Editor’s Note 1: The many and varied scandals at Cleveland Community College that have only recently been publicly exposed have in fact been festering for years. There have been several layers of delay and cover-up. First, the CCC Staff and Administration leadership have used threats and intimidation regarding employment to keep employees quiet. Next, Staff and Administration only provide “good news: (often lies) and never present problems or issues at CCC Board of Trustees meetings to cover-up scandals. Then, if a whistleblower does come forward, they get retaliation and often termination. Staff and Administration never allow the terminated employee to have a fair hearing with the full CCC Board of Trustees.
Then, there is the Board of Trustees themselves. Most of which, over the years, have been appointed as some sort of honorary title type ploy so the individual Trustee gets to put on their resume that they have served on the CCC Board of Trustees, but are in fact just rubber-stamps for the Staff, Administration and those that appointed them. They always “”make their decisions based on the information that they have been provided” and never question those that are providing one sided and self serving information. (This is how most every Board in Cleveland County operates.)
And when scandals do surface, like now, the CCC Board is split. Some are on the Board to possibly line their own pockets. Some are on the Board, like the School Board appointees, to cover for problems at CCS. and so forth. With split boards like the CCC Board as presently constituted, there is gridlock. Nothing is done. Everything is delayed. And the status quo remains because the public has a short memory.
We have reviewed the present CCC Board of Trustees makeup and provided our evaluation. None of the CCC Trustees are elected so they can’t be voted off the Board. However, the only hope of getting anything done is follow the Trustee appointments back to the source and throw those guys and gals out of office. It may take a while, but this is the only thing that works. That and the many calls to your elected officials to fix the problems at Cleveland Community College.
A listing of all CCC Board of Trustee Members and our evaluation follows below:
Acting Chairman Greg Melton:
Part XI ended up as a separate article because of the many conflicts of interest of Board of Trustees Acting Chairman Greg Melton. We suggest you re-read that article. Melton’s monetary interests (his pone) rests largely with County building contracts to Holland & Hamrick Architects where Melton works. Greg Melton would certainly benefit financially by keeping everything in place at CCC. Melton has not resigned even though his conflicts are obvious and well known for years. However, Greg Melton was appointed by the Cleveland County Commissioners and his appointment runs out this month. The Commissioners, well known for doing stupid things and are themselves embroiled in various scandals, are not considered stupid enough to re-appoint Greg Melton to the CCC Board of Trustees for another term. We will have to wait and see about that though.
We consider Greg Melton’s refusal to support the actions necessary to identify and correct problems at CCC as just another example of a conflict of interest and a sure example of bad judgement in regard to what is best for CCC.