The Utah College of Applied Technology board on Monday again chose Robert Brems to head the state's eight-campus vocational training system in a sharply divided vote that pitted two veteran insiders for the top spot.
UCAT trustees voted in October to make Brems president of UCAT, a post he held two years ago before resigning in the wake of an unfavorable audit .
But criticism of the process by which Brems regained his old job, especially by UCAT trustee William Sederbug, Utah's Commissioner of Higher Education, prompted board chair Thomas Bingham to withdraw Brems' name and "revisit" his selection.
Sederburg was incensed that the candidates' names were not made available to trustees ahead of time and they were given no opportunity to interview the two finalists.
During a four-hour meeting Monday at Fort Douglas, trustees interviewed Brems and Michael Bouwhuis, a four-time finalist for UCAT president and Brems' chief rival for the job, which paid $157,000 last year.
Bouwhuis is a 34-year veteran of career and technical education and has served as president of the Davis Applied Technology College (ATC) since 1994.
The trustees voted 7-5 for Brems. Three trustees were absent from the meeting, and a fourth left before the vote was held.
On Monday, Sederburg struck a conciliatory tone while still calling Brems' appointment "a mistake."
"I applaud the decision to open it up. It was a very frank and open conversation," Sederburg said.
The convoluted story of Brems' leadership at UCAT dates back to 2007, when the 54-year-old Lehi resident was president for just a year. He resigned after an audit revealed that UCAT's Mountainland campus in Orem, while under Brems' leadership, built a parade float for the Utah County Republican Party initially using college money.
The audit also found Brems accepted an "unreasonable" $157,782 transition package after being promoted to UCAT president and showed he under-reported his income to the IRS.
When Brems replacement, Richard White, left earlier this year, UCAT trustees voted in October to return Brems to his old job.
Monday's vote drew immediate fire from Richard Davis, chairman of the Utah County Democratic Party, who claims Brems' re-appointment is awash in politics and is payback for his silence on the float scandal.
"There needs to be an investigation by the governor's office into what happened. It's an example of cronyism run wild," Davis said. "If Rob Brems really is the best candidate, an open process will discover that. This is not the way higher education institutions are supposed to work. It really puts a cloud on UCAT."
Brems said Monday he has not publicly defended himself regarding the audit because of an agreement he reached with Regents that neither party would make disparaging remarks about the other.
The issues raised in the audit were innocent mistakes that he corrected once they were brought to his attention, said Brems, who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in industrial technical education from Utah State University.
"It felt good to give my side of the story [to the UCAT trustees]," he said. "I hope it can be put behind us. I want to get to work and lead UCAT."
The controversy surrounding Brems' reappointment has detracted from the message UCAT leaders have sought to convey since winning partial independence this year from the Utah System of Higher Education.
That message, according to Bingham, is that UCAT provides career and technical education in an "open-entry, open-exit, competency-based system" that can usher students quickly into good-paying, in-demand jogs.
Last year, the college provided 6 million hours of instruction to 44,000 students, a quarter of them high schoolers.
"But there is a problem with perception that if you don't have a bachelor's degree you are a second-class citizen," Bingham said. "That's unfortunate, not just for students, but also their parents. Hey, it's OK to be a plumber."
Bingham praised both finalists' experience, but pointed to Brems' ties to public education as his winning qualification. He immediately leaves his current post as program director at the Dixie ATC and reports to duty today at UCAT's temporary offices at its Davis campus.
UCAT is in the process of moving from the offices it shared with the Board of Regents at Salt Lake City's Gateway Mall to a new home at the Rampton complex on 4500 South.
Brems said his first priorities are to align UCAT with public education to better serve the high school population and improve the college's relationships with degree-granting institutions.
