It's a Dumb Bird That Fouls Its Own Nest

UNC Board of Governors Chair John Fennebresque has vacated his chair on that board because the whole place was full of shit, he said, and he couldn't take the smell any longer.

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.

McCrory: All-In For Margaret Spellings?

Last item down-column speculated about just how in the tank The Guv might be for Margaret Spellings to take over the UNC system and manage its further decline.

This morning, the Carolina Journal, an Art Pope publication, offers this additional brick in the wall:

RALEIGH — UNC Board of Governors Chairman John Fennebresque and Margaret Spellings, the top candidate to become UNC system president, left a recent “emergency" meeting of the board to meet with Gov. Pat McCrory, a source at the meeting told Carolina Journal. Fennebresque and Spellings were in a closed session with members of the board’s selection committee when they left to meet with McCrory, several board members confirmed to CJ’s source.

And Now ... Gov. Squishy Wades Into the UNC President Mess

That law that the Republican leaders in the General Assembly passed to force the University of North Carolina Board of Governors to produce publicly the names of three finalists for president of the UNC system ... that law is sitting unsigned on Governor Squishy's nicely polished and dust-free desk.

It almost seems deliberate, then, doesn't it, that Chair of the UNC Board of Governors John Fennebresque tried to sneak in just one candidate for president, Margaret Spellings, this past Friday, though it all exploded in his face. Fennebresque certainly knew that the General Assembly's meddling law wasn't in effect yet. The governor certainly looks like an enabler of Fennebresque's plan, doesn't he? The sly little minx!

Then Friday evening, about the time the BOG was breaking up its closed-door meeting with Margaret Spellings and fleeing for the exits before the press could ask any questions, McCrory had his spokesman announce that he doesn't like that meddling law passed by the General Assembly.

So he'll veto it, right? Not so fast there, Mr. & Mrs. Naive Citizen. Maybe he will. And maybe he won't. McCrory's spokesman said that his boss will wait and decide on October 30, which is the absolute drop dead last day he could possibly veto it. We don't call this man "Governor Squishy" for no reason!

Guess what! October 30th also happens to be the next meeting day for the UNC Board of Governors. Enabler, meet opportunity!

Edith Bunker: "It's amazing how coincidences always seem to happen at the same time!"

Chaos at the University of North Carolina Board of Governors; Or, Proof That Republicans Can't Run ANYTHING

John Fennebresque

Okay, to recap: The University of North Carolina Board of Governors (BOG) is now 100% Republican, mostly appointed by the Republican leaders in the NC House and Senate. The BOG fired the highly popular and by all reports very effective president Tom Ross early this year, and then BOG president John Fennebresque could not give a single reason to the press for that firing.

They just wanted "someone new." Translation: a high-profile Republican.

Fennebresque appointed the BOG search committee for that high-profile Republican, putting himself on the committee, and then clapped down a dome of secrecy, effectively cutting the other two-thirds of the BOG out of the process.

The General Assembly decided to meddle, as only they can meddle. They passed a law saying that three top candidates for Tom Ross's job had to be made public and brought to the full BOG for discussion. That law has not yet been signed by Gov. McCrory, so ... oops (as you will see).

News broke yesterday that Chairman Fennebresque had called an emergency meeting of the full BOG for today and that -- lo and behold! -- Mr. Fennebresque's preferred, lone candidate will be present for an "interview."

Margaret Spellings

Fennebresque's choice: Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of the Department of Education under George W. Bush.

Fennebresque's move sparked a kind of fire storm:

1. Republican Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and Republican House Speaker Tim Moore jointly wrote a letter to Fennebresque saying he was out of compliance with the will of the General Assembly's new law (which -- oops -- hasn't been signed and formalized by the governor). BergerMoore wrote that "calling an emergency meeting to discuss only one candidate could be viewed as the Board’s attempt to circumvent the overwhelming will of the elected people of the State of North Carolina prior to the bill becoming law.”

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article39368007.html#storylink=cpy

2. BOG members Thom Goolsby and David Powers both wrote letters to Fennebresque demanding he resign. Goolsby: "Among other things, in your short tenure you have blocked board members from accessing university staff for public information about the system, botched President Ross’ termination, hired an incredibly controversial search consultant and barred two-thirds of the board from participating in the hiring process." Etc. It only gets meaner after that.

3. Meanwhile, the name Margaret Spellings, along with her photograph, landed in the pages of the Raleigh News & Observer, the leak that Fennebresque had apparently feared most.

4. Countdown to Fennebresque's resignation from the BOG begins ... NOW!

5. Countdown to Margaret Spellings withdrawing from consideration as the new president of the UNC system also begins now.

6. Countdown to the further destruction of a once-great university system ... actually began months/years ago when the Republican backward-movers took over every lever of North Carolina governance.