Although both sides say they were ready to go to trial, Western New Mexico University and a former school administrator agreed to a settlement which became public this week, bringing a five-year whistleblower lawsuit to a close.
Despite the $162,500 agreement between WNMU and former Vice President of Business Affairs Brenda Findley, both sides said they still believe they are in the right.
Findley started her position at WNMU in January 2015, and over the next almost two years raised several concerns with university President Joseph Shepard about what she believed to be improper spending, according to the original complaint filed in Sixth Judicial District Court in 2018.
In the lawsuit, filed against the WNMU Board of Regents under the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act, Findley alleged that Shepard did the following:
• Directed university janitorial staff to clean his home, run personal errands and perform household duties such as cooking and cleaning.
• Directed Findley to pay a bonus to employees Shepard favored.
• Directed her to increase a male associate vice president’s salary by $5,000 a year, then take that amount out of his pay for rent on a bungalow on campus he had been living in, while a female associate vice president in the same division did not get a raise.
• Fired her just weeks after she met with Shepard to request changes in financial reporting that would allow her to resolve discrepancies in reconciling accounts and tracking funds.
“She raised all...

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