This morning, I attended the Chesterfield County Finance Committee Meeting to support the defunding of Northeastern Technical College. Kyle Wagner, the current president, is trying to build a fiefdom for himself. Continuing to give him access to Chesterfield County taxpayer monies is a waste of money. Here is what I had to say:
Statement to the Financial Committee on NETC
I would like to express my gratitude for the opportunity to address the committee regarding the financing of Northeastern Technical College by the taxpayers of Chesterfield County. I am against returning to taxing our citizens for the operations of NETC, and in one word, it is because of accountability.
When I looked at my 2024 property tax bill, I noted that three of the boxes indicating monies that I would owe the county were in red, namely, County Operations, School District, and NETC. I understand the reason for two of those being in red, but not the remaining one. Let me explain this to you.
When the citizens of Chesterfield County go to the polls to elect our governing officials, two of those categories are the County Council and the School Board. Each of those representatives, if they are doing their job correctly, should be reporting to us and acting in our best interests, or at least I would hope they are. If, for any reason, I believe they are not acting within those parameters, I have a way to address it; I can work to have them replaced. If I think the council is not “running” the county correctly, I can attempt to either run for a position on the council or actively support others who feel the same way I do. The same can be said for the school board. If I believe the school is not returning a good return on my investment, namely the taxes I pay, and currently they are not doing that, I have and will continue to work to remove those who are not “doing the job they were elected to do.”
Now this brings us to NETC. I have no say in how Northeastern Technical College uses my tax dollars. In my mind, they have no accountability to the taxpayers of Chesterfield County. Yes, you will be told they have a Board of Directors, but this is not an elected board; instead, it is made up of political appointees who are answerable to either the politicians themselves or, in reality, to no one. These positions are held by those who know someone, or are married to people of political power, and are, in my opinion, just status symbols that they can flaunt at cocktail parties. These people are not accountable. This reason alone should persuade you not to return to the previous tax format, but there are many additional reasons. I will not bore you with all of them, but rather just a few examples.
If this committee meeting were being run with an agenda like that of the NETC Board of Directors, we would now just be finishing up our catered breakfast, but as their meetings begin at noon, it would be lunch. Upon completion of this social hour, the meeting would start. The first part would include a prayer, a salute to our country’s flag, minutes, and an acceptance of the agenda. However, unlike a standard directors’ meeting, which is typically run by those in control of the college, the board, the meeting is instead turned over to the person who is subservient to the board, namely, Mr. Wagner. This is not how a supervisory board is supposed to operate. They are there for one reason and one reason only: to ensure the college’s goals are met, which is determined through firm questioning of the employees. This is just an example of how an organization that has a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers should not be run.
I want to discuss two items in particular that sparked the investigation of Northeastern Technical College, namely Dual Enrollment. I have presented to this committee a couple of copies of the report released by the Office of the State Inspector General in December of last year.
When I viewed Mr. Wagner’s statements to the County Council last month on YouTube, he mentioned two items in particular, dual enrollment and the financial burden placed on citizens of Chesterfield County if they were required to pay an additional fifteen dollars per credit hour.
Dual enrollment, as determined by the Inspector General’s office, has uncovered a coordinated effort to “enhance” the number of students enrolled in the programs. If you refer to page 11 of that report, a chart will show that 67% of those who were said to be auto-enrolled in the program did not know about the enrollment they were supposed to have been in. In the last paragraph on that same page, the protocol that was in place would reenroll students who were no-shows or dropped out, and this process was repeated numerous times. This is just one example of accountability, but not the only one that I have for you today.
The State Inspector General discovered many incidents of fiscal irregularities that are too numerous to present individually. You can review them at your convenience, in the report I have given. If you refer to page 20 of the report, you will see another chart that reveals that over $461,000 of expenditures at NETC are called into question. Just to put it into perspective, this would be equivalent to over 30,000 credit hours at $15 per hour, the amount that is the difference between in-county and out-of-county enrollment. It seems that Mr. Wagner believes that $15 is a significant figure, but close to a half-million dollars in questionable spending is of minor concern.
Accountability, what does it mean to the taxpayers of Chesterfield County? It means spending our money wisely and with an eagle eye on the bottom line. So the question raised on page 8 of the report deserves to be brought forth. During the period from his hiring in 2016 to 2024, Mr. Wagner received salary increases that were one and a half times greater than the rate of inflation for that period. These raises were supposed to be performance-based, with one of them being increased enrollment, including dual enrollment. As the report states, dual enrollment spiked to 1,680% during that time, which had to be a “Hallelujah” moment for Mr. Wagner at salary review time. What I am still trying to find out, though, is whether Mr. Wagner has made any effort to return monies that were granted to him based on fictitious parameters.
I believe I have shown numerous reasons to call into question giving NETC and Mr. Wagner a pot full of money, with no accountability being demanded. With all I have said, though, I also feel for those citizens of Chesterfield County who would benefit from some fiscal help from our county. For this, I offer the following recommendation: let’s reimburse those who enroll at NETC. If they were to present a course schedule to the county, showing the number of credit hours they are taking, fifteen dollars per hour (or more) would be refunded to them. This ensures that they were not “cheated” out of an in-county tuition rate, but it also guarantees that the money is going to our students, not into the dark fiscal abyss that is present at Northeastern Technical College.