First, A Funding Feud. Next, A Board Shakeup. Now, Will Top Montco Community College Trustee Lose His Post?
by KYW's Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A meeting on Monday will determine whether the head of the Montgomery County Community College board of trustees keeps his post.
Normally, such a vote wouldn't get much notice, but there's intrigue this time -- after a spat between the board chairman and county commissioners.
Michael D'Aniello went public with his call for more funding for the school. He got it -- through a dedicated tax -- but his may have been a Pyrrhic victory.
"That [public action] was not appreciated by a few members of the board of trustees, and it was certainly not received well at One Montgomery Plaza [the county office building]," D'Aniello says. "I think a decision was made at that point that Mike D'Aniello shouldn't be the board chair. That has been explained to me by the county commissioners."
The commissioners, he says, were angered by the public pressure he put on them to stop cutting the community college's budget.
But according to Commissioners Chairwoman Val Arkoosh, there was nothing political about replacing four of the school's trustees. (Rich Montalbano, a fifth board member whose term had expired, was reappointed.)
"My goal in this process was to fill gaps on the board in skill sets or background," Arkoosh says. "Those five terms were expired, so action would have been taken regardless of any external circumstances. We have appointed four people who bring very specific skill sets that were not necessarily present on the board."
D'Aniello, who has served as head of the volunteer board since 2011, accuses Arkoosh of stacking the trustees against him ahead of the vote.
"The conduct that has taken place so far is really quite unprecedented," D'Aniello tells KYW Newsradio. "The custom has always been that people are reappointed unless they ask not to be. I've never seen more than one trustee at any particular time not be reappointed."
"There's been a lot of interest about serving on that board," Arkoosh says. "I think we've seen with past appointments under this administration, there's been turnover of people who have served on the board for a while. This is a continuation of that process and taking the opportunity to put some really committed individuals onto that board that bring some new ideas, new connections, and some new skill set to the board."
But D'Aniello calls it a political play that could put the community college's accreditation at risk.
"I think it's pretty clear that there's politics in that boardroom," D'Aniello says. "The Middle States Commission on Accreditation specifically precludes political influence of community college board leadership and board governance."
D'Aniello expects some trustees to resign after they vote Monday on his future as chairman.
"I take our role here at the county -- which now provides close to a third of the budget to the community college -- I take that investment in the college seriously," Arkoosh says. "And in our role as the body that appoints all the board members, to be as thoughtful and forward-looking in terms of who we put on that board to support the president as I can be."
