When it became clear that R.B. didn’t have the votes,
Jennings jumped in the race with the support of R.B. and the same Ammons senior executive
team member who had previously lobbied for R.B. After he won reelection, word spread
that there was an understanding that Jennings would not summon R.B.’s brother,
who was the superintendent of the Developmental Research School (DRS), to come before
the board and answer any tough questions about the increasingly bad situation
at the K-12 school.
That sad string of events showed that there were some
members of Ammons’ inner circle who were threatening his administration with
their cluelessness. With “friends” who were ignorant enough to support the
likes of R.B. and Jennings, Ammons didn’t need enemies.
Rattler Nation did its best to try and get the Ammons
administration to realize that it was a bad idea to trust R.B. It looks like
the time has come to try and get that same message across to the interim
administration of Larry Robinson.
Right after Gov. Rick Scott replaced him on the FAMU board
back in 2011, R.B. launched a PR campaign to mount a comeback as a FAMU “leader.”
His efforts have centered on creating a “National Historically Black College and
University Task Force” which has now become a “National
Anti-Hazing/Anti-Violence Task Force.”
Now that Scott has appointed R.B.’s longtime buddy Matthew
Carter to the Florida Board of Governors, there’s talk that R.B. is angling to
use that connection to get back on the FAMU Board of Trustees.
Back in 2005, R.B. vigorously supported Castell Bryant’s
appointment as interim president. She later joined his church and was showered
with praise Sunday-after-Sunday for her claims of “fixing” the university. R.B.
also voted to give Castell a $35,000 bonus and $50,000 salary increase based
upon her claim that she had created an $8M surplus. State auditors later discovered
the surplus claim to be false.
R.B. did not turn on Castell until she fired several members of his church as part of a round of terminations within School of Business and
Industry.
Ammons also received strong support from R.B. until he made
a personnel decision that R.B. didn’t like for personal reasons.
Back in late 2007, Ammons hired R.B.’s brother (Ronald) as
the superintendent of DRS. Individuals
all across Rattler Country suspected shenanigans on R.B.’s part. There was no
doubt that as one of the seven critical votes that Ammons needed to become
FAMU’s president, R.B. had the power to twist Ammons’ arm and make personal
demands during the selection process.
Such a situation would have left Ammons with the choice of
either doing what he needed to do to save FAMU or alienating one of the voters
he needed and then watching his alma mater die under the control of individuals
loyal to Castell.
DRS slid backwards due to Ronald’s poor leadership and Ammons
reassigned him at the end of his contract in June 30, 2010. An upset R.B.
quickly turned against Ammons and started picking fights with him during the Board
of Trustees meetings.
If Robinson lets R.B. come near, he’ll probably soon feel
pressure to hire R.B.’s buddies to major university positions or give them
preferential consideration during layoff decisions in order to keep R.B. from
turning against his administration.
Robinson shouldn’t place any trust in R.B. unless he wants
to soon join the O’Jays in singing: “I wish they’d take some of these knives
out my back.”