UCAFANS.COM | GO UCA BEARS!

Another article on more of Hardin's shenanigan's that is not going to result in one thing by reporting it. I really wish this lady would realize that the root of our evil has been removed and instead of digging up the poison ivy of the past that we are trying to plant some flowers for our future. Those of you that want to defend the reporting of the article and author of a piece of news that has about as much bearing as an article about an ingrown toenail - knock yourselves out.

All this negative reporting by this one person is no longer accomplishing one positive thing. Sorry about the length of the article I'm about to post but Trey said one time you had to join the ADG online just to click on the link to the article to read it. Not all people want to do that.

Read the whole article and please let me know how we could actually do something about said article to make things better. I'm sure we were late making a payment for electricity at one time also but it didn't warrant a front page article about it. Neither does this - imo.

UCA quickly shed contract with LR firm

BY DEBRA HALE-SHELTON ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

CONWAY — Former University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin contracted with a company owned by his former U.S. Senate campaign manager to do consulting for the university. Hardin’s successor quickly terminated the relationship.
The $24,000 contract had been renewed Aug. 25, three days before Hardin tendered his resignation.
Bill Vickery’s Little Rock company, The Gordian Group, listed the services he was to provide in the contract as public-affairs consulting, lobbying preparation, governmental outreach and media-relations coordination.
The contract’s timing, the UCA signature on it and interim President Tom Courtway’s cancellation letter two months after taking office were revealed in documents released to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Vickery declined to release copies of any news media items that resulted from what he called his “media spinning” work for UCA.
Vickery said he also successfully worked to keep some things from being published or broadcast. He said he recalled talking with one news media person once about how Courtway’s selection as interim president “would lessen the blow at UCA” because Courtway had “such strong credibility” among state legislators.
Interviews with some top UCA officials revealed a lack of knowledge about the agreement and what specific services Vickery provided.
The contract, which took effect Sept. 1, 2008, had been scheduled to end June 30.
Hardin resigned Aug. 28, 2008, after two months of contention over an accelerated bonus UCA trustees secretly gave him. He returned the money only to face ethical questions over a memorandum supporting that bonus and other pay.
Courtway, who was UCA’s general counsel, took over the president’s office the next day, Aug. 29, 2008. Last week, trustees offered him a two-year contract to return to his former job with more pay starting July 1. Trustees are to meet again today to consider four finalists for the president’s job.
Courtway notified Vickery of the contract’s cancellation in an Oct. 16, 2008, letter. In it, Courtway declined to pay a $2,000 September 2008 invoice submitted by Vickery’s company.
“I do not know of services rendered for the month under the contract so for the time being, I do not intend to process it for payment,” Courtway wrote.
Vickery said he did work for UCA that September but he did not challenge the cancellation because of UCA’s financial troubles and other problems.
“I’ve got a very cordial relationship with President Courtway,” said Vickery, who handled Hardin’s unsuccessful 1996 campaign for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. “I didn’t take any offense to [the letter] at all.”
WHOSE SIGNATURE?
Courtway said he learned of the agreement shortly after he became interim president. He said then-executive vice president Barbara Anderson later approached him about paying the September invoice.
Courtway said he did not know who signed the contract that bears Hardin’s name. But Jack Gillean, vice president for administration, said Anderson did so.
Hardin had authorized Anderson and Gillean “to affix his signature when necessary and appropriate,” said Gillean, who also is UCA’s interim general counsel.
“That is without question Barbara Anderson’s” version of Hardin’s signature, Gillean said.
Neither Anderson nor Hardin returned phone messages seeking comment. Courtway eliminated Anderson’s job late last year.
Hardin’s resignation did not legally take effect until Sept. 16, 2008, although he no longer worked in the president’s office after he announced his resignation.
Gillean said he believes that Hardin specifically authorized Anderson to sign the Vickery agreement.
“I think what it really was, was an effort on the part of Ms. Anderson and President Hardin to fulfill a commitment that President Hardin thought he had made with respect to this contract,” Gillean said.
During September 2008, Vickery said, “We worked directly with President Hardin as he was winding down his tenure in office.”
Vickery said he had “anticipated” reporting to the new president after Sept. 16.
The contract, however, lists assistant vice president for university relations Jeff Pitchford as the coordinator.
Pitchford, who handles governmental relations for UCA, said he did not know he was the contact person on the contract until Courtway called him into the office shortly before the cancellation to ask about the agreement and advised Pitchford that his name was on it.
Pitchford said he told Courtway he knew UCA had a contract with Vickery but had no details. “He asked me what Bill did,” and Pitchford said he indicated “that was between him [Vickery] and President Hardin.”
Vickery also said he did not know Pitchford’s name was on the contract. Vickery said he never reported to anyone other than Hardin.
Another contract for $22,500 between Vickery and UCA from Dec. 1, 2006, through April 30, 2007, indicates that Hardin was the UCA representative coordinating the work.
Vickery said Pitchford “was aware of the work we were doing.”
Pitchford said, however, that he wasn’t sure what Vickery did for UCA but knew Vickery worked in media as well as political and governmental relations.
“I would see him come in the office about once a month or so ... while Lu was president,” Pitchford said. “I was never included in any meeting, and Lu didn’t talk to me about working with Vickery on any issue.
“You would think if I was listed as the contact person, I would know,” Pitchford said of the 2008 contract.
After Hardin left, Pitchford said, “Bill never came around the office, to my knowledge.”
LOBBYING PREPARATION
In the cancellation letter, Courtway says, “My decision is not based upon any questions or doubts about you or your firm’s professionalism, competence or integrity. Rather, it is based upon a review of our existing contracts and our needs for the future.”
Vickery said he did “a significant amount of work for not a significant amount of money.” Vickery declined, however, to cite any work published or broadcast that resulted from his media efforts.
“To identify cases of where you’ve spun the media toward your client’s favor would be one of the stupidest things in political consulting” one could do, he said.
Courtway said one factor in the Vickery contract’s cancellation was UCA’s contract with James Lee Witt and Associates for lobbying in Washington and Little Rock.
Gillean said that contract, formerly for $8,500 a month, has been in place about five years. It was recently renewed at $5,000 per month. Pitchford said Witt has helped get UCA almost $1 million in earmarks in the past three years.
But Vickery stressed, “I was not a lobbyist for UCA at any time.” Rather, he said he was a political consultant and media spinner and might promote UCA by helping lobbyists.
“I did a lot of public-affairs work relative to what UCA was doing ... during the legislative sessions, specifically with legislators,” he said, but never lobbied for specific bills on UCA’s behalf.
The September 2008 invoice refers to “lobbying preparation,” not lobbying, but some other UCA documents involving Vickery refer to “lobbying services.”
A UCA sheet dated March 15, 2007, for example, reflects Vickery’s bid and two other companies’ no-bids on the 2007 contract and says, “Providing lobbying services while the Arkansas General Assembly is in session. The contractor will communicate the interests of the university by seeking support of legislation affecting the University.”
Vickery said his company did more “media spinning” related to opinion commentary.
“I worked extensively in terms of helping to develop the profile for the university ... to provide some strategic direction for President Hardin” such as pursing a presidential debate on the UCA campus in 2007 by raising UCA’s profile, Vickery said.
UCA was among 16 finalists for a debate but ultimately was not chosen.
“I want to vehemently defend the work that I did on behalf of UCA,” Vickery said. “The notion that we didn’t do any work is offensive to me.
“I work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and I always calculate what I say and the result of that conversation, 100 percent of the time,” Vickery said.

You are right HB, this article is really has nothing to do with UCA, but it has everything to do with power-hungry Hardin...maybe she has something against him too.
Maybe since she is on here (Member #554) she can answer that question for us...

Vickery is a well known consultant/lobbyist type. He was Pres Hardin's campaign manager when he ran for the US Senate years ago. His influence in LR and public relations work were probably worth 2,000 a month. We spend very little on lobbyists, while other major universities have whole regiments of them constantly presenting their case and needs to the legislature. I do not understand why that was a featured article. Every university uses consultants, lobbyists, and media types.

Exactly. I'm sure the UofA has no one lobbying for them!

Old Bear, this woman has an agenda to destroy UCA with the pen in the courts of public opinion. Her coverage of certain negative issues is fine, but she has gone too far in creating stories for self glorification. As a former journalist, I can tell you her tactics are self promoting and without cause. My only thought is that she is getting paid by the word. I refuse to read her trash and wish she'd move back to Chicago to do more write ups of cultural issues.