MERCED, Calif. — Officials at Merced College claim they have spent thousands of dollars answering questions from KVPR and its news partner The Merced FOCUS over a reporting investigation published in March.
College officials in an email claimed the community college has spent $20,000 fulfilling public records requests filed by the news outlets.
The investigation by the news outlets looked at how the college handled complaints against one of its longest serving deans. KVPR and The Merced FOCUS submitted multiple requests for interviews and information in the reporting investigation that spanned 18 months.
In the latest inquiries, the news outlets sent questions related to public records which revealed the college spent more than $26,000 on one investigation into Dean John Albano that stemmed from multiple complaints filed by faculty and staff in 2024.
KVPR and The Merced FOCUS were analyzing the cost and seeking specifics about how the college carried out the process with the investigators.
But in an unusual step, Kelly Avila, Merced College’s vice president of human resources, first shared the college’s response to questions by the news outlets with college staff before sharing with the news outlets. Avila said it was in the interest of transparency.
In the same email, Avila made another claim. She told college staff that the college has spent over $20,000 responding to nearly a dozen requests for information by the news outlets about how it handled complaints against Albano.
“It is important to note that responding to formal complaints and related public records requests requires a significant investment of time, financial resources, and staff capacity,” Avila wrote. “While the district is fully committed to conducting thorough and impartial investigations when concerns are raised, continued requests and follow-up inquiries — after matters have been reviewed and concluded — can extend this investment and impact resources that would otherwise support our students and core mission.”
Submitting requests for information to a public institution is a standard practice for news organizations and allowed by open records laws, according to Jim Boren, the director of the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State.
“This is a ploy that is always used. They always say, ‘You keep asking for these public records, and it's costing us all this money,’” Boren said. “It's a ploy to divert the attention away from the public record.”
Boren said anyone in California – not only journalists – can request records from a public institution, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a free service.
“Everything has a cost,” he said. “I don't think it's $20,000, but somebody has to compile them. But I don't think that's a reason to not comply with the Public Records Act.”
The cost of Merced College’s investigation
Avila’s response comes after an analysis of public records obtained by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS reveals the college paid $26,898.75 to the third-party investigator company, The Titan Group, from November 2024 through March 2025 in order to look into complaints against Albano.
According to an email written by Avila on Nov. 20, 2024, the company was hired to look into “a number of related claims” against “one respondent.”
The email was sent just days after at least 10 faculty and staff submitted complaints against Albano, who was the dean for the School of Arts and Social Sciences at the time. The complaints alleged gender and race discrimination. They resulted in two third-party investigations finding no wrongdoing by Albano. Some complaints were dismissed on procedural grounds, while others were found to be unsubstantiated by collected evidence or otherwise exonerated the dean.
But the process led to upheaval among employees and students close to the situation. Two faculty members and an employee resigned shortly after filing complaints, and one part-time faculty member had all of her classes canceled. Hundreds of students were displaced from a required class after the faculty members resigned.
While at least one investigation was underway, Albano changed positions at the college and became dean of another college department. He then announced earlier this year he plans to move into a faculty position in the upcoming fall semester.
Records reveal the investigator worked over 150 hours to investigate the complaints, and billed the college $175 an hour for work, such as “conducting interviews, reviewing evidence, and preparing findings.”
Around the same time the investigation ended, public records revealed the college also signed a contract with an outside law firm to provide legal advice for municipal law and employment law issues on an "as requested" basis.
The college has not billed that law firm at all yet, Avila said, but that “as a public institution, the district has a responsibility to seek legal guidance to ensure compliance and stewardship of public resources.”
Renée Dekker, who worked as the administrative coordinator for the School of Arts and Social Sciences from 2022, resigned shortly after receiving an email by Avila in April 2025 that said she was the subject of an investigation.
Dekker was among those who filed a complaint against Albano. Dekker said she was eventually told by the law firm assigned to her investigation, Gregory Taylor Law Corporation, that someone at the college alleged she made false statements in her complaint.
Public records show the law firm sent two invoices to the college several months after Dekker was notified of the investigation and met with the investigator. It’s unclear if the invoices were directly related to the investigation against Dekker. The invoices totaled $5,180.
The district did not respond to a question asking if this expense was related to the investigation brought against Dekker, citing employee privacy rights.
According to email exchanges between Avila and the chief investigator of The Titan Group, Merced College officials reached out to The Titan Group in order to establish a longer relationship with the group.
“Our hope is to develop a relationship with a third-party investigator firm to assist us with claims in the future as well as our current claims,” Avila wrote.
Calling in an outside group
Hiring a third-party firm to investigate human resources complaints is not uncommon, according to Ann Franke, a higher education consultant. Franke’s legal firm, Wise Results LLC., provides services to colleges, universities and academic associations.
Franke, who did not comment on Merced College’s specific situation, said third-party firms are often called in when allegations revolve around a person who is in a top administrative role, including a dean, or when a matter could end up in litigation.
“‘We want someone who is completely neutral, and if HR investigates the dean, that may create an appearance of bias, that we'd be favoring the dean,’” Franke said, referring to a college administration’s thought process.
Avila said in her email that the use of external investigators in this instance is also standard practice and is based on “the employee classification, the workload of the investigation, and the importance of avoiding real or perceived conflicts of interest.”
“Regardless of whether an investigation is done by an internal human resources investigator or an outside investigator, the district ensures the investigation process is unbiased,” Avila wrote.
But this sentiment doesn’t sit right for Kathryn Forbes, the program coordinator for women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Fresno State. Third-party investigators are often chosen and paid for by the institution, not the complainants, she said.
“It’s such a misstatement to think that an outside investigator is going to be fair,” Forbes said. “There's an inherent conflict of interest, because they're trying to get the contracts.”
Forbes is in the final stages of publishing research with a current Merced College dean, Carolyn Cusick, that examines outside consultants’ roles in slowing the reform of the California State University system on matters of sexual harassment after the resignation of the chancellor in 2022.
The push for reforms came after the chancellor and previous president of Fresno State, Joseph Castro, resigned following media reports that alleged he mishandled sexual harassment complaints against a high-ranking administrator during his time as president in Fresno. The CSU system was billed nearly $3.5 million from one law firm, according to Forbes’ research.
Merced College was billed five times by The Titan Group over the five-month period with a charge of $175 an hour.
That’s the lower end of a typical price range for investigations, according to Franke. She said prices are often determined by the geographic area of an institution and the level of expertise the firm or investigator holds.
“If a university in New York City goes outside to a major law firm, they may be paying $700 or $1,000 an hour for very experienced people,” Franke explained. “In a more rural area, you might be paying several $100 an hour.”
Experience in employment law
Franke said rural areas with smaller student populations and less staff may be more likely to outsource help because their internal human resources team may be smaller. In these cases, colleges may have a roster of external investigators they call on.
“A lot of it is… I don't want to say relationship-driven, but connections [and] contacts,” Franke said. “And the vetting process would involve the experience of the firm in doing investigations and the absence of any conflicts of interest.”
There are a number of considerations made during the vetting process of an investigator or law firm, Avila said, including “qualifications, referrals from other institutions, experience in workplace investigations, knowledge of applicable legal standards, and capacity to conduct timely and impartial investigations.”
The investigator assigned to the case, Shawn Hare from The Titan Group, has a background in law enforcement. According to his LinkedIn profile, Hare worked as a police officer for 25 years and as a homicide detective for seven years.
Franke said this experience isn’t atypical. But Forbes, from Fresno State, said hiring someone with a law enforcement background for employment discrimination is “nonsensical.”
