Westmoreland County Commissioner Kim Ward on Monday said a revamped community college board of trustees would eliminate political concerns jeopardizing the school's accreditation.
Her plan, announced yesterday, calls for creating a 15-member board that has only one direct tie to government officials and bars any county worker from serving as a school trustee.
"My goal is making a board that is clearly not made up of people indebted to the county commissioners. That takes the politics out of it," Ward said.
WCCC President Steven Ender has accused Democratic commissioners Tom Balya and Tom Ceraso of exerting political influence to have their friends and supporters placed in jobs at the school. The commissioners have denied the allegations and in turn accused Ender of manufacturing those claims as part of an effort to seize more power at the school.
Allegations of political influence by the county commissioners at the school has put the college's accreditation at risk. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the regional accreditation agency, in June ordered college and county officials to devise a plan to guard against political influence. That plan must be forwarded to the accreditation agency by Sept. 1.
Commissioners will hold a private meeting Wednesday morning with Middle States representatives, then will meet again behind closed doors with Ender and the school's trustees later in the afternoon.
Ward said she will formally pitch her plan at those sessions and again lobbied for the afternoon joint meeting to be open to the public.
"It would resolve any questions whether there is political influence on the board," Ward said of her proposal.
Her plan calls for the creation of a new 15-member board of trustees. Five members would be presidents of the 20 largest employers in Westmoreland County. Other members would include the president of a local chamber of commerce, one representative each from the Private Industry Council of Westmoreland/Fayette and a financial institution, two administrators from local school districts and a trustee appointed by the governor.
Four other at-large spots would be appointed by county commissioners. One commissioner would be eligible to serve as a trustee under the Ward proposal.
None of the appointed trustees could be county workers or a top official with a company or business that does business with the county or the college.
"This plan isn't perfect, but at least it's a start in the effort to bring everyone together so that we may move on for the good of the college," Ward said.
Balya and Ender declined to comment about the proposal. Ceraso could not be reached for comment.
All 15 members of the college's board of trustees are currently appointed by county commissioners to six-year terms.
In May, Balya and Ceraso appointed four new trustees to replace board members whose terms had expired. Those appointments came as controversy swirled over hiring practices at the school.
A month earlier, all three commissioners voted to authorize college trustees to approve all hires at the school, a proposal Ward has since backed away from. Ender, meanwhile, said the existing policy in which board members ratify all salaried employees potentially put the school's accreditation at risk.
Commissioners contended the hiring change would allow greater access to see how the public's money is spent at WCCC. The county gives the college more than $4 million in annual subsidies.
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