By The Signal Editorial Board
The leadership crisis continues at College of the Canyons.
On the morning of July 19, acting Chancellor David Andrus conducted a meeting with members of the college’s faculty. Andrus, a faculty member who was appointed by the board of trustees as the interim replacement for ousted Chancellor Dianne Van Hook, had invited his “colleagues” to attend a meeting on campus at the Performing Arts Center, along with Edel Alonso, the president of the college’s board of trustees, “for a conversation about what is ahead for College of the Canyons.”
Our news staff thought it would be interesting to check in on the meeting and see what people had to say. But, a Signal reporter was turned away from the meeting, which, according to Andrus’ invitation to his faculty colleagues, was “a staff/employee meeting and is not open to the public.” College spokesman Eric Harnish, in turning the reporter away, characterized it as a “family meeting.”
Except …
Except that it was not just a staff/employee meeting. Later that morning, The Signal learned that all four current members of the board of trustees were present for the meeting.
According to our understanding of the Ralph M. Brown Act – California’s open meeting law – that makes the meeting clearly illegal.
Mr. Andrus – an attorney – isn’t off on the right foot. He and the four governing board members should absolutely know better. Under the law, if a quorum of the board gathers to discuss – or even just to hear a discussion of – business that falls under the board’s purview, then the meeting must be noticed to the public in advance, an agenda posted, and the public allowed to attend.
There is an exception under the Brown Act for board members to attend “a purely social or ceremonial occasion” without it being an agendized public meeting. That’s what COC officials hung their hat on as they tried to explain away a meeting that was closed to the public in which employees were invited to discuss “what’s ahead” for the embattled community college with its newly appointed interim chancellor and the entire board of trustees.
Such a staff meeting would be fine – if it were only attended by staff, the chancellor, other campus administrators and no more than two board members. But to say this falls under the “purely social or ceremonial” category does not, in any way, shape or form, pass the smell test. This wasn’t punch and cookies at a campus art reception.
In his written invitation to the staff, Andrus indicated that Alonso would be in attendance but did not mention that the other three sitting board members would be there, too.
“Edel and I know that the events of the last week have been difficult for many of you here on campus. We look forward to an honest and heartfelt conversation about COC, and how much this college means to all of us,” Andrus wrote.
Doesn’t sound like a “purely social or ceremonial occasion” to us.
In fact, Andrus clearly knew it wasn’t. That’s further evidenced by the fact that his opening statement to the staff, along with Alonso’s, was recorded – but the question-and-answer portion of the meeting was not, because, the interim chancellor said, “I wanted to create a space for all of you to ask questions upon the conclusion of my remarks so that you can do so in a comfortable environment.”
At that point, if not a LOT sooner, at least two board members should have excused themselves from the meeting and left the chancellor and the staff alone in their “safe space.”
They didn’t.
Further, they turned away the press at the door. And an illegal board meeting occurred on the campus of COC, with the press intentionally excluded.
It was a poorly timed illegal meeting, at that.
There’s a lot we don’t yet know about what led to the dismissal of Van Hook, the now-former chancellor who has been widely credited with transforming COC into a community college powerhouse over her 36 years at the helm.
And, we have questions.
Conducting illegal secret board meetings only raises more of them.
