NIC Board of Trustees Meeting Recap 12/5/22

This board meeting is the first meeting after the November 8 general election. This meeting was supposed to take place on November 16 and was pushed back to November 30 to give the new board members time to get sworn in and sat before the end of the month. Because the region got too much snow and school was cancelled that day (😐) the meeting was rescheduled to December 5.

I’m going to hit each agenda topic in bullet point form; this meeting was almost 3 hours long and if you want to see the play by play you can read it on the Kootenai County Spectator Telegram channel starting here. The YouTube page has been updated with that meeting video and you can find it here.

This is a long and tedious recap with some spicy moments sprinkled in. I have created a drop down for each agenda item so you can jump right to that part if you only have a limited amount of time to read.

Canvass of Trustee Election

• Director of Finance Sarah Garcia updated everyone on the final vote count for the trustee race in the general election.

• Final vote:

  • Zone 1: Ron Hartman - 26,608, Tarie Zimmerman - 28,353

  • Zone 2: Brad Corkill - 27,662, Diana Sheridan - 27,220

  • Zone 5: Pete Broschet - 25,240, Mike Waggoner - 29,162

Election of Officers/Appointment of External Liaisons

• Chair

  • Greg McKenzie nominates Todd Banducci. Mike Waggoner seconds.

  • Tarie Zimmerman nominates Brad Corkill. Brad Corkill seconds.

  • 1st motion on the table was the Banducci nomination. That motion passes with a 3-2 vote, Zimmerman/Corkill dissenting.

  • 2nd motion re: Corkill is not heard because that was directly affected by the 1st motion.

  • Todd Banducci takes a few minutes to make a few comments about the hatred narrative that has been rallied against him while he was chair running all the way up through the election. He started calling out the Friends of NIC/North Idaho Rejects Hate type of people who say they’re against hate but are the ones who are putting swastikas on signs at his son’s business, texting Banducci telling him to “Go Die,” etc.

    • Banducci rescinded the chairmanship and nominates Greg McKenzie as chair. Mike Waggoner seconds. Motion passes with a 3-0 vote.

  • Greg McKenzie is new chair

• Vice Chair

  • Todd Banducci nominates Mike Waggoner. McKenzie seconds. No discussion. Motion passes with a 3-0 vote.

• Secretary/Treasurer

  • Todd Banducci nominates Brad Corkill. Tarie Zimmerman seconds. No discussion. Motion passes 4-0. (didn’t need the chair’s vote.)

• KTEC Liaison

  • Todd Banducci nominates Mike Waggoner. Brad Corkill seconds. No discussion. Motion passes 4-0.

• Booster Club Liaison

  • Mike Waggoner nominates Todd Banducci. I didn’t capture who seconds. No discussion. Motion passes 4-0.

Public Comment

• Teresa Borrenpohl – Topic: accreditation

• Michael McGowan – Topic: Says that he believes Friends of NIC used false political advertising and the 2 FONIC candidates are not true trustees.

• Randy Neal – Topic: Election results.

• Howard Kunz -Topic: Asks to remove Christie Wood as emeritus.

• Tim Plass – Topic: Financial audit on the agenda. Didn’t see it attached to the board packet and was hoping to see it before it was approved. He received clarification after his comment: once the audit is approved then it is added to the website for public viewing. Right now the 2021 audit is available and after the next board meeting (the topic was discussed more below) the audit will be approved and the website will be updated here.

Celebrating Success: New Location for NIC at Sandpoint

• The Sandpoint NIC location had an opportunity to lease a new location that would better serve their needs. This new location is the Pine St. Annex at 515 Pine St., Sandpoint.

• This location is a smaller square footage but uses the space more strategically.

Constituent Reports

• ASNIC – Damian Maxwell

  • They're drafting up a human rights statement that is going through edits right now.

• Faculty Assembly – Ben Tschida

  • Faculty Evaluation procedures were mentioned but that'll be addressed later.

• Staff Assembly – Keri Simonet

  • Dr. Swayne met with them and reiterated his commitment of working together and encouraged faculty to do the same.

• Senate – Neil Doyle

  • Went through 1st reading of policy and will discuss further at next meeting.

President's Report

• Goal for the school is to grow to 5000 enrolled by fall 2023, 6000 by fall 2025.

• Recognizes Sara Garcia as the permanent Director of Finance. Previously Garcia was the interim Director of Finance.

• This is the final week of the fall semester. Wednesday is the Night at the Library event for students studying for finals.

• December graduation is a first for the new dental hygiene program. 100% completion rate. From the 10/24/22 meeting notes, NIC has 5 students in Lewiston and 10 students in CDA. 100% retention for those 15 students.

Chair Remarks

Chair Remarks before next agenda item: Greg McKenzie wanted to take a moment to add onto the president’s remarks and say that this board is here to serve the students and community. Wondering how we can expand throughout the other northern counties. "NIC serves all 5 counties.....I'm all ears to any ideas about how to get a presence in those [other] counties."

Consent agenda – Approved.

Approval of Meeting Minutes for October 24, 2022 – Approved.

Action: Accept NIC Financial Audit for Year Ending June 30, 2022

• Eide Bailey LLP is contracted company to do the school’s financial audit.

  • Has been contracted by NIC for the past 7 years; has gone through RFP process twice. The current contract ends in 2025 where there will be another RFP process.

• Barry Weber has been working on NIC financial audit for past 7 years and is very familiar with the school’s finances.

• Audit had no adjustments they needed to make meaning the financials have been spot on this year.

• Sub audit: Control structure audit: Clean audit report

• Only changes is a new lease guidance. If NIC goes into a new lease, they suggest to put it on Financials as a debt and an asset to show total picture.

• 30,000 ft level: overall the financials are “very, very strong.” Equity balance unbelievably strong. “Financial stability remains very very strong as it has for the past 7 years.” Working capital is about 6:1, normal capital from other businesses are about 2:1 so NIC working capital is very very strong.

• Only Todd Banducci got to see the draft audit before the meeting. Other trustees want to see it before they approve it. This action item will go onto the December 19th board meeting agenda. This will still give the finance department enough time to submit the financial records to the state before the end of year deadline.

Action: POST Detention Academy Student Fee

• This is a new POST (Peace Officer Standards Training) academy dedicated to detention facilities training. The only other POST Detention Academy is in Meridian and there is a desperate need around the state for more detention personnel. (See practically any Kootenai County Elected Official’s meeting with Sheriff Norris in attendance. 😊)

• This training is a 9-week program that is scheduled to start with the spring semester, January 9, 2023.

• The ask is for the board to approve a student fee for anyone registered for this training in the amount of $710. This fee, in addition to the normal credit fees, is there to cover costs of ammunition, laser cartridges, physical fitness uniforms, CPR First Aid cards, and Code books.

• Some interesting facts:

  • There is already a POST Patrol Academy at NIC. Students 21 and up are able to enroll in this academy to start the peace officer certification.

  • The POST Detention Academy takes students 18 years of age and up.

  • The minimum enrollment per academy class is 6 people. The maximum enrollment is 24 due to facility space.

  • There are already 22 potential students for the first Detention Academy. (Meridian’s Detention Academy, hosted by Idaho State Police, had to cancel the spring program so those potential students are scrambling and looking to NIC as a potential option.)

Action: Legal Counsel Services/Clarification

• Greg McKenzie starts off with remarks that it’s unfortunate that the previous legal counsel wasn’t at the meeting to answer questions and be held accountable for his actions. McKenzie also discussed his experience with the “board” attorney and the use (or non-use?) of attorney/client privilege depending on who was chair of the board.

• Before anyone moved to accept Marc Lyons’ resignation, Todd Banducci passes out a resolution to the rest of the trustees to discuss. President Swayne mentions that he received a call from Governor Little’s office calling to ensure that any resolution needs to be included in the board packet.

  • That perked up a few trustees and it was asked why the Governor’s office was calling…

• As the trustees were reading Banducci’s resolution, President Swayne comments again that because the contract [in the resolution] is over $10k it will need to go out to RFP for general bids. This comment leads directly into the next item on the agenda:

Action: Policy #7.01.04 Continuous Professional Service Contracts

• Todd Banducci answered President Swayne’s above statement with the historical information regarding Marc Lyons. Marc Lyons had a month-to-month retainer contract based on the hours he actually worked for NIC. There was no RFP and there was no current contract when questions were asked about it in 2020. Banducci implies the resolution he passed out was a continuous, month to month contract.

  • President Swayne says that Lyons’ contract DID have an RFP but didn’t know the history about it. (Erin note: In the Telegram chat someone mentions that they did request a copy of that RFP but never got it. I have put in a new request for that RFP and we’ll see what happens.)

  • Brad Corkill mentions that he is uncomfortable with voting for an attorney that he’s never worked with.

  • Motion is made to approve the resolution: to hire Art Macomber as board attorney on a month-to-month continuous professional service contract.

  • Motion passed 3-0.

• As a part of the resolution, Banducci brought the contract pertaining to the professional services agreement. Board chair, clerk, president, and Macomber all need to sign contract. President Swayne says he feels uncomfortable signing something that could be potentially illegal until he speaks with his personal attorney.

• Art Macomber starts acting as board attorney immediately and states Idaho statute 74-204 sub 4. States that the board only needed to make a motion, didn’t even need a resolution.

• Art Macomber also stated that he wanted the names of who President Swayne spoke with in the Governor’s office as that office has no official business with any resolutions/legal advice. That would come through the Attorney General’s office and implied the Governor’s office overstepped their boundaries.

• President Swayne says he has no problems signing contract after he speaks with his personal attorney on Tuesday.

• In the meantime, until the contract is fully signed, Banducci motions that they temporarily hire Art Macomber so that he can start immediately.

• Both Corkill and Zimmerman are uncomfortable with Macomber as they’ve never heard of him, met with him, they're new, etc.

• Motion passes 3-2. Macomber is hired temporarily to advise the board until Swayne has time to discuss with his personal attorney before signing the contract.

Action: Trustees’ Path to Saving Accreditation, Resolution(s)

• Todd Banducci a resolution about the Trustees’ Path to Saving Accreditation that he passes out to the rest of the board. The public does not know what it says specifically and there are multiple pages in this resolution.

• Brad Corkill asks why this resolution is necessary.

• "New board, New Era. We have work to do. We need to reset and establish a baseline." -Banducci

• Macomber weighs in: the board only needed to make a motion, didn’t even need a resolution and they went above and beyond [status quo] with writing up a resolution.

• Public still doesn’t know what this resolution says but the board packet will include the resolution retroactively.

• Motion passes 3-0.

Action: Amend Previous Minutes

• Greg McKenzie makes a motion to set up a meeting with himself, Ron Hartman, and another person that I can’t remember at the moment, to remind them what needs to be amended in the previous meeting’s minutes. Ron Hartman, if you remember, brought it to the board’s attention about the specifics regarding the Ft. Ground Grill appraisal and lease agreement. In the October? meeting Hartman had started making public comment regarding Ft. Ground Grill and Marc Lyons interrupted him yelling that this is not a matter of public record, and then Swayne jumped in and there was a huge chaotic mess. McKenzie wants Hartman’s info added to the minutes for posterity and good faith to the community that the board is an advocate for transparency.

• This leads to discussion about transcribing the meeting better than how it is right now. This was a lengthy discussion but no action tonight, just wanted to start thinking about how to capture the meeting minutes more thoroughly.

• Back to original topic: Hartman meeting motion passes.

Discuss Upcoming Agenda Topics

• Financial Audit

• Todd Banducci passes out another paper to the trustees with the background: he has been corresponding with a reporter about the security status of NIC. Reporter has security info but it is redacted, has requested unredacted information. President Swayne says that it is a security risk for a member of the public to have all the security information. "He does not have the right to know all the info."

• Greg McKenzie open to an executive session and got the rest of the trustees to agree to an executive session to discuss this matter in depth.

• Good news however: the security staff’s Narcan has been updated to the new recipe by Panhandle Health so all security has that available to overdoses on campus.

Action: New Trustee Onboarding/Action: Board Training (it all kind of ran together)

• The Association of Governing Boards (AGB) has been in contact with President Swayne and they are ready to do onboarding immediately.

• Greg McKenzie has requested they get a few options like the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT).

• Todd Banducci has asked that this training be done after the new year. Holidays are rough to try and schedule anything.

• Nothing was approved, just request for more organization options.

Action: Change Date of December 19, 2022 Board Meeting

• Speaking of trying to schedule something around the holidays, the December 19th meeting date is a conflict for Greg McKenzie. After a lot of go-round, the board ended up keeping the next meeting on December 19th.

Remarks for the Good of the Order

• McKenzie reminding about the exciting Night at the Library this Wednesday.

Meeting adjourned at 8:44pm.

Updated to correct the trustee who had seen the financial audit before the meeting and add the YouTube video.