UPDATE (10-9-2024): In the comments of a Facebook post by Mott Trustee Michael Freeman about the mailer, Wolcott says that she and Swanson were unaware the mailer was going out and they did not give their consent to being mentioned on it.

UPDATE (10-10-2024): In a Facebook post, Trustee Jeff Swanson also denied providing his permission to be included on the mailer and says he doesn’t know who sent it.

ORIGINAL POST

A month ago, I wrote a lengthy post tying together all of the ultra right wing and Qanon-adjacent connections of five current Mott Community College board members and their hand-selected interim president. Little did I know, just a short time later, they’d pull all of those connections together for me on a handy, unhinged postcard that was apparently mailed to some Genesee County residents.

Overall, the main takeaways are that it reads like a direct threat to current Mott faculty and staff and it pretty clearly violates campaign finance law by not including a “paid for by …” tagline (and if you received it and would like to report it, there’s an easy form to fill out on the Michigan Secretary of State website). It’s not the most important thing, but I love the typo in all caps right off the bat: “DON’T LET YOURSELF BY RULED BY FEAR!” Beyond that, there’s a lot to parse here, so here were a few things that stood out to me.

Connections to Qanon

“Where we go one, we go all” is a slogan used by adherents of the Qanon conspiracy theory. If you don’t live your life getting mad at various fake boogeymen online like the people who wrote this postcard do, here’s a primer on what Qanon is.

Needless to say, people who believe in this stuff should be far away from running a college. Unfortunately, someone who may be aligned with that thinking is currently running the college. Though Mott interim president Shaunda Richardson-Snell has not publicly said that she shares these beliefs, the PR person she used when she was hired also writes or wrote for the Epoch Times, a misinformation factory that has been accused of helping spread Qanon and other conspiracy theories online.

Richardson-Snell has not done many interviews since taking over as interim president of Mott. She has also not participated in any large open forums where she has had to answer questions from students, faculty, staff, or the community about her vision for the college. There is a board contingent that is clearly intent on dramatically remaking Mott as we know it and they clearly are planning to install her as permanent president of the college. Their strategy here is likely to say as little as possible that could be controversial until they’ve completed that process, then reveal the ugly details later. It would certainly be nice if she would publicly explain her ideology and why people with extreme, fringe beliefs like those expressed on this mailer view her as the best choice to lead their desired remake of Mott.

What did Andy Everman Do?

Andy Everman has been involved in various local political fires in Genesee County for years, but one thing that I’ve consistently heard from people as I’ve been out in the community collecting signatures is that people who know or who have worked with him over the years didn’t think his personal politics were in alignment with the other four people in his contingent. Trustees Wendy Wolcott, Jeffrey Swanson, John Daly, and Janet Couch all have long time connections to conservative and Republican causes, and Everman does not, which always made the alliance seem strange.

The consensus from people I’ve talked with seems to be that Everman just wanted to be board chair, and was willing to align himself with whatever majority it took for him to accomplish that, although Everman himself has never explained how or why the clear 5-person board majority alliance came about.

But according to this postcard, whatever that connection was must’ve broke. I’m not sure what “disparaging comments” Everman made about Wolcott, but Everman’s history of being disrespectful toward others is pretty well-documented in media coverage of this board. The only thing I’ve noted by watching MCC meetings is that Everman seems allergic to being able to pronounce ‘Wolcott’ correctly and after many butchered attempts at it, just refers to her as “Trustee Wendy.” Which is definitely disrespectful, but on the scale of his other publicly disrespectful moments, is pretty mild.

If what is on this post card is to be believed, though, Everman seems to no longer be a part of the slate of candidates a mysterious contingent in the county is trying to elect. One of the candidates on the mailer, Candice Miller (not that one), who is currently on the Burton City Council, has a Facebook post in which Wolcott’s son, Matt Smith, is identified as her campaign manager. Virginia Sepanak, who previously ran for County Commission and lost, believes the 2020 election was stolen among other Google-able things about her political positions. So it seems quite possible Everman was convenient in helping this contingent enact its desired takeover of the college, but now they’re trying to elect a replacement for him who is even closer to the dystopian political ideology articulated on the mailer.

Dishonesty is a Feature, Not a Bug

The dangerous part of people who champion ideologies like this is that there is no amount of reasoning with them that will change anything. They believe rules don’t apply to them. We’ve seen it time and again from a board that has been accused of violating the Open Meetings Act. We see it from a board that has now opened two straight meetings for a public college representing students, faculty, staff, and taxpayers of multiple faiths with Christian prayers despite being told last year that was likely unconstitutional. They have heard nothing but negative feedback from voters who they serve for months. Nothing moves or changes their behaviors.

Swanson claims he hand-wrote a motion that he could barely read during a meeting, while never being seen writing in the times he was on camera, and the board couldn’t subsequently produce a copy of it to verify what was written on the paper he handed to the board chair. Everman gave a reporter a statement after that same meeting that directly contradicted what he said on video during the meeting.

Wolcott, despite being a conservative Republican, is running for Genesee County Commission in Davison as a Democrat. Her son, Matt Smith, is the former chair of the Genesee County Republican Party. Smith’s campaign signs when he lost the Republican primary for Davison Township clerk in August, featured pictures of Trump.

Wolcott is in no way a Democrat, and I hope voters in Davison see through the attempted power grab and will support her Republican opponent Brian Flewelling. BABs for Democracy, a local group of progressive activists in Davison, endorsed Flewelling in that election. Here was Flewelling’s statement: “This endorsement is particularly meaningful because I believe that even though we all may not always agree on every issue, we all occupy the same space in this life. The path forward for us as a society is through unity and open and honest discourse. Communication and integrity are paramount to making all of our lives better together.” That’s what actual local leadership and cooperation for the greater good of a community that cares about all of its citizens should look like.

This board majority, and the people they want to elevate and empower at the college, don’t care if the only way to enact their unpopular policies is through dishonesty. That’s why a campaign mailer supporting them also brazenly doesn’t follow campaign finance law. They don’t care.

The Mega Site

Mott Community College had previously been one of dozens of Flint businesses and organizations to express support for an advanced manufacturing site in Genesee County. The board was pressured to rescind that support, and did so. That rescinding of support didn’t strike me as the board having some altruistic care about the environmental issues a few public commenters spoke about as much as it was a chance for them to undue something that previous president Beverly Walker-Griffea supported. The jobs the proposed development would create are in line with industries that employ graduates of programs like several that Mott offers, so it made sense that Walker-Griffea would support it. At the time, it seemed Everman in particular was just upset that support for the project had been offered by the college without him being aware of it.

Honestly, I hadn’t really thought about the issue again until it appeared on the mailer. First of all, I can’t find any reporting that the mega site development resulted from a “foreign push.” Second, what on Earth do these people pushing candidates for a community college board, that is in charge of oversight of the community college and the community college only, think the community college can do to stop a development that is not on or even near their property? Third of all, if this is a development that will truly bring good jobs for graduates of Mott programs, and help keep talented young people in Genesee County, then the college’s board opposing it would be negligent.

They Can’t — and Don’t Want To — Govern

As disturbing as it was to see this mailer on social media yesterday, here’s what I keep coming back to: these clearly bad-intentioned people can’t lead or implement anything. Even if they win those seats in this election, let’s not forget virtually this same group has had a majority for over a year, and every single thing they’ve tried to do has been so clumsy it would be comical if it weren’t impacting students’ educations and employees’ careers.

If they won this election, the college would be on a rapid path to losing its accreditation, which would among other catastrophic outcomes mean Mott wouldn’t be able to award students federal financial aid. If they tried to purge “radical left faculty and administration,” they’d face an onslaught of lawsuits that they’d most assuredly lose. If they try to oppose a major advanced manufacturing development in the county, they’d lose the support of virtually the entire business community here.

This would all, of course, be disastrous for Mott, its students, its employees, and the county as a whole. It is important to remember that this is NOT simply a group of people with differing political opinions who still want what is best for the college. Mott has had Republican and Democrat board members in the past who have worked together well, accomplished good things for the college, and found ways to compromise on differences.

This is a group of people who believe public education in all of its forms needs to die, and to accomplish that, they’re trying to infiltrate boards and destroy from within. It’s the Moms for Liberty Playbook, which has actually failed multiple times nationwide. It’s a version of what happened in Michigan’s Ottawa County two years ago, when a slate of ultra right wing candidates took control of the county board and then subsequently alienated both Republican and Democrat constituents so much that it was tossed right back out of power. Wolcott’s son has attempted the same playbook in Davison. He narrowly survived a recall attempt, finished a distant second in the August Republican primary for Davison Township Clerk, and will (hopefully) finally be voted off of Davison’s School Board this November.

Normal, everyday people who make up by far the majorities of our communities are tired of this type of performative behavior. Whether people vote Republican or Democrat, most just want good, well-run local government entities that don’t have to be watched for shady and unethical behavior at all times, that make an effort to do what is in the best interests of all of the people they are elected to serve, and that actually like, care about, and want to be responsible stewards of the local jewels like Mott that we have in Genesee County.

The good news is, there are plenty of people like that to vote for in November. This mailer is handy for helping eliminate Swanson, Miller, and Sepanak as non-serious candidates who aren’t even worth considering. Add Everman to that list as well, since he’s orchestrated two years of chaos and poor leadership from this board. Two other names on the ballot, Jenna Rose Marden and Mary Davis, also have ties to Wolcott/Smith and should be avoided. On a crowded list of 14 candidates, that’s six people you can scratch off immediately when considering who to support.

Mott’s faculty union endorsed Anne Figueroa, Kenyetta Dotson, and Perci Whitmore. Andrew Watchorn, Aron Gerics, Amanda Wares, and Gail Johnson all gave thoughtful responses to the Flint Area League of Women Voters election questionnaire and seem like reasonable candidates, too.

My hope is, simply, that everyone concerned for Mott’s future can rally around three candidates, support them, show unity, and send a strong message that we do not want this bleak, ugly future for the college that the current board majority, several new candidates, and their hand-picked interim president are trying to implement.