A governing board member of the state’s largest community college district who was asked by fellow board members to resign last week is alleging other board members broke a state law related to public meetings. 

Kathleen Winn, a Maricopa County Community College District board member, filed an Arizona Open Meetings Law complaint in late August, alleging that the board’s then-president coordinated with other board members outside a public meeting to remove her as a board officer in January. 

The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Arizona Republic under the Arizona Public Records Law, alleges that then-board President Linda Thor strategized in January to remove Winn as an officer through conversations with three other board members: Marie Sullivan, Laurin Hendrix and Tom Nerini. The complaint alleges that Hendrix then had conversations with board member Jean McGrath and Sandra Dowling, a former Maricopa County Schools superintendent.

In Winn’s complaint, she said she learned about the conversation when Dowling contacted her and told her about the plan. Dowling on Monday told The Republic she had just returned from an out-of-town trip, had not seen the complaint and declined comment until she had a chance to review it. 

Thor could not be reached for comment Monday.

In a statement, Board President Sullivan said, “We are cooperating with the Attorney General, and are hopeful there will be a quick resolution to the investigation.

Last week, the governing board’s majority voted to censure and reprimand Winn and requested that she resign — a symbolic vote given that she is an elected official. She refused.

The board vote came after an investigative report accused Winn of “significantly” tainting the search for a new college system chancellor. The report said she improperly attempted to eliminate a candidate by speaking with the candidate to persuade the person not to apply and also told the search consultant to keep one of the job candidates out of the pool. Winn has strongly disputed the report’s findings.

Winn told The Republic the decision to file an Open Meeting Law complaint was not done out of revenge. Rather, she said it was a desire to hold others accountable.

“I don’t go out looking for fights, that’s not what I do,” she said. “But if you bring the fight to my front door, I’m going to fight back.”

After Winn’s Arizona Open Meeting Law complaint was filed, the governing board received a Sept. 3 letter, informing members that the state Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law Enforcement Team was looking into allegations that board members “engaged in serial or chain communications related to board member leadership positions” and splintered a board quorum by communicating through email and/or other electronic communication.

State law prohibits a board quorum from discussing business and making decisions outside of public meetings through emails or texts. 

The letter asks the board to provide a response and copies of emails, texts and communications related to board leadership positions from January 2019 through early September of this year. 

The state Open Meeting Law is designed to give the public access to government processand to prevent public bodies from making decisions in secret. Among the many requirements: A public body has to provide 24 hours notice of a meeting, except in an emergency, and must post an agenda. Members also have to vote in public. 

Public bodies that are subject to the law include city and town councils, school boards and college governing boards, among many others. Boards that break the law can be fined, and decisions made outside the public forum can be null and void. Board members who run afoul of the law can also be required to sit through mandatory training on the law. 

In recent years, Open Meeting Law allegations have cropped up against the Scottsdale School Board, the East Valley Institute of Technology and Great Hearts Academies, a metro-Phoenix charter-school chain.

In 2017, the Attorney General said Salt River Project’s elected officials violated the state Open Meeting Law twice and ordered the utility to conduct extra training for those officials. A complaint alleged SRP officials exchanged emails discussing the pending retirement of a CEO and compensation for executives.

One of the most high-profile examples of Open Meeting Law violations occurred several years ago, when the Scottsdale School Board admitted in 1998 to breaking the law three dozen times when members met to discuss buying out a superintendent. 

The attorney general ordered the school board to have a private lawyer present to “baby-sit” meetings and make sure members followed the law. The cost was $175 an hour. For several years, the board had to take annual training on the law.

The Open Meeting Law complaint against the Maricopa Community Colleges governing board is the latest illustration of a years-long division among board members. The board decides policies for the 10-college system. The Maricopa system is one of the largest community college systems in the nation, serving more than 200,000 students with more than 10,000 employees.

One governing board majority set a conservative fiscal agenda in 2017 and 2018, only to be replaced in January 2019 with another board majority with different ideas and philosophies.

The college district has struggled through several controversies, including a decision to end junior college football and a troubled upgrade to the payroll system that resulted in faculty being overpaid or underpaid, some by thousands of dollars.

Faculty reps at nine of 10 colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District in April 2019 signed votes of “no confidence” in embattled Chancellor Maria Harper-Marinick. The controversial vote failed only at Scottsdale Community College. 

Some faculty said the resolution didn’t reflect the sentiments of all full-time faculty because it was cast by faculty senate representatives and not by the faculty at-large.

Harper-Marinick announced she was stepping down in September 2019 when her contract ended in May 2020, only to leave several months early in January. 

Since then, the district has been led by interim Chancellor Steven R. Gonzales, president of GateWay Community College, while the board searches for a new chancellor. 

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8072. Follow her on Twitter @anneryman.

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