Twelve days after asking Collin College’s elected Board of Trustees why their contact information isn’t publicly available and published online, the information is still nowhere to be found on the college’s website.
As Texas Scorecard previously reported, after discovering the omission our Metroplex Bureau reached out to the college president’s office to request email addresses and/or phone numbers for the nine trustees. We eventually obtained and published their email addresses while waiting for the trustees to respond.
We also took a look at a couple of neighboring counties and found that Tarrant County College and Dallas County Community College both publish trustees’ contact information on their websites. Collin College’s Leadership Team – including the college president – has email addresses and phone numbers listed on the website. Even faculty and staff have contact information published in the college’s online directory – just not the elected trustees.
Four trustees – Chairman Bob Collins, Mac Hendricks, Jim Orr, and Dr. Raj Menon – responded to our request and agreed that their contact information should be publicly available.
As of today, it’s not.
Meanwhile, those same trustees are asking Collin County voters to approve a massive $600 million bond proposition that authorizes a 12-cent property tax rate increase. Early voting on that proposition starts in just seven days, on April 24. Election Day is Saturday, May 6.
Trustees have also prepared a “Master Plan” for campus expansion to be funded by the proposed $600 million in new debt. Yet cost details beyond estimates for the plan’s three phases aren’t available.
The next Collin College Board meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 25, and is open to the public.
But constituents don’t have to wait for the public meeting or until the college publishes trustees’ email addresses. We’ve included them below:
- J. Robert (Bob) Collins, Chair: bcollins784@gmail.com
- Andy Hardin, Vice Chair: aphardin@collin.edu
- Jim Orr, Secretary: jim@jimorr.us
- Nancy Wurzman, Treasurer: nwurzman@collin.edu
- Mac Hendricks: machendricks@aol.com
- Jenny McCall: jmccall@collin.edu
- Dr. Raj Menon: rajmenon@collin.edu
- Adrian Rodriguez: arodriguez@collin.edu
- Larry Wainwright: lwainwright@collin.edu
Voters should have direct access to their elected officials, especially on momentous proposals like the Master Plan and related bond proposition. After all, a $600 million blank check is a lot of blind trust.
