State panel to subpoena UCF brass
House committee to question President Dale Whittaker, others in probe of misspent millions
Four current and former UCF officials — including President Dale Whittaker — will be issued subpoenas compelling them to testify before a Florida House committee probing the university’s misuse of millions of dollars in leftover operating money on construction projects.
The Public Integrity and Ethics Committee voted Wednesday to summon Whittaker, former President John Hitt, former Board of Trustees Chairman Marcos Marchena and former Chief Financial Officer Bill Merck as part of an ongoing investigation that began after the state auditor general’s office discovered university leaders had decided to build Trevor Colbourn Hall using $38 million from an inappropriate source. The officials are expected to testify during depositions and an upcoming committee meeting.
A law firm hired by the University of Central Florida to determine which employees were involved in misspending state money on Trevor Colbourn Hall wrapped up its investigation last month, and UCF’s Board of Trustees declined to expand the review to other projects. But the Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, overruled that decision last week and voted to extend the inquiry at UCF’s expense. Marchena stepped aside as the chairman of the Board of Trustees during the same meeting, though he remains on the board.
Florida House Public Integrity and Ethics Committee chair Rep. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, said the university’s Board of Trustees apparently sometimes “fails to appreciate the gravity of the situation they’re in.”
It became clear Wednesday that university leaders won’t es-
cape further scrutiny from the panel.
“We think there’s more to be learned and possibly even more misused funds to uncover,” said Don Rubottom, the committee’s staff director.
In addition to the four officials, committee members also voted to subpoena 10 other current and former university employees, including three people who faced termination at the conclusion of the Trevor Colbourn Hall investigation. The House committee is the first group to review the matter that has subpoena power, Rubottom said, adding that the Board of Governors wasn’t able to interview everyone they wanted.
Whittaker wrote in an email to the Orlando Sentinel that he will continue to tell the truth during the latest phase of the investigation and instruct other employees to do the same.
“What happened was wrong,” he wrote. “The people who did this, and concealed their actions, are no longer with the university. UCF has taken multiple and aggressive steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We are committed to regaining the trust of the Board of Governors and Florida House.”
But Rep. David Smith, R-Winter Springs, said during Wednesday’s committee meeting that he’s been hearing from constituents concerned about “a pattern of misconduct at UCF.” Smith’s district includes portions of Seminole County near the university.
Committee members said in January that UCF spent or planned to spend a total of $84.7 million in leftover operating funds between 2013 and 2018. While university leaders said replacing the dilapidated Colbourn Hall constituted an emergency, the same couldn’t be said for other projects that university leaders planned to build using leftover operating dollars, Rubottom said.
Those included a central energy plant and a student housing complex at the soon-to-open downtown campus, according to documents posted on the university’s website.
“They were just nice new things,” Rubottom said.
Whittaker became the university’s president on July 1, succeeding Hitt, who held the post for 26 years. Provost for nearly four years before gaining the top job, Whittaker has maintained that he didn’t know the university couldn’t use leftover operating funds for construction. The law firm hired by the university to review the matter supported that claim. He told the Board of Governors in September that Merck took “immediate and full responsibility” for the misspending. The former CFO resigned that day.
Merck declined an interview with the Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner law firm but told the Sentinel that he realized using leftover operating dollars on construction might result in an “audit comment.” He said other university leaders, including Whittaker, were aware of that as well.