Western New Mexico U regents resign amid controversy

Dealing with withering scrutiny from state officers over a pricey exit settlement with outgoing president Joseph Shepard, 4 of Western New Mexico College’s 5 regents have now resigned, the college confirmed Tuesday.

State officers discovered that Shepard improperly spent greater than $360,000 in taxpayer funds for journey, luxurious resorts and furnishings for his campus residence after a 2023 investigation by Searchlight New Mexico first introduced consideration to his questionable monetary strikes at WNMU. Regents have additionally been accused of violating WNMUs’ journey and procurement insurance policies.

(Shepard has denied any wrongdoing and rebutted claims of improper spending.)

Amid the fallout, Shepard and the board agreed to terminate his contract in a transfer each events stated was mutual. Regents agreed to pay him almost $2 million in severance in addition to a further $1.5 million by way of different advantages, together with a college place.

Given how his contract was structured, the board might have fired Shepard with out trigger and parted methods with him for rather less than $600,000. The choice to pay him handsomely on the best way out prompted state officers to accuse the board of fiduciary mismanagement.

A Wave of Resignations

On Dec. 31, Democratic governor Michelle Lujan Grisham despatched a letter to regents urging them to resign “to be able to preserve the longer term well being and stability of Western New Mexico College.”

The letter got here 11 days after the board accredited Shepard’s exit settlement.

“Within the spirit of a clear slate of decisionmakers on the college, I’m asking to your rapid resignation to assist be certain that Western New Mexico College will be capable of regain its equilibrium and as soon as once more serve its college students at the start,” Lujan Grisham wrote.

By Tuesday, when the board was subsequent scheduled to fulfill, 4 of the 5 members had resigned. The assembly, at which regents had been scheduled to launch a seek for an interim president to interchange Shepard, didn’t happen on account of a scarcity of quorum.

Solely pupil regent Trent Jones remained.

“Regent Jones, who serves because the board’s treasurer, will proceed to serve on the board quickly to make sure the uninterrupted processing of college funds, together with pupil monetary support,” college spokesperson Mario Sanchez wrote to Inside Larger Ed by e mail.

Regent Lyndon Haviland was the primary to step down, doing so on the identical day the governor made the demand. She was adopted by Daniel Lopez, who resigned Jan. 1, and Dalva Mollenberg on Jan. 2.

Board president Mary Hotvedt—who had praised Shepard for “selflessly stepping down for the nice of the college within the face of ongoing points”—additionally tendered her resignation Jan. 2. (Although Hotvedt’s time period expired on Dec. 31, she was slated to serve till formally changed.)

Not one of the outgoing regents referenced the controversy of their resignation letters.

In a Tuesday afternoon assertion, Lujan Grisham stated her workplace is within the technique of searching for new appointees to serve on WNMU’s board.

“My workplace is already reviewing candidates to interchange the previous WNMU board and usher in a brand new period of accountability on the college. All public universities in New Mexico should uphold their basic fiscal duty to the folks of this state and the scholars they serve,” Lujan Grisham stated.

The governor additionally blasted the board for its “tone-deaf determination” on the severance package deal, pointing to financial wants throughout the state.

“The sum of money contained in Dr. Shepard’s separation settlement might have addressed meals insecurity throughout your entire WNMU pupil physique for a full 12 months,” Lujan Grisham stated.

Authorized Choices

What a newly reconstituted Board of Regents would possibly imply for the much-maligned Shepard deal is unclear. If a brand new board had been to attempt to stroll again the deal, which has already been signed, Shepard might file swimsuit and WNMU is perhaps answerable for overlaying his authorized bills within the case.

Nonetheless, state officers have taken one other method to undo the deal Legal professional Basic Raúl Torrez requested a state courtroom Monday to halt the disbursement of severance funds, which he known as “an egregious misuse of public funds” in a information launch.

A $1.9 million severance fee is due by Jan. 15, in line with the phrases of the exit settlement. Torrez is looking for a short lived restraining order to forestall the payout “till a full evidentiary listening to on a preliminary injunction could be held.” The legal professional common famous in a authorized submitting that two investigations into improper spending at WNMU are underway and argued that the exit settlement or severance funds could also be “voidable or unenforceable on account of lack of consideration, unconscionable phrases” and “a scarcity of lawful goal,” amongst different causes.

Torrez argued that the exit settlement and severance pay might “ultimately be put aside as invalid as a result of the board breached their fiduciary duties.” However time, he harassed, is essential.

“Absent courtroom intervention, the state will possible undergo the concrete hurt of the waste of just about $2 million {dollars} in public funds on prime of the waste that has already been recognized by the [Office of the State Auditor],” Torrez wrote within the emergency movement. “That fee, if made previous to the completion of the Particular Audit, will possible be unrecoverable by the point that audit and any subsequent litigation based mostly on its outcomes are full.”