Crist kicks Roberts, McDevitt off BOG

Gov. Charlie Crist arrived at today’s Board of Governors meeting in Tampa with a big broom. When he finally finished sweeping, former chair Carolyn Roberts and current chair Sheila McDevitt’s appointments were in the dustpan.

The governor also relieved members John Dashburg and Zachariah P. Zachariah of their duties, as well. They, just like Roberts and McDevitt, were originally appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush. Crist did decide to spare one Jeb-pick: BOG Vice-Chair Ava Parker.

With the changes, Crist weakened Jeb’s ability to influence the public higher education system that the former governor restructured in 2001 and filled with people who were loyal to him.

Roberts and McDevitt had to have known that their future on the BOG was coming to a close sooner rather than later. Even if they had received reappointments, they would have faced an uphill battle in the Florida Senate confirmation process.

Under Roberts and McDevitt’s “leadership,” the BOG made the politically suicidal decision to sue the Florida Legislature for control of tuition. Lawmakers went from treating to BOG as if it didn’t exist to being openly hostile against its members.

Lawmakers raked the BOG over the coals for permitting former Chancellor Mark Rosenburg to “request” money from public university foundations to pad his $231,750 salary and provide perks such as a car allowance. They also questioned whether the BOG wasted $1M it appropriated for a “Task Force on FAMU Finance and Operational Control Issues.”

Throughout much of the same time that the BOG was talking about FAMU’s financial challenges, a number of problems in its own house went uncorrected. A 2008 state operational audit frowned upon the way the BOG administered the Research and Economic Development Investment Program, a matching grant fund. According to the report, the BOG did not fulfill all the required statutory obligations before it disbursed two grants, totaling $23.25 million, to the University of Florida.

Roberts and McDevitt were big cheerleaders of former Interim President Castell Bryant, who was responsible for FAMU’s probation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. They were also cool toward new President James Ammons, who got FAMU back in good standing with SACS.

Read the biographies of Crist’s new BOG appointees here.