Presentations.

Incurred Legal Fee Analysis: John Dischner, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Reviewed expenses for legal fees. Biggest spike in fees relates to cooperation with law enforcement. Internal investigations also add significant expenses. Bar graphs show how fees stack up. Hamilton asks several questions to clarify. McGuire asserts that investigations are going nowhere, and we are spinning our wheels and spending money. Mazzochi responds that the expenses McGuire is complaining about have federal subpoenas behind them. McGuire agrees that responding to investigations is required, but she accuses (somebody) of getting the ball rolling on investigations that are pointless. Wozniak chimes in, money is flying out the window. This reform board voted for all this stuff. Mazzochi points out that the attorneys doing the responses were selected by Breuder and Glazer. Hamilton: “Cleaning up is expensive.”

Management Audit Letter: William Kresse, Member Board Audit Committee. Member of our transition team. 14 deficiencies in internal controls found by Crowe Harvath audit, a very high number, even though this was only a routine audit of financial statements. There could be other deficiencies which are not expressed. Three major findings included issues with conflict of interest and compliance with investment policy. Made recommendations to remedy. These issues are being addressed with COD management. Sums up presentation with need for vigilance. Bernstein comments on what a change since an earlier meeting when a team of accountants appeared and said there was nothing wrong at COD. Further exchanges… McGuire raising issue of transmittal letter. Exchange between McGuire and Hamilton. Kresse points out that Crowe Horvath brought in a completely new team.

Executive Search Recommendation from Presidential Search Committee. Paul Lefort, chair of search committee. Commenting on search strategy, looking for “passive candidates” who will not respond to ad. Dischner of AlixPartners explained process for RFP. Lefort explained search committee charter, 18 members, representative body of the citizens of District 502. Make recommendations to BOT who will make final selection. Ranking of firms, questioning. Now have live website for presidential search. Recommended firm asked to retain a firm with more education experience to assist them. Search strategy of recommended firm, William E. Hay & Co., is research-based, their staff will go out looking for people who are the right fit. They will be looking for four positions all at once – president and top financial officers, VP Development.

Chair Hamilton comments on the role of the BOT to keep control of the hiring process. Hiring in four positions is a major cultural shift. Need to turn the page.

There is a motion on the floor. McGuire comments on the process of hiring all four at once, it’s against board policy and goes against an earlier board action authorizing only searching for the president. In the board policy, the trustees have the authority to hire the president, and the president has the authority to hire the others. The motion is out of order, we should start over, do the RFP again, try to get the firm with more education experience. There is more about Polonio’s statement about telling the old board not to hire Breuder, Wozniak denies this again. College attorney points to community college legislation that justifies BOT hiring senior administrators. Mazzochi engages McGuire about what our alternatives are. McGuire urges that we find people internally to cover the positions until the new president is hired. There is a long debate about this. Mazzochi writes an amendment to divide the process. Hamilton is mad at Mazzochi. Back and forth argument between McGuire and Hamilton. Attorney speaks. Sands-Vankerk speaks to timing of hiring people to cover.

The discussion continues… the blogger is done. Apologies for stopping in the middle, but it’s getting late. Please go to the stream.