The Florida State College at Jacksonville Board of Trustees has approved a retirement plan for President Steve Wallace, with only one trustee against the proposal.

Wallace kicked off today’s special meeting by telling the board he realizes it may be a good time for a leadership transition for the college and offering up a plan to address that. Wallace proposed stepping down as President at the end of this year, but staying on to work for the college in a mostly independent capacity through June of 2014.

Wallace's proposal would not include any buy-out, and would replace the contract he is under right now. His proposal totals $1,218,064 in pay and benefits already accrued, much higher than any pay-out, but including the additional time he will work with the college. He would give up the presidential perks, work from his home office, and not request any support staff from the college.

There were some changes in the proposal. Trustee Karen Bowling initially offered five amendments, four of which were applied, and Trustee Doug Burnett offered one. The Board approved changes to Wallace’s proposal which

1. More specifically define Wallace’s duties to focus on independent work separate from existing departments
2. Stipulate that no college resources be used for Wallace’s outside activity
3. Cap any expenses Wallace would seek to be reimbursed from the college (Wallace later said he would not seek any reimbursement)
4. Change the amount of time Wallace would have to give motive for leaving voluntarily from six months to two weeks.

A fifth amendment actually deals with Wallace’s current contract. Right now, Wallace would remain FSCJ President through this year.  Bowling recommended he be President for the remainder of the year, or until an interim is named.  Wallace opposed this change.

“I have some real pride with how I leave here, and I want to leave here with as many things brought to closer as I can,” he says.

Wallace says he will “work like a banshee” the remaining 2.5 months, but if he were not given the rest of the year, he was not confident he could leave the office with everything complete.  The Board decided to further discuss this proposal at their meeting in November, when they also begin to look in to who would be the interim and start to get a search committee in order to find Wallace’s replacement.

Burnett’s amendment dealt with the car Wallace has that comes with the position.  Under his proposal he would retain use of the car, although pay for gas.  The Burnett amendment, which the board approved, struck the car allowance.

That wasn’t the only thing about the contract that didn’t sit well with Burnett, however. He took issue with the total price of the package, and cited that as one of the main reasons he voted against the package. He says it is not a responsible sum of money to spend given tough times economically and overall for the college, with teachers struggling to make ends meet.

“They [faculty and staff] have to look at this as enormous.  I do, and certainly others must,” he says.

The roughly $1.2 million sum reflects $574,082 in compensation and $643,982 in benefits which Wallace has already accrued and is contractually entitled to.  Had the Board wanted to end Wallace’s current contract and offer no further employment, the buyout would have cost anywhere between around $362,000 and $851,000.

Trustee Jim McCollum doesn't like that board was given so little time to review the Wallace proposal, but in the end supported the proposal, along with the 8 other board members.

McCollum says two weeks ago, when he was board chair, he told Wallace he no longer supported him as future leader of college, and that conversation may have gotten the ball rolling on talks of Wallace stepping down.

“I don’t regret what I said, because it’s what I honestly believed- and still do,” he says.

He does however regret the conversation starting in that manner.

Several of the trustees already began focusing on the next step in their decision to let Wallace leave in this manner.  Trustee Suanne Thamm says any candidate to replace Wallace will look not just at the recent history of problems in the school, but how the Board handles Wallace’s departure.

“That will have a serious bearing on the number and quality of candidates who will apply to come to this institution,” she says.

She also says not handling his contract properly could have resulted in litigation which would be not just costly, but another smudge on the college’s reputation.

All agreed that Wallace’s work the past 15 years has been an important engine for the growth of the college- not just in the quality and scope of educational opportunities, but in outside donations and long-term infrastructural investments.  Most used terms like “regret” and “difficult” when speaking about the new contract.  The only more unanimously held feeling was hope that this would close the book on a rough chapter for Florida State College at Jacksonville in an effort to continue growing the school and moving forward.

There were two other significant actions taken at today’s meeting.  First, the Board decided to reconsider suspensions imposed last week following several hours of a workshop to discuss the findings of a recent financial aid audit.  That will be discussed once again at the upcoming board meeting November 6^th.  Additionally, they imposed a hiring freeze of sorts, for the time being.  With a big change at the helm getting hammered out, the Board decided the new leadership should have a say in any appointments made at this time.