Dear Board Members:

I append letter Number 3 from my HCC GK Deepthroat.

I did not come to the BOT trustee meeting today because it was not on the Web that there was a first meeting in 07. The Board should make sure this information is on the Web.

Had I come, I would have asked three things of the Board:

1. That it find out whether Mr. Lawson made the statement in the open committee meeting reported by Deepthroat in his second letter that a surveillance of the two bookstore women was to begin because they appeared before the Board. One infers Ms. Lawson thinks it appropriate and ethical to gather damaging information to fire them for speaking to the Board.

I believe the governor expects Board appointees to keep the college ethical practice at a higher level than this kind of administrative thuggery suggests. If Ms. Lawson made this statement, the Board should see that Dr. Stevenson fires her. Such low ethics should not obtain in the college administration. Your attorney(s) is master of the forensics needed to discover if Ms. Lawson did indeed set up surveillance on two workers from the bookstore because they came to speak to the Board. The governor expects the Board to protect the right of any member of the college family to speak to it. The Board must see that the governor's intention is honored.

2. I have asked for public information that Dr. Stevenson's office has ignored. If the staff attorney has not instructed her in the obligations of the public-information law, I will report that circumstance to the Florida Bar's Ethics Committee to review the attorney's conduct. If the attorney has done her job, and Dr. Stephenson has ignored requests from a citizen for a month, then the Board must deal with a school employee unwilling to carry out the state laws. You can't allow the president of HCC to ignore the state law on Government in the Sunshine.

3. The Board must not allow HCC to become a laughing stock in the academic world by allowing the fascist impulses of free-speech shutdown to prevail at GK as illustrated by depriving me of email privileges to a publicly supported institution. Free speech is what our country is about. Without it, we don't have a democracy. Academic freedom is the hallmark of a valid institution of higher learning. If HCC wants to be in the category of higher education, it must follow the rules of academic civility. I am sure that the governor, formerly commissioner of education and attorney general, would expect the Board of Trustees at HCC to fulfill its duty to make sure that HCC's administration conducts itself professionally, ethically, and legally.

Please list the meeting dates and times on the Web page so that I can attend the next meeting.

lee drury de cesare

former Professor of English

H I LL$BOROUGI
Community CoIIegeH
Lee Drury De Cesare,
DISTRICT
ADMINISTRATIVE
OFFICES
P.O. Box 31127
Tampa, FL33631-3127
253-7000 (TOO) 253-7174
BRANDON CAMPUS
10414 E. Columbus Drive
Tampa, FL 33619-7856
253-7802 (TOO) 253-7858
DALE MABRY CAMPUS
P.O. Box 30030
Tampa, FL 33630-3030
253-7202 (TDD) 253-7516
PLANT CITY CAMPUS
1206 North Park Road
Plant City, FL 33563-1 540
757-2102 (TDD) 757-2166
YBOR CITY CAMPUS
P.O. Box 5096
Tampa, FL 33675-5096
253-7602 (TOO) 253-7785
BR-SUN POINT CENTER
3052 E. College Ave.
Ruskin, Florida 33570
MacDill AFB
8102 Condor Street
MacDill AFB, FL 33621 -5409
840-001 5/0660
I give you permission to post my remarks on your blog (http://hccdeepthroat.blogspot.coml), nd to provide photocopies to media outlets and appropriate local, state and federal authorities.
In my first letter to you, I wrote : I have witnessed numerous illegal acts - Sunshine Law - no such thing at GK.
HCC’s “response” regarding your information request is very telling.
Why should HCC administrators listen to a retired professor? Why should they listen to a taxpayer? Why should they listen to a newspaper colunmist?

I can tell you that a lot of meetings held at district do not abide by the Sunshine Law. There MUST be recorded notes regarding below meeting you posted on your blog.

According to an email I received from HCC Bookstore employee Maid Bello, the administration summoned three of the Booktore women to GK to discuss what sounds like the end of the project that you claim below to be just beginning. Maida says a lawyer was present. S!Je says y’all told the bookstore wonen they would get three months’ insurance in the bookstore deal with the new vendor. That announcement sounds like an eudgame strategy to me.
Relevant authorities might fmd it highly questionable that such a meeting would occur prior to announcement of the winning bidder.

Bid rigging?

Frankly, HCC administrators do not fear rank-and-file bookstore employees. Trust me, CFO Barbara Lawson, has full support of Dr. Stephenson above her, and Steve Shields and Darson Bullard bclow her. Bookstore review team members (Anthony Wall, Cindy Hewett, Steve Wall, Dr. Susan Miletta, Michele Martinez, Elizabeth Johnson, Dr. Emery Alford, Joanne Heald, Sandra Strobel, Alex 1hierren, Mary Carter, William Wimberly, and Carol Alford) are being used to “legitiii e” administrators’ preordained decision to outsource bookstore operations.

I can tell what HCC administrators and their willing department heads do fear: Elderly bookstore employees getting together and filing an age discrimination lawsuit with the
EEOC.

HCC administrators along with human resources (Sue Flaig, Donna Miller) are working hard to protect the college from such a lawsuit. HCC will point out that the decision to outsource the bookstore was conducted by a committee. They are also planning to state that they made every effort to fmd “comparable positions” for outsourced employees within the college. If none exist, too bad. Outsourced employees will have to cast their lot with the winning private vendor, who most likely will not guarantee existing salary and benefits package.
GK Insider