Must-see TV: NIC board meetings

As public meetings go, the North Idaho College Board of Trustees' gathering Tuesday will go down as one of the weirdest on record.

In accordance with Idaho open meeting laws, here’s what the official notification said:

“The North Idaho College Board of Trustees has scheduled a special meeting…to begin at 4 p.m. with an executive session followed by an open session during which time the trustees will consider taking action on the president’s contract and the president’s employment.”

The meeting started late, which was odd right off the bat because a) it was at least the third time the board delayed voting on MacLennan's contract and b) there had been no executive session. For the most part, the meeting featured:

• A lost-looking board chair, Todd Banducci, leaning over to whisper several times with longtime Trustee Ken Howard;

• An intense Trustee Greg McKenzie, appearing to want to pick a fight with Howard over when the board would really and truly meet with the intent to accomplish anything at all;

• A lost-looking board chair presiding just enough to get one thing done: Agree to meet again Sept. 22;

• And out on an island, all by himself, NIC President Rick MacLennan, probably feeling like Tom Hanks in Cast Away.

For indeed, MacLennan has been all but cast away by the board’s majority — Banducci, McKenzie and Michael Barnes.

The worst-kept secret in the region is that those three want MacLennan gone. The president even brought up the reason for the meeting — his status as the college’s leader — and was treated like Wilson, Hanks’ volleyball and only island friend. Except Hanks actually acted like Wilson was there.

Does disrespect know no bounds? Never mind that MacLennan has been an effective president since taking over five years ago; if you wanted to torture somebody, and torture them well, you could convince three of his five bosses to relentlessly undermine and second guess him, and keep him in limbo about his future with the organization.

If the intent is to treat Dr. MacLennan so miserably that he quits and walks away from the remaining one and a half or so years on his three-year contract, good luck with that. Our guess is that MacLennan would rather fight than switch — with complete justification and loads of community support behind him.

This appalling made-for-TV series, whose writers apparently can’t agree on a script for the final episode, may or may not conclude on Sept. 22. With the three-headed majority on the NIC board, don’t be surprised if MacLennan is wrongfully fired and the next NIC president is a guy named Wilson, who looks suspiciously like a volleyball.