Hamilton: wants nominations to appoint a treasurer of the BoT.

April 30 2015 to the next meeting May 20, 2016

Moves to nominate Thomas Glaser as Treasurer of the BoT.

They call Glaser to the podium.

Mazzochi — asks question — what will you do differently if appointed to answer questions about certain accounts.

Glaser: There is no imprest account. It’s a terminology to differentiate payments that are either above or below 15,000. There is no cash behind it. It’s just a terminology.

Glaser: The check register htat we publish on the COD website is accurate and reconciled to the invoices.

Mazzochi- Are you stating that you consider it true to be that anything designated as an imprest is accurate and there is no mistake.

Mazzochi– why is the original document not posted on-line, just the check register.

Mazzochi: In the on-line financial documents there is a description that the disbursement comes only from the first invoice.

Glaser: so we have a number of electric metteers around the college. Each one of those meters gets a separate bill. We consolidate those payments for efficiency.

Mazzochi– if you look at current report on-line there is a notice on the website, there is a line item available to the public. It can cover multiple line items but the description to the public is not complete.

Glaser– the way we do it, all the information is available.

Mazzochi- are you willing to have a check register that is accessible to the public.

Glaser- would have to consult with out IT folks to see.

Mazzochi-are you an employee who has used house accounts at Waterleaf and Wheat Café?

Glaser: yes, at Waterleaf.

Mazzocchi- have you had meals at Wheat Café that were charged to house accounts.

Glaser:no

Mazzochi– you want the BoT to have a policy to reduce the qualifications of people managing college’s financial accounts.

Glaser — there could be changes in those who actually manage the accounts. We wanted to make it more of a group in charge.

Mazzochi- Who are on the financial committee.

Glaser-Lynn Sapyta is the comptroller. B. Murphy Bridgeview Bank, Jim Leckinger of Northern Trust.  Tom ?member of William Blair. Carol Mackoff of Rice Financial.

Mazz: who signs off on Breuder’s expenses?

Internal auditor signs off on Breuder’s expenses. Jim Martner.  He is the initial person to make sure it is compliant.

Mazzochi-who has final authority to check off his expenses?

Glaser– Breuder sends them. Then the internal auditor looks into them.

Glaser– I do not check the accuracy of Breuder’s expenses.

Hamilton: any further discussion?

Mazzochi votes no, all others vote yes.

Chair Hamilton: Each year the BoT sets its schedule.  She lists the dates of the next meetings for the year.

Chair Birt calls to order the 4/30 Organizational Meeting. Now called to order. She says she cannot chair the meeting because of her respiratory illness.

Announces that Academic VP Joe Collins has agreed to take over the meeting.

Collins reports that in the case that an organizational meeting cannot be chaired by the chair, the college president or executive officer can chair.

VP Collins introduces the new trustees. Charles Bernstein, Deanne Mazzochi, Frnak Napolitano, and the student trusee, Gloria Roark.

Secretary pro tem Frank Napolitano administers oath of office to Gloria Roark, Student Trustee.

Swears her in.

VP Collins congratulates Gloria Roark, student trustee.

Judge Fullerton administers oath of office to new trustees.

VP welcomes the new trustees.

The organizational meeting is now called to order. Secretary Napolitano administers roll call. All trustees present.

VP Collins moves to approve tonight’s agenda.

Seconded. Approved.

Nominations and electing of Board Chair.

Bernstein moved to nominate Hamilton.

Mazzochi seconds.

No other nominations.

Motion to appoint Trustee Hamilton as chair of BoT

Napolitano seconded.

Roll call:

Roark — yes

McGuire — no

Wozniak-no

Birt -no

All other vote yes — Hamilton, Napolitano, Mazzochi, Bernstein.

Nominations for Vice Chairman — Hamilton — moves to appoint Mazzochi

Seconded —

no other nominations.

Motion to approve Hamilton by Napolitano.

Roark — yes

Birt- no

McGuire-no

Wozniak-no

yes by Hamilton, Mazzochi, Napolitano,

Secretary — Mazzochi  nominates Napolitano.

MAzzochi seconds.

Roark-yes

McGuire, Wozniak, Birt — no

all other yes.

VP Collins turns the meeting over to new BoT Chair Hamilton. Asks Napolitano to take over Secretary role for the rest of the meeting.

Please note, the April 30th Special Board of Trustees meeting has been REPLACED by an Organizational meeting at 7 pm to be followed by a Special Board of Trustees meeting at 8 p.m. The location remains the same:

Board of Trustees of Community College District No. 502; Counties of DuPage, Cook and Will; State if Illinois; Will hold the following meetings of the Board:
Thursday, April 30, 2015

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. — SSC 2206
Immediately followed by:

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

College of DuPage, Main Campus
Student Services Center (SSC), Room 2206
425 Fawell Boulevard, Glen Ellyn, IL

The agenda is posted at the Board of Trustees website.

The College of DuPage Board of Trustees has announced a special meeting:

Board of Trustees of Community College District No. 502; Counties of DuPage, Cook and Will; State if Illinois; Will hold the following meetings of the Board:
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Special Board Meeting
7:00 p.m. — SSC 2206
Immediately followed by:

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

College of DuPage, Main Campus
Student Services Center (SSC), Room 2206
425 Fawell Boulevard, Glen Ellyn, IL

Look for the agenda to be posted at the Board of Trustees website.

We are fascinated to report that the April 16, 2015 Board of Trustees meeting has been canceled. Read coverage of the announcement in the COD Courier student newspaper here.

According to the report in the Courier, a meeting will be scheduled between April 28 and May 5.

Kirk Allen — The president hereby accepts such employee and will devote his attention to the offices of the president. He will not engage in any other activity. Subject to prior approval and where there is no conflict of interest, he may,

I requested such approvals from Brueder. He has never been given approval to sit on any other Board.

In August 20  ____ he joined the Board of USBank. That is a breach of contract. He can be fired for it.  (He raises questions about the presence of USBAnk on campus, given lack of payment of taxes, questions payments to the Foundation.

I aksed for 18 minutes of meeting agendas. I saw records that chair Birt has abolished all committees.

How did you remove Hamilton from the audit committee but when I asked for records of this, you say there are no committees.

Kraft — I’m sure the new pr firm can create all the minutes for you.

Mr. Allen submitted a FoIA request for all the numbers listed on that slide show. They are financial numbers and they have to be released.

Roger Kempa:You folks are something else. Do you go back and see the progression of your decisions.  Trustee Wozniak — wake up.  There was a request for a forensic audit. Brueder said “too expensive and I don’t recommend it.” But now we are talking about a250,000 much more expensive than beofre. You are going to use Crow Horwath — the same firm you have used for the last six years. Are you kidding me?

You know the 2 million dollar deficit for hte Waterleaf? It was budgeted that way. But your surplus in the reserve– that wasn’t budgeted that way. That money should go back to the students.  Chair Birt — what are the specific facts that the public just doesn’t get? What are they? Why does the pr film that you hired indirectly through the attorney — bizarre– Chair Birt — name them — what are the facts that the public doesn’t understnad?  I’m waiting for specifics.

Birt: You’ve been here 7 times.

Kempa: What are the specifics? We’ve had two public watchdog groups — they brought tons of information about misues of finances. So you don’t want to get a forensic audit done on your own, so then the state comes in and wants to conduct an audit , and you don’t even invite the state to comand talk to the public about why. But then you hire this pr film?  Any other BoT member that cares to state the  specifics about why the public doesn’t get, explain it. At a loss of words? If I get on Board, there won’t be a loss of words. I’ll answer any question.  You people have a major problem. The next solution — maybe jail time would work best.

Glenn Hansen, CODFA President:

Richard Jarman: Come April, there will be at least one new face, perhaps three. Who could have forseen the tumult that has engulfed this Board? Is was just last June that the first e-mail was released. Things have continued since. The BoT has not handled it well. It’s had a bunker mentality — we’ve seen inertia, instead of transparency, obfuscation. For years we the faculty have been lonely witnesses, our comments silently drifting into the night air.  Now others have awoken. The BoT has been acting as if these public watchdogs were harming the college.

I was touched by the post by Mr. Allen in favor of teachers — where he thanks us the faculty about our work and contributions.  Not one of these comments has criticized the quality of education here. The problem lies at the top. How many more indignities must we suffer? We must have change in April 2015, not April 2016.

Jean Kartje: Vice President of Academic Affairs. I’ve been here three years. My fifth institution I’ve served, my third community college. It’s hard to hear people who have never spoken with me making accusations about my integrity. This makes it hard for me. If people have issues with me or my colleagues they should come talk with me. As VP I’ve worked at a number of colleges. Any organization this size has flaws. There needs to be a balance in our perspective and we need to focus on education, not finances. We have excellent part-time and full-time faculty dedicated to help students succeed in college and in life. There are other examples that never have a voice at this table. Our culinary team was awarded a silver medal at a competition in Arkansas. We currently have two culinary students studying in France. Our robotics team competed at U of I. This spring our theater companies are performing, we have music ensembles.  Only one other higher education….

(her three minutes are up and Chair Birt asks her to end her comments)

Charles Bernstein: The previous speaker said let us focus on education, not on money and finances.

We certainly cannot be accused of focusing on money and finances…but if we do not focus our efforts on money and finances, we won’t have a college. Here is a small example that is emblematic that is troubling to me. The Waterleaf restaurant — for the first time you presented a line for revenue, expense and loss line in a budget for its three years of existence.

You did not give us the underlying detail. We don’t know how much money was lost without the underlying detail. Here’s the troubling thing: when asked for supporting documentation for the numbers you presented– asked for in a FOIA by a public group — it was denied and said that that information was part of a preliminary draft and therefore not subject to a FOIA request.

If that is the level of accounting going on at the Waterleaf, we are all in trouble. Any business keeps a continuous records of its services and its sales.  If the Waterleaf is not doing that, it should scare the pants off of you. Where else in this college is that kind of accounting going on? That’s why we  need several types of audits — and one of them is a forensic audit.

Hamilton decides not to report.

Birt asks for an ICTTA report — I talked about a white paper that had come to us form the Presidents’ council — they wer trying to move forward on that white paper– this is regarding offering Bachelor degree programs in the state. There were presentation on research on applied BA degrees. (She mentions various speakers who presented to them on BA degrees) Most of the Trustees thought is was an insightful program. There were many questions that still remained. So the next day there was a motion that was brought forward and passed, and instead of approving this we instead want to study the issue more. ICTTA is directed to invite all stakeholers to examine the option of all ccs in Illinois to consider offering BA degrees in nursing  and applied manufacturi. We are supposed to make a decision by Nov 1 2015. So we are taking a slower approach to this movement to offering BA degrees,

Trustee Savage: IT was a very informative afternoon. There has been a lot of research done into this. There was also data presented from the Florida and Washington system.  They found that usually older students are the ones who participate in these programs more than younger students.

Trustee McGuire talked about the distinguished alumni awards.

Next meeting April 16, 2015. Adjourned.

Chair Birt reconvenes the meeting.

New Business

Motion to approve the Welding Technology AAS Degree Program.

Trustee McGuire — notes 14 million new welders are needed by 2020.

Trustee Svoboda — notes that welding is a growth area. I am excited that we now have a degree program to offer and a full-time faculty member.

Birt calls for discussion of the Intergovernmental agreement between COD and DuPage County.

Birt calls for ratification and approval of the retention of Res Publica Group

Moved by McGuire, seconded by Wozniak.

Hamilton: Again, you found the wrong way to do the wrong thing. The very week you sent a note to the auditors you find a sneaky way to get a slick pr firm, money for  a spin doctor but not for an auditor general. When you approve this, your action will show the need for new leadership more than anything else I could say.

Birt: We have not said no to the auditor general. You are once again misrepresenting the facts to the public.

Hamilton: The state does a performance audit. It has nothing to do with Crwo Horwath. Res Publica has already started working but you haven’t even approved them yet.

Birt: We are engaging and gathering information so that when there is something brought forward to the Board’s attention we can move forward with it.

Svoboda: I’d like to hear more of what the chair has to say.

Birt: Going back to the original motion , we can discuss that. It is clear we need a pr firm to help the public understand the true facts. So that we don’t have those who keep spinning things. We have a lot of legal issues currently. So it was brought to our attention that we don’t say things that are inappropriate or illegal so we need an expert that is working with our legal counsel.

Vasquez (attorney) adds that since there has been an increase in inquiries from the public and the media and they touch upon legal matters, the intent is to release information to the public information that is balances so that it doesn’t negatively affect the legal matters of the college. The public will be impacted negatively as taxpayers.

Wozniak: I am not objecting to the audit. I am objecting to the College having to pay for the audit. It’s at least 250,000 that the college would have to pay. I am against that. The audit is fine. But let them pay for it.

Vasquez: Just to clarify that the state audit is separate from the motion that is before you. The decision of the state audit is not impacted by the motion that is before you.

(from audience– point of order — how much per hour is the liability that the College would be responsible for)

Vasquez: March 1 2015 agreement has been published with the agenda. The hourly rate, a blended rate, is 250. per hour. Can be terminated at any point with 30 days notice. The invoices from Res Publica will be submitted to our legal firm. We will review and then submit the bill to the College. The bill will then be processed at the College. We are asking the BoT to ratify. No legal invoices have been tendered yet. The invoices for the services will come possibly as early as next month. There is nothing at this point in time.

Hamilton: Is there a per month cap?

Vasquez: no, just an hourly rate depending on their services and how much we use them.

Hamilton: Can we put a cap in?

Attorney: up to the Board.

Hamilton: How much do we want to spend on this pr stuff?

Hamilton: I disagree with open-ended contract like this. I disagree with the contract at all, but something like this is way too open ended.

McGuire: I think we should have their services as needed.

O’Donnell: Roll.

Hamilton votes no. All other trustees vote yes.

Birt: We do not have a Trustee discussion tonight because of all the issues. We thought we would be having a long meeting tonight. Time for public comments again. We will not have a second closed session.

Laura Reigle: i thank the COD attorney for putting a nice spin on the fact there are no invoices yet for Res Publica. They will be billing for 30 days notices so if they start on March 5th, that bill has not come in yet. Nice spin.

Jan 22, 2015– the BoT the public and the Board– page 5 of a presentation — numbers of total deficit for auxiliary accounts — these are misstated.

She notes inconsistencies in the report presented by Glaser to the BoT regarding auxiliary operations. Facts presented to the public are not consistent. Please explain this to me — if I am wrong, show me. Otherwise, you owe an explanation to every taxpayer.

Mary Ann Zlotow: Retired faculty. A month after B arrived I asked him if he had seen the documentary “declining by Degree.” on the dangers of using a business model on an educational institution. Breuder has stated that he runs COD like a business. This college hires one-year teachers who can be fired. A college needs full-time faculty who can speak up and have academic rigor without fear of being fired.

Running a college like  a business spends more money to run the Waterleaf than on academic programs.

Running a college like a business closed the Buffalo Theater Company but kept the Waterleaf going. Your wining and dining bills alone could have kept Buffalo theater company running another two years.

Faculty are denied range changes, Sabbatical leaves are denied. COD is a microcosm of what’s happening in higher education in this country. You need to provide leadership that shows that his college  is spending money on education.

Jan Shaw — reminds the BoT that the January minutes were wrong.(She points out various mistakes in the minutes)

Report from Student Trustee– reports on latest events. Our presentation: AT COD we offer our students carrer opportunities

150 academic internships created last year for our students. I have invited students to come and talk about them.

Student intern at Walt Disney World talks about her experience. Was a character performance —

Josh Shweizer– Criminal Justice– assigned to general investigations unit of the Cook County Attorney General. Will begin another internship with the Postal Service unit.  Thanks Professor Theo Darden and other staff who have helped him.

Brook Jerkoviah– 3 plus 1 program with Roosevelt in Hospitality Program. Got experience at the inn at Water’s Edge on campus. Notes a class with Professor Leone that brought her connections for further internships. The staff, professor and teachers have been wonderful and have brought real world experience with them. I stand before you as accomplished student and chef.

Birt asks for comments.

Trustee Svoboda declares her pride in the students. Notes that she started out with an internship at COD and then went on to being a faculty member for 30 years.

Trustee Savage– I want to thank you sharing you experiences. Student success is what we are about.

Student Trustee Escamilla thanks Steve Gustis and Sara Kirby from Career Services.

Chair Birt thanks Trustee Svoboda for initiating the student presentation part of the agenda.

The Bot Meeting goes into a brief break.