do it with its next budget.
Ignorance is the friend of tyranny and the enemy of democracy. Our college’s job is to reduce ignorance. And yet when it comes to its own finances our college seeks to keep the public ignorant. Complete budget transparency is the right thing to do. Additionally it is the prudent course of action to take. The college should not risk harming its reputation by fighting complete public financial transparency any longer.
Lisa, I am in touch with the public of my district. I am presenting to you here what I have been told, what I have observed and my personal research. I hope you find this helpful in making the decision on the depth of the content of the next college budget.
Paul Chevalier