Investigation substantiates complaints of bullying, abusive behavior by LCC board member

Due to an error in the attorney’s report on issues with the Lane Community College Board of Education, a previous version of this story incorrectly identified the board member who walked out of a Dec. 18 meeting. The member who left the meeting was Julie Weismann.

An investigation substantiated three of the four complaints alleging members of the Lane Community College Board of Education — primarily Zach Mulholland — engaged in abusive and bullying behavior toward others, including the LCC president.

The report, by LCC outside counsel, said the “factual findings support a conclusion of a pattern” from Mulholland of “dismissive and disrespectful conduct” toward LCC President Stephanie Bulger. That behavior has been “perceived by President Bulger and others who have witnessed the conduct to be microaggressions” based on Bulger’s race and sex, the report found. Bulger is Black.

Mulholland — interviewed by the attorney contracted by the college to investigate the allegations — said he did not believe he had engaged in verbal abuse of Bulger. “He believes his frustrations were reasonable and valid and did not believe he engaged in bullying — he was frustrated and argued passionately,” the report said.

Mulholland, who served as the board’s chair during the previous school year and who remains on the board, also told the attorney he no longer trusts Bulger and “no longer assumes that the President is the best person for the job.”

In an email to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, Mulholland said: “From my perspective, I was defending the role and authority of the publicly elected Board of Education.”

He added that the report contains “errors and omissions” that he hopes to correct during a board executive session.

But he also added: “I recognize I made some mistakes and have begun sending letters of apology where appropriate. I will continue to focus on improving the college’s enrollment, fiscal condition, and employee morale — all of which were at historic lows prior to my time on the board, but are now improving due to policies and accountability mechanisms I worked successfully to put in place since being elected two years ago.”

The report, written by Rebekah R. Jacobson of the Salem law firm Garrett Hemann Robertson, offers the latest evidence of a deeply divided board — and includes background into some of the events over the last year that have contributed to the rifts. The report also includes summaries of interviews with board members and LCC officials.

LCC officials declined comment on the report, saying that it was now within the “purview” of the board. Lookout received a copy of the report in response to a public records request.

The complaints

The board divisions surfaced in a dramatic way at the April 2 meeting, when member Kevin Alltucker, then the board’s vice chair, read a letter accusing Mulholland of “becoming verbally abusive to the president, often attempting to bully the president by raising his voice and using profanity” — in particular, at a March 27 meeting with Bulger to set the agenda for the April 2 board meeting. 

Alltucker argued that the March meeting “created an unsafe and hostile environment for the president … and is consistent with institutional discrimination.” Jacobson substantiated Alltucker’s complaint.

The report also substantiated a second complaint, filed anonymously, that involved the entire board, excluding Julie Weismann. The complaint alleges that board members’ discussion March 5 of a board operating agreement — and a subsequent dismissal and failure to acknowledge Bulger’s feedback on the agreement — was disrespectful toward Bulger and would not “have taken place if President Bulger was a white man.” 

In substantiating the complaint, Jacobson wrote the incident “was an example of dismissive conduct toward the leader of the college based upon her race and sex.”

A third complaint, filed by a student whose name was redacted in the report released by LCC, also was substantiated in the report. 

That complaint involves comments Mulholland made to the student during a break in the April 2 meeting. Mulholland approached the student  — both had gone outside — and discussed a proposal regarding the turf field for LCC’s baseball team. 

The student reported that Mulholland spoke in “a hostile, aggressive and intimidating tone” and was “uncomfortably close” to her — 1 or 2 feet away — during the interaction. The student reported she felt “stressed and disrespected” during the encounter.

Mulholland told Jacobson that he largely agreed with the student’s account, “noting he was embarrassed, wanted to apologize to her and should not have had the conversation when he was elevated from the frustration of the board meeting.” 

Mulholland also said that he had faced personal pressures in March and April “that contributed to his decreased ability to regulate his emotions,” the report said. 

A fourth complaint, also alleging discriminatory conduct by Mulholland toward Bulger during the March 5 and April 2 meetings, was deemed “not substantiated” in Jacobson’s report.

Interviews offer background 

The interviews with Jacobson included background on some of the issues that have helped spark tension on the board.

One of those was the board’s inability to name a replacement for Lisa Fragala, who resigned in November 2024 after winning election to the Legislature.

In her interview with Jacobson, board member Weismann pointed to a Dec. 18 meeting during which the issue of Fragala’s replacement came up. Weismann said she walked out of the meeting after Mulholland “became so angry and inappropriate” over the issue.

The issue of replacing Fragala was central to the episode during the March 27 agenda-setting meeting, which was held on Zoom — and which led to Alltucker’s April 2 complaint. 

According to Jacobson’s account, during the March 27 meeting, Mulholland said he planned to add an item to the April 2 board agenda to appoint Jesse Maldonado — who was running unopposed for the open seat in the May election. Alltucker objected to the addition. Bulger said she wanted legal advice on the question from the Oregon Community College Association.

According to the report, Mulholland replied that he was done talking about the issue and was “tired of the president disrespecting the authority of the board.” Mulholland then reportedly said he was not going to have a “pissing match” over the board chair’s authority and used profanity. Bulger suggested the meeting end, and three of the participants — Bulger, Alltucker and board secretary Celia Wright — simultaneously exited the Zoom session.

Since then, the report noted, agenda-setting has been handled via email. 

Maldonado won election to the board in the May 20 election, along with new member Jerry Rust. Both joined the board at its July meeting. Neither was interviewed for the report. 

In his interview with Jacobson, however, current board Chair Austin Fölnagy said he does not believe Mulholland “has acted in a discriminatory manner toward President Bulger.” Fölnagy added that he knows Mulholland is not racist or sexist.

In her interview, Bulger saw it differently: “She described a decreasingly collaborative relationship with board leadership over the past three years,” the report said. Bulger also told the interviewers that Mulholland had been “dismissive of her since the beginning of his term, describing several encounters, and noting that dismissiveness can look like racism and sexism, ‘because he will go to a man to get the answer he wants.’”

Bulger said she also had concerns with Fölnagy’s first term as board chair during the 2023-24 school year. The report said she “described feeling discriminatory conduct from Director Fölnagy in that he also would only speak to men on her team, and the president would have to jump in and redirect that she would take care of the request.”

Bulger also expressed worries that Fölnagy, who was elected board chair for the 2025-26 school year, has become “increasingly less communicative.”

Asked by Lookout about Bulger’s comments, Fölnagy said he was unable to comment on the report’s specifics because board members still are reviewing it.

In his comments to the investigator, board member Steve Mital said he had noted “a pattern of conduct” that began with Fölnagy’s first term as chair in the 2023-24 school year. Mital told Jacobson that both board chairs, Fölnagy and then Mulholland, acted in a dismissive and condescending manner toward President Bulger by interrupting her, not checking in with the president or asking for her opinion.”

Denise Diamond, a board member who did not seek reelection in May, told the lawyer she did not believe any board member had exhibited “discriminatory animus on the basis of sex or race toward the president,” the report said. Diamond also said she felt Alltucker’s complaint was “inappropriate” and that the complaints are politically motivated.

Next steps

In an email Tuesday, Aug. 12, Fölnagy, speaking on behalf of the board, said it he anticipates that the board will address the report and determine next steps and action at its Sept. 3 meeting.

“We are committed to a thorough and deliberate process,” he said, adding that the board would be working with the college’s outside attorneys “to determine comprehensive next steps and processes.”

He added: “As the newly elected chair, I am deeply committed to doing everything possible to ensure that the board works actively to open pathways of communication. My goal is for the board and the administration to collaborate effectively and respectfully for the success of our students, the college, and the broader community. There is indeed a lot of important work ahead, and I look forward to dedicating my efforts to these vital initiatives for our students.”

In a brief telephone interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield, Alltucker said his hope is that the board, with the chair’s leadership, “acknowledges that the abusive and hostile behaviors will not be tolerated.”

Alltucker added that he hopes Fölnagy “takes leadership and works with the board to let the public know what the remedial actions will be to ensure that we support the president, the staff, the faculty and students and to move the college forward in a positive way, to make LCC even better than it is now.”

The board could take action against a member — the strongest such action would be a censure — but since its members are elected, it cannot vote to expel a member. Members of the LCC Board of Education are volunteers.

In an email to Lookout, Weismann said “in the absence of the resignation by Zach Mulholland, the board is left with only censure as its option. … The behavior outlined in the report is appalling, unacceptable, unprofessional, intolerable, and especially egregious for an elected official in the chair role for the Board of Education.”

She added: “The integrity and reputation of Lane Community College is at stake. The board cannot allow this type of behavior for any of its board members; it must create new policies to address this in the future, receive comprehensive training on sexism and racism, and anti-bullying and control training.”