“Below is an article written by The Bulletin in Bend Oregon. The article pertains to emails that were requested by The Bulletin and The Broadside, the college paper I was editor of. The Broadside’s coverage of the emails will go much more into depth with what exactly ASCOCC has done unethically.”

College officials considered shutting down the student government

By Sheila G. Miller / The Bulletin

E-mail correspondence between Central Oregon Community College administrators show school officials were concerned about the Associated Students of COCC - and even weighed the option of disbanding the group - in the month before the student government retained a lawyer to clarify its role at the college and its ability to administer student fees.

ASCOCC faces a recall effort, an ongoing battle with the student newspaper over public records and allegations that student government misused student fees, and is currently in discussions with college administrators about its role at the college. The e-mails between Sept. 1 and Oct. 16 and obtained by The Bulletin through a public records request indicate college administrators had been working behind the scenes to figure out the issues since at least the start of the 2010-11 school year.

Some of the problems student government has faced this year come from COCC’s lack of a formal policy detailing ASCOCC’s roles and responsibilities. While the college has had a student government since at least the 1950s and a student fee that ASCOCC oversees since 1993, no formal policy was ever put in place.

College Relations Director Ron Paradis said the issue came to the college’s attention when student government members approached college officials, curious about the board’s ratification of its student fee policy.

“In doing research, we discovered we hadn’t ratified those things, and then in doing our research we realized those were things that should have been taken care of and hadn’t been,” Paradis said. “The relationship has always been very broad as far as what decisions those in student government have been allowed to make.”

College officials believed that relationship should be better defined.

The student government on Oct. 13 hired Miller Nash LLP attorney Greg Lynch as an advocate, and has also employed India Simmons, a local public relations specialist. ASCOCC member Brenda Pierce said Lynch is paid $295 per hour out of student fee funds, and that Simmons will also be paid with student fee money.

ASCOCC members declined to comment without seeing the e-mails, and Lynch did not return calls for comment.

But nearly a month before Lynch was hired by ASCOCC, the e-mails were already flying about how to handle a potential conflict with the student government.

On Sept. 14, COCC President Jim Middleton e-mailed with board president Charley Miller about ASCOCC’s interactions with Simmons.

Simmons had contacted Miller about ASCOCC’s desire to define the boundaries of its relationship with the college; Miller forwarded the e-mail to Middleton, who told Miller to be careful about getting involved.

“As a PR person, India is certainly aware how things could blow up in (the students’) faces if they head down a path where there is reality or appearance of legal, ethical or stewardship problems,” Middleton wrote.

2 recommendations

On Sept. 24, Dean of Student and Enrollment Services Alicia Moore sent a draft recommendation of possible next steps the college could take in dealing with ASCOCC, based on conversations with an attorney.

The recommendation included two options: bring ASCOCC into compliance with the college’s expectations or stop recognizing ASCOCC as a college organization.

“The intent is to offer student government an opportunity to clean up their current situation and begin a more productive, less combative relationship with the college,” Moore wrote. “If they do not want to comply with these minimum requirements, we will then move to Option B.”

Under the first option, Moore said ASCOCC and COCC would have to rewrite the constitution, begin operating under current bylaws, update all job descriptions, write a fiscal policy, comply with open records law, and work with Moore to develop a resolution where the board ratified student fees and the ASCOCC constitution.

“In addition to the above, ASCOCC will no longer have a college credit card, their checking accounts will be reduced to $1,000, and petty cash will be maintained under current College policies and practices,” she wrote.

The other option, Moore wrote, would include putting together a campuswide task force to create a new student government and constitution while still running the programs ASCOCC operates; ASCOCC students would be encouraged to apply. A temporary student fee committee would review requests for funds and a severance for current ASCOCC members would be considered.

“That’s not something we are considering at this point,” Paradis said. “The purpose of these meetings is to get to a point that both ASCOCC and the college is comfortable with their relationship. And we believe we’re both going to get there.”

Some of the e-mails concern how to deal with the student newspaper The Broadside, which had requested a series of financial documents from ASCOCC and felt the public records requests were being ignored.

‘ASCOCC is not happy’

On Oct. 8, as administrators and student government members grappled with who should release those records, Student Activities Coordinator Taran Underdal told college officials ASCOCC was not likely to comply with the requests.

“ASCOCC is not happy about (the) possibility of COCC releasing their financial information. They have scheduled a meeting with an attorney and plan to file an injunction preventing this,” Underdal wrote to Moore.

That never happened; ASCOCC turned over records to both The Broadside and The Bulletin. But college officials now knew the student government was working with a lawyer, and that seems to have ramped up their concerns.

The day after ASCOCC hired Lynch, the college put a stop payment on three outstanding ASCOCC checks pre-signed by their previous adviser so that any checks would have to be approved by Underdal, ASCOCC’s current adviser.

Executive session

According to an e-mail exchange between Middleton and Moore, the board then met in an executive session to discuss the ASCOCC issue. Executive sessions are not open to the public; members of the media can attend but cannot report on what happens in them unless the information is brought up outside of the session.

In those e-mails, Moore asked Middleton whether it would make sense to limit ASCOCC’s access to funds because of “recent poor/inappropriate fiscal decisions.” She also noted the board had discussed in executive session whether attorney expenses could be paid for with student fees.

Moore wrote that University of Oregon students had tried to use student fee money to pay for attorney fees, and the attorney general had ruled they could not.

Middleton, who at the time was on vacation, told Moore to wait on taking action.

“These events have helped define where clearer policy frameworks are needed. We should focus attention on creating that policy framework,” he wrote. “There should be a clear separation between actions which are ‘clamping down’ and those that are putting action in line with law or policy. I am willing to have some flexibility until policy is clarified and ensure (that) our actions are in no way a response to what feels like bad behavior on their part.”

For now, the negotiations between ASCOCC and COCC are in limbo as students prepare for finals. But Paradis said the college is hopeful the issue will be wrapped up by the middle of winter term.

Sheila G. Miller can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com

Eric Ercanbrack

Last year the former editor in chief of The Broadside, Don Iler, wrote an editorial titled, “It Pays to love ASCOCC.” Iler, who was later accused of defamation for the editorial, was cleared of all charges. The problem that Iler’s editorial was attempting to uncover was lost in the political mess, until now.

“Rob Walker, who is living with ASCOCC council member Brenda Pierce, was hired last term to make videos for ASCOCC… his contract came up for review and if approved, he will be paid $3000 spring term…$3000 per term is quite a bit for ASCOCC to be paying” wrote Iler in his editorial.

The $3000 contract wasn’t approved. Instead Walker was given an hourly rate at $15 per hour. This ended up netting Walker a higher income than the initial $3000 per term. For spring term 2010, Walker was paid $5,504.50.

On top of Walker’s $15 an hour honorary member pay, he was also paid for outside contracts. For the 2009 to 2010 school year, Walker was paid $19,357 with student fee money. Walker began honorary and outside contract work in February of 2010. If Walker had worked a full school year he would have been paid a much higher annual earning. It is concerning to know that this was approved by our student government.

ASCOCC should be more accountable for student fee money. The Broadside has attempted to find the minutes (outlines) for the public meeting where ASCOCC members agreed to contract and pay an hourly rate to Walker. If these minutes aren’t posted that would mean ASCOCC is breaking Oregon law.

The ethical boundary is pushed when student government members hire boyfriends and pay them over $19,000 dollars a year. When you include a $295 per hour lawyer, $18,000 trips to Washington, and a public relations consultant, current members could potentially bankrupt the student government.

Has a student government gone bankrupt? I have found none that have, but I have also found no other student government that has hired a lawyer in order to avoid being dissolved, and to ‘define’ themselves in relation to the college that houses and supports them.  Student government members seem to not have a proper system in place for maintaining financially responsibility.

Walker was just paid $1366.50 for September of this year. This is more than any student government member is paid per month.
Who is in control of this situation?

Last year Walker was also the president of the Brew Club, a club where all equipment was stored in Pierce’s and Walkers garage. The Brew Club was funded by student fee money. Are there no ethical boundaries, or moral based second guessing within the student government? ASCOCC is not being accountable of student fee money. Student government members are not making ethically sound choices.

The student government is learning experience. There are wonderful things the student government has done for our campus and the students at COCC. However, being an honorary, general council and executive council member is not a sustainable job. These positions are not financially supporting careers, and that is how these positions are being treated.

It seems members have become too comfortable, and it seems that level of comfort has hindered their ability to make ethical judgements about how student fee money is spent.

Can student government justify actions like paying a boyfriend over $19,000 in student fees? If there is corruption in student government, this may be a keen example of it.

Eric Ercanbrack
Kirsteen Wolf
Tobey Veenstra

The highest paid member of Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College last school year was honorary member Rob Walker according to public documents.

Walker, who it appears primarily made videos for ASCOCC’s Facebook page,  made nearly $20,000 in student fees. He is the boyfriend of ASCOCC member Brenda Pierce.

Walker’s wages included four payments totaling $8,350 for outside contracted services from July 2009 to November 2009, and a salary totaling $11,007 from February 2010 to June 2010.

Walker’s salary as an honorary member exceeded the $9,500 salaries executive members Pierce and Terry Link, and the $8,962.50 salary of executive member Matt Coito.

ASCOCC is currently attempting to define its role in relation to the college. At issue, in part, is whether ASCOCC must follow college policies with regards to financial responsibility and fiscal oversight.

Members of ASCOCC declined comment and referred questions to their student fee-funded lawyer, Greg Lynch.

“I am choosing not to do an interview with you,” said Pierce to a Broadside reporter. “And no student government member will either.”

Lynch did not immediately return calls for comment.
Honorary members and outside services

Honorary members have no voting power on the student government. They often help out with events and typically get paid $10 per hour. Walker is the exception; he gets paid $15 per hour.

Walker, who was hired initially to create videos for student government, has created 16 videos that can be found on ASCOCC’s Facebook webpage.

“To my understanding, he was their videographer and would upload onto Facebook,” said Gordon Price, advisor to ASCOCC for the 2009-2010 school year.

The videos include two Thanksgiving food drive videos, two bowling night videos, and an ASCOCC Facebook video. The majority of these clips are under two minutes long.

Walker’s job was the same throughout the year but the way he was paid changed, said Price. He was paid as an outside contractor from July to November and he was paid as an honorary member from February to June of last school year.

Kevin Raichl, president of Visual Thinking Northwest, a local video production company, viewed Walker’s video promoting ASCOCC’s publication “The Voice.”

“If I assume you wanted me to estimate the cost of producing a promo similar to that one, I would say about $200,” he said.

Using Raichl’s estimate, Walker’s 16 videos would cost $3,200 to produce.
Payroll

COCC, through student fees, allots money to ASCOCC—$278,536 in the 2009-2010 school year—and ASCOCC in turn funds programs and clubs, and puts on events throughout the year. With those fees they also pay their executive council, general council and honorary members.

The total payroll costs of ASCOCC for the last fiscal year—July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010—was $78,485.50, according to public documents. This is a $35,725.60 increase from the previous school year and about 50 percent more than the organization budgeted.

There are 43 individuals listed on ASCOCC’s payroll for the last fiscal year. Walker’s pay as an honorary member is 14 percent of the payroll.

This percentage does not reflect money Walker made as an outside contractor, which totaled $8,350.
ASCOCC’s legal questions

COCC’s student government has been trying to clarify their role at the college through legal negotiations between attorneys. ASCOCC hired Greg Lynch, a lawyer who typically charges $295 per hour, and India Simmons, a public relations consultant. Documents have been requested as to the amount paid to both Lynch and Simmons, but currently ASCOCC has no public documentation on the requests.

Legal negotiation topics include the student government’s autonomy, its relation to the college, whether it falls under college policy, and whether or not it can be dissolved, according to an ASCOCC memorandum.

Price encourages students to get involved if there are issues regarding the use of funds and potential fiscal wrongdoing.

“Students can stop it by saying, ‘I demand a change,’” said Price. “Students have always had that power.”

You may contact Eric Ercanbrack at eercanbrack@cocc.edu, Kirsteen Wolf at kwolf@cocc.edu, and Tobey Veenstra at tveenstra@cocc.edu

Quick facts

• Walker has been paid $4,180 in salary so far this school year, since June 2010, according to ASCOCC’s payroll documents.

• Pierce’s salary for this period $9,500. Their combined salaries are $28,857 which is ten percent of the total revenue for the 2009/2010 year.Pierce is in her fourth year of serving as a member of ASCOCC.

• According to the ASCOCC constitution, students can serve on the student government while taking as little as one credit

• All council members and honorary members are eligible for a cell phone stipend. The current college policy on cell phone stipend is $60. Cell phone stipends appear in payroll according to Taran Underdal, ASCOCC advisor. Some members of ASCOCC’s payroll went from $750 to $810.

Eric Ercanbrack

I have heard two or three comments recently from students who are asking why The Broadside hates the Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College.

This hate is nonexistent.

The Broadside does not hate, and we are not attacking any individual of the student government or the student government itself. We are an unbiased independent newspaper that strives for the utmost accuracy and professionalism. A predominant purpose of The Broadside is to publish a professional paper every week, and to only print facts in the News.  We do this while balancing classes, homework, jobs and our personal lives. We believe strongly in the value of the press to gather, publish and air news and commentary for our campus community backed by the dedication to student First Amendment rights and for open government on campus.

Before the school year began, I sat at a meeting with student government members and expressed to them that I would like to work on The Broadside and ASCOCC’s relationship throughout the year. I have every intent on continuing to fulfilling that promise. However, in that same meeting I also expressed to them that we, as a news organization, will still investigate and be skeptical of how ASCOCC spends and has spent student fee money. The Broadside has followed up on this promise as well, and we will continue to.

The Broadside recently reported on a conference ASCOCC members attended. This article produced a lot of comments on our Facebook page and our website, thebroadsideonline.com.

Some of these comments are in support of our pursuit of the facts while others say that we are inaccurate. We received a letter from ASCOCC making calls for retractions, this letter will be addressed. We also reserve the right to not print hate speech like a letter comparing The Broadside with the KKK.

If misleading and aggressive tactics are used or encouraged by ASCOCC members, they need to stop. I understand how messy politics can get, however that does not mean professionalism should be lost.

The Broadside staff are fact checkers, and that is all we print, the facts, but we are not above corrections. We are unbiased and accurate in our reporting. It is up to students to draw their own conclusions from what The Broadside prints.