Tense April 2 board meeting included a public call to step down and a message from the vice chair regarding the chair’s behavior
By River Shepherd
Late into Lane Community College’s April 2 Board of Education meeting, Vice Chair Kevin Alltucker, at-large position 6, read aloud a letter he wrote to the board making a number of allegations against Board Chair Zachary Mulholland, zone 2.
Alltucker’s letter accuses Mulholland of “ineffective leadership and repeated inappropriate, unprofessional behaviors towards the president of Lane Community College (LCC).”
“I am writing the board because my attempts to resolve this issue directly with the board chair have been unsuccessful” Alltucker says in the letter.
The tension in the room was obvious over the recorded livestream as Alltucker gave his account of interactions between Mulholland, President Stephanie Bulger and himself during bi-weekly agenda-setting meetings over the past seven months that Alltucker has been vice chair.
Agendas for board meetings are determined by the board chair with assistance from the vice chair, LCC’s president and a staff liaison.
In the letter and heard in the recording, Alltucker said, “During these meetings, the board chair has become increasingly verbally abusive towards the President, often attempting to bully the President by raising his voice and using profanity.”
Alltucker said that despite speaking with Mulholland multiple times over several months asking him to “stop his unprofessional and abusive actions,” the behavior from Mulholland has only continued to worsen.
“Based on my professional opinion, the chair is a bully who is misusing his chairmanship role to intimidate the president,” Alltucker read aloud from his letter. “Frankly, I am embarrassed by the chair’s actions and behaviors, and I expect more from a chairperson leading a board of an important public education institution.”
In the final paragraph of the letter, Alltucker requests Mulholland issue a public apology to Bulger, and immediately stop the alleged abusive behaviors. “If the chair cannot commit to these requests including refraining from abusive and hostile behavior,” Alltucker writes, “he needs to step down as chair and allow someone who can lead the board without putting the board or LCC at risk.”
After Alltucker finished reading the letter aloud, the meeting concluded with board member Austin Fölnagy bringing up points that he would like to bring forward to the next meeting, along with a brief response from Mulholland. “I’ll just put out, I don’t feel like I can respond to all the points that were brought up in the letter directly,” Mulholland said, “I will simply state I respect President Bulger, I respect her abilities, and much of the work she does for this institution is not just good but exemplary.”
Mulholland continued, “There’s much more that could be said about the dynamics between myself and my vice chair that I think led to the moments during that meeting that were tense.” Mulholland said. “But I don’t want the community to assume that everything that was raised is valid from my perspective.”
Alltucker responded to The Torch’s emailed request for an interview related to this letter and meeting by stating that “Zach Mulholland is the board chair and inquiries about board proceedings should be directed to him, with a copy to President Bulger.”
Mulholland responded to The Torch’s interview request with the statement, “There will be an investigation of the complaint overseen by an Ad Hoc Committee of Board of Education Members who are not subject to the complaint, as required by Board Policy.”
Mulholland also stated in the email, “I will be issuing a letter in response to Vice-Chair Alltucker’s complaint and doing my best to avoid distraction from the good work the college has been doing to grow enrollment and serve students in a fast changing federal environment.”
Bulger did not comment for this story.
Other topics covered in the meeting included updates on the baseball field and a 5–1 vote for a 3.1 % tuition increase. Additional articles coming soon.
The Torch will be covering this story as more details arise. Stay tuned at LCCTorch.com.
