OU conducted an audit of the Office of University Community and determined recently ousted Vice President for University Community Jabar Shumate misused a publicly provided vehicle.
The audit, which was completed three days before Shumate's official resignation on July 23, reveals Shumate parked a 2016 Chevrolet Tahoe assigned to the office of university community at his private residence on 124 occasions between July 2017 and March 2018.
OU General Counsel Anil Gollahalli confirmed Shumate was given the option to resign or be terminated when confronted with the fact an audit found such information. In an interview with The Daily, Gollahalli said Shumate should have been aware of the statute broken as it was part of an amended law passed during Shumate's time in the state legislature.
“Section 156.1 of Title 47 says it will be unlawful for a state employee to ride to or from the employee’s residence in a state vehicle," Gollahalli said. "That statute’s been on the books for awhile. In 2012, it was amended, and while Mr. Shumate was in the legislature, he actually passed amendments to that specific section of the law."
The audit also revealed Shumate apparently took trips to Tulsa, which the audit says is Shumate's hometown and also the current home of his mother, on Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2017. The audit says these trips "appear" to be in violation of state law.
Gollahalli said Shumate was given the option to be terminated or voluntarily resign three days later.
"We met with Mr. Shumate on Monday, July 23, and when confronted with the audit, he chose to resign rather than be terminated," Gollahalli said. "He voluntarily chose that path at that time. Obviously he seems to maybe have regretted that decision, but given that situation, we wanted to be very clear and transparent about what happened at the university."
Shumate claims he was not shown any evidence of his misuse of university assets.
"Of course I was so in shock and blindsided by the meeting that, you know, really it was more like, you need to do this right now," Shumate said. "You don't have the opportunity to talk to anyone, and so I kind of felt like there was a gun put to my head and make the decision right there, and I was told then, 'You'll get 30 minutes to get out of the building.'"
Lindsey Mulinix-Ewert, an attorney representing Shumate, said Shumate was never shown the audit in question and that the university simply wanted to remove Shumate.
"Our position is they decided that they wanted to get rid of (Shumate), and they found a reason to do it," Mulinix-Ewert said.
When asked if Shumate ever parked the car at his private residence, Mulinix-Ewert said that was a "pretty broad question."
"I think really the more important question that should be asked is, you know, are there other people that have parked their vehicles at their houses but didn't get terminated? That's the question I would want an answer to," Mulinix-Ewert said.
Gollahalli said it was routine university protocol to allow Shumate to have the opportunity to resign or not. Gollahalli said that unlike a few university employees who have access to cars based on their contracts (such as Lincoln Riley), Shumate did not have any such contract.
"Our key decision-making process is to make sure that action is stopped and that the university corrects the issue," Gollahalli said. "It's not to publicly pillory anybody or be retributive. Our obligation is to safeguard university resources in a productive manner."
Clarification: Anil Gollahalli contacted The Daily and said he misspoke when he said Shumate was shown the actual content of the audit, and was instead told of the results of the audit in the July 23 meeting.
