The Mott Community College Board of Trustees held a special meeting on Friday, Sept. 13, to discuss the search process for hiring a permanent president. Like most Mott board meetings, it quickly devolved into confusion and controversy. Among the decisions made:

• For at least the second time since July, the board voted to move public comment on the agenda until after decisions had been made so that the public wouldn’t have a chance to weigh in first (incidentally, approximately 20 people eventually spoke during public comment and none expressed support for the board’s actions);
• The board decided to eschew using a professional search firm that specializes in higher education executive talent;
• The board created an ad-hoc committee to oversee the search;
• The board appointed Andy Everman, John Daly, and Jeffrey Swanson to said ad-hoc committee;
• The board voted to only consider candidates who live in Michigan for the position and not do a national search.

Trustee Michael Freeman, who eventually left the meeting in frustration, said multiple times throughout and after that it appeared the board has already made decisions on these items before the public meetings in which they are supposed to be discussed. It is not the first time this board has been accused of meeting secretly.

At the approximately the 36:30 mark in the video of the Sept. 13 meeting, Trustee Jeffrey Swanson begins reading a motion to outline the ad-hoc committee’s powers. Swanson says, “I’ve written down some thoughts, quite a few of them actually.” He then begins reading handwritten notes from lined sheets of paper. Swanson finishes reading his motion at about 39:16, so it takes him around three minutes to read the multiple pages of what looks like a lengthy amount of writing.

[NOTE: I have filed a Freedom of Information Request with Mott for Swanson’s handwritten motion, and will share as soon as it is provided.]

In the meeting, Swanson suggested he wrote that himself during the meeting. ABC 12’s reporting reiterated that Swanson said he hand-wrote the multi-page, detailed motion during the first 20ish minutes of the meeting before introducing it for votes. As always, Swanson, Daly, Everman, and Wendy Wolcott didn’t talk to press, respond to numerous criticisms from Freeman or the public, or in any way inform the public of simply why they’re doing any of the things they’re doing and what vision they’re trying to enact for the college.

Luckily, meetings are recorded. So here’s a rough breakdown of what the video shows:

• The first 14 minutes of the video are the bumper screen and setup; the meeting is called to order at about 14:10. Swanson begins making his motion at the 36:30 mark. So that leaves just a little over 22 minutes of time he would have to hand-write a lengthy motion.
• At the 18:38 mark, he seconds a motion. Immediately before that, he isn’t writing, he appears to be looking through a board packet.
• Freeman talks until approximately 21:01; when Swanson is back on camera, he still isn’t writing. He responds to Freeman and talks to approximately 21:55 and again is not writing. Freeman talks from about 23:48 to 26:15, and when it flashes back to a shot of the full board, Swanson appears to have been listening to Freeman. He was not writing when he was back on camera.
• At about the 27:38 mark, Swanson is looking through a packet that contained information about search firms who had responded to an RFP. Swanson noted that he hasn’t looked at the information yet and didn’t know where the costs were in the packet. At 27:53, Everman responds that the firms “did not give us a price.” Swanson was not writing during the exchange.
• At 28:08, Swanson makes a motion to not use any of the firms that submitted proposals and instead “take it to the ad-hoc.” He speaks until 28:40, not writing. At 29:11, he’s also not writing.
• At about 30:00, Mott Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Kristi Dawley is allowed to address the board to point out that the firms did, in fact, provide cost estimates in their proposals. At the 30:22 mark, Swanson is still not writing.
• The camera is on Freeman talking at 30:36; at 31:20 when it goes back to the wide shot, Swanson is not writing.
• At 31:38, he has an exchange with Everman and is not writing;
• They vote on a motion around 32:17, and he is not writing;
• Around 33:18, Everman motions to appoint himself, Swanson, and Daly to the ad-hoc committee, and Swanson isn’t writing;
• At 35:26, Swanson is not writing;
• At 36:06, Everman says, “Now the important part: What’re we going to have our ad-hoc committee do?” Everman explains that they have to give a specific and detailed explanation for what the ad-hoc committee is in charge of. “I’m hoping we have thoughts on that,” Everman said.
• At 36:30, Swanson says, “Mr. Chair, I’ve written down some thoughts, quite a few of them actually.”

What Swanson had allegedly written becomes the motion, and he passes the pages (I don’t know how many from the video, but it appears to be more than one) to Dianne Cotter, whose specific title, role, and compensation are a mystery, other than she’s an ultra right wing attorney who represented Janet Couch (who missed the meeting), Daly, and Wolcott at a hearing in front of the Genesee County Election Commission in July. Oh, and she also used to work for former Michigan GOP chair Kristina Karamo (Detroit News subscription required to view that link). Karamo’s run as GOP chair was as eventful as it was short.

So, did Swanson, as he stated, hand-write this lengthy motion during the meeting, while also evaluating search firm proposals that he clearly didn’t review prior to the meeting based on him not knowing what was included in the packets, while also asking questions, while also listening to and interacting with colleagues, while also voting on motions, while never appearing to be writing during the times he was on camera? Or, as Freeman and members of the audience suggested, were these decisions made by the board outside of the public eye before they held their special meeting? Of the 22 minutes that Swanson would’ve had to write during the meeting, he’s on camera for over half of that time and not visibly writing. Generously, he would’ve had about 10-12 minutes to hand-write multiple pages in order to propose this motion and only in the moments he wasn’t on camera.