I assure everyone reading this that you have better things to do with your time than to watch a three-hour video of adult elected officials behaving in some of the most embarrassing and childish ways possible. But if you’re a voter in Flint or Genesee County, or are in any way impacted by Mott Community College, it’s worth your time to watch the Nov. 18 Board of Trustees meeting embedded above.

A few of the lowlights:

• Trustee Janet Couch moved to add “hiring a permanent president” to the agenda, and that motion was approved. The publicly posted agenda did not mention the hiring as a potential topic, so it was clearly a gambit to add something controversial at the last minute in the hopes that the meeting wasn’t well-attended. The board had voted in October to accept a grant from the Mott Foundation (not affiliated with the college) to fund a national search firm, so Couch’s desire was to undo or circumvent a process that a board majority had just one month ago agreed to.
• Chair Andy Everman, on three separate occasions, tries to read a lengthy statement in which he accuses members of the public of bullying or misrepresenting him. He initially refuses to follow the board’s public comment procedures despite being asked to do so. Trustee Michael Freeman eventually moves to have him removed from the meeting, although the motion fails in a 3-3 vote (Freeman, Art Reyes, and John Daly voted in favor).
• Hilariously, Board Attorney William Brickley said that Everman has never had a member of the public removed from a meeting. Everman, in fact, had a Mott faculty member escorted out of an October meeting for laughing. Former trustee Anne Figueroa also posted on her Facebook page that Everman had once threatened to have her thrown out of a meeting.
• The meeting was continuously derailed by procedural confusion, motions that conflict with each other, and trustees themselves not knowing what they’re voting on. On two occasions, Jeff Swanson understandably notes that he is confused before he’s supposed to vote on something.
• Couch moves during the meeting to offer Mott’s current interim president Shaunda Richardson-Snell the permanent president position. Daly, Freeman, and Reyes all point out that the board had already approved and agreed to a presidential search process that this motion would be eschewing. The board takes a recess to get input from the board attorney, but even the recess is controversial as several board members clearly don’t trust that the board attorney is working on behalf of the entire board. The recess is objected to, but the board majority still allows it to happen. There is no audio during the recess, but Freeman appears to confront the attorney and a few of the trustees in their huddle.
• Couch then re-works her motion to remove the word “permanent” and to make the term of the presidential appointment three years instead of the more standard five. The motion fails 4-3, with Swanson breaking ranks from his typical voting bloc. He provides an explanation that actually shows some astuteness — hiring Richardson-Snell in this bad faith, rushed, retaliatory manner would actually do her no favors, create more hostility in an already toxic environment at the college, and make it even more difficult for her to succeed in the role. I don’t understand how other board members who support her can’t also see that, or think it’s bad for a candidate they think is strong to have to compete with other good candidates for the job to see who is the best fit. But anyway, good for Swanson for showing an ounce of ethical behavior.
• After the motion fails, Couch immediately storms out. Then forgets something, and has to come back and grab it. Later, Everman seems to have forgotten she’d left as he calls on her for a roll call vote before correcting himself after noticing she’s no longer there.
• Everman tries again to read his letter but is cut off. Eventually, on his third try later in the meeting, he gets to read the full thing. Hilariously, this meeting had three different chairs. The first time Everman attempted to read it, he had to hand the gavel to vice-chair Couch so he could go read it as a member of the public. Then, with Couch bailing on the meeting, he had to hand it to Wolcott so he could read it as a Trustee.
• He also wants his letter published on Mott’s website. Daly mentions that his accusations in his letter are one-sided, and that the letter is in draft form, so having the letter in the meeting minutes should be sufficient.
• Tensions between Daly and Everman were ratcheting up throughout the meeting. At one point, Daly stands up and shouts that what Everman is doing is a “travesty.” I couldn’t hear what else he said as he wasn’t close enough to his mic. Everman seems to enjoy this and tries to goad Daly into a physical fight. Everman says, “Don’t make a threat you can’t live up to,” to Daly.
• Later, as clear retaliation, when Daly has a question for a Mott employee, Everman makes him address the employee through the board chair, then Everman will ask Daly’s question. He makes Daly stand up and face him (something I have never seen him force other board members to do when they have questions for college employees). Then, because Daly is away from his mic, Everman says he can’t hear what he’s saying. A lot was cringe in this meeting, but this scene was truly one of the most childish things I’ve ever seen from Everman, who has specialized in childishness throughout his board tenure.
• There were several public comments in support of Richardson-Snell from letter writers who live outside of Genesee County. Some were unhinged. Worth listening to all of them to get a feel for who is behind this attempted power grab at the college. I particularly liked the one that included, among her qualifications, that hiring her will result in “no sex scandals, embezzlement, or child molestation.” I’m dead serious, the letter starts around the 43 minute mark in the video above. I dunno about anyone else … but I would certainly hope that someone singing my praises could think of three better things to lead with than some felonies I wouldn’t do!
• Thanks to a right nationalist pastor from a Hartland church who orchestrated this campaign, the nature of most of the letters of support suggest that Richardson-Snell is being targeted because of her religion. I can’t reiterate enough that this is an absolute lie. The pastor who wrote the initial letter, Chris Thoma, is attempting to create a narrative that she’s being targeted because she says a prayer at meetings. I have attended or watched every Mott meeting since before she was hired. I have not heard a single comment directed at her religious beliefs. The overwhelming themes of comments have been about the board’s lack of transparency in hiring her and about the fact that she has no higher education experience. Both of those things are objectively true, are relevant criticisms, and neither are in any way an attack on her character.

Anyway, there’s plenty more than I can even sufficiently recap. It was one of the most bizarre, disorienting, and poorly run meetings I have ever seen.