The Sibert moment on UA's Board of Trustees

WITH THE IMMINENT retirement of Russell Sibert over at the University of Akron Board of Trustees there has been an interesting shuffling of the deck to fill the vacancy. Sibert has been the $150,748-a-year fellow with a title that would stretch from one goal line to the other in UA's new stadium: Assistant secretary of the Board and vice president of Board operations. The veep designation was largely arranged in 2001 by a previous trustee to adorn Sibert's resume even though he would be reporting to another vice president, Ted Mallo, the Board's general counsel. I'm not sure what labors Sibert's new vice presidency added following his promotion. It recalled what a touring Mark Twain said when he was told that Heloise's uncle Fulbert was a canon of the cathedral of Paris:

"I do not know what a canon of a cathedral is, but that is what he was."

In a letter to the campus community, President Luis Proenza reported that Paul Herold, special assistant to the president and associate vice president of public affairs and development, "will relinquish his associate vice president role, continue to assist the president and serve as the assistant secretary to the board." That sort of takes the job back to the pre-Sibert days. But there's more. Proenza wrote: "Paula D. Neugebauer, administrative assistant senior in the office of the vice president of public affairs and development, will be transferred to the office of the Board of trustees and assume the duties of the retiring coordinator [Marcia Fletcher] in addition to other current duties." Proenza says the "restructuring" will save more than $157,000 in personnel costs annually. From this distance, that's a lot to ingest in one sitting, but that is what it is.

I've been told that Sibert had planned to retire and return at some point with state retirement payments on top of his U pay, commonly known as double dipping. But I also understand that at least one trustee rose up to block it. Right, Mr. Sibert? Say it isn't so.

Coughlin: Morrison's a "tenacious lawyer"

TO FOLLOW UP: Kevin Coughlin, one of two Akron area state senators who are calling for the ouster of Jack Morrison (see previous post), says Morrison has a reputation of being a "tenacious lawyer" who is unlikely to gives seats on the University of Akron Board of Trustees and the Summit County Board of Elections without a fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's how Coughlin viewed the political ramifications of the issue when I spoke to him:

Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff (never any love lost between Coughlin and Alex) has convinced others in his grasp that if Democrats take over the majority of the trustees, "everybody gets fired - including Ted Mallo [UA vice president and general counsel] and Ted Curtis [vice president of capital planning, architect]. Coughlin further maintains that if the full Senate votes on it, Morrison loses. His prediction: The issue will be resolved by Dec. 1.

Although Morrison is Arshinkoff's lawyer, Alex has repeatedly told me that he is a mere bystander in the Morrison case, but he has acknowledged that it would be a setback for the party if Republican Morrison left a vacancy that would permit the governor to appoint a Democrat. Coughlin agrees that Arshinkoff isn't in the driver's seat on this one. On the other hand, Coughlin sees a greater setback for the party if the issue drags on. "The Democrats will have a big issue to use against the Republicans, just as they did with Tom Noe." Noe, you may remember, was the powerhouse Ohio Republican fund-raiser who was convicted in the so-called coin-gate scandal of several corruption charges in 2006 and sent off to prison.

Unlike old soldiers, funny how these matters neither die NOR fade away at election time.

They're playing Monopoly around UA stadium

"THE BOARD IS FRUSTRATED. There's real concern over this.  But the only person who can take him out is the governor."

And so it is with the University of Akron Trustees who are now uncomfortably stranded on an academic island with board member Atty. Jack Morrison.  "It's a real conundrum," a trustee told me, sort of apologetically, "not only for the board but for the University's reputation as well."

Well, at this point my advice to the trustees is, Get used to it.  Jack Morrison isn't listening to appeals that  he step down  from the board.   However, he did give up his chairmanship of the finance, fiscal policy and investment committee.   

Should you need a little more information on this fellow, whose case  has been rehashed in the media more than once, he is under indictment for seven misdemeanors on ethics charges  involving his alleged interest in his son's purchase of property on land the University had intended to buy around a new football stadium.  Let's get more specific:

According to a response to Morrison's lawyer for continuances on pretrial and trial dates, the bipartisan Ohio Ethics  Commission investigation  has advised the court of the paper trail turned up by its lawyers that revealed much more than Morrison has been willing to admit. 

"Since 2005," the Commission lawyers wrote, "defendant has provided his son and/or Braymor Development (his son's development company) with a total investment of at least $156,400 to support his son's real estate ventures   in the University area..."

There's more in the same document:

• The son, Jack, Jr. "began buying property in the University of Akron area on Dec. 29, 2005."
• By June 2007, he owned 19 properties in the University area. By February 2008, he owned "24 worth nearly $1 million."
•  Finally, Dad never revealed that he had "an overall and continuing series of investments in his son's property acquisition and rehabilitation business over more than two years."
• Had enough?   And so there is an old  house still standing near the new stadium that UA had offered to buy for $75,000 but is frozen in place as the five- month-old case drags on. The least that Morrison could do is to respect the sensitivities of the University and his fellow-trustees and find some investments elsewhere  to keep  him busy in the meantime. 

And while we're on the subject of the Board of Trustees, I do find it curious that the board's work is managed by two vice presidents, one reporting to the other.   I refer to Ted Mallo, vice president and general counsel  and board secretary....and Russell D. Sibert, another vice president,  of board operations,  and assistant secretary to Mallo.  Sibert clocks in at $150,748, Mallo at $194, 123.   In these lean economic times, particularly for higher education,  I'm sure there's someone who can justify having two vice presidents elbow to elbow for nearly $345,000.  But until somebody tells me, I won't know, will I?  

   

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