Board Meeting Transcripts 2003

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: 
Frank B. Strickland, Chairman 
Lillian R. BeVier 
Robert J. Dieter 
David Hall

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: 
Herbert S. Garten 
Michael D. McKay 
Thomas R. Meites 
Florentino Subia

STAFF AND PUBLIC PRESENT: 
Victor M. Fortuno, Vice President for Legal Affairs, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary 
John Eidleman, Acting Vice President for Compliance
and Administration 
Leonard Koczur, Acting Inspector General 
Laurie Tarantowicz, Assistant Inspector General and Legal Counsel 
Patricia Hanrahan, Special Counsel to the Vice President for Programs 
Kimberly Heron, Program Analyst 
Rebecca Tweed, American Bar Association 
 

C O N T E N T S
			Page
1.		Approval of Agenda	6
2.		Consider and act on proposed timeline for the selection process	7
3.		Public Comment	10
4.		Approval of minutes of June 28, 2003 search committee open session	12
5.		Consider and act on other business	14

MOTIONS:

6,   13,   16

P R O C E E D I N G S

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: I call to order a meeting of the presidential and inspector general search committee of the Legal Services Corporation pursuant to notice published in the Federal Register. And I think the first thing we should do here is have a roll call of attendees at the meeting so we can get that in the record.

First let's have a roll call by name of persons who are on the call from the board of directors. And this is Frank Strickland at this end. Go ahead.

MS. BeVIER: Lillian BeVier.

MR. MEITES: Tom Meites.

MR. HALL: David Hall.

MR. McKAY: Mike McKay.

MR. DIETER: Rob Dieter.

MR. SUBIA: Lico Subia.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Okay. And we had Herb Garten a moment ago. He may have dropped off.

MR. GARTEN: I am here.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Okay, Herb. All right. Any other board members on the phone at the moment? All right. Well, I will declare that as far as the presidential search committee meeting is concerned, that there is a quorum of that committee present for the conducting of business. And now I'll ask Vic to conduct a roll there in your conference room of staff who are on the call.

MR. FORTUNO: As for staff, this is Vic Fortuno and I'm here. Others will identify themselves now.

MS. HANRAHAN: I'm Pat Hanrahan.

MS. TARANTOWICZ: Laurie Tarantowicz.

MR. KOCZUR: Len Koczur.

MR. EIDLEMAN: John Eidleman.

MS. HERON: Kimberly Heron.

MR. FORTUNO: And that's it. Just to be clear, if I may, Mr. Chairman, as the board members present the chairman, Frank Strickland, the vice chair, Lillian BeVier, Tom Meites, Herb Garten, David Hall, Mike McKay, and Lico Subia? Anyone else?

MR. DIETER: Rob Dieter.

MR. FORTUNO: Rob Dieter. Oh, great.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: And let me also state for the record that I received an e-mail a moment ago from the staff indicating that board member Ernestine Watlington, who's also a member of the search committee, is not able to participate in this call and asked me to telephone her later today, which I will do. She's aware of the meeting and has received the materials and just simply can't participate.

But the first order of business, now that everyone has identified themselves, is I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda that is included in your board materials under that tab, Agenda.

M O T I O N

MS. BeVIER: So moved.

MR. DIETER: Second.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. Any discussion?

(No response.)

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Hearing none, I will declare that the agenda has been adopted unanimously and proceed with the next item.

And you'll see in your board book a proposed timeline for the start and finish of the presidential search. And I think that, by the way, thanks to the efforts of Vic Fortuno, we have that timeline. And perhaps I would look for some advice from Vic on this. If we proceed to adopt this timeline, am I correct in thinking that we are also free to modify it as may be necessary as the search progresses? Is that correct?

MR. FORTUNO: Yes. That's correct. And I should add --

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: And then probably do that without the necessity of having a meeting, just simply do it, or maybe the committee could delegate to the chair the responsibility for making minor changes in the search timeline as may be needed to accommodate the schedule as it unfolds.

MR. FORTUNO: It could also -- if I may, Mr. Chairman, this is Vic Fortuno.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Sure.

MR. FORTUNO: The timeline that you have at the last meeting of this committee, I believe it was Mr. Dieter who asked whether we could provide a timeline for consideration. That's all this is, is a draft to serve as a basis for discussion by the committee.

You need not adopt a timeline, or if you adopt something, you can make it aspirational. You can make it as formal or informal as you'd like. But we thought that, one, in response to Mr. Dieter's request, and two, just as a tool for discussion and a tool which would probably be helpful in that you'd be thinking further down the road as opposed to the next meeting or two, we thought it would be helpful for the committee to take up at this meeting.

But again, this draft here is maybe a little ambitious and I don't know that you necessarily want to buy into it as is. But we thought it would be a good starting point for discussion.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Well, why don't we -- if there's any discussion about it, certainly let's go ahead and have that. But I think I will adopt the suggestion of Vic Fortuno that this is an aspirational timeline that is presented to us for our consideration and perhaps for our use without going ahead with a formal adoption of that timeline.

Is that acceptable to the -- particularly to the committee, the search committee?

MS. BeVIER: It's acceptable to me, Frank. But the one aspect of the timeline that maybe we might want to just think about and make sure about is the dates of meetings that conceivably the committee would be having so that we can get them on our calendars, unless what we're doing is thinking about having all of this by teleconference.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: I don't think we've yet decided whether we'll have those in person or by teleconference. And I think --

MS. BeVIER: So maybe that's premature.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Yes. I think that perhaps the best way -- or at least my observation is the best way to get the meeting dates set is to ask Elizabeth Cushing to survey the members of the committee and the board relative to their availability for a meeting either by teleconference or in person, and do it that way rather than try to set some firm dates right now.

MS. BeVIER: That's fine.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: If that's acceptable, okay. Good.

MS. BeVIER: Yes.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: I don't have anything else on the proposed timetable other than to ask everyone to familiarize themselves with it, and let's just have it be aspirational and there for our use, and we'll be as efficient as we can in the search, with a target date of roughly 90 days. The firms I've talked to have indicated that that's a possible -- as I scheduled it is not impossible to achieve. So that will be our general guideline.

Is there any other discussion about the proposed timetable?

(No response.)

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. At this point, is there any public comment? I'm not aware that there are any public participants in today's meeting. Are there any such participants? If so, we would ask you to identify yourself. Apparently there is not --

MR. FORTUNO: Mr. Chairman --

MS. TWEED: I have one -- Rebecca Tweed, American Bar Association.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. Yes. Sorry, I didn't know you were on the call.

MR. FORTUNO: She actually arrived in the last couple of minutes.

MS. TWEED: I just came in. Yes.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Are you in the conference room at LSC?

MS. TWEED: Yes, I am.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Or are you just on the call from your own --

MS. TWEED: I'm in the conference room.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. Do you have any comment for us today?

MS. TWEED: We do not. You'll probably be getting one from Julie Strandley, the woman that I work for, but she's in San Francisco.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: You mean Janet?

MS. TWEED: Julie.

MR. FORTUNO: Julie Strandley is with the ABA.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Oh, I'm sorry. I was confusing her with Janet Studley of the SCLAID committee.

MR. GARTEN: She's stationed in Washington with government relations.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: We've already received an extensive report from the SCLAID committee. Is this going to be -- this will be a different report. And will it be submitted in writing?

MS. TWEED: Yes, it will be.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. We'll be glad to receive that whenever you're ready to submit it to us.

MS. TWEED: Okay.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: And is there any other public comment at this point?

(No response.)

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. Then I believe the next item would be to -- if you could take a look at the tab in your board book about the June 28, 2003 minutes of the open session. There's a tab that has that caption. And if someone has had an opportunity to review those minutes and find them to be in order, I would entertain a motion for the approval of those minutes.

MR. McKAY: Mr. Chairman, this is Mike McKay. I know I'm not a member of the committee but I do ask, since I sat in on that meeting, as another board member who was attending. I notice that I was not listed.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. We will make that change.

MR. McKAY: Thank you.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: And with that amendment to the minutes of the search committee on the open session of June 28, 2003, is there a motion to approve those minutes?

M O T I O N

MS. BeVIER: So moved.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Is there a second?

MR. HALL: Second.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Any discussion on the approval of the minutes?

(No response.)

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. Hearing none, and without objection, I will declare the minutes approved by unanimous vote of the committee.

When we move into our closed session here in a few minutes, we will take up the minutes of the closed session that occurred on June 28, and by motion at that time.

Now, is there anything else that we want to take up in the open session? Anyone have anything?

(No response.)

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. As I mentioned a few moments ago, to protect the integrity of the closed session, I'm sure all of us have had experience, as I know I have, where people have called in to one of these calls who were not supposed to be on the call.

So to protect the integrity of the process, we have decided to have an operator-initiated call for the closed session. And we will convene that session and then we will excuse a number of people who are on the call now when we go into -- at the time we go into closed session.

And in fact, I think the only person who will join us for that -- tell me if I'm correct on this, Vic -- whether you as the corporate officer and staff person who is working with the search committee and the court reporter, and that's it from LSC. Is that correct?

MR. FORTUNO: That's correct, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. Then if you could attend to that when we take the motion here in a moment to go into closed session, then when the operator calls back you'll be ready to go.

Do we have everyone's contact number? I know Herb Garten gave me a couple of numbers a while ago. Did you get those at your end, Vic, Herb's two numbers? MR. FORTUNO: Yes.

MR. GARTEN: Let me repeat the cell number. (410) 963-2169. The hotel in San Francisco that I will be in my room by is (415) 771-1400.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Do you think you'll be there, Herb, say --

MR. GARTEN: Yes. I'm in the lobby. I'm talking to you in the lobby.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Oh, okay.

MR. GARTEN: I'm already checked in.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Well, good. You're moving right along. I thought you were still in a taxi, so I'm glad to hear you're on the ground. So you ought to be in your room, say, in ten minutes when we convene the closed session.

MR. GARTEN: Oh, yes. That's correct.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. Good. And we have everyone else's phone number in the hands of the operator. And there was an issue about whether your number was in the operator's hands, Lillian. Is that now -- that loop now closed?

MS. BeVIER: I believe so, yes.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. I would then entertain a motion to go into closed session at this time. Is there such a motion?

M O T I O N

MR. DIETER: So moved.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: Second?

MS. BeVIER: Second.

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye.

(A chorus of ayes.)

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. Those opposed, nay.

(No response.)

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: The ayes have it, and the motion is adopted. And we will now terminate this call of the open session and go into a closed session, to commence at 2:30 with an operator-initiated call. And I would note for the other participants on the call before we go into closed session that we will terminate the closed session without going back into open session, and that will be it for today.

Does anyone have any other comments or questions at this point?

(No response.)

CHAIRMAN STRICKLAND: All right. I will declare, then, that the open session is at an end and we will go into closed session commencing at 2:30 with the operator-initiated call. And thanks to everyone for participating in this part of the meeting. I look forward to talking to you again in about ten minutes.

(Whereupon, at 2:20 p.m., the meeting adjourned to closed session.)

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