Sources report that recently appointed Cleveland Community College Board of Trustee Member Michael Cheng has resigned effective immediately from the BoT. Mr. Cheng was appointed by the Cleveland County Commissioners to fill a vacancy in an appointment that would expire in 2021. Sources also report that Mr. Cheng came on to the CCC BoT with “high hopes of making things right at CCC” but that Mr. Cheng had come to realize that the entrenched gridlock on the CCC BoT made doing the right thing impossible.
We salute Mr. Michael Cheng for his bravery in trying to do right and for getting out when he was not able to overcome the entrenched establishment of a culture of corruption at CCC. Mr. Cheng has sent us all a message by his resignation at this crucial time while the CCC BoTs are trying to ramrod through Dr. Shannon Kennedy as the new President at CCC. Despite Kennedy being the center of scandals and controversy at CCC that brought about all the present situation to start with.
Sources also report that Sheriff Alan Norman may be contemplating his own resignation from the CCC Board of Trustees as we speak. And for the same reasoning as Mr. Cheng. Sources report that some BoT members are encouraging Sheriff Norman to stay (as they likely also did with Mr. Cheng) to attempt to collect votes against the culture of corruption at CCC. But they are apparently coming up short.
My recommendation is that every Board of Trustee member with a conscience, after determining that the culture of corruption has too many votes to overcome, resign immediately. Do not let yourself become tainted with that culture of corruption that has brought so much gridlock to the CCC BoT. Become a part of taking over the School Board and the Commissioner Board so those who are battling to maintain gridlock can be removed from the BoT by those that appoint them.
All this mess did not happen over night. Years of just letting things ride at CCC have caught up with us. The chickens have come home to roost. It is likely to take years for the people to take back control of our County Government agencies. And when we do, we have to extract the cancers like we do when we pull up weeds from our garden. Pull them up by the roots and shake off the dirt that sustains them.
It is that or Federal lawsuits. After that it’s revolution or surrender. I prefer revolution. Revolution at the ballot box. Just like when we elected Donald Trump as POTUS.
