Wills’ joins newspaper in voicing surprise at Administrative College for Verde Valley discussion
On February 3, 2015 the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee met on the Verde Campus in Clarkdale. Toward the end of the meeting, under the agenda item of “Ownership Linkage Recommendations,” the Committee discussed whether to bring a motion asking that the District Governing Board consider “to retain an independent consultant to study the structural benefits and costs of a separate Verde Valley college.” The motion was tabled until the next meeting.
The idea of such a consideration seems to raise the hackles of both President Penelope Wills and Editorial writer Dan Engler. Wills’ told Engler that she was in the dark that the issue of creating a separate administrative college was going to be discussed. She also told him that she was even more surprised to learn the issue did not surface until she left the meeting.
Wills’ also agreed with Engler that the agenda as written apparently violated the Open Meeting law. She stated that “It’s very challenging to work with Paul (Chevalier) in setting the agenda and not always clear what is going to happen in the meeting. It is supposed to be as clear as possible. They have been well versed in open meeting law and how to put an agenda together and it still has been very challenging for us.”
Given no action was taken and the matter will be discussed at next month’s meeting, the question is whether Wills’ will file an Open Meeting Law violation claim against the Governing Board Committee. Don’t hold your breath.
You may read the editorial in the Verde Independent by clicking here. You may listen to the brief discussion regarding this by clicking here.