Dobelle Unleashes Conspiracy Theories. Hires Garber. State Official Awaits Explanation of 15 Trips to San Francisco.

Dobelle Team Prepares Assault on Public Interest

Evan S. Dobelle’s presidency of Westfield State University looks to have entered its final phase in the sordid saga of the former Trinity College and University of Hawaii president’s lavish personal spending. Dobelle, who recently hinted to a Springfield newspaper that he may seek protection from his own practices under a state whistleblower law, has been under siege as details of his spending practices have become public.

Westfield State’s board of trustee members have come under increasing pressure by state officials, including Governor Deval Patrick, to act in the public’s interest. Higher Education Commissioner Richard Freeland has called upon to Dobelle to explain, among other revelations, the fifteen trips he has taken to San Francisco since 2008. Dobelle has complained that the investigation is unfair, though has been short on details explaining his jaunts to distant destinations paid for by the school and its foundation, reduced to a parlous state.

Trustees are expected to meet soon to discuss the embarrassing series of disclosures of spending. The foundation, as the Boston Globe pointed out, spent less on students as the cost of Dobelle’s jaunts climbed.

Dobelle has hired a Boston spokesman who announced that his client’s troubles stem from board chairman John Flynn III’s ambition to turn Westfield into “a diploma mill for state police,” the Springfield Republican reports. Dobelle has also hired Hartford lawyer Ross Garber, who served as legal counsel to the Office of the Governor when Rowland was in his political death spiral. Garber brings considerable futile experience in trying to deflect public attention from a client’s breathtaking abuse of a public trust. That reputation contributed to Garber’s stunning 2010 Republican primary loss for attorney general to far right activist Martha Dean.

The circus is in session at Westfield State University. Send in the clowns.