A community group including some current and former Pima Community College board members held a news conference Thursday to call for Chancellor Lee Lambert’s resignation ahead of the college’s board election in November.
The division on PCC’s Governing Board, which hires the chancellor, is no secret. As it stands now, three of the board members — vice-chair Demion Clinco, Meredith Hay and Chair Catherine Ripley — typically vote in support of Lambert’s initiatives, while Maria Garcia and Luis Gonzales often don’t. One example of this division was last year’s vote on Lambert’s contract extension and salary increase when both Gonzales and Garcia dissented.
There are two seats open for re-election this November: Clinco’s and Hay’s. Hay is not seeking re-election.
As candidates have spent the past year fundraising to support their campaigns — Clinco raised more than $156,000 with big donations from local business owners — a community group known as the People4PCC (previously known as C-FAIRR) has vocalized what it perceives as Lambert’s poor leadership of the college.
Luis L. Gonzales, a current PCC board member, as well as Luis A. Gonzales, a former PCC board member and state lawmaker, were in attendance at Thursday’s news conference.
“Why do you (Lambert) continue to spend taxpayer dollars for lawyers and various consultants to try to muzzle, intimidate and scare anyone that opposes your view?” Mario Gonzales, former chair of C-FAIRR, said at the event People4PCC hosted at Dunbar Community Center.
At the news conference, Mario Gonzales and other members of the group accused Lambert of a lack of transparency in his management of taxpayer money, prioritizing the buildout of his Centers of Excellence project while eliminating other courses students need, and factionalizing three members of the board.
In short, Gonzales said, “We call for the immediate resignation of the chancellor. Yes! The chancellor must go.”
“People4PCC has no confidence that the chancellor will suddenly wake up and smell the roses and be honest and transparent,” Gonzales said. “It’s time for a new chancellor for PCC. A chancellor who will be transparent. A chancellor who will increase enrollment by bringing back required courses. A chancellor who will be accountable to all taxpayers, employees and students of Pima County.”
In response to the group’s call for Lambert’s resignation, the college told the Arizona Daily Star that the People4PCC’s accusations are not true.
“These are old allegations that have been proven false repeatedly and are typical election year exaggerations and misinformation,” a PCC spokesman said. “PCC’s strong enrollment growth, wise fiscal management, support from the business community and award-winning programs speak for themselves.”
Lambert was hired in 2013. At that time, the college was on probation with its accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, in part for “dysfunctional” leadership under former Chancellor Ray Flores.
In recent years, the college has received good standing with its accreditor, but division remains.
Last year, a former facilities employee filed a lawsuit against the chancellor alleging wrongful termination after expressing disapproval of the college’s multi-million-dollar contract with Trane, alleging that the college selected the company to do an HVAC project outside of the required request for proposal process. That same individual, William Ward, filed a complaint with PCC’s accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission.
In March, an accreditation team made a focused visit to the college to determine if the board “is autonomous to make decisions in the best interest of the institution in compliance with board policies and to ensure the institution’s integrity.”
The Arizona Daily Star has requested a copy of the accreditor’s report through the state’s public records law. The college said it expects to have the report made public within the next few weeks.
