Suddenly and without explanation College posts only an agenda summary without attachments, which reduces significant information being given to public in advance of meeting the Board will discuss and/or approve; has yet to post video of last month’s meeting, breaking with years of precedent; Governing Board appears to go along with sudden change to limit information to the public prior to meeting and non-posting of video recordings
The Yavapai Community College District Governing Board will hold its monthly General Public Meeting on Tuesday, November 9, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. at the Rock House on the Prescott Campus in Prescott, Arizona.
Under Arizona law, the public has a right to attend, listen, tape record or videotape these meetings. The public may not disrupt, but may speak during the call to the public at the beginning of this meeting if the call is on the agenda. See Ariz. Att’y Gen. Op. No. I78-001.
The Community College has suddenly changed its decade-long policy of providing the attachments on-line when it announces the agenda for the meeting. This reduces a significant amount of information relevant to the agenda that the public might find useful in deciding whether to make a 150-200 mile round-trip drive to attend.
Note that the process followed for the last decade has been to provide as much information to the general public about the agenda on-line prior to the meeting. Also note that The Yavapai Community College District covers all of Yavapai County consisting of 8,125 square miles. The size of the County is comparable to states such as Connecticut (5,543 sq. miles — 12 community colleges and universities), Delaware (1,982 sq. miles — three community colleges and universities), Rhode Island (1,214 sq. miles— one public and two private community colleges) and New Jersey (8,723 sq. miles — 19 community colleges and universities). The state of Israel encompasses 8,550 square miles (ten universities and 53 colleges).
In some cases, a person might have to make a 150-200 mile round trip in Yavapai County to attend Community College Board meeting.
Also note that the Community College has not posted the videotape of the October meeting on the October web site, once again breaking with a years-long precedent set by the Governing Board to keep the residents of the huge County properly informed.
Apparently, the Community College Governing Board has accepted the new policy of providing the public with as little information as it can legally get away with when it comes to various Board meetings.