Back in April, Rufus Montgomery won the chairmanship of the
Board of Trustees with a 9-4 victory against Cleve Warren. The vote count
showed the split between the trustees who were supporters of Mangum and those
who either want her gone or appear to be losing patience with her.
Rufus has been Mangum’s biggest headache on the Board of
Trustees since her contract negotiations last year. He was a leader in the unsuccessful attempts to set her starting salary at $325,000 instead of the $425,000
she wanted and also to try to deny her a tenured position in the FAMU College of
Education.
Mangum and Rufus went on to clash at Board of Trustees
meetings with Rufus telling her during an August 11, 2014 conference call that
the board could cut off her microphone. According to a Tallahassee Democrat article
that ran later that month: “Reminded that Montgomery is closely affiliated with
Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed him to FAMU’s board, Mangum responded: ‘What
does that say about the people that appointed him?’”
Scott declined to offer reappointment to FAMU Board of
Trustees Chairman Chuck Badger, who was a Mangum-supporter. Rufus then cruised
to an easy victory in the chairmanship election with the votes of Torey Alston,
Lucas Boyce, Bettye Grable, Tonnette Graham, Kelvin Lawson, Spurgeon McWilliams,
Kimberly Moore, and Robert Woody (who was chosen to replace Badger).
The votes for Rufus showed just how much things have changed
since the contract negotiations. No trustee who was serious about helping
Mangum finish out her three-year employment agreement would have wanted her biggest
opponent to lead the board.
Mangum supporters Marjorie Turnbull, Belinda Shannon, and
Karl White gave their support to Cleve Warren. That group is now shrinking and
will likely get even smaller by January 2016.
Turnbull and Warren’s terms both expired on January 6, 2015.
They were appointed by the Florida Board of Governors (BOG). Warren has decided
to stay on while the BOG decides what will happen to his seat. But Turnbull
went ahead and left the board.
The term of Karl White, another appointee of the BOG, will
expire on January 6, 2016. The recent negative newspaper coverage relating to him won’t help his chances of getting reappointed.
Belinda Shannon, an appointee of Scott, also has a term that
will end on January 6, 2016. She probably won’t have much of a chance of receiving
a reappointment either considering what Scott did when the term of Badger,
another Mangum supporter, came to its expiration date.
Rufus and Lawson are all but sure to get a thumbs up from
the governor to continue serving when their current terms run out on January 6,
2016.
The term of Alston, another Scott appointee, ended on
January 6, 2015. Mangum isn’t likely to benefit from him staying or leaving.
Time is not working in Mangum’s favor when it comes to her rough
relationship with the FAMU Board of Trustees.