Part VIII: Cleveland Community College Scandals: Ineffective Board of Trustees!!! Report and Introduction by Robert A. Williams
Editor’s Note: By now most folks realize the scandals surrounding the Cleveland Community College are also intermixed in responsibility with the Cleveland County Board of Education and the Cleveland County Commissioners. This is the eighth part we have published and we are not even half way through.
The situation is complicated and I have made arrangements with Mr. Hal Trammell of the Palmetto News-Opinion to help out with exposing the CCC, CCS and Commissioner scandals in various ways. Mr. Trammell has agreed to help with writing Op-Ed pieces as well as help research, archive and investigate the many tentacles of corruption, collusion, conflicts of interest, etc. in these matters. Please welcome Mr. Trammell in our quest for good government.
A little background on Mr. Trammell: Hal Trammell was the owner and proprietor of Bestec Computer Service in Shelby as well as the force behind Shelby Action News. No matter the cause, large or small, Mr. Trammell has alerted the people of problems and gotten voters fired up when necessary. We welcome Mr. Trammell to join us in resolving the problems at hand and perhaps more later. From now until further notice you will see my articles as well as pieces from the Mr. Trammell and the Palmetto News-Opinion intermixed regarding CCC, CCS and the Commissioners self made scandals and their futile attempts to cover-up.
This collaborative piece from the Palmetto News-Opinion is entitled:
CCC Trustees Ineffective in administration drama . I believe you will find this article right on target. Also, the article includes recent minutes of meetings of the CCC Board of Trustees that will be broken down in another article to reveal clear acts of cover-up from the CCC Trustees. We suspect a lot of heads will roll (or “retire” as the Shelby Star might say) before these scandals are fully resolved.
CCC Trustees ineffective in administration drama
Shelby, NC — Cleveland Community College President, Dr. Steve Thornburg, sent a message to the faculty and staff of the college Thursday evening, stating that he would resign, as of December 31, 2017, with his retirement beginning on January 1, 2018. After several meetings and discussions with the Board of Trustees, Thornburg finally came to this decision to hang on until the end of the year. Many people feel that the resignation should have been effective immediately, along with the resignation of his assistant. There are still many questions that need to be answered. However, the main message sent by Thornburg was a subtle shot letting the trustees know that he was going away on his own terms. That alone should be enough to cause some heartburn amongst the brethren and sistren, because some employees were terminated without just cause, when you compare their deeds to the misdeeds of the administrators. What were supposed to have been trustees, or the people who were selected to maintain accountability, have instead, been nothing but a mutual admiration society. At least that’s what the people have come to believe. There has been more effort put forth to maintain a cover up, as opposed to an effort to confront the problem and bring it to a swift conclusion. This mess has been festering for more than a year.
I would not be surprised to see some lawsuits filed against the college. The trustees have been negligent in their mishandling of the issues at hand. Rather than confront and fix the problems, they denied there were problems and fired those who revealed the problems. And then they act surprised that the community is fed up with them, and the students and parents are frustrated, to say the least. The president of the college brought these problems upon himself, along with his cohort. There was no witch hunt. There were alleged problems and then documentation was provided to prove there were problems. Yet, here we are, with even a bigger mess. Any word that begins with the word “trust” that is part of your job description is pretty much a misrepresentation of everything, isn’t it? It’s very telling that among a dozen people, a majority could not do what is right. Three trustees will be due to come off the board this year. I hope the selections are more cautious next time. You would be doing the people a disservice to keep placing admirers and friends on these boards. The board should be comprised of people who will stand up, no matter who, what, when or where and say something is not right, if the situation should arise. It’s time you started using sickles instead of brooms. Stop sweeping and begin cutting this mess out. Now!
Below, you will see the minutes, at least partially, to the things that are pertinent to these issues that are in the news currently. As I said earlier, these problems have been ongoing for more than a year, yet, all they have done is deny, deflect and continue to kick the can down the road. It will be a travesty if the president of the college, and his assistant, are still employed there, at the end of a another week.
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