Texts appear to show New College trustee coordinating motions to hire Corcoran and Galvano
Zac Anderson
Text messages released Friday by New College of Florida appear to show new Trustee Matthew Spalding coordinating with individuals behind the scenes on the motions he made in January to move towards hiring Richard Corcoran as interim president and Bill Galvano as general counsel, including texting with Corcoran himself.
The text messages were obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which has filed a lawsuit against New College to compel the release of public records.
Someone named Richard with the initials “RC” who appears to be Corcoran, texted with Spalding. The text says: “motion is I start no later than march 1st. I may start earlier.” The text appears to have been sent on Jan. 31, the same day that former President Patricia Okker was fired and Spalding made the motion to negotiate with Corcoran to become interim president.
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Another individual identified only as “Kelly” texted with Spalding regarding Galvano. The text appears to include language for the motion Spalding made to negotiate with Galvano, a veteran GOP elected official, to become general counsel.
The text reads: “I’ve come to know of and believe that Florida’s former Senate President Bill Galvano, who represented this community and represented this College while serving in the Legislature, would be the kind of counsel we should engage. I want to thank (former general counsel David Smolker) for his service, although move that we transition to new counsel in the form (of) Bill Galvano and his firm.”
“I know that Mr. Galvano is agreeable to this, and I believe we should engage him in a contract to become our new outside counsel for the Board. Not only was he previously the Senate President, he was for four years Chair of Higher Education in the Legislature.”
The actual motion that Spalding introduced on Jan. 31 didn’t follow the text language exactly, but included many of the points.
“First of all, Mr. Smolker I thank you very much,” Spalding said on Jan. 31, before introducing the motion to hire Galvano.
“Bill Galvano, who's a highly qualified lawyer who represented this college in the state Legislature, he’s an area lawyer, he’s a former Senate President, was chair of the Higher Education Committee, he is very interested in serving the board in this capacity and so likewise I would move that we authorize the chair to engage Mr. Galvano and his firm as a legal counsel for the board of trustees,” Spalding said on Jan. 31.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Spalding and five other conservative board members at New College on Jan. 6 in a bid to completely transform the public liberal arts school, with DeSantis citing Hillsdale College -- a conservative Christian school in Michigan -- as the new model for New College.
The new board members fired Okker in a dramatic meeting on Jan. 31 and moved immediately to negotiate with Corcoran and Galvano to fill key leadership roles at the Sarasota school.
Concerns have been raised about how the leadership change was handled, and whether it was coordinated behind the scenes in way that was shielded from public view. Some have questioned whether the state's Sunshine laws were broken.
Corcoran's selection as interim president was reported by conservative media outlet and confirmed by the governor's office before New College's board had even voted on Jan. 31.
Spalding did not respond to questions about his text messages by early Friday afternoon.
It's not clear who the "Kelly" is who texted with Spalding.
In another text message released by New College Friday, new Trustee Eddie Speir talks about communicating with Alex Kelly, a deputy chief of staff for DeSantis.
Speir texted Alan Levine, a member of the state governing body for Florida's university system, on Jan. 27 to say that Kelly suggested they connect.
"Hey Alan, this is Eddie Speir, trustee with New College," Speir wrote. "Alex Kelly gave me your contact info. And suggested we meet/talk. Give me a call at your convenience."