By Sean P. Mulhall Editor-In-Chief
Only four members of the Grand Rapids Community College Board of Trustees were present at Monday’s meeting. With Chairman Bert Bleke on vacation, trustee Richard Verburg was the man handling the gavel.
Treasurer Ellen James and Secretary Olivia Margo Anderson were also absent. The details of their absence were unclear, but according to Verburg it was a good meeting to miss.
“Most of the big financial things have been taken care of,” Verburg said. “This was an unusually short meeting because we’re basically just waiting for the fall semester to begin.”
At 10 minutes this meeting was considerably shorter than most meetings, which usually last at least an hour. With no public
comments and a quick motion to approve the agenda, that left only a short presentation by GRCC’s general counsel, Kathy Keating, leading to a motion to ratify a new two-year contract for the GRCC campus police. The new contract included a two percent increase to the officers’ pay schedule and a change in the sergeant’s pay. Up until today the sergeant only made six percent more than the highest paid officer. Now there will be a nine percent differential between the sergeant and the highest paid officer.
“Nine percent is the industry standard benchmark,” Keating said, but declined to comment on actual numbers. The exact figures will be revealed in a press release later in the year.
The board quickly motioned to ratify the two-year police contract, unanimously and without comment.
“We met with Ms. Keating for about an hour… before the [board] meeting,” Veburg said. “It is completely legal for the board to meet with someone before the actual meeting, and it gave us plenty of time to ask questions.”
