Julie Van Dyke Receives $70K in Hush Money from WSCC as Dillon Drives Off

[XLFD]

 Did you know that the amount of revenue West Shore Community College takes in each year just from local county's property taxes (about $8.5 million) is more than the total revenues of the City of Ludington and Scottville combined (around $6.2 million and 1.8 million respectively)? 

And that money is only a little over half of the money taken in by the college, where only about 1/10th of the revenues actually come in as tuition and fees.  Effectively, between 80-90% of the funding for the community college comes from taxation, either their own or from state and federal grants.  This is indeed a public body that would quickly die off without public support from general taxes. 

This is precisely why people in Mason and Manistee County and all other counties partially contributing their property taxes (Lake, Newaygo and Oceana) need to inspect a couple of recent events and their likely conclusions to take place later today at the 4:00 PM WSCC Board of Trustees meeting, where they will not only discuss a quarter of a million severance package (plus usual retirement benefits of a college's chief executive officer) earned by soon-to-be-former-President Chuck Dillon for driving super drunk from Elberta to Manistee in the college's own van, but also a settlement with a college employee that was fired by President Dillon less than a month before he found himself jailed for drunk driving.

The employee fired was high profile, her name was Julie Van Dyke and she served the college in three different ways.  In the articles from page A8 of the weekend's COLDNews, we find that both Van Dyke and (in a continuation from the front page) Dillon have stipulations in their parting-of-ways agreements to not make disparaging or negative comments about the college, and they will do the same.  Please review these articles.   

You may ask what intentional interference with contract is.                            

At common law, a defendant (the college in this case) is liable to pay damages in tort for actions intended to interfere with the plaintiff's (Van Dyke's) contractual relations with a third party (as of yet undisclosed).

In an intentional interference claim, the burden is on the plaintiff to prove the elements of the claim rather than on the defendant to prove that its acts were justified. To prevail on the claim, plaintiff must prove four elements: (1) that a valid contract existed, (2) that defendant had knowledge of the contract, (3) that defendant acted intentionally and improperly,  and (4) that plaintiff was injured by the defendant’s actions. This is from the ruling United Truck Leasing Corp. v. Geltman, 406 Mass. 811, 812, 551 N.E.2d 20 n. 6 (Mass. 1990).

WSCC is willing to settle for a fairly large price tag, so one may presume that the case has some merit.  This means that there is good evidence to say that an agent(s) of WSCC acted intentionally and improperly in 'injuring' Ms. Van Dyke.  Van Dyke, according to the Mason County Press, was fired in July by Dr. Dillon.  It would be a good guess that Dr. Dillon's actions are what made the lawsuit germinate, and the stipulation that the college records would say she resigned rather than being fired strengthen that outlook

So one should ask what is going on at our community college with all the hush-hush, closed meetings, cash payouts without rationales, and backroom stipulations to remain positive and close-mouthed about one another?  And why are we giving Dr. Drunkard Dillon a golden parachute when he possibly did a terrible thing that may have drove him to drink and cost the college more face and $70,000? 

The public deserves answers and should demand them.  Here is the college's own article about Julie Van Dyke assuming a dual role at the college, I reprint it here in full, since it will likely be removed from the WSCC website once they realize it's still there.

Julie Van Dyke is beginning a new combined dual role at West Shore Community College.

She is currently the Director of the Business Opportunity Center (BOC) and is also assuming the responsibility as the Director of Development for the college’s Foundation.

 “Julie will be using her economic development expertise in oversight of the Business Opportunity Center, and her connections within the community to enhance the college’s development initiatives to raise additional financial resources for the college,” said college President Charles Dillon who appointed her to fill the vacant Foundation position.

As the director of the BOC, Van Dyke helps businesses, big and small, become more profitable and productive.

“We want to be the first step in helping businesses,” Van Dyke says. “We then will refer them to the resources we have available throughout the community.”      

The BOC is a virtual business incubator that provides non-credit business and industry training, entrepreneurial workshops, mentoring and credited college courses.  

“My goal with the Foundation is to make it much more visible in the college service area,” says VanDyke. “The success of the recent endowment fund drive is due in part to spreading the word that all of our citizens can make a difference in their community by assisting the college, its students, and its programs through the foundation.”

The WSCC Foundation, a non-profit corporation, provides financial support for many activities that benefit the college. The Foundation is working to increase its endowment fund to provide additional scholarships for students desiring to attend the college.

Prior to working at the college, Van Dyke was the president of the Mason County Growth Alliance.  She also was, for eight years, the Director of the Allendale Area Chamber of Commerce with previous experience in management, sales, marketing and economic development, with leadership in both private and public organizations.

Van Dyke graduated with a Masters of Business Administration degree in 2002, and previously obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing in 1991.                                   

Author Thomas Hawley Director of College Relations

http://www.westshore.edu/about/news/2013/08/VanDyke_FndRole.html

Julie Van Dyke also had a role with the County Government, dealing with her economic development background (as noted in a previous Torch expose, she was the head of the Mason County Growth Alliance before Bob Barker).  She also lost this county post in July 2014 and public records showed she was to be replaced by a certain person named Charles Dillon, before he swilled and swerved his way out of it in August.  These records will be revealed later, when supplementary records come in.

[AQUAMAN]

This is as bad as it gets for WSCC: "as the stomach turns, and the plot thickens"! Now, to add even more insult to injury, WSCC puts a "conditional gag order" in place, so the truth can't be told in full? Is there anything at all that Ludington/Mason County citizens need more right now than more coverups, lies, lack of transparency, and just plain as on your face, "back-door deals"? How many more of these type things are the BOT (Trustees) either been involved in previously, or still are currently? Makes a concerned local wonder, wonder in true amazement, and for me at least, in true disgust! 

[Paul Jensen]

how did Dillion get Rebecka Fox hired during a hiring freeze? 

[XLFD]

What's the timeline for that, Paul?  Rebecca's Linkedln account has her not working at the college since February 2012, and she's not currently on the directory. 

[Willy]

I am getting sick and tired of publicly funded agencies operating in secrecy. WSCC needs to come clean and explain in full what is going on. Seems like a change in board personal is order as well. Terrific job on this article X.

[shinblind]

Does anyone have any idea where the $1,000,000+ in income that WSCC spins off every year goes?  

$2.5M+ net income after expenses in 2 years is a good haul for any enterprise, especially one that is subsidized by taxpayers.

How many years have they been this "profitable"?

[AQUAMAN]

Paul, could you elaborate more on Ms. Fox situation? Shinblind, I too don't understand the WSCC balance sheet above. It says operating losses of $13 Million, and at the same time, non-operating profit of $1 Million. Creative accounting? or more hidden secrets?  

[XLFD]

 Shinblind,

2012 and 2011 were especially profitable for the college, with revenue surpluses of $1,711,000 and $4,382,000 respectively!  (see this link) 

The link also explains a little more about what is operating revenue, etc.  I don't know what's done with the surplus, but the unpaid trustees seem to be dressing well, the president has his own college-bought SUV, and employees let go get anywhere between $70,000 and $240,000 in severance pay to split with their lawyers.