While Erie Community College raises tuition and raids its reserves to stay afloat, the high-flying president of the college appears to be thriving, given his $192,500 salary, his freedom to travel the country as a member of three outside boards including one that reportedly pays him $140,000, and a wall of insulation on his outside activities by a devoted staff that guards his comings and goings even in the face of a FOIL request.
A former high-ranking official at ECC says President Jack Quinn, the former congressman and president of the college since 2008, is in absolute control of the Board of Trustees that he has basically handpicked to do his bidding.
“The board gave him an inch at the beginning and he took a mile,” said the former official and educator. “He’s turned the college over to two people, Kristin Klein Wheaton (legal director, $110,000)) and Michael Pietkiewicz (senior vice president, $140,000), his former Washington congressional aide, neither of whom is qualified for their positions, and they were the worst possible choices.”
But the beat goes on at ECC and politicians in the Rath Building and at County Hall seem poised to do something about the college’s failing financial grades but so far, from County Executive Mark Poloncarz on down, nobody in this election year is saying much about how to rescue the college from its downward spiral. Maybe sparks will fly a bit at the budget hearing later this month, but don’t be surprised in they don’t. Who will be willing to take the first shot in this election year when money and leadership are clearly the problem?
Workers, who will only speak anonymously out of fear for their jobs, say morale is at absolute rock bottom at all three of ECC’s campuses and say their concerns about the college’s future fall on deaf ears from Quinn on down.
Many at lower-level positions work part-time (19 hours) and complain that higher-ups, in favor with the administration, in many cases take extended breaks without the need to punch in and out like the part-timers who are doing the brunt of the work.
No matter who you talk to at the college campuses, except for the Quinn staff, they describe a work force at near the breaking point with morale at an all time low. ECC is about to enact emergency belt-tightening measures to avoid sinking any further, and many workers fear layoffs are on the horizon.
As for Quinn, he seems secure in his position even as current board chairman Steve Boyd appears ready to move on, opening the door for one of the current board members to move up and take over for Boyd who strongly defends Quinn in the face of the college’s steady decline.
If the college has struggled financially, you couldn’t say the same about Quinn, who signed a new contract at ECC in 2013 after losing out on a bid to take over as head of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, an overture he made with Boyd’s knowledge but without any formal notice to the full ECC board and no publicity.
Let’s take a sample of the expenses Quinn racked up as president during the last several years courtesy of the ECC Foundation which, according to its website, exists to “raise funds to provide scholarships and to provide support for important initiatives that will have a significant and measurable impact on the students, faculty, and staff of Erie Community College.” We might add it also raises money to cater to the president, in this case Jack Quinn.
Let’s look briefly at the President’s (Quinn) Pepsi Discretionary Account covering the period 2010 to 2012. For the record, before Quinn arrived at ECC, insiders say a lot of meetings were held at local restaurants like Chef’s. During most of Quinn’s tenure, until March of this year, the important get-togethers were at the prestigious Buffalo Club. And those sessions didn’t come cheap.
Monthly dues, assessments and dining at the Buffalo Club for Quinn and friends often topped $500 and hit the $1,000 mark on several occasions during the three year period. And there were many other galas and parties during the two-year period paid for by the Discretionary Fund like the $3,500 President’s Recognition Awards and the $1,172 on Dec. 15 of 2011 for holiday gifts for the president’s staff. The president easily disposed of the $38,840 annually deposited into the Pepsi Fund for discretionary use.
But there were other funds available to Quinn, including the ASC President’s Restricted Account which in 2011 paid for things like the president’s SES Appreciation Dinner at Cole’s Restaurant on May 10 ($326).
How much outside travel is involved in Quinn’s three main outside gigs was not included in the FOIL response we received last week on Quinn’s travel and expenses from the college, although most certainly he is reimbursed by those outside interests for his time and travel as well as the $140,000 he reportedly receives from California-based Kaiser Aluminum.
These are hard times for ECC and for the students who are being forced to carry 50 percent of the school’s budget on their tuition dime when their contribution should be 33 percent. But for the former congressman and school teacher, life would seem pretty good. He may have only intended a short stay when he first signed on as ECC president in 2008, but who could blame him for holding on to the golden goose.
