Bonii at the Rubicon

The Illuminator has learned the Board of Trustees, led by its finance committee, has tacitly approved KY's decision to award "bonuses" to Business Office employees for their extra "work" during the financial turmoil of SS 2009's budget season (turmoil which has not abated, by the way). These bonuses are rumored to cost many thousands of dollars.

This is the same committee that has begun to investigate whether it should establish procedures to avoid conflicts of interest between Edison administrators and vendors who provide services to the College. Without addressing the missing-horse, closed-too-late-barn-door aspect of this bold initiative, the Illuminator wonders why the Board isn't aware of Ohio's Ethics Law, which already determines what must be put out for bid and establishes criminal sanctions for people who self-deal with state money, or make money for their families or pals with state contracts. The Illuminator suggests the Board wake up and smell the coffee and figure out what the score is before it's too late.

But not getting it when it comes to the laws that govern one's entrusted charge to an institution, or with regard to criminal nepotism and purchase orders that pay their way, after a felonious hop or two, into employees' pockets, is of a different order than watching someone who, after claiming only six months ago that budget woes required the entire campus be fired, cut checks to administrators for doing nothing more than their jobs, despite that office's shared culpability for the crisis.

Where is the bonus for the hard-working custodian who has to clean human urine from the bathroom floors? Where's the extra bump for the folks working in the cafeteria, who must daily drag bags of putrid refuse to the dumpsters? Where is the bonus for the adjunct who teaches a full professor's load and more because allegedly we can't afford more faculty for core curricular courses?

If the rumored amounts are true, the money KY found for his pals would pay for an entire Edison education, if invested for scholarships. Certainly, it would pay for the girls' volleyball team to travel to their deserved championship tournament.

At the very least, this sort of drunken-sailor coin-tossing must be remembered the next time KY asks the Edison community to suffer collectively--and rest assured, he, they, will, and probably soon--for his administration's incompetence, waste, abuse, and utter lack of accountability.

KY has placed himself among the bloated ranks of CEO's (where he himself probably believes he belongs) who loot corporations at the expense of shareholders; by approving KY's action via their own knowledge and inaction, the Board of Trustees places itself among the bureaucrats in Washington and the hundreds of Boards of Directors who, rather than admit they have an irrational and erratic executive on their hands, clean up executive messes and offer excuses for their own impotence.

Disgusting. Absolutely filthy and disgusting.

Board of Trustees? The good people of Edison and its constituent counties have given you the better part of a year to do right by this community. Where has our faith in you taken us?

Alea iacta est.

13 comments:

Retter Hofbesitzer said...

Respondees to a Dimbulbs Blog poll asking "Should a Vote of No Confidence be taken on Edison's Board of Trustees and Forwarded to Governor Strickland?" voted 42 (92%) in the affirmative, 2 (4%)in the negative and 2(4%) not sure. It is time to let yourselves be heard as concerned citizens whose tax money is being squandered.

DFK! said...

I think all you people should walk.

Anonymous said...

Meaning, by "you people?"

Brian said...

All the while, KY is seeking to restrict the number of classes faculty and adjuncts can teach so he can role in a new series of lower-paid adjuncts.

Any adjunct at the top of the pay scale should notice that they did not receive a salary increase while adjuncts teaching 0-30 hours and 30-59 hours did.

The administration and the board view faculty as a liability, not a resource.

Anonymous said...

Chance, Blogger chewed up your comment and spat it out. Can you repost? It was wonderful, but technology, alas.

Steveskid said...

In my last posting, I spoke of how all the boards have seen it as their duty to support the president, no matter what. The first pres. got his name in the paper for being caught driving drunk. The then board knew that he did not get along with faculty, but did nothing. After the meeting, I remember screaming at a woman Board member (whose name I don't remember) "How the hell bad does he have to screw up until you notice it?" And screaming is no exaggeration. But this board screw-up seems worse to me. How hard is it to say no? It is as if Yowell has something on them. Would he have resigned? Hard to believe

DFK! said...

@ Junta:

I mean that I think every single person that isn't getting a bonus just should stop going to work.

Instead, you should rent a van or bus or carpool your way over to Governor Strickland's office and make yourselves heard.

From the dark said...

Can it be that four vice-presidents are wrong? Can it be that the Board sees there role ceremonial devoid of responsibility?

From the dark said...

there=their

Chance said...

If we cannot give every employee a basic pay increase . . .

. . . then how in hell could anyone possibly think it OK to give bonuses to anyone? for any reason? in any amount?

BOARD OF TRUSTEES members -- we need a public explanation of how you could possibly support such an action. Or does your silence tell us there is no explanation?

Lovely. Another shameful chapter in a book filled with shameful chapters.

# # # # # # # # # # #

Bonus comment (that's a pun, but if you're as slow as the Board members you might have missed it.)

Reke and Hirtzinger. You are kidding yourselves if you think you somehow deserve bonuses ahead of the small raises deserved by the classified workers who strive every day to make Edison succeed. These good people got nothing.
Try thinking of them every time you spend a nickle out of those bonuses. You can bet they'll think of you every time they have to figure which bills get paid and which don't.

-ctg

Retter Hofbesitzer said...

Respondees to a poll intended for non-ESEA Edison employees voted 85% in favor of OEA organizing efforts. Small wonder.

Retter Hofbesitzer said...

Respondees to a poll intended for non-ESEA Edison employees voted 85% in favor of OEA organizing efforts. Small wonder.

Chance said...

Oct. 21 newspaper shows that federal government determined the current earnings threshhold for POVERTY levels was $24,755 in 2008.

How many at Edison do not earn $24,755? How many at Edison do not earn $24,755 after several years of working at Edison?

How many at Edison who earn less than $24,755 DID NOT RECEIVE A RAISE?

Hirtzinger and Reke, how do you sleep at night knowing the facts?

Bonuses for the time it took you to do your job and clean up the budget you screwed up in the first place.

Priceless.

-ctg