Scheming trustees shoot themselves in the feet again by keeping selected members in the dark

The FAMU trustees who are leading the attempt to hand the university presidency over to Gov. Rick Scott have become careless. Yesterday morning, Rattlers both on and off campus were openly discussing the latest effort to gather enough votes to oust President James H. Ammons and bring in a new top official who is more to the governor’s liking.

The plan was to get the nine required votes and then launch a surprise coup during today’s Board of Trustees teleconference meeting at 4 p.m., which is only supposed to be about the FAMU Boosters budget. Cleve Warren’s appointment to the board was seen as a reason for optimism for those who wanted to accomplish this. He has given numerous signs that he stands with the agenda of the Florida Board of Governors and Scott’s office.

But the same problem that frustrated the vote coordinating actions that preceded the June 8 board meeting happened once again. Certain trustees who were deliberately left out of the under-the-table planning process found out anyway. That only created more distrust within the board and helped make sure that the news about what was going on spread across Rattler Country. Another failure seems to be on the horizon.

FAMU’s board is currently divided into two tiers. The first tier is made up of the trustees who are in good standing with the governor’s office and are trusted to do what they are told to do. The second tier is made up of the trustees who are viewed with suspicion by the governor’s office and are not given full access to the behind-the-scenes talks of the first tier.

The obvious divisions that have left numerous trustees out of the loop have enabled Ammons to call the bluffs designed to get him to resign. There’s no way to truthfully tell him that there are nine sure votes to satisfy the super-majority requirement for terminating his contract if the first tier of the board (which doesn't have nine trustees) isn’t genuinely communicating with the second tier.

The plan to take a sneaky route and use a teleconference to get Ammons was also problematic. A number of the trustees on the second tier believe that the board should have enough backbone to discuss any potential presidential change on campus and in front of the students, faculty, and alumni.

Rattler Country isn’t stupid and knows what is taking place outside of the public meetings. The trustees in the governor’s pocket are kidding themselves if they think FAMUans haven’t caught on to the two-faced games they are playing.