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In times that many Americans are finding it hard to afford staying in their own houses, PCC is throwing money away. For six months the administration has allowed two football coaches to be paid: one at normal price, whom they have placed on paid administrative leave, and the other to do the first one’s job.

Harrowing fiscal periods – like the one our nation finds itself knee-deep in these days – demand a high level of administrative responsibility. Utmost transparency in the at-times clouded lines of bureaucracy becomes a necessity, and an important tool of structural accountability. The public must know about actions taken, and the motives for such actions, in order to be expected to hold the constant excesses of our leaders in check. Anything less borders on the undemocratic.

In the case of football coach Kenny Lawler and his six-month ongoing paid administrative leave, PCC’s ambiguity in its actions has led to the mismanagement of nearly $50,000.

Just before Lawler was told to pack up, Darryl “Slurp” Stephens, a member of the football team was arrested for assault on campus. It was later revealed that Stephens was a parolee and a registered sex offender.

Vice President of Instruction, Jacqueline Jacobs, said in a Sept. 17 prepared statement that an investigation on the matter was to be launched.

It was deemed a third-party investigation into Lawler’s “policies and procedures.”

According to officials four months later, the investigation was concluded. Two months have passed since then and still nothing has changed.

The laxity of PCC’s administration with this amount of money in today’s tired economy demands a certain amount of accountability.

Information on the matter from PCC’s administration is spare: Lawler was placed on leave for a broad investigation into his methods, implying that the administration was looking for evidence of misconduct. If this is all there is to the matter, then there is no rational reason that Lawler should still be on paid vacation while PCC pays two people to do the job of one.

If Lawler did something wrong, the administration needs to discipline him properly and swiftly. If, however, he did nothing wrong – which the investigation should have determined already – bring him back and stop paying his replacement.

Yet with the economic forecast alluding to a shrinking budget, PCC irresponsibly seems content in continuing to bankroll two coaches without explanation. A lack of transparency leaves all of PCC with two important questions: Why? And for how much longer?

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