JCCC President Out of Control; First Amendment now at issue

In the past few months, we at Kaw & Border have been one of the few area blogs covering the controversy surrounding Johnson County Community College. In short, there is a battle between Ben Hodge, a Board Trustee, and the JCCC President, Terry Calaway. Also involved are the JCCC's hired attorney, Mark Ferguson, as well as at least two other trustees, Lynn Mitchelson and Shirley Brown-VanArsdale.

In the past few months, the main problem has been an issue with in our opinion are obvious violations of the Kansas Open Meetings Act, as well as open intimidation of Trustee Hodge over what is essentially his whistleblowing -- not only of questionable decisions by the college, but the failure of the College leadership to respond to those decisions being exposed in a positive way. Now we've moved on from simple open meetings violations to the actual promotion of someone who reprimanded a faculty member for simply being critical of human rights violations by Muslims. This is addressed in a matter-of-fact way by Hodge in this post at RedCounty.com, including Calaway's most recent response. Below are the key parts.

First of all, the background, as Ben explains:

Around January 2008, a JCCC faculty member (I'll call him "John") forwarded an Email. The Email contained references to comments that were stated by John verbally about two years previous to that, around 2006. John's 2006 comments criticized Islamic nations. What John tells me is that the 2006 comments, in particular, were critical of the human rights abuses that occur within Islamic countries.

After John sent the January 2008 Email, some JCCC employees complained for the first time to Furtwengler about John's 2006 comments. At that time, Furtwengler was an assistant dean and was a direct superior to John. John's detractors said John was being anti-Muslim; they said had stated verbally that he "hated Muslims." John denies saying that, and, with regard to credibility, emphasizes the question, Why did these other employees wait a full two years to complain, if they were so concerned? Of course, it should be noted that, with respect to the First Amendment rights of government employees (in particular, professors), it's not all that relevant what John exactly said.

Without much investigation, asst. dean Betty Furtwengler took the side of John's detractors, and she placed a permanent note in John's file, reprimanding him for what was alleged.

In April of 2008, "John" contacted Ben about his situation. Ben then successfully intervened, although to the angst of Mitchelson and Calaway:

I decided to insert myself into John's situation....Well, my involvement caused a great deal of frustration to President Terry Calaway and then-elected-Chair Lynn Mitchelson. Mitchelson lives on a golf course in a million dollar home and is a former bank executive. Because of his experience in the banking world, Mitchelson told me quite sternly that it is the role of the those with the minority viewpoint (on any board, elected or private) to stay silent and do whatever the majority wants. I find that viewpoint to be un-American. Their primary point, though, was that they wanted me to sit back and wait for "the process" to work: this involves several back-and-forths between the employee (making the complaint) and various levels of administration, until (after months or years and possibly great expenses for the employee) an appeal is made to the full elected board.

Ben addressed why he didn't want to go this route, and then says the following:

I have witnessed "the process work," under both the former and current administrations, and I have no faith in "the system's" ability to protect the rights of employees....Fortunately, my fairly limited involvement in John's situation was very successful. Within a short amount of time, Calaway -- who has not, I should emphasize, challenged the accuracy of John's statements -- forced Furtwengler to remove the negative comment in John's permanent file.

Case closed, right? Well, no. Becuase a few weeks ago, Calaway actually promoted Betty Furtwengler to Dean! So, apparently Calaway wasn't alarmed enough about her reprimanding someone for free speech -- he decided to promote her! Hodge decided to bring the issue to the forefront in private communications with the college and give Furtwengler a chance to air her side. It is important to note there that Hodge was attempting to use appropriate channels. See this from his post:

Because I was now dealing with Furtwengler's employment, I believed it to be important to provide her an opportunity to challenge John's accuracy. President Calaway wanted me to first talk with the middle-management, before I talk with now-dean Furtwengler. I said: fine, set up a meeting. There was a meeting scheduled for this afternoon (Thursday, June 11) between President Dr. Calaway; Vice President of Instruction Dr. Marilyn Rhinehart (below right); Vice President of Human Resources Dr. Judy Korb (below left); and myself.

This morning, I received this from Calaway: "Due to unforeseen circumstances we are going to need to cancel the meeting today."

Here is where it gets interesting, however. Hodge then replied with this e-mail:

"Given that Terry Calaway sent this message, I’m going to need more information that what’s contained here. From Calaway, unforeseen circumstances could mean anything from attending a Royals game to the unexpected discovery of a small conscience.

If I do not hear anything substantive by noon Friday (tomorrow, June 12), I will plan on contacting Marilyn and Betty myself to ask why they appear to support the punishment of a faculty member for speaking his mind. Again, for those unaware, Calaway has had a year to refute the statements which I relayed to him from Brian Wright, and Calaway has not yet challenged the accuracy of the concerns."

...to which Calaway responded with this...

Your personal threats, defaming comments, and the perceived intention created by you to intimidate JCCC employees can and has created a potential legal liability for you as a private citizen and the college as an entity.

I have had the opportunity to speak with both Dr Korb and Dr Rhinehart and neither is open to meeting or speaking with you for fear of you and your wrath. I have copied them on this email and if they have a change of mind they may feel free to respond directly and privately to you; but if you do not receive a direct response from them with their agreement, you are strongly urged to cease your threats, potentially intimidating actions, and other communications toward them.

Dr Furtwengler has earlier indicated that she is not interested in meeting or corresponding with you for similar reasons.


The e-mail from Calaway is ridiculous but fits a pattern. Rather than addressing the issues -at hand - whether they be the open meetings violations or this issue of promoting someone who tried to squelch first amendment rights -- and dealing with the manner like civilized adults, Calaway and Ferguson -- and now through them, other college employees -- are now responding like spoiled brats who have essentially been handled absolute authority over a revered public institution that many consider the crown jewel of Johnson County, and recoil in child-like faux anger when someone dare question their ways.

So, in summary, what we have here is a case of the JCCC President being out of control.

First of all, he promotes someone to a Dean position who has previously reprimanded a faculty member for expressing first amendment rights (a decision which was reversed) and then refused to discuss the issue with Hodge when he aired the concern after learning of her elevation of employment.

Second of all, rather than meeting with Hodge privately to discuss his concerns and prevent the issue from going any further, Calaway resorted to more threats and intimidation by saying Hodge is using threats and intimidation, therefore prompting Hodge (in his own self interest more than anything else, as the truth is the best defense) to post what he did.

Of course, what's hilarious -- if it weren't so sad and wrong -- is that it is Calaway who says it is Hodge who is using "threats and intimidation" when it is the other way around. All Hodge has done is publicly air -- as should be done with a PUBLIC insititution - issues of concern to taxpayers and concerned citizens everywhere (who pay for the college!) that otherwise wouldn't be given the time of day. There is no threat or intimidation expressed anywhere in the e-mail Hodge sent above, in any of his internet postings, or in any of the previous correspondence about issues surrounding the open meetings violation issue. The only threats have been from Calaway and Ferguson, who have directly said that Hodge may be in "legal jeopardy" for essentially doing his job.

While Calaway and others at the college clearly hate Ben Hodge for speaking out on what he believes are wrongs at the college -- what's interesting to note is that in every case, Hodge has actually chosen the "private" method first, giving Calaway and others a chance to address the issues at hand before Hodge ever brought the issue to the public's attention through his website and RedCounty.com. It was only after Hodge was issued THREATS FROM CALAWAY and outright refusals to meet with Hodge, a Board Member who hires him -- that Hodge brought each of these issues to public light.

Of course, it should be noted that this is what happens when the Johnson County Oligarchy is given absolute power over any board or council. It's also likely their stalling tactics and threats are meant to merely run the clock out until Hodge's term ends, which is at the end of the month.

This is an area where the great people involved in the Kansas City Tea Party movements could take notice and have a direct impact. First of all, they could write the other board members, including the new trustees about to take office -- encouraging them to follow up on Hodge's actions. Second of all, in two years, when three board member positions are up, three candidates could be fielded and then given the financial and grassroots support to win. Just getting a couple board members committed to open government and the first amendment -- basics for any government leader -- would be a huge step. It's very easy for the board to ignore one outgoing board member, but having two would be huge and put the board on notice the public is aware of what's going on.

After all, it's not just our federal government where our country is headed in the wrong direction. Often, it is local government -- where the turnout is the least and therefore "absolute power" reigns the most -- where the most egregious violations of the public trust are being committed.

What's sadly ironic in all of this is that the board which runs the college is called the "Board of Trustees". That should mean "trustees" of things like open government, the first amendment, fiscal responsibility, and sound hiring practices.

If they would live up to their title, Terry Calaway would be out of a job. Unfortunately, through the ignorance of the Johnson County electorate, Terry Calaway is more powerful than ever -- because in just a few days, the only Trustee doing his job will see his term end.