The Notorious B.O.G. "Train Wreck": Member Kotis Spills Some Beans

Marty Kotis, a member of the notorious Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina, spoke on the record with the Greensboro News&Record and gave us some slight glimpse inside that politicized body.

Fennebresque

1. BOG Chair John Fennebresque is a diva. According to Kotis, Fennebresque took it on himself to oust UNC President Tom Ross from the job, the event last January that has launched the current meshugaas. “John went in there hard-charging and, bam, it blew up from there. 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. The process was just completely flawed.”

Kotis was the lone "NO" vote on firing Ross last January.

Kotis can't answer why Ross was fired: “The reason we can’t answer is because we don’t know. John [Fennebresque] did this on his own. Only he can answer why."

2. The "search committee" for a new president -- three key Fennebresque allies on the BOG and Fennebresque himself -- took a dictatorial approach to the process and cut out everybody else.

3. Senate Bill 670, which would require the full BOG to review three finalists for the president’s job, was passed by the General Assembly (and still hasn't been signed by Governor Squishy), was introduced because of complaints coming from Kotis and other BOG members: "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 .... This was not the legislature reaching down and trying to tell us what to do. This was us asking for help.”

4. Last Thursday, when Fennebresque suddenly called an emergency meeting of the BOG for Friday and members of the BOG learned that Margaret Spellings was the lone candidate being anointed by Fennebresque and his allies, Kotis and others on the BOG called for Fennebresque to resign, and Republicans in the General Assembly sent Fennebresque a sternly worded warning about violating S670 (which still hasn't been signed into law).

5. Fennebresque has called another meeting of the BOG for this morning, and everyone expects Spellings to be presented for a vote. Kotis and others are probably not going to be happy with that scenario: “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. There are a lot of us feeling that now.”

UPDATE: 12:05 p.m.
Career politico Margaret Spellings elected President of the UNC system without a dissenting vote.