The seventh annual Chance Mark Jones Roar & Run 5K will be held April 13 at Clarendon College in conjunction with national Child Abuse Awareness Month.
Early bird registration for the event closed Wednesday. Those who haven’t registered can still do so through next week for $25 at the Clarendon Visitor Center, although t-shirts may not be available for late registrants.
Race packets will be available for pick-up all day Friday, April 12, at the Visitor Center.
Proceeds from the race will benefit the charitable community activities of the Clarendon Lions Club. The race honors the life of four-year-old Chance Mark Jones, who died from abuse in 2011.
For more information about this weekend’s Chance Mark Jones Roar & Run 5K, contact Lion Ashlee Estlack at 662-4687 or Lion Roger Estlack at 874-2259.
News
College, hospital district exempt from House tax bill
By Shannon Najmabadi, Texas Tribune
With additional reporting by Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise
Clarendon College and the Donley County Hospital District would be exempt from property tax reform and some other taxing units may be cushioned from the changes if a bill passed out of the Texas House of Representatives becomes law.
CC President Robert Riza spoke on behalf of Clarendon and the 49 other community colleges in Texas when he testified before the House Ways & Means Committee on February 27.
“We’re nowhere near done, but we feel good with the house vote,” Riza said.
Texas House Republicans muscled a heavily altered version of their property tax reform bill through a committee early last Thursday, notching a single Democratic vote and swiftly shooting down attempts to further modify the draft.
A top priority for state leaders, House Bill 2 would require cities, counties and other taxing units to receive voter approval before levying 2.5 percent more property tax revenue than the previous year. A vote was expected to come Wednesday morning on a new draft of the legislation, which contains changes likely to appease small and special taxing units but leave big municipal leaders staunchly opposed.
But the hearing on the new version was postponed until past midnight. The 16-hour delay gave an unusual cluster of critics time to trumpet their concerns with the measure – and then for top House leaders to respond in an informal late-night news conference.
“Sometimes when everyone’s a little bit upset with you, maybe you have a good balance – that’s probably a good sign,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dustin Burrows, the author of the legislation and a Lubbock Republican. “We worked really hard; we talked to a lot of different constituencies” and a lot of members. “I think you’ll see in the committee substitute, the work product and a lot of collaboration.”
Riza says 2.5 percent would limit Clarendon College to only being able to raise taxes by $14,526, which is not enough money to pay anyone full time even at $7 per hour.
“When the state’s share of community college funding goes from 66 percent to 23 percent over 30 years and you also want to limit our ability to raise taxes, the only place we have left to go is tuition and fees,” Riza said. “I think when I put it that way, I got some attention.”
As amended, HB 2 now exempts community colleges, emergency service districts and hospital districts from abiding by the 2.5 percent election trigger. Another provision lets certain districts, including cities and counties, bank unused revenue growth, so long as they average below 2.5 percent over five years. And new “revenue enrichment” language could cushion some taxing units by letting them raise $250,000 in new property taxes a year, even if it exceeded the growth rate. The threshold, set at $250,000 for 2020, would be adjusted by the state comptroller annually, based on inflation.
The carry-over and revenue enrichment provisions do not apply to taxing units exempt from the lower 2.5 percent election trigger; those entities would be subject to an automatic election if annual revenue growth surpassed 8 percent. Taxes raised on new developments remain excluded from the revenue growth calculation.
Democrats on the committee offered four amendments, all quickly defeated in party-line votes.
Currently, voters can petition for an election if property tax revenue growth exceeds 8 percent, a rate set during a period of high inflation in the 1980s. State leaders have touted the lower chamber’s proposal and a Senate companion as an overdue correction and as a needed check on spiraling property tax bills. But critics say the reform efforts would not reduce tax bills, just slow the rate at which they grow – and, in the process, hamper local officials’ ability to provide public services for growing populations.
Chief among the legislation’s detractors have been city and county leaders.
In a letter sent in February to Burrows, a coalition of mayors said the 2.5 percent trigger was not “workable” – but that they were “committed to working with you and your fellow legislators as we strive to make real progress on these issues.” They thanked the legislators for initially exempting money earmarked for debt payments from the revenue growth calculations.
A change in the draft bill could earn those officials’ ire: New certificates of obligation and other non-voter approved debt now count toward the 2.5 percent growth tally. A form of tax revenue-backed debt, the certificates are supposed to offer local governments the flexibility to fund services under exigent circumstances. But the financing method has proven controversial to some state officials, who say it can leave voters on the hook for projects they did not approve.
Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, said the new approach to debt is a “step backwards” that would render certificates of obligation “almost unusable.”
“Cities use certificates of obligation when they have to act quickly, in times of emergency,” Sandlin said. The benefits of the carry-over provision could also be minimal at 2.5 percent, he said, due to inflation.
A vote was called on the new draft around 1 a.m., drawing support from the seven Republicans on the panel and one Democrat, state Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Rio Grande City Democrat and the vice chair of the committee. The three remaining Democrats were opposed.
“This is not the last chapter in the bill”
The latest version of HB 2 was expected to be voted on Wednesday morning. But Burrows gaveled the committee in with the announcement that they wouldn’t pick up the high-priority bill until the lower chamber adjourned for the day. With state budget negotiations set to be taken up on the House floor, marathon proceedings that have historically lasted all night, the news was greeted with surprise.
“Is the committee going to provide us with some Red Bull?” asked state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat. He later told reporters that some of the Democrats’ suggestions were not included in the new draft and that the rollout had been a “disappointment.”
The tone was markedly more collegial after the 16-hour interlude.
Burrows, Martinez Fischer and state Reps. Sheryl Cole and Eddie Rodriguez, both Austin Democrats, expressed appreciation for the cooperative tenor of the work behind the scenes.
“Everybody on this committee has been working hard to find a solution,” said Martinez Fischer, who noted some changes he favored were included in the new draft. “I’m disappointed at this juncture that those conversations haven’t manifested in policy I’m looking for and members of the committee” are looking for.
“I know this is not the last chapter in this bill,” he said.
The new version also provoked early pushback from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Michael Quinn Sullivan, head of the hard-right Empower Texans group, warned readers in an email Wednesday that the committee was not taking a conservative enough approach to the legislation. Lower chamber leaders, he wrote, were preparing to “sell out taxpayers” and “gut” the priority reform measure.
The new draft will head to the Calendars Committee and then to the House, where it will be debated by the full chamber. The Senate’s measure, which was quickly pushed through the chamber’s Property Tax Committee in February, was modified to allow small taxing units to opt in to parts of the reform bill. As first drafted, cities, counties and special taxing districts – like those for community colleges and certain hospitals – were exempted if their sales and property tax levies did not top $15 million.
Both chambers’ versions of the legislation also make a host of widely supported modifications to the appraisal and protest process, with an aim of making them friendlier to taxpayers.
Neither measure has been debated on the floor of its respective chamber.
City pool redesign underway
Clarendon’s proposed water recreation facility is already being redesigned as city leaders get ready to bid the project a third time, according to information presented at last Thursday’s city council meeting.
Mayor Sandy Skelton said he and City Administrator David Dockery had a frank conversation with facility engineer Waters Edge Aquatic Design about the money available for the project, the time lost, and the unaffordability of the original design.
Designer Dave Swartz agreed with Skelton’s points and also agreed to redesign the facility at no charge to the city.
The new design is based on the city’s base budget of $1.86 million and on the bids that have come in twice now at levels that have surprised Swartz as well as the city.
“They are used to bids of around $500 per square foot of water surface, but our bids came in around $680 per square foot,” Skelton said.
The high bids have again been blamed on skyrocketing steel and concrete costs, Skelton said.
The new design will be a smaller rectangular design that will be cheaper to construct that the more complicated curved pool originally designed, the mayor said. Cost savings will also come from housing the bathhouse, concessions, and pump equipment in one building instead of two and from reducing the depth of the pool at the diving board by having a half-meter high diving board instead of a full meter. Other cost savings are also possible as the redesign moves forward.
The new design of the pool will have to get a new approval to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act and get the okay of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department before it can go to bid.
Skelton said that Swartz still believes the project can be opened for the 2020 summer season but Skelton and Dockery think 2021 is probably more realistic.
In other city business, aldermen appointed Bunni Owens and Wilma Lindley as the judge and alternate judge for the upcoming city election this May and approved a donation of $1,000 to the Donley County Senior Citizens program.
The council also considered and approved the creation of sub-supervisory positions in the water, street, and sanitation departments to begin a succession plan for future leadership of those areas of the city. The plan created a foreman position in each department to work under the current supervisor to begin learning more about the department and to take charge in the supervisors’ absence.
Public Works Director John Molder and Sanitation Director Joe Neal Shadle spoke in favor of the plan.
“I thought I was prepared when (former city superintendent) Jim Roberts died,” Molder said, “but, boy, was I wrong. It takes years to learn all this”
Under the plan, Brad Hagood, Raul Mendoza, and Danny Gaines will become foremen in the water, street, and sanitation departments respectively. Each man will receive a $2 per hour increase in salary and be expected to finish additional trainings, licensing, or certifications.
In his administrator’s report, Dockery reported that the city had received an award for collecting 93 tons of recycling last year and said the sanitation department and the citizens of Clarendon are to be commended for those efforts.
CHS students bound for regional UIL contest
Clarendon High School academic competitors won a number of medals at last week’s district competition and will advance to the regional competition in Odessa April 12-13.
In the Lincoln-Douglas Debate, CHS had a field day as Jayden Monds was district champion, Harmond Drenth placed third, and Caton Grahn came in fourth. Monds and Drenth will advance.
Monds also placed second in Informative Speaking and fourth in Headline Writing.
Gavin Word placed first in two events, Number Sense and Computer Applications. He helped the Number Sense team place second.
Noab Elam won medals in three events, Editorials (first place), Computer Applications (second place), and Current Issues & Events (third place).
Harmond Drenth placed second in Socials Studies, leading that team to a first place finish with Sophie Bilbrey (fourth place), Callin Casselberry, and Lillie Dale. Drenth also placed fourth in Current Issues and fourth in Spelling.
The Science team won first place as Marquis McGuire was first overall, first in Chemistry, and first in Physics. Tessa Lutters came in third place, and Shylee Morrow and Josiah Howard tied for fourth place, with Howard placing second in Biology.
Kira Weatherton placed third in Spelling and Vocabulary and led that team to a second place finish. She also placed fourth in Editorial Writing.
Trent Smith qualified for regional in Mathematics by finishing second.
In all Clarendon will take thirteen students to Odessa for a chance to qualify for the state academic meet the first weekend in May.
Broncos slam Valley
By Sandy Anderberg
After weather delays, the Bronco baseball team finally got to play a game last week at Valley against the Patriots.
Clarendon won the first game 20-2.
Noab Elam was on the mound, and, according to coach Brad Elam, he pitched four good innings and struck out five hitters. Aiden Caudle finished the game with two strikeouts.
“We had a great game,” Elam said. “I thought we played well in all phases. Noab Elam and Isaac Dunham each knocked in five with Dunham hitting his first homer of the year. Preston Elam knocked in three and Payton Hicks, Harm Drenth, and Brock Hatley knocked in two each.”
Elam noted that Hicks scored a game high four runs.
The Broncos got by Valley in the second game 18-3.
“It was another great game,” Elam said.
Preston Elam and Ryan Ward both had big days at the plate hitting their first homers of the year.
“Preston also knocked in seven runs and Noab knocked in four,” Elam said.
Hicks had his bat going again with three RBI’s and he and both Elams had three hits each. Hatley and Drenth scored three runs each in the game. “
Preston pitched a strong game pitching four innings and giving up only one hit while striking out nine.
The Broncos will play Saturday, April 6, in Wellington at 1:00 p.m.
Preston Elam and Ryan Ward both had big days at the plate hitting their first homers of the year.
“Preston also knocked in seven runs and Noab knocked in four,” Elam said.
Hicks had his bat going again with three RBI’s and he and both Elams had three hits each. Hatley and Drenth scored three runs each in the game. “
Preston pitched a strong game pitching four innings and giving up only one hit while striking out nine.
The Broncos will play Saturday, April 6, in Wellington at 1:00 p.m.
Preston Elam and Ryan Ward both had big days at the plate hitting their first homers of the year.
“Preston also knocked in seven runs and Noab knocked in four,” Elam said.
Hicks had his bat going again with three RBI’s and he and both Elams had three hits each. Hatley and Drenth scored three runs each in the game. “
Preston pitched a strong game pitching four innings and giving up only one hit while striking out nine.
The Broncos will play Saturday, April 6, in Wellington at 1:00 p.m.
Perfect reaction
Tension high ahead of Riza’s evaluation
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.
Enterprise editorials, ads win first place at PPA
The Clarendon Enterprise received eleven awards, including first place in Editorials and Advertising Initiative, at the 09th annual Panhandle Press Association Convention in Amarillo last Saturday, March 23.
Competing in Division One for weekly newspapers, the Enterprise was recognized for Editorials on the subjects of the Howardwick City Council, open government, and Open Meetings training at Clarendon College and for Advertisements designed by Ashlee Estlack and Roger Estlack.
The Enterprise won second place honors for Human Interest Photos by Roger Estlack and Kari Lindsey, Front Page Layout, News Writing, Spot News Photos by Ashlee Estlack and Roger Estlack, Society & Lifestyles Page, Feature Writing, Special Section, Best Website, and Serious Columns by Roger Estlack.
General Excellence in Division One this year went to the Canadian Record. The Eastern New Mexico News took home top honors in Division Two.
Perryton Herald publisher Mary Dudley, and former Muleshoe Journal publisher, the late Larry Thornton, were inducted into the PPA Hall of Fame.
The PPA was led this year by Booker publisher Joni Yara, who will remain on the board as the Immediate Past President. Other board members include President Tara Huff of Fritch, Vice President Jeff Blackmon of Shamrock, and Secretary/Treasurer Roger Estlack of Clarendon along with directors Wes Reeves of Xcel Energy in Amarillo, Mary Dudley of Perryton, Tim Ritter of Canyon, Michael Wright of Dumas, and Cheri Smith of Canadian.
Attending this year’s convention from Clarendon were Roger, Ashlee, Benjamin, and Elaina Estlack and Tara Allred.
Next year’s Panhandle Press Convention will be held March 21-22 in Perryton.
Editorial: Regents should call off ‘witch hunt’
CC board should return focus to needs of students
Clarendon College Regents need to come together to focus on doing what’s best for students and push back against the combative stance a minority of the board is taking against the administration.
The growing rift between Regents Jerry Woodard and Darlene Spier and President Robert Riza was on full display when the college board had its regular meeting last month. The conflict has been growing for more than two years and amplified after the college’s accrediting body a year ago said Woodard had to step down as board chairman due to a conflict of interest as the president of the college’s depository bank.
Following that, Woodard began making a habit of presenting a laundry list of questions for the administration, and Riza last month complained of the “ambush jobs” his administration has been subjected to. In December, Riza told the board that the “witch hunts” had to end and said that he had lost two vice presidents in the last year because of it, referring to the departures of Vice President of Academic Affairs Brian Fuller and Vice President of External Affairs Ashlee Estlack.
“Both were under 40, enrolled in doctoral programs, and wanted to make their careers at Clarendon College,” the president said at that time.
Spier last month objected to Riza’s “ambush job” comment and said, “We’re not after you or any employee.” But her actions, and that of Woodard’s, contradict that statement. In fact, in the last two years, administration members have said privately they felt they should take turns wearing a vest with a target on it when they attend meetings.
Last September, what should have been a short meeting was marked instead by a roasting of the president that lasted more than an hour. Two regents were absent from that meeting, and five others sat mute as Woodard and Spier tag-teamed an assault on Riza’s management of the college, ignoring the administration’s record setting enrollments and top rankings in the state for graduation rates and student success and focusing instead on what Spier called “a pattern” of overspending in the last five years.
That of course begs the question, if the college has really been overspending, then why would it take five years for these two – a banker and a 30-plus-year college secretary – to say something? And if we’re really concerned about spending, why would Woodard, as chairman of the board in 2017, rush to purchase the Deyhle house in an illegal “emergency” meeting and spend almost a quarter of a million dollars? If we’re so worried about spending, why did the board unanimously give Riza permission to buy buses last March without even discussing prices!
To be sure, there are patterns at Clarendon College… a pattern of board members violating or flaunting the Open Meetings Act and college policy and a pattern of hostility that has simmered and occasionally bubbled over between these two regents and the president for over two years. Nothing the president or his administration seems to do can please them.
Woodard and Spier have asked for a number of reports that exemplifies their lack of confidence in the president, and they have developed a pattern of belittling not just the president but members of his team. College board meetings that have historically been a picture of professionalism and decorum have become monthly fishing expeditions as two board members seem to do their best to “catch” the president or members of his team.
Over a year ago, Estlack was asked to compile a report of required postings on the college website, after Woodard blamed her for certain financial reports not being posted online. The report presented last February ended up being 65 pages long and showed more than 70 people contribute content to the website, and that more than 30 reports are required by the state or other agencies. The financial reports in question were not posted on time because they had not been created by the then vice president of administrative services when they were required.
Estlack later was assigned to report on late filings and other issues with the college’s retirement and benefit contributions to the state, even though the administration had months earlier fixed those issues with the state. But when her report found that the college’s past filing problems were not just under the previous vice president of administrative services, whom Riza had hired, but in fact stretched back more than ten years, she was told by Spier at the board meeting last March to “Quit digging, honey.”
Last February, while regents did okay a raise for Riza, Woodard and Spier purposefully led the board in not extending his contract, only to have the rest of the board – led by Jack Moreman and Ruth Robinson – stand up to them in April and vote to add a year to Riza’s contract. Moreman at the time accused “that end of the table” – referring to Woodard, Spier, and Edwin Campbell – of violating the Open Meetings Act in February by having “a meeting within a meeting”
In June, the college’s attorney gave an excellent training on the Open Meetings Act and the proper role of the board. Woodard was absent, and Spier apparently just didn’t get it.
In July, CC Vice President of Administrative Services Rit Christian recommended that the board accept the depository bid of Happy State Bank and enumerated the reasons why Happy’s bid was the best of the three presented (primarily higher interest rates for CDs and lower fees). Woodard, who is president of the local branch of Herring Bank, persuaded his fellow board members to keep the college’s deposits at Herring and then proceeded to treat the financial officer like dirt beneath his shoe at subsequent meetings. Woodard did abstain from the vote, but two other members with a financial interest in the bank did not.
Just five months prior to that, in resigning as the board chairman under the pressure from the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools, Woodard asserted that he always recuses himself from discussions involving Herring Bank’s contract.
Following an August meeting, Spier stayed around after all other regents had left and spent half an hour lecturing Christian and Estlack on how to prepare financial reports “the way it used to be done.” When Spier finished, Estlack asked her if they (the administration) did it her way, what would be the next thing she and Mr. Woodard would want. Spier acted bewildered and said she didn’t know what Estlack was talking about. Estlack then used the term “witch hunt” and said she was tired of being treated as incompetent or as if the administration had something to hide. Later that month, Spier and Woodard stalled Riza’s recommendation to promote Estlack to a vice president, resulting in the board tabling a president’s personnel recommendation for the first time in the 20+ years the Enterprise has been covering regents’ meetings. The promotion was granted at a subsequent meeting when Woodard was absent.
The atmosphere with the board became so toxic that Riza in August told other administrators they no longer had to attend the regents’ meetings. And why should they attend? It is surely frustrating to work hard at your job day in and day out and build a record of success that is being talked about by other community colleges and in the halls of Austin, only to have two people show up once a month and rain on everything you’re working to accomplish.
Last fall, Woodard started beating a dead horse from a year earlier, called into question the president’s authority to sign any purchase contracts. The issue is a contract for copier/printer services that the college prematurely canceled when the former vice president of administrative services believed it was a month-to-month agreement. The college ended up paying $30,000 in the fall of 2017 to get out of the contract. Riza reported it at the time, it was deemed an honest mistake, and everyone moved on… all while Woodard was chairman. But now it’s a “thing” and it came up again last month.
Woodard also chastised Riza last fall for replacing the washer and dryer at the college president’s house, saying “any change to that house requires board approval.”
So in his view, if the college-owned dryer goes out (which it did), the president can’t replace it without a board meeting so Woodard and Spier can presumably have their input on whether to get a Whirlpool or a Maytag.
In October, Estlack addressed the board in open comments and informed them that she had filed a criminal complaint against the board for Open Meetings violations as well as an employee grievance against the board, a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and a formal complaint against the board with the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools, all related to the board’s treatment of her as an employee and the board members’ repeated violations of state law and college policy. All of the above complaints are still pending. Estlack later resigned in December when conditions did not improve.
Contrary to Spier’s assertion that they aren’t after anybody, time and time again they show an attitude that the president and his staff are incompetent. Just last month, Woodard pushed to have Spier compile the board’s evaluation of the president, dismissing Riza’s plan to have a staff member do that. Historically that’s a staff job, and the Enterprise knows of no instance in which former regent, the late Delbert Robertson, ever complied such evaluations in his decade’s long service as board secretary. It was fine to have the staff compile the evaluations… when Spier was the staff doing it. But then it’s also interesting that there was no consternation about the keeping of the minutes during Robertson’s time as board secretary.
Spier has a bit of a problem living in the present. She doesn’t like the way the college invests money now, even stating that it would cause former CC president Kenneth Vaughan – who retired in 1989 and died in 2011 – to roll over in his grave. Clarendon College, like most businesses, has changed considerably in the last 30 years, and even the last ten or five years have seen quite an evolution.
Almost all of the financial information presented in the president’s report at February’s meeting regarding what depleted the college’s cash reserves was previously presented by Riza at the October meeting, but he correctly stated at the time that what he told them didn’t matter “because you aren’t going to believe me anyway.” Apparently he’s right, since the same questions keep coming up.
CC is a huge enterprise requiring specialized knowledge to operate. It can’t be totally controlled by a board meeting once a month. The board can and should govern, but it needs to understand its limits.
From the discussion at last month’s meeting, it’s clear that the arguments of Woodard and Spier have gotten traction with at least two other board members as they work to kill this administration by a thousand pin pricks.
Whatever is eating these two – bruised egos, feelings of inadequacy or irrelevancy, or a desire for control – it needs to be put aside. Clarendon College is this community’s most valuable asset, and it is too important to let two people yank the reins and put the cart in the ditch by running off qualified employees, violating the law and college policy, and risking the college’s accreditation. Above all they need to stop accusing the administration of violating policies when they themselves can’t seem to follow policy or state law.
If they can’t swallow their pride and let the administration do its job, then the other board members need to rise to the occasion, stop sitting silently, and get the focus back on what is best for the college. And if they can’t get that done, then it’s time to start looking for new board members who can.
City will seek pool bids again
Last Wednesday brought a second round of disappointment for Clarendon officials when new bids for the city’s proposed water recreation facility again came in more than $1 million above the project estimate.
The low – and only – bid at the first bid opening in January came in at $3.162 million. A second round of bidding drew the interest of three companies, but the low bid at the March 20 opening was $3.255 million.
Higher than expected costs for concrete and steel are still being fingered for the cause of the price overrun.
City Administrator David Dockery says city officials are going back to the drawing board with engineering firm WatersEdge to try to scale the plan to the for the funds available.
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