The Sandhills Files: 1 bad audit, 2 drive-bys, and the fall-out
It took a week for our award-winning local newspaper (based on Pennsylvania Avenue in Southern Pines) to produce a story on the stinker of an audit the state slapped Sandhills Community College with. (It took us a few hours.)
They do tend to move a little slow over there at Pravda-on-Pennsylvania. In fact, they still haven’t reported on the little old lady who drove her mini-van into the lobby of the Pinehurst hospital’s outpatient clinic — shutting its main entrance down for months. (It happened in December.)
The Raleigh News & Observer — which used to be owned by the folks who now own our hometown Pravda — even got in on the action regarding the college’s bad audit. An intern — who, by the way, did a bang-up job — jumped on the story for them and beat Pravda by a day.
Our hometown Pravda tried to soft-pedal the whole episode — talking about *discrepancies* and such. They even tried to soft-peddle the nightmarish audit with nonsense like this:
[…] Despite the finding, the auditor’s report pegged SCC as having a strong financial position, a beneficial impact on the community and poised to continue serving Moore and Hoke counties at a high level.[…]
The auditor’s report I read indicated that the financials for the school were so screwed up that it would be difficult to get an accurate picture of the school’s standing. How would you KNOW how strong or how weak the school is? There were at least $6.2 million worth of errors !!!
I, for one, would be nervous about donating to an entity that manages its money like this audit says Sandhills has been doing.
Boliek’s predecessor, Beth Wood, was a lot kinder to Sandhills in re: its financial management in the 2022 audit her staff performed on the college. So, whatever happened had to have taken place between 2022 and 2024.
What happened, then?
John Dempsey transitioned out of the president’s office and Sandy Stewart transitioned in. Both men were and are big fans of DEI. DEI works to ensure physical and genetic characteristics (female, gay, person-of-color) matter more in hiring situations than actual qualifications, education, and experience do.
You have to ask: Did DEI play a role in staffing the college’s business management team that produced the basis for this messy 2024 audit?
The reporter for Pravda quoted a blurb from an email allegedly sent by Stewart to college officials and staff regarding the audit:
[…] Regarding the potential for any improprieties, Stewart added, “There is no finding of missing funds, fraud, waste, abuse, mis-appropriated funds, outstanding bills or any issue with the day-to-day operations of the college.” […]
If you actually read auditor Boliek’s document, it focuses on all of the errors in the college’s financials. It makes it crystal clear that just because other problems are not mentioned doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Boliek emphasizes that the books at the college are so messed up that they risk providing college officials with bad information to support their decision-making.
From reading the articles in The N&O and Pravda, it appears president Stewart is eager to slap the
blame for this audit on being short-handed. How about a lack of decent oversight? For decades, decisions on managing the college have been made privately by trustees Larry Caddell, George Little (now-deceased) and the college president (Dempsey and / or Stewart).
Their decisions would then get run in front of a sycophantic, alleluia chorus of a trustees board for a quick vote and little to no discussion. Three people have made all the big decisions, while the rest just smiled, clapped, and said ‘aye’.
Who do you hold accountable? Little is no longer with us. Dempsey is retired. Caddell’s term on the board of trustees ended in May. Perhaps no reappointment for him? After all, he was the captain of the ship when it hit the iceberg.
Right now, it appears that no one currently sitting on that board deserves a reappointment. They’ve sat there and smiled politely while the finances were royally screwed up. Oversight of college operations is part of the board of trustees job description.
We’re living in an era where people are demanding better treatment and care of our tax dollars in DC and Raleigh. Everybody in a leadership position at Sandhills Community College owes all of us a lot better than what they have delivered.
It is worth pointing out that Sandy Stewart was on the Sandhills Board of Trustees before he became president. While on the Board of Trustees, Mr Stewart voted for every single one of Dempsey’s proposals. He literally never cast a single ”no” vote.
So, Sandy was also complicit in the implantation of DEI, the hiring of dozens of Vice Presidents, building a baseball field when SCC had no baseball team, all of the illegal improperly noticed meetings, etc.
He was there, and he voted for that stuff!
As for the books. All boards have three fundamental responsibilities:
#1: Hire and direct the CEO.
#2: Oversee the finances
#3: Ensure laws are followed.
The SCC Board of Trustees, run for decades by George Little and Larry Caddell, have clearly failed in #2 and #3.
“It took a week for our award-winning local newspaper…” As a former journalist and newspaper editor, the Pilot is a twice weekly throw-away. As far as “award winning” it’s a bit of a joke because it can’t compete with dailies so wins in the “community newspaper” division with 10,000 circulation. And I question that 10,000 circulation.