06/06/2024
The following complaint was filed by me today, January 30, 2024, with the Attorney General of the State of Michigan. – Bobbie Walton
The four board officers of the Mott Community College board of trustees, led by Andy Everman, must be investigated for fraudulently encumbering public money by entering into a contract with William Brickley as board attorney. Brickley has a personal relationship with board chair Everman, having served him as legal counsel, and is not qualified for the position. This action followed a year of RICO-like activity by this board to accomplish this procurement and is in violation of state law. Evidence indicates they have done this to position themselves to fire the college president and install someone they will control.
I am also reporting trustees Andy Everman, Janet Couch, Wendy Wolcott and Jeff Swanson for violating the Open Meetings Act in the process of hiring William Brickley of the firm Garan, Luckow and Miller. They completed this action on December 4-12, 2023. The minutes for each of the December meetings are in draft form and have not yet been made official. The statute of limitations should not have run. I have documentary evidence which is available to you to confirm what I report to you in this complaint.
These four officers of the board of trustees of Mott Community College, since January 2023, have engaged in a series of acts to fire the board attorney and hire the chair’s personal attorney as the board legal counsel. They began with several provable violations of the Michigan Open Meetings Act on January 23, 2023, to position themselves to accomplish this. Trustee Everman became the chair following protests and evidence he had arranged the vote in his favor prior to this meeting. Couch, Wolcott and Swanson became officers under the same accusation. This is documented in the YouTube video of meetings of the newly formed board January 23, 2023.
The chair of the board, Andy Everman, attempted more than once to be given the authority to choose the interim attorney, after he led the four officers to fire the board counsel, Amber Brennan, at the April 24th meeting of the board. Everman said he investigated two accusations against her, one of which appears to be fictitious. He refused to tell the trustees why he led her firing, saying he pocket vetoed the request for information made by Trustee Reyes.
The firing of Brennan was the objective of Everman when he asked a former board attorney, a friend, to come to the January 23rd meeting to be installed as board attorney. James Delaney, the former board attorney, told an interviewer on video he was invited by the four – Everman, Couch, Wolcott and Swanson – to return as board attorney at this organizational meeting. This could not be done, however, because of procurement rules and bylaws. Board Trustee Michael Freeman reported to the board meeting that Everman told him “We have the votes!” Former board chair, Ann Figueroa, reported during public comments she was told the same thing.
Everman came to the February meeting of the board with an attorney to advise him. William Brickley can be seen sitting next to Everman on the YouTube video of the February 2nd Special Meeting of the Board. Everman tried twice at subsequent meetings to get Brickley installed as board attorney. His efforts culminated in further violation of the Open Meetings Act on December 4th and 12, when votes were taken to hire an attorney, from a field of five law firms. The scoring sheets completed by each trustee, and the votes to hire Brickley’s law firm can be used to impute a pre-arranged vote to rig the hiring of Brickley. The scores for the winning firm are cumulatively out of statistical expectations for a firm with no experience in higher education law, as compared to other firms’ scores. Each of the other firms being considered had acceptable to high levels of experience in educational law. Brickley had none.
I have documents to prove each element of my complaint. The actions of this slate of officers must be investigated as they are using public money in a corrupt manner.
When I first became aware of what the newly formed board of trustees was doing, and what the public was afraid they were doing, I started following newspaper reports and YouTube videos of meetings. I was most concerned about rumors they were planning to fire the college president, Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea, as well as the board attorney.
The first meeting I attended was the May 22, 2023, meeting of the board. I spoke during public comments. I reminded them of their obligation to follow laws, regulations and by-laws in carrying out their duties. I warned them of the power of public oversight and asked for an explanation of why they had fired the board attorney. I told them of the rumors of their plan to fire the college president. I warned them not to do it. I told them I was following their actions and would be coming to every meeting.
I followed up on the April firing of board attorney Amber Brennan by requesting through FOIA a copy of the documents related to her firing. I received her response to the two complaints sent to the board, as well as a copy of each of the two complaints. I was able to locate one complainant, who lives in Davison. I could not locate the other person who was purported to live in Flushing. I sent an email request to the address on the complaint. I asked for further information. I received no response. I reported this to the board during my public comments. I warned them this seemed to be a fictitious person. I then sent a letter to every registered voter in Michigan with the same name as the name on the complaint, asking if they were the person who sent the complaint to the Mott College board. There were nine people with the same name. I received no response. I concluded this was a trumped-up complaint, sent by someone who wanted to have the board attorney fired.
I have written letters to the editor of our local newspaper and had two printed. Each letter described what I was seeing happen with this board. They are doing the same thing I saw reported about the board of the North Idaho College. Their new board fired the board attorney and the college president. They were found to be so badly managed they are in danger of losing accreditation. I did not want to see this happen to Mott College, which is why I have worked to dissuade the four officers from doing what they have finally done. I was hoping I could persuade one of the four to see the wisdom of good management, not illegal procurement and mismanagement of college resources.
I have received through FOIA a copy of the RFP for legal services as well as all five proposals. I have made copies and will make them available for any follow-up research. I also have all copies of scoring sheets completed by trustees who interviewed representatives of the five law firms. These show the obvious skewing of the scores toward the Brickley firm. I have completed a timeline of the actions and discussions at board meetings related to the procurement of legal services over the year 2023. The board did not have legal counsel for 8 months in 2023.
I have requested under FOIA a copy of the January 18, 2023, letter sent by Everman, Wolcott, Swanson, and Couch to the college administration, requesting a special meeting of the board on January 23, 2023, to dismiss the board attorney and to appoint new counsel. It was also part of the January 18 request to appoint the new legal counsel to chair the organizational meeting installing the new officers. The appointment of the new attorney failed by one vote. A trustee reminded the board of procurement rules and procedures in taking this action.
I will be sending a copy of this complaint to the Michigan Board of Education for their Information.
