Accusations that $24,000 in general funds were spent on a public relations consultant for the Board of Trustees elections were finally addressed by the college president during interviews last week with The Channels.

The issue has contributed to divisions among faculty, staff and the greater community.

While some candidate challengers and their supporters pointed to it as proof of fiscal malfeasance, the incumbents had yet to explain the amount, what it was spent on, or even who Mary Rose is.

On Friday, Superintendent–President Andreea Serban was asked if Mary Rose, a locally based fundraising consultant, had been hired to help her with her public image.

“Absolutly not,” she said.

Serban was then asked why her office had stayed silent about such claims.

“Because there isn’t a story,” she said.

According to Serban, Rose was brought in to help craft “a better communication plan” and nothing more. She also said the college and it’s foundation “needed better alignment.”

“Mary Rose was not hired because of an electoral challenge, and has nothing to do with the election campaign,” Serban wrote in a campus wide e-mail on Saturday.

“Her engagement was in place before it was known that there will be a challenged election,” the e-mail continued.

The e-mail, signed by Serban, vice president Jack Friedlander and others, was in response to an

e-mail from the Instructors’ Association’s executive board distributed to members just days before.

In the e-mail, the association’s leaders listed several reasons why they thought the public should vote to replace the incumbents come Nov. 2.

Among them was the charge that $24,000 had been spent “to hire a PR consultant” for the president and the trustee elections.

“The election has nothing to do with it,” Rose said in an interview last Thursday with The Channels.

“They wanted to make the operation more efficient,” she said.

“It’s about getting their communication improved. Sometimes you have great programs that the PR department needs help with. I create the pre-planning.”

Rose said her firm provides assistance with fundraising and strategic planning. She has worked with state, local and judicial campaigns for nearly 30 years.

Rose also helped City College articulate to county voters the need to vote for Measure V two years ago.

According to invoices obtained by The Channels, so far the amount paid to Rose is about $6,000.

From June 14 to June 30, the college was charged 17.6 hours at $200 per hour. Then, from July 1 to July 29, Rose billed for another 14.8 hours at the same rate.

During that time, Rose worked on her own and with Serban, the trustees, and the college foundation, on a public relations announcement regarding $12,000 in financial aid for continuing education.

Rose said that the $24,000 she was contracted for will be spread over a length of time when the school may call on her for assistance.

The instructors association’s e-mail makes no mention of having reviewed any invoices.

However, it does go on to read that “this money could have been used to fund the tutoring hours…eliminated in the last budget.”

In her e-mail reply, Serban acknowledged that cuts had been made, but the college “restored the reductions to the tutoring budget because we have been able to achieve a stable and solid fiscal status.”

Some candidate challengers supported by the association have also cited the expenditure as evidence that the current administration is fiscally irresponsible.

Serban shared her opinion about her critics Friday.

“They say things without facts. That’s the core of the problem.”