Sierra College President accuses Trustee and Supervisor Candidate Jerry Simmons of punitive meddling with employees

Auburn Journal
Sierra president: Simmons trying to silence critics
Morgan Lynn accuses college trustee of punitive meddling with employees
By: Loryll Nicolaisen, Journal Staff Writer
Monday, May 8, 2006 11:38 PM PDT

Dr. Morgan Lynn, Sierra College interim president, accused Jerry Simmons, board president, of trying to stifle staff members who are board critics.

Lynn made the accusation in an e-mail sent to trustees Friday.

"As your interim superintendent/president, it is not my responsibility to control the behavior of an errant board member - it is yours," she said.

Lynn said in her letter that she met with a "visibly upset" Johnnie Terry, academic senate president, on Thursday. Terry has received a message from Simmons through Winsome Jackson, Sierra College Faculty Association President, saying "essentially that Johnnie needs to 'back off,'" Lynn wrote.

Lynn said in her memo that Simmons asked Lynn to discipline Anthony Maki Gill, president of the classified senate, for sending a campaign flier via campus e-mail.

"I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm not," Gill said Monday. "It's pretty consistent with Jerry's interest in having a certain amount of control of communication with the college."

Lynn said in the memo that this was not the first time Simmons sought to discipline Gill and that she informed Simmons that Gill could not be singled out for discipline."

Jerry is not the college president and we don't need this kind of micro-management, not to mention that we do not treat our employees in this manner," Lynn wrote.

Lynn also mentioned in the memo that Simmons asked that part-time faculty member Kent Pollock be disciplined, after an editorial written by Pollock was published in the Auburn Journal."

He indicated that 'the college newspaper is awful and if Kent were doing his job instead of writing op-ed pieces, the paper might be better,'" Lynn said."

These directives aimed at squelching the free speech rights of others are disturbing to me and if made public could be very embarrassing to the board," Lynn concluded.

Simmons e-mailed response was that Lynn's e-mail "misrepresents both the tone and the substance of these conversations."

"However, I do think it is important for the full board of trustees to discuss them," Simmons said in a written response.

Simmons said Monday that everyone's entitled to their opinions."I do believe in free speech for everyone but not in political campaigning on a government e-mail system and not leaking attorney-client privileged information through the media," he said.

Pollock said Monday that he was "appalled" to hear of Jerry's actions and negative comments about the student newspaper.

"It's kind of sad, but it's not surprising," Pollock said. "Jerry Simmons has a history of this, it's a behavior of scare tactics. This is just the tip of the iceberg with him threatening staff."

A written reaction addressed to board members by trustee David Creek has also circulated via e-mail.

"Jerry has no business whatsoever to pressure people on our staff to hew his point of view of what is right and his actions to me are outrageous and repugnant," he said.

Creek also forwarded Lynn's original memo to Terry, Gill and staff members " so that this outrageous behavior on the part of our board president is known to all staff."

Joe Medeiros, coordinator of the college's interdisciplinary program, forwarded his e-mail trail to all faculty and staff Monday morning "out of absolute frustration," he said."

This has been a weekend punctuated by a flurry of saddening e-mails that continue to exemplify how (I think) dysfunctional our Sierra College governance system is..." he wrote.

"Let the following college e-mails serve as but a sample of Jerry Simmons' attempts to punish, remove and silence staff."

Medeiros said Monday that members of the community "have had it with this board.""I've had enough with this 4-3 power play who are so much more interested in politics than with the successful operation of this school," he said Monday afternoon.

Terry said Monday that he thinks president Lynn and trustee Creek were brave for what they said in their e-mails. The good that comes from this upset, he said, is the attention directed on the board."

It's very unnerving to see that these things are going on behind the scene," he said. "Anything that they do now can be construed as retaliation. They'll have to be more careful because the lights are on."

The Journal's Loryll Nicolaisen can be reached at lorylln@goldcountrymedia.com.