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Alabama NewsAlabama Politics
Dr. Corts' Resignation Disheartening
Posted on: March 6, 2007
If Alabamians need an illustration of the abuse of public trust plaguing this state, they need look no further than Alabama’s two-year college system. Nothing showcases the lack of accountability in state government quite as well as Alabama’s junior college system. And perhaps nothing will come to represent the frustration of trying to do something about it more than the resignation of Dr. Tom Corts as the interim chancellor of the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education a mere six months after his appointment.
Dr. Corts, who retired last year as president of Samford University, was named interim chancellor after former chancellor Roy Johnson was fired. Johnson was fired following reports by The Birmingham News disclosing that his wife, son, daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law were all employed by, or had contracts with, the two-year college system. Together, Johnson and his family received a total of $560,000 in 2005.
Just prior to the firing of Johnson, W.L. Langston, the executive director of the Alabama Fire College resigned after it was disclosed that a foundation run by the Fire College and under his control, paid $350,000 to build Langston a home in Millbrook, Alabama. The Fire College is located 100 miles away in Tuscaloosa on the campus of Shelton State Community College.
According to The Birmingham News, the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education sent the Fire College Foundation $300,000 the year before. The News also reported that Langston had given jobs at the Fire College to Roy Johnson’s children and one of his close friends. After the payment became public, officials in the Department of Postsecondary Education claimed the payment was inadvertent and that the money was returned.
But that wasn’t the end of the problems with the Fire College Foundation. Shortly after Langston’s resignation, former State Representative Bryant Melton agreed to plead guilty to embezzling $68,000 of taxpayer money from the foundation. The $68,000 was legislative pork money passed through the foundation as scholarships for Melton’s daughter who knew nothing about the scholarships. Melton admitted to using most of the money to pay gambling debts.
Aside from the obvious illegality of a state legislator stealing taxpayer money to pay gambling debts, the fact that Melton was able to pass taxpayer money through a private foundation specifically to fund scholarships for his daughter is more evidence that the state should put a stop to the practice of pass-through pork. That is, prohibit legislators from having discretionary accounts funded with the taxpayers’ money that they can then use to dole out favors to family and friends, or as in Melton’s case, help themselves to the money.
Following Melton’s guilty plea, more problems have surfaced, most notably at Bishop State Community College in Mobile which is now under federal investigation for the misappropriation of scholarship funds. Once again, a private foundation and a state legislator are the focus of the investigation. According to reports from The Birmingham News and the Mobile Press Register, Bishop State filed federal tax forms that reported spending $254,132 on scholarships, but bank records show the actual amount was $58,382. It was also disclosed that Representative Yvonne Kennedy, who is also president of Bishop State, reported directing $94,440 from her legislative discretionary account into a private foundation at Bishop State that was to fund programs at the school. Bank and tax records show no such expenditures.
Unfortunately, when it comes to cleaning up the nepotism and mismanagement in our community college system Alabamians should not expect much help from the state legislature. Yet another Birmingham News article reported that 43 state legislators have financial ties to community colleges either as employees or contractors or their spouses are employees or contractors. Most Alabamians would conclude that this is a clear conflict-of-interest that should not be allowed.
And there may not be much interest in substantive reform from the Alabama State Board of Education either.
When reports about possible problems with nepotism were first published, State Board of Education member Stephanie Bell requested a list of all contracts awarded by community colleges or any other entity under the control of the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education since Johnson took over as chancellor in 2001. While this was a reasonable, if not overdue request, some of her co-members on the State Board of Education did not support getting access to the information. As it turns out, Johnson was not the only one with family members employed by the two-year system; half of the school board members also have family on the payroll in one capacity or another, again raising questions about conflict-of-interests.
The lack of accountability and poor oversight of the two-year college system by the Alabama State School Board should disturb every Alabama citizen. Johnson’s dismissal, Melton’s guilty plea, the problems at Bishop State and the exposure of 43 members of the State Legislature with financial ties to the system are more examples of the culture of corruption and lack of accountability that exist in state government.
That’s why the resignation of Tom Corts is so disheartening. Alabama needed Tom Corts to clean up the mess. We can only hope someone else of his character and intelligence will step in and get the job done.
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