Whistleblower suit alleges waste, mismanagement, illegality in KY’s community college system

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System is facing a whistleblower lawsuit filed by its former chief of staff.

Hannah Rivera, who worked in many capacities at KCTCS over a decade, alleges she faced retaliation for making “numerous good faith reports of waste, mismanagement, and violations of the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” She is suing the college system for violating the Kentucky Whistleblower Act and also for wrongful termination. 

KCTCS has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, which is in Franklin County Circuit Court. Blair Hess, a spokesperson for the college system said in an email that “KCTCS refutes Ms. Rivera’s claims.” 

Established in 1997, KCTCS has 16 colleges across the state and serves more than 100,000 students. 

Rivera filed a 10-page complaint in October after her tenure at the college system ended in July. At KCTCS, she held numerous positions, including manager of government affairs, assistant chief of staff and government liaison. Most recently, she served as KCTCS chief of staff, a vice president and the board liaison. 

“No prior administration took any retaliatory steps against her for the good faith reports under the Whistleblower statutes, but that soon changed once President (Ryan) Quarles’ tenure began in January 2024,” the lawsuit said.

In a statement to the Kentucky Lantern, Rivera said it was “unfortunate this lawsuit has resulted” and said that much of her time at KCTCS “was spent trying to get better policies and practices in place.” 

Presidential search

Rivera’s lawsuit says she and KCTCS Board of Regents Chair Barry Martin became at odds during the search for a new KCTCS president because of “his political interference.” At the time of the search, Quarles was fresh off of his Republican gubernatorial primary campaign, which he lost to former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and was facing the end of his two terms as agriculture commissioner. Martin, who was appointed to the board by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in 2020, “was intent on keeping Quarles from getting the position,” the lawsuit claims. 

The complaint says Martin pushed to call the presidential search a failure and claim Kentucky open meetings laws had been violated. Pam Duncan, the KCTCS general counsel at the time, advised that there was “no such reason” to end the search, and other board regents agreed. 

After the board selected Quarles, Rivera drafted a press release announcing the selection. However, Martin would not sign off on it, the complaint says. Rivera sought Martin’s approval of the release “several times” the next day, “but he stalled.” Rivera said news outlets contacted KCTCS for information about the new president and “she had to release it.” 

“Immediately after the release hit the news cycle, Martin called Rivera furious and stated he was waiting on the Governor’s approval of the release and she had ruined the plan,” the complaint says. “He instructed Rivera to pull back the release and to not announce the presidency.”

Rivera countered that the governor had no say in the decision on the president, nor the press release, and felt that withholding the information was “fraudulent.” 

“At the end of the phone call, Martin stated he was irate with Rivera and would not forget this,” the lawsuit says. 

When asked about the allegations in the lawsuit, Beshear spokesperson Crystal Staley said in an email that Beshear and Quarles “have worked well together” and “have met multiple times to discuss the importance of KCTCS to the commonwealth.” 

Studies call for changes

Quarles began leading KCTCS in January. Significant reviews of the college system were already underway, including a study from Huron Consulting Group that cost more than $1.2 million to complete and a special audit by the Kentucky state auditor’s office that recommended a further in-depth forensic audit of an account that contained a significant amount of money as carry-forward balance. 

KCTCS released recommendations from the forensic audit in November, which found no fraud or criminal behavior but a need to improve internal policies and procedures. 

The Huron study found “dozens of widespread needed changes to KCTCS,” but only minimal action had been taken, Rivera’s lawsuit said. According to the complaint, Rivera “had been personally instructed by members of the General Assembly” that KCTCS should enact changes based on the study, “but Quarles refused to act on those instructions.” 

In a September 2023 meeting, less than two weeks before Quarles was named president, lawmakers on the Interim Education Committee heard an update on implementing recommendations from the Huron report from KCTCS representatives, including Rivera. During that meeting, House Education Committee Chairman Republican Rep. James Tipton, of Taylorsville, issued a warning. 

“If KCTCS chooses not to implement (these practices), the General Assembly may choose to implement,” Tipton said. “So, keep that in mind.”

Rivera’s lawsuit says Martin contacted her after the committee meeting to say “she should not go to Frankfort for testimony without him again and that he would do a better job in ‘focusing on the positives.’”

According to Rivera’s lawsuit, Quarles called Duncan and Rivera “trusted advisers” early on in his presidency and asked them to list KCTCS’ “dirty little secrets” but not share the document with anyone else. That document, expanded to include issues that continued under Quarles’ leadership, is an exhibit in the lawsuit called “A Timeline of Unfortunate Events.” 

Additionally, Rivera raised concerns about “Martin’s interference and overstepping as the Board Chairman” in the early months of Quarles’ presidency. Quarles and Martin spoke “daily,” the complaint says, and Quarles left important meetings to take his calls. Quarles “complained of hours-long evening talks with Martin, which he called ‘Barry-epy sessions.’”

During the 2024 legislative session, the Kentucky General Assembly passed Senate Joint Resolution 179. Sponsored by Republican Senate President Robert Stivers, of Manchester, the resolution called on KCTCS to review its system, report findings and present action steps by Dec. 10. The resolution cites the Huron study and the state auditor’s report as reasons for the legislation. 

According to Rivera’s lawsuit, Quarles met with lawmakers during the 2024 legislative session and said “KCTCS is a complete mess.” The lawsuit says, “He privately agreed that college leadership was out of control, nothing was being done related to Huron, and the System needed a complete reset.” Rivera wrote the Senate joint resolution that the legislature ultimately passed, which was approved by Quarles and hand-delivered to lawmakers. 

Also early on, Rivera and Duncan raised concerns about Quarles hiring several employees that he had a previous connection with, according to the lawsuit. The General Assembly and the Huron study signaled a need to downsize KCTCS’ administrative office, “but Quarles hired four individuals in his first three months as President with whom he had a personal relationship.” The lawsuit says those positions were not advertised and none “complied with the practices of KCTCS related to the creation of new executive level employment positions.” The new positions created an additional $1 million in expenses. 

“Rivera was responsible for ‘finding places’ for them and ‘making up job descriptions,’ to which she expressed concern about mismanagement and waste of finances to both Quarles and Duncan,” the lawsuit said.

Hess, the KCTCS spokesman, said Quarles was hired to “reenvision the future of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.” 

“He inherited an ongoing state audit and other administrative issues and has spent his first year in office prioritizing compliance, implementing numerous improvement measures, and focusing on the future of accessible and affordable education in Kentucky,” Hess said. “Ms. Rivera resigned earlier this year, and Dr. Quarles has built a team which includes higher education professionals to help him in these efforts.” 

Eventually, Quarles “began telling Rivera that Martin wanted her gone,” Rivera’s lawsuit said. Rivera also alleged Quarles told her repeatedly that he had to “figure out what to do with her.” In the spring of 2024, Duncan, the general counsel, and Quarles had an argument in which he accused Duncan, Rivera and a third employee of having “too much power…I’ve got to do something with you three.” Duncan ultimately reached a voluntary separation agreement (VSA) and left KCTCS. 

After Duncan’s departure, Rivera began fearing for her own position with KCTCS. She was left out of key meetings that she normally was included in and learned at the same time as her colleagues that she would no longer be chief of staff.

Whistleblower claim is filed

Quarles began arranging six-month performance reviews for his cabinet, the lawsuit says. Rivera’s occurred on July 3. She requested Human Resources Vice President Bridget Canter to be present. New Chief of Staff Shannon Rickett was also present. Rickett joined KCTCS in January 2024 as a special assistant for institutional planning and strategic alignment after leaving the University of Louisville. She was previously a congressional staffer for Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers. 

During Rivera’s review, she gave Quarles a letter “detailing the retaliation she had been experiencing in the months” since he began leading KCTCS. She “made an offer to tender a voluntary separation agreement” and presented terms in a letter and a draft separation agreement. After Rivera provided the documents to Quarles, “he immediately put her on administrative leave and ultimately terminated her.” Rivera’s lawsuit alleges KCTCS falsely claimed Rivera resigned. 

In its response to the lawsuit, KCTCS claims Rivera tendered her resignation when presenting a signed VSA agreement to Quarles and did not condition her resignation upon severance payment. Rivera had set her resignation date for Dec. 31, but Quarles accepted the resignation immediately, according to KCTCS’ response. 

Rivera publicly addressed the Board of Regents in a September meeting this year. In her five-minute remarks, she emphasized much of what was later filed in her complaint. 

“I am sad that the progress this board has made over the last few years and its openness and commitment to asking hard questions has been wiped away — replaced with a board chair with an agenda and a president willing to go along with it in hopes it wins him favor,” she said. 

The case has been assigned to Judge Thomas Wingate in Franklin Circuit Court. A motion hour is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 11 — the day after KCTCS is required to respond to SJR 179 by presenting its findings and action steps to lawmakers. 

Hess said the Board of Regents will hear recommendations regarding SJR 179 during its meeting later this week and the recommendations will be presented to the Interim Joint Committee on Education next week. 

“That report will be available to the public at that time,” Hess said. “We look forward to the SJR 179 reform package coming in the Spring.”

In a text message, Rivera said in the decade she worked at KCTCS there was “a lot that went on there — and is still going on — that does not benefit the 100,000+ students or the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.” 

“It’s an institution that flies under the radar…that goes without big headlines or proper oversight…because it isn’t a university,” she said. “But there are hundreds of millions of dollars poured into this system and I can tell you much of it is wasted or misspent. I was simply trying to do my job, as Chief of Staff, Board & Government Liaison, to be responsible and responsive to the publicly-funded Huron study, audits, etc. highlighting the need for change.

“It’s hard to turn a ship headed in the wrong direction; it’s easy to fool people into thinking you’re doing something.”

Read the whistleblower complaint against KCTCS