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CCC Board Member Karen Mellin’s Resignation Letter

July 8,2008
Letter to Clatsop County from CCC Board Member Karen Mellin

When I was nominated by the North Coast Women’s Political Caucus as a candidate for the Clatsop Community College Board in 2001,1 felt honored, and even more so when I was elected. My campaign, skillfully organized by Janet Miltenburger cost a total of $25. I began my service to the college in July 2001, and was re-elected again in 2005 for a second four-year term.

In 2001, the college was focused on creating a campus downtown. John Wubben was President. He, and the Board were working closely with the City of Astoria to explore the possibilities of the old Safeway site, and though I had my reservations about the many obstacles to that plan, I vowed to work cooperatively with the board. After all, I was still learning. In 2002, voters turned down a bond measure for a new campus, and, after a “torturous four-year trek were back at square one, “ (Daily Astorian, March 11, 2002).

After the failed bond measure, John Wubben was replaced by Greg Hamann. Then things changed. Maybe we had been spoiled by John’s willingness to get to know people, his readiness to debate ideas, his congenial manner. The older board members, now since gone, made me feel welcome by inviting me to share ideas over coffee. And Sara Meyer, who I replaced, was there for me when I had questions or concerns. I felt all of our discussions were a valuable part of the democratic process, despite the lack of consensus regarding where the college should reside. That was when I was naive enough to believe your voices would be heard, and not ignored.

What did change? Though he was not even near my first choice for President, the board chose Greg Hamann as our leader. One of his first acts was to abolish the employee recognition dinner that had been a long-standing tradition at the college, and he suspended their beloved “odds and ends” on-line communications. By the end of his first year, President Hamann was clearly not the sort of person you’d want to work for. The board’s response to the staff survey was a recommendation to at least learn the names of his employees, something he had not yet mastered, and to work towards improving relations with them. Though this was sensible advice, there is no indication the president was going to follow-through, and in the intervening four years, the matter has been ignored.

We know this because the recent Noel Levitz College Employee Satisfaction Survey, though highly edited by censors, is revealing about the character of President Hamann, and what kinds of problems he presents to our community and to his employees. “Employee morale is abysmal here,” says one, “it does not allow for a healthy working environment”, says another. Health problems are a major concern of employees throughout the survey, and as one states, “Employee morale is vital to the health of this institution. If an employee has a hard time getting their needs and concerns met, its hard to imagine the students getting their needs met. When a group of employees goes to the Administration with a health concern they are told it’s not an issue, “a staff member with a complaint was told by human resources that if they didn’t like their job, there was a stack of applications of people willing to replace them.” In short, no matter what concerns employees have, they are ignored.

One purpose of this letter is to examine why this should be so. A clue is found in one comment by an evaluator: “He surrounds himself with favorites”. Autocrats do this. To disguise their own impotence, they cultivate the loyalty of others around them who will allow them to rule with unlimited authority. Autocrats don’t need oversight, because in their arrogance, they believe they have superior knowledge and power. They control by abuse. And a demoralized workforce is easier to control. When they are divided they are not so likely to assume they have rights. The stories that are behind this Satisfaction Survey are sad ones. I have heard them. During contract negotiations this year, one faculty member stated that our Human Resources Director was the most unprofessional she had experienced in all of her teaching years. She, and others described the depths to which the Human Resources Director went to make miserable the lives of employees. President Hamann, however, depends on people like the HRD because she is truly a servant to him. He needs her to fend off employees wanting a nickel raise, while he demands his in the thousands, annually.

At the June 2008 board meeting, President Hamann was given a glowing evaluation by the board for his “exemplary” service to CCC this past year. That, of course, is a pat on the back to themselves, because they made it possible for him to accomplish whatever it was he’s /they’ve done. (I used to have a friend in San Francisco who measured the amount of his wealth by the debt he was in). By completely ignoring the despair his staff is experiencing, President Hamann and his board are not unlike Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Berry, who boasted about his city being a pleasant place to live, “other than the murder rate.” “One heck of a job” also comes to mind from another on-going event.

There is clearly a cognitive split in how the CCC board views reality. From what I understand, we have not lost the last three bond measures because the board has hired consultants that say we haven’t. Ignore the voters. So there is no hindsight. And there is no oversight. That leaves only foresight, which is that of the compulsive gambler who is focused on gaining access to easy money to continue to play the game. President Hamann is hi the catbird seat, however, because he is the house hi this gamble. Win or lose, he still gets paid handsomely, not unlike CEO’s of corporations who go under, while they walk out with million dollar bonuses.

And then we have the board member from South County who plays at being the Brownshirt at cultural events such as a series of movies on Immigration at the PAC presented by a community group, who made offensive remarks to students who staged an event at the PAC celebrating the First Amendment and “ideological diversity,” then was observed passing out Bibles on campus. When students confronted him for his disrespect (including to that of a woman vet) he countered by telling them to “take a class in ethics.’ This board member from South County generally attends meeting via speakerphone from his homes in Washington and Arizona, so it was all pretty ridiculous confronting a speakerphone instead of eye to eye, but witnessing their outrage and bravery to confront tyranny (which is what unequal power is all about) brought tears to my eyes. It was the highlight of my career as your representative. I am so proud to know that we have such admirable students at CCC, and it is demonstrations such as theirs that give me hope.

In closing, this is not the college to which you elected me to serve. It’s a place I hardly recognize. The exodus of qualified staff, many of them locals, either forced out or choosing to leave, the lack of oversight over rampant Administrative abuse, and the sheer denial of the president’s role in this wreckage has led me to conclude there is no point in continuing as your elected board member. The verb “ignore” becomes the noun ‘‘ignorant”, meaning lacking education. A board that ignores input becomes a table of the ignorant. Tonight the college will announce a plan for a new bond measure. Last year, when I spoke against the campus on the cowpasture, I was severely chastised by President Hamann and Chairwoman Rosemary Baker-Monahagn. As she stated hi the Daily Astorian, once a decision is made, everyone must speak with one voice. Since my words, representing your opinions, are ignored, and I am about to be silenced by their vote, I see no other choice than to step down one year before my term ends, and become a private citizen where I can speak freely. Thank you all for your on-going support this last seven years. Your voices have given me both inner strength and courage to confront those, who as the early 19th century poet Percy Shelley says “tyrannize without reproach or check.”

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