Kathleen Winn, a member of the Maricopa County Community College District Governing Board, didn't mince words on Thursday evening when faced with a resolution from fellow board members requesting she resign her elected seat.
"My answer is not 'no' but 'hell no,'" she told them before leaving the meeting for the vote on the non-binding resolution.
The board called the special meeting on Thursday after an investigative report accused Winn of "significantly" tainting the search for a new chancellor for the state's largest community college system.
Winn disputed the report's findings and defended herself in a lengthy statement. She called the report a sham and accused fellow board member Linda Thor of making her the scapegoat. She called the search for a new chancellor a limited process that was "clearly politically motivated."
Winn holds an elected position so the board vote is only symbolic.
Four board members voted in favor of the resolution: board President Marie Sullivan and members Laurin Hendrix, Tom Nerini and Linda Thor. Board member Dana Saar voted against the resolution, saying that asking Winn to resign was going too far. Board member Jean McGrath abstained, saying the topic needed more discussion.
The resolution states that Winn's actions "squandered valuable resources" and censures and reprimands her. She is asked to resign so "that the District might begin to recover from her actions with all due haste."
Winn, a licensed mortgage banker and real-estate broker, has served on the board since 2019. She was vice chair of the search committee for a new chancellor for Maricopa Community Colleges, a 10-college system that serves more than 200,000 students and has more than 10,000 employees.
The college district has been led for several months by interim Chancellor Steven R. Gonzales, president of GateWay Community College, since embattled chancellor Maria Harper-Marinick announced she was not seeking a contract renewal and stepped down in January, several months earlier than planned.
The board launched a national search and hired a consultant, Gene Head Jr. of Diversified Search, to identify job candidates.
After potential problems emerged with the search process in March, an outside attorney was hired to review the process. The investigation, by attorney Amy J. Gittler, said Winn improperly attempted to eliminate one candidate by speaking with the candidate to persuade the person not to apply.
The report also said Winn communicated several times with the search consultant on her own and as a "Committee member, with no leadership responsibility, Ms. Winn had no reason to be communicating directly with Mr. Head, and certainly not without involving the Committee Chair."
The report said Winn also told the search consultant to keep one of the job candidates out of the candidate pool. The investigative report, for confidentiality reasons, does not identify who the candidate was, referring only to the person as "Candidate #1."
The investigative report concluded that Winn "improperly attempted to eliminate Candidate #1 from the search" and "improperly showed support of other candidates" and that she exceeded her role as a committee member.
As a result, the report said the search process for a chancellor was "significantly tainted and irreparably damaged."
After the board terminated the search process in August, it announced it would form a new search committee made up of faculty, staff, students and community leaders. The board also terminated the contract with Head, who to date has been paid $67,638, according to district records.
The last few years have been tumultuous ones for Maricopa Community Colleges. One governing board majority set a conservative fiscal agenda, only to be replaced in January 2019 with another board majority with different ideas and philosophies.
The district has struggled through several controversies over the past few years, including a decision to end junior college football and a troubled upgrade to the payroll system that resulted in faculty being overpaid or underpaid, some by thousands of dollars.
Thursday's special meeting, where the majority of board members requested Winn's resignation, underscores the continued conflict.
Winn said she has no intention of going anywhere.
She told the board she will continue to work diligently on behalf of constituents and that resigning would be the "very last thing I would do."
Reach the reporter at anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8072. Follow her on Twitter @anneryman.
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