[Vision2020] Security Contract

[Art Deco]

It is very unfortunate that a whole series of missteps, mistakes, lies, obfuscations, and lame responses have left UI President Nellis looking like a pathetic blunderer:  health insurance boondoggle/lies, tailoring bid specs to allow the UI to spend money with a security firm of less than stellar repute instead of using the MPD or the old watchman setup at a lesser cost, lying about the extent of the huge damage to the Albertson Building, the arboretum fiasco, purposely keeping the public/taxpayers uninformed about key matters, etc, etc.

Many of us had high hopes that upon Nellis's taking the reins of the UI that the dysfunctional parts of the UI administration would be excised and gradually the damage done by the last president and interim presidents could be repaired.

Those hopes have been fairly well crushed.

Is Nellis unaware of the public, especially the local public, view of his leadership (basically lack thereof) and his vision (basically lack thereof) and his gullibility (way too much)?

Meanwhile the buzz on campus revolves around wondering whether some of these missteps which have greatly diminished the credibility of Nellis and the UI are not intentional moves by certain underlings.

Nellis hasn't much time left.  

Unless personnel changes are made at many high level positions, changes where the replacements are not only high caliber, but team playing/UI community cohesiveness advocating executives, not only will Nellis have lost his credibility as an effective and visionary leader, but because of this loss, the UI will be a longer term, big time loser.

The Daily News is to be congratulated for pursuing these matters in such a gutsy way.  I hope they continue.  And if they really want to have local impact, some of it quite sensational, start looking closely at WSU.


Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

waf at moscow.com
208 882-7975

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Debbie Gray 
  To: 'Ron Force' ; 'Tom Hansen' ; 'Art Deco' ; Saundra Lund 
  Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 10:12 PM
  Subject: RE: Security Contract


        According to my in-house expert...  fraternities/sororities ARE private property. 

        Also, apparently fraternity/sorority people are verifying with the PD things like 'so AB can't come on private property? (Correct) and 'AB has no authority to detain us' (Correct) and 'If AB guards tell us to stop or halt, they have no authority and we don't have to stop/halt' (Correct). 

        I imagine the fraternity/sorority types are pleased with those answers....  but then I am a  jaded cynic.

        Debbie

        --- On Wed, 8/18/10, Saundra Lund <sslund2009 at fastmail.fm> wrote:


          From: Saundra Lund <sslund2009 at fastmail.fm>
          Subject: RE: Security Contract
          To: "'Ron Force'" <rforce2003 at yahoo.com>, "'Debbie Gray'" <graylex at yahoo.com>, "'Tom Hansen'" <thansen at moscow.com>, "'Art Deco'" <deco at moscow.com>
          Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 9:34 AM


          Thanks for sharing, Ron, but that sounds like more spin to me.  My understanding is that the fraternities & sororities are private property so the AB guards won’t even be able to set foot on those properties unless each of the property owners enter into an agreement with AB.  IMO, the chances of that happening are slim to none.



          I had originally thought the alcohol injuries & deaths might have been a factor, but then the solution would be to beef up the agreement with MPD (or a university-based professional sworn force) rather than with a private security company that will be barred by law from those private properties. 



          Had the incidents happened on university – rather than on private – property, then hiring a private security company to patrol inside university owned housing might have been one option that might have made some sense.



          As it is, while I know there’s been pressure about the UI’s long history of alcohol related injuries & deaths (my memory may be flawed, but did any of them take place in university-owned housing?), I can’t believe even the idiot governor & legislature don’t understand the fiscal irresponsibility of throwing money at a private security force that will do absolutely nothing to deal with alcohol abuse in the fraternities & sororities.



          Further, it is precisely this kind of fiscal irresponsibility that ticks people off and makes them feel better about not adequately funding higher education in ID.



          Yet another FUBAR situation created by incompetent UI administrators, IMO  L  I would dearly LOVE for them to try to present that argument in public because it would be another chance to show that the lunatics are running the asylum.





          Saundra



          From: Ron Force [mailto:rforce2003 at yahoo.com] 
          Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 9:01 AM
          To: Debbie Gray; Tom Hansen; Art Deco; Saundra Lund
          Subject: Security Contract



          I didn't want to broadcast this on V2020, but I thought you'd be interested. I was talking to an administrator at the UI (who must remain anonymous) about the public relations fiasco over the security contract. He said that the Admin couldn't talk publicly about the reasons for hiring rent-a-cops. Supposedly Nellis has been under intense political pressure from the state (both Gov and legislature) about the accidents and deaths from drinking and was told in no uncertain terms to clean things up. The recent death from alcohol poisoning of a good LDS youth from Burley was the last straw.
          The private cops are part of a coming crackdown on the fraternities, where they'll be concentrating their patrols.

          Ron Force
          Moscow ID USA


       

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