DOWAGIAC — Southwestern Michigan College’s litigation against a state-mandated employee retirement policy suffered a powerful setback last week, when a judge with the Michigan Court of Claims dismissed the college’s lawsuit against the state’s auditor general.

Judge Stephen Borrello ruled that an audit of the local community conducted by members of the Michigan Office of the Auditor General last spring fell within the bounds of the state constitution during a hearing before the court last week Wednesday. Southwestern Michigan College has filed a lawsuit against the auditors in August 2017, in which they claimed that the auditor general lacked the authority to conduct such an investigation into a locally-controlled entity.

In his decision, Borrello said that, due to the fact the auditor general office was investigating an issue related to the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, a state entity, at the college, the agency did have property authority.

The audit was conducted last year in April, after the agency received an anonymous complaint that SMC was not making contributions to the state teacher’s retirement system for its part-time student employees. Before the auditor general office could release the findings of its investigation, the community college filed a lawsuit in August, claiming the audit violated state law.

With the lawsuit now dismissed, the auditor general office can now publish its findings, said Kelly Miller, a representative with the agency.

“We plan to release a report with our findings, but we have not determined a timeframe on when we will release it,” Miller said.

Miller said that her office cannot state whether or not SMC was indeed in violation of state law until after the report is published. If SMC is in violation, another state agency will handle the enforcement end of the issue, Miller said.

After filing the lawsuit last year, Southwestern Michigan College President David Mathews said that he was opposed to the school making retirement contributions for its part-time student employees, as part-time employees would never be enrolled at the school long enough for their retirement accounts to vest, he said.

Following last week’s decision, Mathews said he was disappointed by the result, but that the school will continue to pursue other legal recourses. The president and college board plans to meet with their attorney Monday in closed session to discuss further action.

“We plan to continue litigation, for the reasons we stated [last year],” Mathews said. “It is the right thing to do.”