Documenting the Turning Point of NCC
This is just odd.
What is this about “Address Available Upon RSVP?” All you have to do is google “Jorge Gardyn address” and you know where it is. Unless he is living someone else now. If so, we hope he pays his taxes there.
But the big question is: Has Gardyn switched parties?
We know that:
What we want to know:
Do you have any information? You can submit a message (anonymously if you would like) by using the contact form.
On February 9th, 2016, a month before the vote for NCC’s new president, then Acting President Tom Dolan wrote an e-mail to the Board of Trustees. In the email, Dolan revealed his disdain for the faculty and his plans to deflect the outrage over the PIP. At the end of the email, he referenced the “NCCExposed Blog” that uncovered the political motives for a Saunders presidency.
From: Dolan, Thomas <Thomas.Dolan@ncc.edu>
To: Green Linda <lgreen1@schools.nyc.gov>; Anthony Cornachio (awcawcawc@aol.com) <awcawcawc@aol.com>; awd <awd@adruckerlaw.com>; Donna Tuman (dtuman@liu.edu) <dtuman@liu.edu>; Ed Powers (ewap@optimum.net) <ewap@optimum.net>; Jennifer Borzym (N00816259@students.ncc.edu) <N00816259@students.ncc.edu>; jgardyn <jgardyn@iomr.net>; John DeGrace (bdegrace@optonline.net) <bdegrace@optonline.net>; Kathy Weiss (kathyb.weiss@gmail.com) <kathyb.weiss@gmail.com>; Wanda Jackson (wjackson@nul.org) <wjackson@nul.org>
Cc: Brandi, Anne E. <Anne.Brandi@ncc.edu>
Sent: Tue, Feb 9, 2016 1:51 pm
Subject: Update on tonight
Dear All,
I bring to the Board’s attention a topic that will likely take up a great deal of time tonight. I’ll also advise the Board how I hope to handle it.
At today’s Senate Meeting, Dr. Deluty read at length from a SUNY PIP report that the college filed late last year that has some brutally honest information about the college and also has contains some statements that are, I believe, misogynistic. These latter statements draw attention to the preponderance of females among the faculty and continues in some unflattering ways theorizing why they might be attracted to these positions (availability of childcare, lighter workload and flexible hours). The other phrases that the Faculty Senate objected to have to do with the degree to which the Senate stands in the way of progress at the College-and those are at least open to debate.
We did not know that the Document would be posted publicly on the SUNY website, or I am sure some of the rhetoric would have been toned down.
We are in the process of determining whether or not the document is still “edit-able” and we will ask that it be taken down in the meantime.
I will reference Harry Truman tonight in accepting responsibility for the posting of the report,,,although I do not recall specifically having seen it. Nonetheless…The Buck…
While the document has been up for quite a while, it only came up today and I think I know why.
Before I theorize on that, I’d like to announce tonight to the faculty that the document is not the reflection of the college that we should be sharing, that we will request its removal and we will engage in conversation with interested parties in crafting a newer version. I hope that will blunt some of the concerns that will be spoken to tonight…but I doubt it.
This is coming up tonight, and it was stated at the meeting today, because the Faculty realizes that the Presidential Search is coming to an end, and they are very afraid of the results. It was stated at the meeting today that some Board Members have already made up their minds. It was stated that the survey process is faulty in that individuals can (we think) submit results more than once. There was real venom in the air as this was discussed, and I anticipate that all of this will be aired tonight.
There is also a scurrilous (anonymous…of course) blog that imputes several individuals at the college in the role they have played in the search. It is despicable.
So, I am predicting an ugly event tonight. We will all be tested.
Tom
Who is Andrea Campbell and why did she cause so much controversy with her email? So much controversy that Trustee Ed Powers harassed everyone who came up to speak during the public session at the subsequent board meeting. Well thanks to an anonymous sender (perhaps Andrea herself), I am now in possession of it for all to enjoy:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Andrea Campbell <campbella58@gmx.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 8:56 AM
Subject: NCC Presidential Search May Have Been Compromised
To: johanna.duncan-poiteir@suny.edu
To: Senior Vice President Johanna Duncan-Poitier,
The presidential search at Nassau Community College may have been compromised. All candidates must have a fair chance when they come to the college for campus visits and when the Board of Trustees interviews and votes on the candidates. Acting Vice President Kenneth Saunders and Dean Jerry Kornbluth may have tainted the search process. Mr. Saunders allegedly informed his cabinet and certain members of ALANA that he has the votes to become president. Mr. Kornbluth allegedly contacted his allies and done the same. More troubling, select students know that Mr. Saunders has the necessary votes and have communicated that information to others. The word is spreading rapidly. I surmise that subsequent campus visits by candidates will be sparsely attended. Of course, administrators are ordered to attend, as happened at yesterdays session attended by Trustee Jackson and the student trustee. Twenty members of the college community attended Ken’s Tuesday’s morning session, only 15 or so were professors. Moreover, Ken inadvertently admitted that he will be the next president at the Academic Affairs meeting of January 28. He said to the audience that he plans to make administrative appointments in July. Only a president can make administrative appointments. How does he know NOW that he will be able to do that in JULY? The remaining candidates would not be pleased if they had this information. Perhaps I am overstating my case, but can you look into the matter?
Thank you.
“It’s who you know!”
The former Town of Hempstead Supervisor unsuccessfully ran for Nassau County District Attorney in 2015. Within a month of her loss, she received a position at Nassau Community College.
Update:
As 11/29/17, sources have stated that the new chair of the Academic Senate has seen the Kate Murray search information and confirmed she was searched. No word of whether or not the public will see these documents including the alleged advertisement for applications.
Update:
On September 13th, the day after the Board of Trustees meeting, Dr. Keen, President of NCC, announced that Kate Murray was being promoted to the position of Vice President in the newly established Office of Institutional Advancement. This is troubling for several reasons. First, the Office of Institutional Advancement was not part of the institutional plan as required by Middle States. Second, there is no evidence that Kate Murray was ever searched for her original position. Third, this surprise promotion came immediately after the BOT amended (extended?) Dr. Keen’s contract. Are the two related? Middle States will be coming to campus soon. We suspect this will become a major issue with them considering they wrote the following in 2016:
As a result of interviews, documents and videos, the team believes there have been incidents that raise concerns about institutional integrity. Recent board meetings have displayed behaviors that the team believes compromised the integrity of the hiring process and the presidential search. The hiring of the Assistant to the President for Government and Media Relations on December 8, 2015 during the Board of Trustees meeting – without the consent of the president or administration — is one example of a complete breakdown of standards related to fair and equitable hiring practices. This hiring clearly did not follow the mission and procedures established by the College’s Office of Equity, Inclusion and Affirmative Action and raises serious concerns about political intrusion into the business of the College.
For the history of the hiring, see below:
Board of Trustees Meeting 12/8/15
Begin watching at around 23:24. Anthony Cornachio nominates Kate Murray at 29:10. The comment at 29:44 is a believed to be a shot at Donna Haugen. John DeGrace who never says a word, speaks at 31:52! The best part is at 32:42. 33:44- NCC has a lobbyist? 35:08- LOL! Finally, 42:33- Who is DeGrace talking about?
It was not without controversy, of course:
3 Trustees Donated to Kate Murray’s campaign
Michael Johnston
To see how Mr. Johnston got such a sweet job and who he is connected to, read this: The NCC Exposed Blog
And remember the NCCFT Contract:
Section 11-2:
Shawn Novatt
At first it was strange to see Joy DeDonato of the Nassau Community College Foundation as the head of a search committee. After all, she is technically not an employee of NCC. But when Ray Bertolino made a complaint, it all began to make sense. DeDonato and the newly hired station director Shawn Novatt are old friends. And allegedly for protesting the unfair process, Bertolino was fired.
“The point is the search was corrupted,” [Former Congressman and former NCC Trustee] LeBoutillier said. “And there are rules for these things, the same as the bidding process.””
Read the full story here:
WPHC Whistleblower Retaliation story
Robert Foley
The new Assistant Vice President of Maintenance & Operations, replacing the recently retired Masoom Ali. Robert Foley’s family has a long history in the Nassau County political machine:
NY Times Article on Payment for Promotion
The Perrottos– (the entire family works at NCC)
Big time GOP committee members
Lawyergate:
Donna Haugen, Alla Brodsky, and Regina Cafarella all were once associates at Ingerman Smith. This story is worthy of a future blog post.
More to come
We are all familiar with the recent charges against Trustee Anthony Cornachio, but how do the other trustees stack up with trustworthiness? Let’s begin with some recent trustees and then move on to some current ones:
Former Trustees:
Michael Freeman
Former Chairman Michael Freeman, a trustee appointed by Governor David Patterson was arrested in a real estate kickback scheme. It was alleged that he provided fake invoices. He resigned from the Board soon after. He was later acquitted.
Harendra Singh
Barely a week goes by without seeing former Board of Trustee member Harendra Singh in the news. His kickback schemes and general fraudulent behavior has led to the arrests of the Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, his wife Linda, as well as the Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto.
Current Trustees:
John DeGrace
Trustee John DeGrace was at one point under investigation after a former staff member named Christopher Bastardi alleged that DeGrace tried to suppress minority voters by sending out fake ACORN letters to recently registered voters telling them to stay home because their vote would be cast for the respective parties. Bastardi decided to drop his complaint so we may never know what really happened but DeGrace retired from that post soon after, so draw whatever conclusions you might.
Jorge Gardyn
Another Mangano hack, Dr Gardyn was sued in 2010 for essentially being improper, unethical, harassing, and retaliatory towards a subordinate. The claims are pretty damning, and if you know George’s temper, extremely believable. In full disclosure, I do not know if these allegations are still ongoing but it is important to note that the motion to dismiss under NYS Labor Law was granted essentially on a technicality but was done “without prejudice” meaning the case against Gardyn can still live on.
Donna Tuman
Wife the of the Glen Head Republican Club Leader, Eric Tuman, Donna Tuman was appointed to the Board at the start of 2015. Dr. Tuman was involved in a grading controversy in her role as chair at LIU-Post.
On October 1st, 2017, Donna’s husband Eric was confronted after being seen pulling down signs from the democratic opposition in the local Supervisor race.
In 2016, as the coronation of Dr. Kenneth Saunders was appearing more and more inevitable, an anonymous blog appeared called “NCC Exposed.” It told the alleged story of how Nassau GOP operatives led by Dean Jerry Kornbluth schemed to place Saunders in the to position in order to benefit those wanting a piece of the 200+ million dollar college budget. It was quickly shared amongst the faculty. Soon the administration and the board of trustees got wind of the blog and attempted to publicly refute it at a board meeting on February 9, 2016. What transpired was an absolute circus:
The Middle States visiting team mentioned the above video in its exit report as an example of the dysfunction of the college and its concern over the legitimacy of the search process for the college president.
For the sake of historical conservation, I will cut and paste the text that I saved from the NCC Exposed blog. Unfortunately, I was unable to save later updates of the blog (which is truly unfortunate because they revealed more damning allegations). If the actual author or anyone reading this has the final blog post update, please post it in the comment section or send to me.
NCC Exposed (from February, 4, 2016)
During the spring of 2013, in the aftermath of the failed presidency of Donald Astrab, three candidates were announced by the Nassau Community College Presidential Search Committee. Officer-In-Charge, and former Executive Vice President under Astrab, Kenneth Saunders, was not one of them. Many supporters and friends of Saunders saw the scales tipped in favor of recently retired Justice Anthony Marano, a political insider with no higher education administration experience. Saunders alleged bias. Chancellor Nancy Zimpher stepped in and called the search “beyond the point of investigation” and urged a do-over.
Enter Jerry Kornbluth:
In May of 1999, NCC Math Professor Jerrold A. Kornbluth pleaded guilty in the Federal Court’s Eastern District to 1 count of felony tax fraud and filing false statements (case# CR 99-131). He was sentenced to 6 months of home detention and 3 years probation plus a $10,000 fine. Shortly after regaining his freedom, Jerrold, now retired from NCC and exclusively calling himself Jerry, was hired as the Academic Vice President of Interboro Institute. Interboro was a for-profit college that appeared to prey on high school dropouts by offering a wide array of AOS degrees with little out of pocket cost (but plenty of student loan debt). During Kornbluth’s tenure as Vice President, Interboro Institute was investigated by both NYSED and by the Federal Government for financial aid and academic fraud. It appears that everyone involved at Interboro escaped jail time possibly because they were ordered to pay government back and did. Nevertheless, Interboro surrendered its charter and closed its doors in 2007. In early 2013, Kornbluth returned to NCC as a full-time instructor. His time as a professor was short because in September of that year, Acting President Saunders appointed Kornbluth to the position of Acting Dean of Professional Studies. Professional Studies includes the departments of Hospitality Business and, ironically, Business and Accounting, Economics and Finance, and Criminal Justice. Kornbluth, a felon and refugee from a crooked for-profit college, has become one of Saunder’s biggest supporters and closest advisors.
Enter Don Monti:
Don Monti is a big-time Nassau County Developer. His company Renaissance Downtowns has been awarded many public-funded contracts for revitalizing downtown areas. Two examples include “Source the Station” in Huntington Station and the “Renew Hempstead” project right next door to NCC. In November 2012, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano selected Monti as the master developer of the 77-acre site surrounding the Nassau Coliseum and abutting the Nassau Community College campus. Renaissance Downtowns donated cash to the “Friends of Ed Mangano” fund right before winning the bid, and then again immediately after.
The address listed for the Renaissance Downtown Corporation is 9 Gerhard Rd., Plainview. Located at 9 Gerhard Road is the Marriot Residence Inn, owned by Michael Johnston. Michael Johnston and Don Monti are partners in several companies including the Concorde Hotel Group and Destination LI, all located at 9 Gerhard Rd. In September 2012, Johnston, with only a bachelor’s degree, was hired as an instructor in the Hospitality Business department. Kornbluth is his Dean.
Becoming the political candidate:
With Jerry Kornbluth in a major administrative position and Don Monti extending an appendage into Nassau Community College, the ascension of Kenneth Saunders to top candidate appeared to begin. The first step seemed to be the effort to connect Saunders to the political establishment. Don Monti and Michael Johnston immediately appointed Saunders to the advisory board of their organization; Destination LI. Saunders joined a who’s-who of county political players including (the yet ostracized and indicted) Adam Skelos. The next step was possibly securing NCC BOT votes. Kornbluth struck up a relationship with Trustee John Degrace who, years earlier, resigned from the Nassau County Board of Elections a short time after allegations of racial voter suppression emerged. In July of 2014, Kenneth Saunders and Nassau County Supervisor Ed Mangano announced an extension of the Volunteer Firefighter’s Recruitment and Retention Scholarship. This was exciting news to Republican player and Board of Trustees Chairperson Jorge Gardyn whose company, IOMR, services the medical needs of numerous volunteer fire departments. In September of 2014, Jerry Kornbluth referred Student Trustee and Presidential Search Committee member Patrick Deegan to an internship at Destination LI. Soon after, Destination LI hosted a rally on campus in which Don Monti invited students to a $150 per person event at the Crest Hollow Country Club (owned by Monti’s family) to discuss issues concerning millennials. 6 days after the Destination LI event, Saunders was honored at the “EAC Network’s Annual Party to Protect Children Event”, once again, at the Crest Hollow Country Club. There, Saunders was recognized for his “commitment to helping children and people in need.” Perhaps not coincidentally, Jerry Kornbluth was on the Event Committee.
Several stumbling blocks occurred in early summer of 2015. Kenneth Saunders was unable to garner 6 votes to become president. It became immediately obvious that every Republican appointee on the Board was in full support of Saunders except Anthony Cornachio. In an interview with Newsday, Trustee Cornachio revealed that the student Trustee Patrick Deegan cast a vote for Saunders. It is not known whether Deegan revealed to the rest of the Board that he received employment with Saunders involvement. Frustrated with the impasse, the SUNY BOT ended Saunder’s tenure as acting president and presented the NCC BOT with a list of possible interim presidential candidates. Disregarding the SUNY suggestions, the board chose Dr. Thomas Dolan, recently retired superintendent of Great Neck Schools; a man with no higher education experience. Dr. Dolan had very close ties to Jerry Kornbluth because Jane Kornbluth, Jerry’s wife, was employed as an English teacher while Dolan was the principal at Sewanhaka HS District. Jane, like Jerry, returned to teaching after a brief retirement and was hired to work, once again, under Dolan at Great Neck Middle School where he was the Superintendent.
The shoulder-rubbing with the political establishment appeared to continue. In November of 2015, the NCC Foundation hosted a Gala honoring Ed Mangano and Acting NCPD Commissioner Thomas Krumpter. The Crest Hollow Country Club was listed as a major sponsor. Earlier in the year, it was announced that a $40 million Police Academy was to be built on the grounds of Nassau Community College. Major funding was to be provided by the Nassau County Police Department Foundation, a non-profit organization in which Don Monti is listed as an Advisory Board member.
In December of 2015, Saunders, accompanied by Kornbluth, allegedly met with the Valley Stream Republican Club. It is important to note that the Executive Leader of the Valley Stream Republican Club is NCC Trustee John DeGrace.
More recently, the NCC GOP establishment tightened its grips on the political patronage machine by appointing Kate Murray to be the general counsel. All Republican members, including the Student Trustee Jennifer Borzym whose father has a long history of donating money to Republican candidates, voted in favor of hiring Murray without a search and with very little discussion. Three of the Republican Trustees had contributed to her ill-fated campaign for District Attorney. Additionally, the father of the Student Trustee also contributed to Murray. Those contributions were never disclosed. SUNY is currently investigating.
On Thursday, February 4th, Kenneth Saunders, one of 4 candidates for permanent president of Nassau Community College, participated in a town hall style interview with the campus community. Many people on campus are convinced that the “fix is in” and Saunders, extremely unpopular with administrators, faculty, and professional staff, will have the 6 votes needed to be become the President of Nassau Community College. It is feared that Saunders may act more to serve his new GOP friends and developers than to serve as the leader of the college community.
Another NCC Blog 
