New information related to NICC president placed on administrative leave

In a special meeting on Oct. 9, 2023, the Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Board of Trustees discussed three personnel matters in closed sessions: a matter related to the Executive Director of Human Resources, a personnel complaint, and a matter related to the College President. There was no action taken on the agenda items related to the Executive Director of Human Resources or the personnel complaint. However, the Board did act on the matter related to the College President. According to Public Relations and Social Media Manager for NICC Tara Cooley, the Board of Trustees placed Dr. Herbert H. J. Riedel on paid administrative leave on Oct. 9, 2023, after a unanimous vote. Cooley explained in an email to DecorahNews.com on Monday, Nov. 6, that the vote for administrative leave took place after a review of the following concerns: "(1) issues raised during Dr. Riedel's initial evaluation; (2) complaints received regarding hiring practices and (3) complaints received regarding the treatment of administrative staff. Specific details have not been shared by the college, as they are confidential personnel matters not subject to disclosure under Iowa's Open Records Laws." Cooley said that there is no update on how long the leave of absence will be in effect. Riedel began his role as president of NICC on July 1, 2022. His contract goes through the end of June 2025. Timeline of events In an interview with DecorahNews.com, Riedel discussed his perspective on the situation and shared what he saw as critical moments that led to the decision by the Board of Trustees to place him on paid administrative leave. According to Riedel, in his first year as president, there were a lot of successes at the college, including improved enrollment, workforce sales increases and an administrative restructuring to better serve the college's strategic goals. Riedel also initiated changes within hiring processes, like the president conducting interviews with candidates and exit interviews with employees who were leaving the college. During this time, Riedel said he began to notice problems "under the surface" at the college. One of Riedel's initiatives was to conduct surveys and hold lunch and breakfast listening sessions with staff, faculty and students in small group settings. During these interactions, he said, people began to talk about issues within the college related to accountability, especially at the higher levels of the administration, and he heard complaints about leaders not being reviewed and staff not being evaluated, as well as frustrations with human resources. According to Riedel, his initial one-year evaluation conducted by the Board of Trustees this summer was positive. Then, Riedel said, he successfully conducted hiring processes for two new vice presidents, which included open forums with the finalists. He said that the finalists for each position included both internal and external candidates. The hiring committees for both hires decided to offer the positions to external candidates for both. Amy Gaffney was announced as the new vice president of student services on Sept. 18, 2023. Amy A. Lasack was announced as the new vice president of business and community solutions on Oct. 18, 2023, nine days after Riedel was placed on administrative leave. Things started to change quickly this fall as "tensions increased," Riedel said. Another position that was in the process of being filled prior to Oct. 9 was the executive director for advancement, which is a cabinet position. According to Riedel, he was contacted by Dr. Juliana Huiskamp, President of Northeast Iowa Community College Foundation via email regarding the position because she and the foundation's executive committee had a candidate in mind to fill it. Riedel alleges that after he did not respond to the initial email, Huiskamp wrote a letter to the Board of Trustees with accusations, complaints and falsehoods about him and even threatened to withhold funding to the college if their candidate was not selected. Then, on Sept. 15, 2023, Riedel placed Executive Director of Human Resources Connie Kuennen on paid administrative leave. According to Riedel, Kuennen was overstepping her role in human resources and getting involved in hiring decisions by contacting hiring committee members and stating that Kuennen would prefer that they hire one of the internal candidates. He said that he had also learned that Kuennen had approached several board members and complained about the new hiring processes instituted by Riedel. Riedel explained that those issues, along with others that were outlined to the Board during closed session, led to his decision to place Kuennen on paid administrative leave. "The day after I put Kuennen on paid administrative leave," Riedel said, "one of her colleagues, who was also a close confidant of hers, filed a formal complaint about me to the board, and, as you might imagine from the timing, it was totally frivolous. It was based on false accusations, no basis to it, it has been thoroughly debunked, but I thought the timing was very interesting." Riedel alleges that when Board of Trustees Chair Jim Anderson learned that Kuennen had been placed on administrative leave, and learned that someone was running against him for his seat on the board, Anderson reacted by scheduling the Oct. 9 special meeting. A week before the meeting, Riedel said he sent a list of 8-12 items of concern related to Anderson's leadership of the college to the college attorney and the Board of Trustees. Riedel claims that when Anderson and the complainant learned of this, they orchestrated a letter-writing campaign and asked anyone with "a gripe" against Riedel to write a letter in order to discredit him. According to Riedel, some of the complaints included not liking the new hiring practices, not liking that Riedel was conducting exit interviews with employees leaving the college and that he talked about himself too much. "There was not a single faculty member that wrote in with a complaint letter to the board, not to say there aren't any faculty who don't like me," Riedel said. "There was not a single student. And there was not a single member of the college Senate, which is our internal government board. Our shared governance board.[...] And the Board reviewed those [letters] in their meeting. And when they came out, they decided to put me on paid administrative leave." According to Riedel, within the past few days, Kuennen was reinstated as executive director of human resources at NICC. When asked last week if he would comment on the situation, Anderson said he could not comment because all matters were discussed during closed sessions. What comes next There are three Board of Trustee seats open in this election cycle, which concludes with in-person voting on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. In NICC District 3 (Howard Winneshiek), Jim Anderson is running for re-election and Julie Askelson is running against him. DecorahNews.com will publish updates on this developing story if and when more information becomes available.