Chair Platter, Past-Chair Officer and General Manager Twitty, I have been very careful in my first year on the Board to listen more than I speak, ask relevant questions, consider differences on an intellectual basis instead of an emotional one, and be (mostly) accepting of the reality that my opinion is only one of many expressed around the Board table. I have been very appreciative of the courtesy returned by the three of you as I gain experience in my service to the Board.
Not withstanding those comments, I must unambiguously state how very disappointed I am in the carefully orchestrated actions of several members of the Board and a portion of the Senior Staff that have come to light in the past few days. Whether it was fully intended or not, the process has resulted in a General Manager’s Search Committee that epitomizes an abuse of power and process.
It is difficult for me to believe that the Board Executive Committee would self-appoint themselves to the General Manager’s Search Committee and not consider it a conflict of interest. Furthermore, the inclusion of two additional Board members to the Search Committee constitutes a majority of the Board and insures that the remaining five members not invited to be on the Search Committee will always have a minority voice—if any voice at all. And before anyone tries to argue otherwise, having only an up or down vote at the end of a process controlled by others is the same as having no vote in my mind.
I specifically requested that the Search Committee include all Board members; and that request was ignored. There was also ample opportunity to seek the input of all Board members to the meeting of the Board Executive Committee; but some Board members were not invited, while others were.
This is like a bad episode of Survivor. You can each draw your own conclusions as to what I mean by that.
One assurance that I made to Mr. Twitty when I came on the Board is that I would not intentionally try to surprise him or leave him unprepared to respond to my concerns. Since I assumed that we would not agree on many items, I felt this would be the civil thing for me to do. To that end, please be advised that this email is also copied to select community leaders and media outlets as an indication of its importance to me.
I have also attached a timeline of events as I have seen them unfold from my vantage point, and a copy of my email from Monday morning. While these points may include some issues that may be easily clarified or dismissed, I find it difficult to believe that all seventeen points can be explained away.
I have tied to make informed arguments on this and other issues and have been either ignored, dismissed as uninformed, or told that it has been decided in the past and I have no place to bring it up again. This email should clearly indicate that, as a duly appointed member of the CU Board, I take exception to those viewpoints.
The selection of the general manager is the central role of the Board. As such, I will continue to advocate that the entire Board be given the opportunity to be fully involved in this process. Additionally, I would request that Ms. Jones, Assistant to the Board, notify all Board members of all meetings from this point forward. We can then discern for ourselves which meeting we can, or would be wise to attend.
In Sincere Service to the Board
Daniel E. Scott, AIA, MBA Board Member[[In-content Ad]]
