By Jennifer Gonzalez

Rockville, Md.

Brian K. Johnson, president of Montgomery College, has been placed on administrative leave with pay, the chairman of the Maryland institution's Board of Trustees said after emerging from a four-hour closed-door meeting of the board on Thursday night.

The board also voted not to renew Mr. Johnson's contract, which expires June 30, 2010. The president's current annual base salary is $233,210. Hercules Pinkney, a former provost at the two-year college, was been named interim president and will begin to serve immediately.

"We arrived at these decisions after much discussion and deliberation," said Michael C. Lin, the board's chairman. "We take our responsibility of oversight of the college seriously and feel this action is in the best interest of the Montgomery College community."

The board's decision comes after more than 200 faculty members voted no confidence in Mr. Johnson at a meeting last week. They have accused the president, who came to the well-respected 60,000-student college in 2007, of excessively spending college money and missing important meetings and events.

Between July 2007 and April 2009, Mr. Johnson spent $58,165 on food, hotel rooms, and transportation, according to expense reports obtained by faculty union leaders through a public-records request. Among the expenses charged to his college credit card were a $4,051 hotel bill in Delhi, several hundred dollars for floral arrangements, a single charge of $302 at a Borders bookstore, another single charge of $182.42 at a CVS, and a $750 tab from Lifestyle Transportation, a limousine service in the Boston area.

Mr. Johnson, in a written statement this week, offered explanations for many of the expenses. Among other things, he said that the card "covers costs that include vehicle maintenance, gasoline, office expenses, travel, etc."

He also wrote that he was advised by the college's vice president for finance in the spring that his card had been compromised.

The president said the $4,051 hotel bill in Delhi did not involve college funds. He said the trip to India was organized by Montgomery County and sponsored by the college's foundation with the aim of bringing business to a county incubator in Germantown, Md. He said he was not provided final documentation on the expense.

It is unclear why the charges were submitted to the college or who eventually paid them. The president's statement gave no further explanation on that matter.

Mr. Johnson wrote that the floral arrangements were not personal expenses but rather flowers bought for funerals of people connected with the college, recognition of staff members, and the like.

The single charge of $302 at Borders, Mr. Johnson wrote, was for the purchase of copies of a guidebook for administrators, which he gave to members of his executive council to "provide us with a common vision" for cutting costs and dealing with recommendations of the college's accreditor.

The $750 tab from Lifestyle Transportation was for town cars, not limousines, Mr. Johnson wrote, and was booked for a Board of Trustees member.

Wariness on the Faculty

The faculty discontent goes back at least several months. This past spring, some professors were already pushing for a no-confidence vote, said Rose L. Sachs, president of the college's chapter of the American Association of University Professors and chairwoman of disability support services.

Faculty leaders chose instead to investigate the matter themselves and present their initial findings to the Board of Trustees. That report, which was delivered to the board before the report listing Mr. Johnson's credit-card expenses, alleged that the president's absence from important meetings and events had jeopardized the institution's reputation. It also noted a climate of fear at the college, with several employees saying they believed listening devices had been planted in offices and meeting rooms. And it stated that the sudden departure of high-level administrators had created instability at the college.

Ms. Sachs said the faculty is concerned that the president hasn't shown leadership and has no vision for the college. She said he has missed many meetings with state and local leaders, as well with a group of fellow presidents of Maryland community colleges. Professors are concerned that his alleged absences may hurt the college, she said.

Mr. Johnson was not available for comment Thursday night. He did not attend the trustees' meeting. However, in a statement this week, he characterized the allegations against him as "lies and half-truth" and "a vicious attack on my credibility."

In the same statement, he said that the allegations were an attempt to weaken the administration before salary negotiations with the faculty scheduled for this fall.

"This is not the faculty against President Johnson," Ms. Sachs said. "We are taking the high road. We are interested in protecting the institution."

Ms. Sachs said Mr. Johnson's priorities are misplaced, and points to a concert by Aretha Franklin at the college's new performing-arts center next week as evidence. Ms. Sachs said the $20,000 college tab for the $150,000 concert is not a good use of college money. In addition, the cost of the tickets, at $75, is prohibitive for students.

"How does that help our students?" she said of the concert.

Mr. Johnson, in his letter, said the bulk of the college's portion of the cost will come from county and state grants earmarked for activities such as concerts.

President Finds Support

Although Mr. Johnson certainly has his detractors, he does have supporters.

Liz Brandenburg, president of the Montgomery College Staff Union, had nothing but praise for the president in a letter to union members on Wednesday.

Ms. Brandenburg said that Mr. Johnson has been very open and inclusive toward the staff union, making it part of a governance group that meets monthly with the president to help him get a real sense of what is going on within the college.

Amanda Truett, a professor of marine, estuarine, and environmental sciences at the college, also supports the president. In a letter to Mr. Lin, the board chairman, she mentioned student interest in preserving a forest on the college's Germantown campus that could be threatened by construction plans. She praised Mr. Johnson for not only being receptive to the students' concerns, but for creating an ecological advisory committee to help them in bringing data to the administration as it considers long-range plans for the college.

"Dr. Johnson's support of this real-world student laboratory to help inform gross decisions toward sustainability for Montgomery College and our community is nothing but visionary," she wrote.

Before coming to Montgomery College, Mr. Johnson served as chief executive of a campus of the Community College of Allegheny County, in Pittsburgh, Pa., and was senior vice president for student and community services for that system.

Mr. Johnson earned both a doctorate in educational leadership and a master's degree in education in counseling/human relations from Northern Arizona University. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Ottawa University.