BOG member Marty Kotis offers insights on chaotic UNC president search

Published October 20, 2015

by John Newsome, Greensboro News-Record, October 19, 2015.

The search for a new UNC system president got a heck of a lot more interesting late last week. The name of the top candidate went public. The UNC Board of Governors fractured. And some of the state’s top lawmakers weighed in. It was political drama at its best.

So who’s to blame for all of this discord?

Marty Kotis, the BOG member from Summerfield, puts the blame squarely on the board’s chairman, Charlotte attorney John Fennebresque.

In a two-hour interview Wednesday afternoon, the day before the search for a new UNC system president blew up in a very public way, Kotis talked about the BOG with members of the News & Record staff.

Kotis, who develops shopping centers and restaurants, covered a lot of ground in that time. He hit largely on three things: the firing of current UNC system president Tom Ross, the revamped search process and Senate Bill 670.

The ouster of Tom Ross

The BOG on Jan. 16 voted to give one more year to Ross, a Greensboro native who was a judge and Davidson College president before he became the UNC boss in 2011. Ross will step down Jan. 3 or whenever the BOG finds his replacement, whichever comes last.

Kotis said the full board never discussed, much less voted on, Ross’ future, before Jan. 16. He said most BOG members, himself included, didn’t learn about the Ross decision until two days before the vote on Ross’ contract.

Kotis said there was a general sentiment among board members that they wanted to find their own leader for the 17-campus UNC system.

“But you don’t take an action that big based on the informal discussions,” Kotis said.

Kotis said it appears to him that Fennebresque went alone to Ross in January to feel him out about the possibility of retiring.

“John went in there hard-charging and, bam, it blew up from there,” Kotis said. “As it should. If I was a sitting president and someone came in there and did that, I think I’d be upset as well.”

Kotis was the lone no vote on Jan. 16. “The process,” he said, “was just completely flawed.”

But Kotis said he hasn’t been able to tell people exactly why Ross is leaving.

“The reason we can’t answer is because we don’t know,” Kotis said. “John did this on his own. Only he can answer why.”

The search process

Traditionally, the BOG splits itself into three groups to handle the search. One group writes a leadership statement. The second group screens the candidates. The third group — the search committee — interviews the semifinalists and picks one candidate that the full board votes on.

The BOG changed the rules slightly but significantly back in February. This time around, the screening committee no longer whittled down the applicants to a group of 10 or so semifinalists. The search committee took over that job, which meant that the search committee essentially controlled the whole process.

The search committee includes Fennebresque and three others whom Kotis says are Fennebresque’s key allies on the BOG: Joan McNeil, a retired entrepreneur from the western part of the state who’s the chairwoman of the search committee; Craig Souza, the CEO of the N.C. Health Care Facilities Association in Raleigh; and George Sywassink, a retired CEO from Charlotte.

Kotis said the search committee has said little to the rest of the BOG about the search and hasn’t asked for any input. Kotis said he’s bothered by what he considers a lack of transparency in the biggest decision the BOG will make.

Kotis said it’s true that the BOG voted to change the search process.

“But we didn’t realize that it was going to be abused the way that it has, that it was going to be controlled the way that it has,” Kotis said.

Senate Bill 670

In the waning days of the 2015 legislative session, a bill that changed the rules of the search process sailed through both the House and Senate. Senate Bill 670 would have required the full BOG to review three finalists for the president’s job. Currently, the search committee produces just one finalist, and the BOG votes that person up or down.

The genesis for this bill was a proposal Kotis said he made Sept. 18 at the last full BOG meeting. Kotis said he wanted the full BOG to consider three finalists, not just one. The BOG didn’t take up his suggestion.

Kotis doesn’t take direct credit for SB 670. Rather, he said lawmakers reacted to the complaints they heard from Kotis and about 10 to 15 other BOG members. Kotis didn’t identify those board members, and he didn’t say who in the legislature he talked to.

Kotis noted that he and other BOG members know people in the legislature. The legislature appoints the BOG, after all. And many BOG members are political donors.

“So when you run into a major roadblock, you’re going to vent to the people who appointed you and tell them that you can’t do your job....” Kotis said. “This was not the legislature reaching down and trying to tell us what to do. This was us asking for help.”

SB 670 reached Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk Oct. 1. And there it sits, awaiting his signature. If McCrory continues to ignore it, this bill will become law on Oct. 30 without his signature. And the governor doesn’t seem to be in much rush to sign it. Via The Associated Press, a spokesman for McCrory said the bill restricts the BOG, which “should have the autonomy to do the job for which they were appointed.”

That is where things stood on Wednesday afternoon.

On Thursday, the BOG announced it would meet Friday in Cary. That prompted a call from Rep. Jon Hardister, a Greensboro Republican, who told the News & Record that it seemed the BOG was rushing the search to beat the deadline of Oct. 30.

“I think this is bad timing,” Hardister said. “SB 670 contains good policy. That’s the process that they should use.”

Blowing the whistle

Things got really weird Thursday night.

The News & Observer reported that the BOG’s top candidate was Margaret Spellings, the U.S. secretary of education during President George W. Bush’s second term. She’s now president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas.

Several BOG members complained, among other things, about the lack of notice for the meeting and the absence of more than one candidate. Several BOG members, Kotis included, called on Fennebresque to resign as chairman. As board member and Wilmington attorney Thom Goolsby wrote to the embattled BOG chairman, “No matter how qualified, anyone advanced under your chairmanship would be fruit from a poisonous tree.”

The BOG also heard from the leaders of the General Assembly. Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, both Republicans, wrote: “Our concern is not about any candidate for the presidency but rather the process by which at least a few members of the Board have utilized that appears to cut against the fundamental notions of transparency and procedural due process. ... It (the search) should not be rushed or made without the thoughtful consideration of all members of the Board.”

The BOG met as scheduled Friday. Spellings was there. (Amazingly, she came in the front door and sat down in a room full of reporters.) Kotis objected to going into closed session. The BOG didn’t hire anyone.

The BOG search committee put out this statement Friday: “We fully understand President Berger’s and Speaker Moore’s view that the recently passed Senate Bill 670 requires that the full Board of Governors consider the names of at least three final candidates. We share their desire that the final selection not be hurried or made without consideration by the entire board.”

It appears unlikely that this will be the last word you will hear from the board — or Kotis — on the presidential search.

“You can’t sit back and just watch this train wreck occur over and over and over,” Kotis said Wednesday. “At some point you have to take action. You have to be willing to break ranks. You have to be willing to be a whistleblower.