A history of alleged mismanagement and inequality in the athletics department of Dakota County Technical College has led to a federal civil rights investigation and a whistleblower lawsuit from a fired employee.
Court records and other documents obtained by the Pioneer Press show that the series of complaints that would eventually lead to the lawsuit and federal inquiry stretch back to at least 2012. Allegations include financial mismanagement, theft, retaliation against employees who complained and violations of National Junior College Athletic Association rules.
As the allegations piled up at DCTC, employees in the athletics department were afraid to speak out, records show. One employee who did says doing so resulted in harassment and eventually cost him his job.
“I think our biggest problem was a lack of leadership,” said Trent Seaman, DCTC’s former baseball coach who won a division championship in May only to be fired days later. “I can’t figure out what happened.”
Cameron Stoltz, who coached men’s soccer and also lost his job in May, filed a lawsuit against the school Tuesday, alleging wrongful termination and retaliation. He declined an interview request.
Seaman said DCTC’s largely part-time administration, which also oversees nearby Inver Hills Community College, has left the athletics department floundering without proper financial oversight and day-to-day leadership.
Rather than investigate problems, Stoltz’s lawsuit claims, school leaders threatened and harassed him when he raised concerns about mismanagement and inequality.
Marlo Miller, a DCTC spokeswoman, said Wednesday that school leaders are proud of the athletics programs offered to students. She said the school takes civil rights complaints under the federal Title IX law very seriously and makes every effort to investigate allegations of noncompliance.
“We will not comment on pending litigation. We have every confidence this issue will be resolved in our favor,” Miller said.
Officials from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system that oversees DCTC did not comment despite repeated requests.
A U.S. Department of Education spokesman from the Office of Civil Rights confirmed the school is being investigated for allegedly violating Title IX, the 40-year-old federal law that guarantees women equal access to school programs. The spokesman said the department cannot release details of the inquiry that began in July 2015 because it has not been completed.
WHISTLEBLOWER LAWSUIT
Former soccer coach Stoltz, who also was athletics coordinator from 2008 until 2014, claims in his lawsuit that college leaders violated Minnesota’s Whistleblower Act by demoting and later firing him for complaining about alleged Title IX violations and financial mismanagement.
In his role as athletics coordinator, Stoltz oversaw the day-to-day operation of the department with a focus on growing the program, his lawsuit said. In that role, he did not oversee other coaches or the budget, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit claims that beginning in 2012, DCTC leaders spent money on men’s and women’s athletics inequitably. For example, it says DCTC’s then-president Ron Thomas pushed for a new baseball facility while delaying and denying improvements to the dilapidated softball field.
Men’s programs received more funding for recruiting, travel and promotions while women’s teams at times were denied practice time, the lawsuit says.
Stoltz also reported alleged instances of theft and embezzlement by an athletics department employee and claimed college leaders pressured employees to break rules to benefit student athletes.
Rather than investigate these allegations, Stoltz’s lawsuit claims, school leaders instead harassed him, reduced his responsibilities and eventually fired him.
Stoltz’s lawsuit, filed in Ramsey County District Court, seeks back wages and damages. He declined to comment.
PAST INVESTIGATION
Allegations of mismanagement and inequity eventually reached MnSCU leaders who investigated some of the complaints about DCTC’s athletics program in 2013. A redacted copy of a report about the special investigation, recently obtained by the Pioneer Press, shows MnSCU officials found many of the allegations to be true.
The report, which had some names and other information omitted, included recommendations to improve oversight of athletics and ways to strengthen financial controls on the campus in Rosemount. It is unclear if any of those recommendations were ever followed or if any employees were disciplined.
The special investigation uncovered critical reports of Thomas’ oversight of the sports programs he helped start in 2002. Employees told investigators they felt school leaders didn’t follow up on complaints and some staffers feared retaliation.
Investigators were told Thomas had an “inordinate amount of influence” over DCTC’s athletics programs, directly supervising coaches and controlling budgeting and spending. Investigators found the athletics department had a “culture of bypassing budgetary expectations and procedural requirements.”
The inquiry also found:
- Poor oversight of sports fees and fundraising.
- Several possible violations of student athlete eligibility rules.
- School facilities used by an outside group, for which DCTC was not paid.
- Irregularities in spending and bookkeeping for the DCTC Foundation.
Records show the investigation began in April 2013, around the same time Thomas announced his retirement after leading the school for 13 years. By the time the inquiry concluded in August 2013, Thomas was no longer with the school.
After his retirement, Thomas moved out of state. He could not be reached for comment.
NEW LEADERSHIP
After Thomas’ retirement, oversight of DCTC was turned over to Tim Wynes, who is also president of nearby Inver Hills Community College. Wynes’ dual leadership role has been criticized recently by faculty at Inver Hills who say it has led to poor management.
Stoltz’s lawsuit says problems with DCTC’s athletics department continued under Wynes. In 2013, college leaders revealed Stoltz was a whistleblower to other employees, who then harassed him.
In 2014, Stoltz had his work hours reduced from full- to part-time, and he was eventually denied tenure, the lawsuit said. After years of trying to get DCTC and MnSCU leaders to address his allegations, Stoltz made a complaint to the U.S. Department of Education.
This spring, both Stoltz and Seaman were told their contracts would not be renewed for the coming school year. The men’s baseball and soccer teams the coaches led include about 60 athletes and make up nearly half of the school’s sports participants, federal data from 2015 shows.
Seaman was told his contract was not renewed because school leaders did not like the way he ran the baseball team. A letter to Wynes and other school leaders from “Concerned Parents DCTC Baseball” said Seaman’s firing was “very surprising and very perplexing.”
The letter notes the team won three regional titles after Seaman took over in spring 2012. It also says Seaman’s players maintained good grades and many moved on to play at four-year schools.
“Coach Seaman has accomplished so much, in a short period,” the letter said. “He took over a program that was a complete mess from the previous coaching staffs and quickly converted into a trustworthy and ethical championship caliber program.”
A SPORTS HISTORY
DCTC’s athletics programs began not long after Thomas became president in 1999. The college enrolls about 1,300 students and has six sports teams with 128 participants.
Federal records show DCTC spent about $620,000 on sports during the 2014-15 school year, which is about 2.5 percent of its $24 million budget.
About 56 percent of operating expenses were spent on men’s teams and 44 percent on women’s teams, the federal data shows.There was a similar gender split in distribution of about $102,000 in financial aid.
DCTC is one of just a handful of technical colleges in the Upper Midwest to compete at the intercollegiate level.
As the college’s sports programs expanded, DCTC partnered with Rosemount city leaders to expand the school’s facilities while providing much-needed sports fields for area youth teams.
Thomas’ dedication to sports programs he helped create earned him a lot of accolades, but his management style also drew a lot of criticism.
“I would run through a brick wall for Dr. Thomas,” Seaman said. “He made some poor decisions, but he was a big supporter of the program.”