Clarendon College Regents will meet this Thursday, March 28, for the annual evaluation of President Robert Riza at a time of unprecedented tension between certain members of the board and the administration.
Board members at the February 21 meeting clashed with the president on wide variety of issues, mostly regarding finances, painting a dire picture of the college’s position with Regent Jerry Woodard at one point even declaring that the college has zero reserves.
Vice President of Administrative Services Rit Christian objected to that assertion at the meeting and stated so again for the record this week.
“The college is not insolvent,” Christian said Monday.
CC has approximately $250,000 in cash reserves currently with another $250,000 scheduled to move into reserves this week. Riza and Christian say the college intends to repeat that in September and December as part of a plan to have $1 million in cash reserves by the end of the calendar year.
“The idea is to have $1 million in reserve with a quarter million coming due every 90 days if we needed to get to it,” Riza told the Enterprise this week.
Riza also reported that plan to the board in February as Woodard and board secretary Darlene Spier continued a nearly year-long effort to criticize the president’s handling of college finances and to exert more board influence over the daily operation of the college.
Pointing to an overage in one budget line item, Woodard asserted that the board of regents must approve any expenditure that is not budgeted and said that any overage should first be approved by a budget amendment.
Christian also pushed back against that idea at the meeting.
“A budget is a budget… your best guess at the time you do it,” he said. “If we want to start amending the budget, we can make it become spot on by the end of the year, but that’s not really a comparison of budget to actual.”
The board spent about an hour and a half on financial reports from December and January during February’s meeting and did not approve either one. The regents did approve the college’s quarterly investment report.
Regents also spent more than a third of an hour considering minutes from board meetings in January and October and two meetings in December but only approved the record of the January meeting.
Finances again came up last month under Riza’s president’s report as he attempted to address questions Woodard and Spier have raised about the college’s financial position and the reduction of the college’s cash assets.
Riza told the Enterprise Monday that CC had cash assets of $6.612 million at the end of fiscal year 2013 and that by the end of fiscal year 2018 last August, that figure had dropped to $4.118 million, a difference of $2.493 million.
That cash, the president points out, went to several different expenditures during that five-year time, all of which were approved by the board. Those items included $870,595 for roof repairs; $91,274 for new bleachers in the gym; $283,029 for improvements to the Livestock & Equine Center; $255,425 on new buses; $240,475 to purchase the former Charles Deyhle residence; $68,533 to repay student loan liabilities from the 1970s and 1980s; $93,333 to complete the purchase of the cosmetology center in Amarillo; and $382,228 to fund renovations to that facility.
Those expenses add up to $2.284 million and do not include expenses paid in fiscal year 2018 for past due liabilities to the state retirement systems for full and part time employees and to the IRS, which totaled another $442,018.
In the fiscal year 2018 audit report, the college auditors raised no alarms about the financial position of the institution. Four “findings” in the audit, which was approved by the board in December, suggested additional documentation when pulling down federal financial aid (Title 4) funds and three recommendations to improve documentation regarding Title 3 grant funds. The Title 3 grant has since expired and is no longer an issue, the administration says.
The audit does show a net loss in the college’s overall position of $928,953; but $883,750 of that is in the form of depreciation not cash.
“In fact, this year’s audit took less time than usual because things are in such good order,” Riza told the Enterprise.
As February’s meeting drew to a close, Riza handed regents forms needed to conduct their annual evaluation of him as well as the board’s self-evaluation, and conflict arose again in terms of who would compile the evaluations for the next meeting.
Historically the evaluations are mailed or delivered to the administration and compiled by college staff. Woodard pushed for delivering the evaluations to the board secretary and that the job to compile the evaluations be done by her as well. Regent Lon Adams also brought up having Spier compile the evaluations. Riza stated flatly that he would prefer it not be done that way. The president later said the evaluations should be mailed to his office, and Spier could compile them there (at the college).
Woodard then turned his attention to the matter of requesting that the board meet with representative of the Pampa Foundation board, which has not been placed on an agenda. He and Riza clashed over that point with the president asking why this issue has not come to his office directly. Woodard says the board needs to discuss “related information” from Pampa, but Riza pushed back that the Foundation had not raised any issues at its board meetings.
Riza then showed his frustration with the certain board members.
“I’ve not been called but it’s been implied that I’m a felon, I’m an idiot, stupid, and incompetent,” Riza said.
Board Chairman Tommy Waldrop urged officials to keep the meeting professional.
Riza said he’d done that the best he could but continued to say that he knows his job and that his focus should be on the kids, faculty, and staff, and that Clarendon College’s success has been amazing. He mentioned the requests he gets to speak in Austin. He admitted the college has spent money. He also said the college had made some bad hires and tried to fix it, a reference to issues raised in the fiscal 2017 audit.
“I know what my job is,” Riza said. “One of your goals is to hire and fire the president.”
Spier then talked about the strong feelings of the board for the college and the college’s importance to the community. But she said Riza should let the board see what they ask for when they ask for it.
“We are board members, and you report to us,” Spier said.
“I don’t appreciate the ambush jobs,” Riza said, referring to the continuing lists of questions and requests Woodard and Spier have brought over the past several months.
“If we want to work together, then why don’t you come to my office and ask me, ‘Hey, will you look at this and tell me if I’m right or wrong?’ and move forward instead of the ‘gotchas,’” Riza said.
Woodard said there were items that had been asked for repeatedly, and Spier said, “We’re not after you or any employee.”
Regent Jack Moreman defended the president and his record it terms of enrollment and raising the college’s presence in Austin.
Waldrop agreed with Moreman but also said he is unclear as to the college’s financial position.
Regent Edwin Campbell said there is a faction split in the board that needed to be settled and then brought up the Pampa Foundation issue again, with Riza again asserting that nothing had come to him from Pampa.
Waldrop called for leadership from Riza, and Woodard and Spier called for more transparency.
Spier then talked about the strong feelings of the board for the college and the college’s importance to the community. But she said Riza should let the board see what they ask for when they ask for it.
“We are board members, and you report to us,” Spier said.
“I don’t appreciate the ambush jobs,” Riza said, referring to the continuing lists of questions and requests Woodard and Spier have brought over the past several months.
“If we want to work together, then why don’t you come to my office and ask me, ‘Hey, will you look at this and tell me if I’m right or wrong?’ and move forward instead of the ‘gotchas,’” Riza said.
Woodard said there were items that had been asked for repeatedly, and Spier said, “We’re not after you or any employee.”
Regent Jack Moreman defended the president and his record it terms of enrollment and raising the college’s presence in Austin.
Waldrop agreed with Moreman but also said he is unclear as to the college’s financial position.
Regent Edwin Campbell said there is a faction split in the board that needed to be settled and then brought up the Pampa Foundation issue again, with Riza again asserting that nothing had come to him from Pampa.
Waldrop called for leadership from Riza, and Woodard and Spier called for more transparency.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.