Elimination of LTCC position fuels distrust among staff
By Kathryn Reed
Unrest is brewing at Lake Tahoe Community College among staff, the board and the president.
One classified employee on Jan. 21 told Lake Tahoe News privately, “Morale has always been in the toilet, now it’s in the sewer.”
College board member Kerry David isn’t surprised staff would be disgruntled based on continued cutbacks by California, increased workloads and years without raises.
“Morale in higher education is tanking across California when you look at the proposal the newly elected governor has put on the table,” David said.
The best-case scenario as proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown for LTCC is $650,000 in cuts. The worst case is more than $1.7 million cuts for the next school year. What compounds the problem is the outcome may not be known until June, weeks before the 2011-12 budget must be approved and takes effect July 1.
(The board is meeting with state Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, on Monday in Sacramento to discuss the budget.)
Although budget constraints and the uncertainty that looms plays a role in creating an atmosphere of gloom, interim President Steve Maradian is not helping the situation, according to some LTCC employees.
Upon his recommendation, the board at its last meeting unanimously did away with the position of the Title III project manager. This in turn means Craig Brinkman is without a job. He was putting the Datatel software system in place.
“First of all, it is a personnel matter. To me it was not a performance issue. It was a position not needed by the college to get the work done,” Maradian told Lake Tahoe News.
Maradian brought in three firms to assess how Datatel is working. Two were independent. According to Maradian, all said the college needed better technical support to make the grant funded software upgrade come to fruition. That is why he recommended doing away with the job held by Brinkman.
At the Academic Senate meeting Friday afternoon on the campus of the South Lake Tahoe two-year institution, Senate VP Steve Adams was adamant in his belief the dismissal of Brinkman was not handled correctly.
“When things happen this way, it affects all of us,” Adams said at the meeting.
He and fellow instructor Jon Kingsbury are upset College Council did not know about it beforehand. Shared governance is what they kept reiterating. Shared governance gives a voice to faculty and staff before the board takes action.
LTCC board policy 5.12 Subsection B states, “Except in unforeseeable emergency situation, the Board of trustees shall not take action on matters significantly affecting staff until it has provided staff an opportunity to participate in the formulation and development of those matters through appropriate structure an procedures.”
Although the Academic Senate did not vote on the matter related to this situation, Kingsbury and Adams briefed the more than two dozen people in attendance that their opinion is the board did not follow proper procedure. The Academic Senate is expected to address the board at the Jan. 25 meeting.
Maradian left the Academic Senate meeting before all of this was said. Reached by LTN by phone afterward, the president adamantly stood by this being a personnel matter, which would mean it would never go to College Council or Academic Senate.
As to whether the Jan. 11 agenda item was worded correctly, Maradian said, it was written per what attorneys advised. The item reads, “Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release: Project Manager, Title III, and Interim Manager, Information Technologies.”
Some interpreted this as the firing of the person, not the elimination of the position, which is what the board voted on.
David said, “This is not something that happened overnight.”
People speaking at the Academic Senate meeting said it was a surprise when the agenda was posted.
Maradian said with all the meetings involved with people assessing the program he couldn’t see how anyone would be surprised by what transpired last week.
The college board meetings and College Council meetings are available on podcast on the college’s website.
The day after the board meeting, LTN received an email from an anonymous source that in part says, “(Maradian) has now LIED to the Board about following publicly available policies for the termination of a staff member — Craig Brinkman. It’s a mess and there is rampant talk of a vote of no confidence against the president and the Board. The staff is afraid to speak up for fear of being the next to see their name on a public agenda for dismissal.”
On top of the strife between Maradian and LTCC, he had problems just before leaving Los Angeles City College.
The Los Angeles City College paper in November 2010 talk about a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a male student against Maradian while he was president of the college. It was settled out of court.
The heading used on the agenda was completely inappropriate.
The president says it was a personnel, not a performance issue. If the employee is no longer needed, this should have gone through the process and been described as a reduction in work force.
I worked at the College more than 20 years ago, and there was great camaraderie. It sounds like a new interim president is needed. decisions such as this need to be carefully and thoughtfully handled, and he doesn’t sound like the right person for the job.
There is a lengthy procedure for dismissing a staff member. There is a lengthy procedure for eliminating a position.
NEITHER procedure was followed.
The two Vice Presidents were not consulted.
The core grant team members were not consulted.
Human Resources (for crying out loud) was not consulted.
The employee HIMSELF wasn’t informed prior to the Board meeting. Imagine how it feels to open a Board agenda and see that your position is being eliminated. It is cruel beyond belief.
One needs only to Google Maradian’s name to find out that this is a pattern of a using power and disregard for the dignity of employees. Clicking on the link in the story is a good place to start, but don’t stop there.
The vast majority of college employees are enraged that one of our own team has been treated in such a callous and cruel manner. To top it off, the Title III project will NOT allow us to go live for registration as planned. Maradian is presenting a reality from some other planet and I doubt that there is a single employee on the project that would agree with his fantasy.
Brinkman is a brilliant and capable project director. He also rubbed some people the wrong way because he “told it like it is”. He will find another job in an instant.
Let’s just hope that whatever college gets Maradian next does their homework first. Shame on us for not doing due diligence when it comes to this egomaniacal dictator.
That was suppose to read “abuse of power”. Darn iPhone.
One last comment. This ISN’T about the budget. The position is funded and was not on the chopping block.
A 200 hundred thousand dollar settlement plus huge legal costs against LACC (taxpayers) for sexual harassment because of behavior by our current LTCC head honcho according to the LACC student newspaper of 11-03-1910 and the LTCC board hired him anyway. Please LTCC Board give your side of the story as to why you would hire this person, otherwise you leave the public with the one sided impression, gleamed from the LACC story (thanks Kae for your thoroughness) that you are first class bozos.
And please don’t hide behind some sort of personnel confidentiality or similar
dodge. The college president also needs to explain this situation and not hide from full disclosure.
Our community didn’t need this mess. It just continues the imploding and devolving of our town. What a shame.
Sorry you guys find yourself in this horrible spot :( Do what you need to do to move forward, and do the right thing :)
This is from an article I found that was written in the LACC school newspaper, The Collegian (Issue 5 Volume 163), this past summer.
“No Comment on Sexual Harassment Case A sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against Former LACC president Dr. Steve Maradian in 2008. Past Associated Students Organization (ASO) President Ryan Hall-Allen filed a lawsuit against Maradian for sexual harassment, negligent hiring, retention and supervision, intentional infliction of emotional and negligent failure to comply with school policy, according to court records on file at Western Division Federal Courthouse in downtown L.A. The case started in L.A. Superior Court and was moved to federal court but the case was settled out of court a day before the hearing. The Former LACC president recently got a job as president of Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) located in Northern California and will reportedly be paid $160,000 his first year. The Collegian’s phone calls to the president’s office at LTCC were not returned”
It’s absolutely appalling that a person can have all these charges against him and still gets hired on to work here at LTCC. I’m not suprised that he is already abusing his powers.
The article I sited above was actually printed in November, last summer like I had posted.
This is also from an article in a November article of LACC school newspaper, The Collegian (Issue 4 Volume 163). It gives more details into the complaint against Maradian.
“A sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a former LACC student against a former LACC president has been dismissed from federal court, the day before the case was set for trial.
By Mars Melnicoff
Former LACC Associated Students Organization (ASO) President, Ryan Hall-Allen, filed a lawsuit in 2008 against for- mer LACC President Dr. Steve Maradian and the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) for sexual harassment, negligent hiring, retention and supervision, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent failure to comply with school policy, according to court records on file at Western Division Federal Courthouse in downtown L.A.
The lawsuit alleged that throughout the 2006-2007 academic year, Maradian sexually harassed Hall-Allen by making sexually explicit comments and remarks and that Maradian abused his supervisory position as President of LACC to harass Hall-Allen based on his identification of being homosexual.
As listed in the 2008 complaint for damages, Maradian commented and “joked” to Hall-Allen that: “I bet you take it up the a**,” and “Oh I bet you would like that,” and “You are going to go to West Hollywood and get it.” Maradian also told Hall-Allen that he liked to be on the “bottom.”
The complaint for damages further states that, “On or about June 29, 2007, Plaintiff presented an unlawful discrimination complaint form to the LACCD. Following this claim, an investigation was conducted that probable cause existed to show that defendant made unwelcome sexual comments and jokes to plaintiff and made unwelcome contact with plaintiff’s buttocks.”
The complaint for damages goes on to explain that Hall-Allen also filed a claim for damages to person or property to the LACCD, outlining the harassment and that the LACCD sent a letter dated Dec. 7, 2007, rejecting the claim. Further, it states that: “Plaintiff suffered severe mental anguish and emotional distress causing Plaintiff to require psychological treatment and hospitalization for his mental condition from May 2008 to June 2008.”
The defense filed for the case to be moved from L.A. Superior Court to federal court, claiming that the laws involved were governed by federal jurisdiction. The move was granted and it was dismissed without prejudice, which means once it was moved to federal court, it could not go back to L.A. Superior Court.
There were a series of hearing proceedings in federal court in which the parties tried to reach an agreement to settle, but a resolution was not met in court. On Sept. 24, 2010, a joint stipulation to dismiss the case was filed by both sides. The judge ordered to dismiss the case on Sept. 27, one day before the trial was set to begin.
Phone calls to Hall-Allen’s attorney, Ray Newman, to the LACCD General Counsel and to Maradian were unanswered.
The Collegian has learned that Hall-Allen, who was represented by attorney Ray Newman, received a sum of $200,000. A source at the federal court told the Collegian that it is common for cases with high profile defendants, such as the LACCD, to be settled out of court to avoid public embarrassment.
Maradian has since been named interim superintendent/ president of Lake Tahoe Community College in Tahoe, California. He reportedly will be paid $160,000 for the first year.”
I have several friends in various departments at the college and I’ve taken countless classes there. The employees are simply the best in town. What a shame to have this loser, Meridien, come in from the outside and ruin our nice little college.
What is the board thinking? Do they not even know their own policies? From what I heard, several low positions on the food were eliminated in the past few years and they had to go through just about every committee on campus first.
This sounds like a classic pi$$ing match and the students and community are going to be the true losers in the end.
I’m not buying the budget excuse. LTCC had no midyear cuts and if there wasn’t enough work, why are all the “lowly” employees (not the lofty president), scrambling to pick up the pieces.
The lawsuits speak for themselves. This guy has very low character and is leaving bodies in his wake. I know several board members very well. I think they are generally good people trying to do what’s right. They better be prepared for an outpouring of outrage and they better do what’s right:
FIRE MERIDIEN IMMEDIATELY AND BEG THE PROJECT MANAGER FOR FORGIVENESS BEFORE HE SUES THE CR@P OUT OF THE COLLEGE!
Simply shocking. Thanks for posting the article, Heather. I couldn’t get the page to load.
I’m going to be looking for the college podcasts to hear for myself what’s going on. This is just too much to believe.
Unfortunately, I have experienced firsthand multiple examples of grossly incompetent and/or malicious management by the administration of this college. If this dismissal was done inappropriately, I am not surprised.
I also sued Steve Maradian when he was president at LACC. I won in a trial in LA Superior Court (with no jury). The judge ruled that he was guilty of slander. He personally had to pay me almost $45,000. Any one who would like more information, please contact me here.