University of Toledo board members on Friday kicked off their first meeting since President Sharon Gaber’s resignation by debating whether to immediately exclude taxpayers from discussions about how Ms. Gaber will be replaced.
That discussion — which occurred just two days after a group of lawmakers urged trustees to improve their transparency — ended with a majority vote to take the ensuing conversation behind closed doors, but general agreement for a need to keep the public informed.
The board met via teleconference Friday, and UT board Chairman Mary Ellen Pisanelli immediately called for a vote to enter into executive session to discuss “employment and compensation” related to Ms. Gaber’s contract, which runs through 2023 and calls for a six-month written notice prior to a resignation. Ms. Gaber announced this week she intends to leave well before that on July 1 to take a job as chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
But prior to going into executive session, Trustee Richard S. Walinski voiced his opposition to a closed meeting, instead arguing the board should first publicly discuss hiring an interim president, and publicly determine how it will go about searching for Ms. Gaber’s replacement.
“At this point, when we’re discussing broad outlines, I believe Ohio law does not require us to conduct discussions of this sort in executive session,” he said.
Ms. Pisanelli said that, based on guidelines from the state attorney general and recommendations from trustees’ legal counsel, she believed the board was allowed to go into a closed meeting, to which Mr. Walinski countered, “... just because [the attorney general] thinks we can do it, doesn’t mean we have to.”
Trustees then voted 7-1 to enter into closed session by calling into an “executive session” conference number. Trustee Eleanore Awadalla was the lone dissenting vote while technical difficulties with the call-in meeting prevented Mr. Walinski’s vote from being recorded.
Following a roughly two-hour discussion in secret, trustees called back onto the open meeting line. Ms. Pisanelli confirmed they discussed Ms. Gaber’s contract and their hope to accommodate her request for her last day to be June 30 — as well as options for a leadership transition — but took no action. She added the goal is to initiate a process next week that will eventually put an interim president in place for the new fiscal year, which also begins July 1.
The law about whether bodies can use executive session to discuss general personnel plans has been clear since at least 1988. In that year, an Ohio appellate court held that “The language of the statute is clear. R.C. 121.22(G)(1) permits a public body to enter into executive session when its sole purpose is the consideration of a specific employee's employment, dismissal, etc.” Based on that language, the court ruled that a school board’s discussion in executive session of a general personnel plan “was a violation of the Sunshine Law.”
That particular case involved the Chillicothe Board of Education.
Ms. Pisanelli stressed at the end of the meeting that, although she welcomes trustees’ opinions about transparency, the board would rely on legal counsel and the state attorney general’s guidelines when deciding when to withhold discussions from the public.
When reached by The Blade on Friday afternoon, Mr. Walinski declined further comment.
“I don’t believe it is appropriate for me to discuss board-related matters outside of a board meeting,” he said. “It’s not fair to other members of the board.”
The brief transparency debate comes after a group of state lawmakers penned a letter Wednesday to trustees urging the governing body to weigh public input during its search for the school’s next president and to “reestablish public trust,” through a transparent process.
The lawmakers — State Sen.Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo), and State Reps. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D., Toledo), Lisa Sobecki (D., Toledo), and Mike Sheehy (D., Oregon) — specifically expressed concerns about how university officials have handled recent developments surrounding the University of Toledo Medical Center — the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital.
UT board members met in closed-door executive sessions several times over the past five months and wouldn’t say whether those meetings had to do with UTMC. Then in mid-April, the university announced it was exploring options to sell or lease UTMC, a move that has angered community members who want to see it saved.
“The board and the university have been under public scrutiny because of work being done behind closed doors in regard to the University of Toledo Medical Center,” the letter read.
During the previous presidential search in 2014, UT hired a search firm and held public forums to garner community input, but its presidential search committee often held its meetings behind closed doors and at times wouldn’t provide a legal rationale for doing so.
Much of the search process was also performed in closed-door sessions and information about the applicants was withheld, with only information about the finalists eventually made available. Interviews with finalists were also performed at a regional airport and likewise were closed to the public. Once the field was narrowed to three candidates, they were brought to campus for a final round of interviews that included meetings with students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and community members.
First Published May 1, 2020, 3:52 p.m.
