Uncertainty is widespread regarding an off-campus budget retreat held Feb. 20, and whether or not open-meeting laws were violated.
The retreat took place instead of a Humboldt State University budget committee meeting scheduled that day. The meeting was canceled without notice to the public, but is still shown as scheduled for Feb. 20, at 2 p.m. on the University Budget Committee Web site.
It is unclear whether the retreat, or the original meeting, are subject to the state’s open-meeting laws. Information from university staff regarding the retreat location and its attendees has been withheld on in conflict with prior statements.
Paul Mann, HSU’s Public Information Officer, said open-meeting laws were not applicable to the retreat or the scheduled budget committee meeting. “I don’t take hypothetical questions,” Mann said that Friday in response to the possibility that open-meeting laws had been violated.
According to Adam Goldstein, Attorney Advocate for the Student Press Law Center, theUBC falls under the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act which applies to state bodies. “If they are discussing state business and if a majority of the members are there, that is a meeting,” Goldstein said. Mann was unable to clearly define how the UBC is exempt from Bagley-Keene.
Initially claiming ignorance of the retreat and that the UBC was canceled on Feb. 19, Mann revealed on Feb. 23 that all staff, faculty and administrators were invited to attend, but explained that no record of attendees was kept. Turns out university property, the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center in Eureka, was the “off-campus location.”
The budget committee is charged with advising President Rollin Richmond on the budget for the upcoming year. The recent passage of California’s 2009-10 budget included a 10 percent cut to the California State University system, but HSU’s share has yet to be defined.
HSU Associated Students President Sofia Periera is the student representative on the budget committee. The retreat was planned since January, she said, in order to deliberate on the budget committee’s structure and to provide the committee with “tools to function in the future.”
Periera said, the UBC knew that on Feb. 20 they would replace the regular meeting with the retreat. This conflicts with the administration’s official version of events.
David Maddox, the head of Maddox Management Consulting, was hired by the university to author a report for the budget committee detailing the budget process. His report, “Review of Budget Process: Preliminary Recommendations and Observations,” is available on President Richmond’s Web site. Mann later stated that Maddox attended the retreat to discuss his report.
After initially denying record of retreat attendees, Mann later released a list that included his direct supervisor Frank Whitlatch, president Richmond, Vice President of Student Affairs Steven Butler and all but three members of the UBC.
Periera was attending the California State Student Association meeting in San Jose, Calif., and unable to be at the retreat. This means the meeting was held without its president, on campus facilities, and was not open to the public. The CSSA held a re-organizational conference and all AS presidents were asked to attend, she said.
Randi Darnell-Burke, vice president for Student Affairs, was the only budget committee member on campus during the retreat due to a student emergency, she said. “I knew they were going to be there,” she said. President Richmond’s office arranged the retreat, according to Darnell-Burke.
Though budget committee members attended the retreat, it was not an official budget committee meeting, according to Darnell-Burke. The next scheduled official budget committee meeting is March 27.
Denice Helwig, special assistant to the president, would not confirm or deny if the retreat was intentionally concealed. “I know nothing about that,” she said.
Helwig deferred to Mann for more information. When asked who the president’s office would discuss matters with she said, “I really don’t have the answer to that question, it’s so situational.”
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