Ever since Yavapai College unveiled its 10-year plan that poured more than $100 million into Prescott and Prescott Valley campuses while giving the Verde Valley mere pittance, the Governing Board has faced justifiable backlash.

First, board member Bob Oliphant resigned. He served the district that represented a good portion of the Verde Valley and saw the move for what it was: A blatant shortchanging of one-third of the college’s taxpayers to placate the majority of the board that lives in the Prescott area.

Opponents to the college’s shifty maneuvering went on the offensive, informing Verde Valley taxpayers of continuing financial shenanigans by Yavapai College President Penny Wills through a website, Eye on Yavapai College. Wills has tried in vain to paint her robbery of our tax dollars in positive terms, but few town and city leaders on this side of the mountain believe her and many vocally distrust her statements.

Oliphant authored a 333-page book, “Wake Up Verde Valley: You’ve Just Been Ripped Off,” — the entire book is available for free online in case any readers are curious about how Yavapai College’s latest moves are part of a 50-year pattern of cheating our taxpayers to build facilities most of our students can’t take advantage of unless they make a daily commute over Mingus Mountain or pick up stakes and just move to Prescott.

The Sedona Center is a prime example. Once home to the quasi-autonomous Zaki Gordon Institute of Independent Filmmaking, the film school was systematically denied funds for marketing and promotion under Wills’ leadership. Declining enrollment caused explicitly by the college’s lack of support was cited as a reason for the college to spend less on services for the institute and the building it inhabited.

It was lesson learned from a teenage melodrama: If you want to break up with someone, treat them poorly and they’ll break up with you first.

ZGI eventually left Arizona for a new home at an East Coast university where it is flourishing.

Following Oliphant’s departure, our only advocates with authority were board members Al Filardo and Deb McCasland, the Verde Valley’s two representatives who are always outvoted 3-2 by the majority from Prescott area.

Championed by Filardo and McCasland, the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee was created by the Governing Board in what seemed like a turnaround to actually listen to the concerns of Verde Valley taxpayers and stakeholders.

Of course in typical Yavapai College fashion, the Governing Board routinely ignored nearly every recommendation made by the VVBAC. “But at least,” we thought, “Our concerns are being heard.”

Then on Sept. 12, without warning, cause or a good reason, the Governing Board voted to kill the VVBAC at the end of the month, essentially punching taxpayers in the stomach after slapping us in the face for the committee’s entire existence.

This month, Filardo announced his resignation effective Thursday, Dec. 1, in protest to the board’s illogical, “rude and unprofessional” decision to kill the VVBAC. McCasland faces a election opponent from Prescott Valley, Walt Nagy, who wholeheartedly agrees with the VVBAC squelching. If Nagy wins and a Wills’ lackey fills Filardo’s seat, we can expect years of even more egregious abuse of our taxpayers.

Sedona should anticipate unexpected delays and problems installing the promised culinary and hospitality program at the Sedona Center if the board doesn’t just shut it down the day after Filardo leaves his seat.

At this point, we can only rely on a lawsuit to rein in Wills’ abuse and get our tax money restored or outright secession to cut ties with a college that refuses to help our students earn a low-cost education.