Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The former president of Mesalands Community College filed a lawsuit against the college after his firing there in April, alleging whistleblower violations and retaliation.
In the eight-page suit, John Groesbeck stated he confronted the college’s foundation members, many whom also are on the board of trustees, at a board meeting March 3 about allegations of improper distribution of federal grant funds, fraudulent property leases and improper appropriation of money to the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum.
Two weeks later, Groesbeck was placed on indefinite paid administrative leave after a closed executive session during an otherwise routine board of trustees meeting. He was fired without explanation during the trustees’ next meeting in April.
Groesbeck had been president less than two years. Natalie Gillard, vice president of academic affairs, was appointed interim president.
Josh McVey, Mesalands’ director of public relations, stated last week on behalf of the college about the lawsuit: “We have no comment at this time.”
Groesbeck filed the suit in Santa Fe district court in early July, and the college was issued a summons July 6 that remained unserved, according to online court documents.
Judge Maria Sanchez-Gagne is assigned to the case.
Groesbeck hired the Kennedy, Hernandez & Associates law firm of Albuquerque to represent him the case.
Groesbeck states Mesalands’ firing caused him actual damages, lost wages, lost benefits, expenses related to finding new employment and severe emotional distress. He was paid $170,000 a year and collected his pay through June 30.
Overpayment
Groesbeck noted in the suit the college and its foundation have overlapping personnel, including the board of trustees chairman acting as the foundation’s treasurer, the college’s chief financial officer as the foundation’s accountant, and a board of trustees treasurer and another trustee serving as voting foundation board members.
Those individuals weren’t named in the lawsuit, though Jim Streetman remains chairman of the board of trustees. Mesalands doesn’t have a chief financial officer listed, though Amanda Hammer, vice president of administrative affairs, oversees the college’s finances. No treasurer is listed among the board of trustees.
Groesbeck stated he found “systemic abuses” of the college’s overload pay processes that led to faculty overpayment. An example was when certain faculty members taught a class that students accessed from remote locations, they were paid per access location even if only one student was there.
“Dr. Groesbeck learned that this practice resulted in the Vice President for Academic Affairs receiving approximately $41,000 in additional compensation for teaching approximately 35 students the equivalent of a single 3-credit hour class in one semester, an effort typically compensated approximately $1,800. All told, he estimated the practice in all instances could cost the College $100,000 per academic year,” the suit stated.
The vice president for academic affairs at the time was Gillard.
Groesbeck stated he objected to the overload-pay practice and rewrote the personnel handbook to reflect appropriate compensation practices.
Groesbeck stated he also contacted the college’s auditors about the issue in December.
“The auditors agreed that this practice was an ‘abuse’ and that it warranted further investigation,” the lawsuit states.
The board of trustees in January approved the college’s most recent annual audit by Atkinson & Co. in Albuquerque. That audit was submitted in November, before Groesbeck states he reported the alleged overpayment.
Foundation
Groesbeck’s lawsuit also alleges the Mesalands Community College Foundation, which received federal grants, kept income from invested grants, “never providing it to the college for its intended uses.” He stated its finances “appeared to be in gross disarray.”
He said the college and its trustees — including Streetman, who also is foundation treasurer — asserted the foundation is a “non-component unit” of the college. Groesbeck said the foundation should have been subject to Government Accounting Standards Board regulations, and Internal Revenue Service rules should have required the foundation be a component unit of the college and require an annual audit.
“By claiming the Foundation is not a component unit, Defendant Mesalands deliberately evaded fully disclosing irregularities in accounting, the transfers of College funds, and the lack of disbursement of federal grant income in accordance with the grants’ purposes,” the lawsuit states.
On Feb. 18, Groesbeck stated he notified the college its foundation should be a component unit similar to other colleges and universities and that overlapping management between the boards created conflicts of interest.
Groesbeck stated he also learned that day the college was transferring $35,000 to the foundation for property leases. He requested more information.
He stated a report from the CFO two days later indicated the college “regularly pays the foundation large sums from its general fund, supposedly for use of real property lots. In reality, these lots sit idle — they are not used by the College, do not benefit the College, and are vacant or without power or water.”
The CFO’s report also stated about $80,000 had been taken from the college’s general funds for such leases during the previous 18 months.
Groesbeck said he never had been informed of the leases or asked to approve them. He also stated approval of the expenditures were not subject “to the usual process for such large amounts.”
Groesbeck said Mesalands moves general funds into the foundation “after which they may be spent on entirely different purposes than the state and federal governments have approved.”
Museum
Groesbeck said the college and its foundation were spending state-appropriated money in part on the operation and promotion of the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum “for which the funds were never intended.”
“Defendant Mesalands knew that the funds were not to be used in this way because it had repeatedly applied to the State Higher Education Department and the Research and Public Service Program (RPSP) program to fund the Museum, but its requests were denied,” the lawsuit states.
Groesbeck noted the Higher Education Department reprimanded the college for its acquisition of the museum building.
“Dr. Groesbeck thus reasonably believed that Defendant Mesalands’ conduct amounted to deliberate misappropriation,” it stated.
Confrontation
Groesbeck said he informed foundation members during a March 3 meeting the foundation “was not distributing federal grant funds to the college for their intended purposes, that the so-called ‘property leases’ were fraudulent, and that funds appropriate for higher education could not be spend on the Dinosaur Museum except as directly related to credit-bearing instruction (e.g., not for billboard advertising or other promotional expenses, non-instructional staffing, or renovation of exhibits).”
He also said at the meeting because the property lease payments were fraudulent and that foundation funds came from federal and state grants for the college, “it was deceptive and wrong that the Foundation was being characterized as a ‘non-component unit’ of the college.”
He also said it was a conflict of interest to have college trustees as voting members of the foundation.
At a March 17 board of trustees meeting, Streetman called a closed executive session without Groesbeck present.
Back in open session, Groesbeck was placed on indefinite paid administrative leave. He was not allowed contact with faculty, staff or board members from the college or foundation. He was not allowed access to the college’s computer system or to his office except to retrieve personal items. Two college representatives were required to be with him if he were on campus.
The board of trustees, after a brief closed session and no discussion in open session, terminated Groesbeck’s contract April 21.
Groesbeck stated he received a positive performance review in early 2020 and expected a contract renewal by June 30.