The Board of Trustees special meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 24, 2015 has been canceled.

The Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting in the Student Services Center (SSC) Room 2206 on Monday, September 28, 2015 at 7 p.m.

See the COD Board of Trustees website for more information.

Appointment of Administrator Appeal Hearing Officer

This is related to the need to have someone to hear appeals from Glaser and Sapayta. Complicated and sensitive legal work. Mazzochi has a motion prepared proposing the hiring of Joseph A. Morris. Timelines are very tight.

McGuire: risk that these hearings may be tainted. Should reach out to IL Labor Relations Board. Need to be sure that hearing officer is absolutely unbiased.

Mazzochi says that McGuire has warped idea of conflict of interest. Nobody has any prior relationship with Mr. Morris. Suggestion of conflict is frivolous. McGuire had every opportunity to suggest anyone she wanted to.

McGuire says that she is just saying it has been a very fast process and not many options were considered.

Elliot says that he and his firm have no relationship or business with Morris. He was contacted because of his reputation for being one of the best or even the very best hearing officer in the state.

Napolitano states that there is a Sept 24 deadline to schedule a hearing.

Vote: Birt and McGuire No, all others Yes.

This is the end of tonight’s blogging coverage! 

Presentations

Presidential Search 

Chair Hamilton introduces Narcisa Polonio from the Association of Community College Trustees.

Polonio explains her association with COD since 1988, a stellar institution with a great reputation. Presidential search gives whole community a chance to step back, identify priorities and challenges. Understand role of the president who guides and supports faculty and staff. Need permanent president to focus on teaching and learning. Search is a change to bring institution together and connect with community and its expectations for the next leader. Look at trends for community colleges nationally – mentions bacc degrees as significant example. Role of president is to stay in touch and help board decide on direction to take.

Presidential profile: important document to guide what kind of leader is being sought.

Have to be careful that candidates do not see us as a career destruction. Have to be able to be successful here. Candidates always ask, what happened to the previous president, and what’s the board like to work with? You are a divided board. You have to come together. Our commitment will be to try to help you find common ground to find the right leader, who will help you come together. If you don’t do that, there will be students who will suffer.

ACCT has been involved in searches since 1972. Confidential. 24/7 access to consultants and resources. Use influence to find best candidates. Would be possible to be in final stages by January 2016. Proposed timeline provided, starting in October. Will require discipline and effort but will be worth it, a new leader is just what the doctor ordered.

McGuire asks her what her last contact with COD was. Response is that she has kept in touch all along. She advised the board not to hire Breuder, wrong leader at the time. Sad thing that happened was that it became about his pride, not about collaboration.

Napolitano: thank you for your candor, then and now.

Polonio exits from podium and Hamilton comments positively on the presentation. Next week there will be presentations from two other consultants, and there may be others. Hamilton and Napolitano are working on finding community stakeholders to be part of the search process. A press release issued earlier today naming 16 members of search committee. These people will screen candidates to bring a short list.

Napolitano read out list of names, includes Hamilton, Napolitano, Glenn Hansen, Jeanne Ives, Maren McKellin, CODAA president, a number of community members.

Wozniak seems agitated and asks why there are not more trustees on the committee, says aggressively that he wants to read all the resumes himself. Mazzochi says he will have a voice in the process. Hamilton says that there should be community stakeholders represented. Wozniak objects, saying that the committee is too broad, and that the president will be working mostly with the board. There is more discussion and Polonio comes back to the podium and comments on the process, the need for confidentiality as well as trust for the sake of the community. There can’t be too many trustees on the committee because then they would have to have open meetings, and open meetings are not confidential. The board ratifies the presidential profile, which guides the process.

Proclamation Naming Homeland Security Education Center

In light of the previous vote voiding Breuder’s contract, the naming recognition would change to medal of honor awardee Robert Miller.

McGuire proposes an amendment in which Miller’s name would be used on the newer Training center rather than on the HEC. She argues that there is no knowing what will happen with the previous motion in the courts.

Wozniak agrees with McGuire. Then he says he’s ok with Miller’s name being on either building. Birt says that it would be too bad to mix Miller’s naming into COD’s controversy and litigation.

The usual split vote on the amendment, 4-3. Roark abstains. Amendment fails.

Bernstein reads a prepared statement in support of the idea that the building should be named after someone who has actually contributed to homeland security. Staff Sargeant Miller saved the lives of many. We need to understand what this really means. It should be someone of this stature. Quotes from Obama’s remarks when awarding Miller’s Medal of Honor. Miller’s name will inspire future generations of students. The alternative would cause no such inspiration. Without contributions like Miller’s, we would not have the benefits that we take for granted. “Freedom and learning are ours only because others paid the highest price.” Urged board to vote unanimously.

Vote: Woz abstains. Birt No. McGuire No. All others yes. Motion passes.

The agenda was re-ordered.

Item 10 calls for the board to declare that President’s Breuder was “void from the start” as Chair Hamilton translates from Latin.

Hamilton: very significant legal and institutional conclusion. Consistent with legal opinion by Attorney General Madigan. Makes Breuder an “at-will” employee. Will still have his rights which will be respected by COD. Legal principle is that a board cannot tie the hands of future boards; however, this is the pattern that was repeatedly set. The 3-year extension that was given three months into Breuder’s employment extended past the next two elections. Both Madigan and States Attorney Berlin agree that later contract extension rollovers were violations of the Open Meetings Act. The three additional rollover years were used to justify the severance package, but no vote was ever made public. Breuder’s contract is caught over the line not by politics or machinations, but by the top law enforcement officer in the state. The employee of the public body should not set his own departure date. We must show our commitment to the Open Meetings Act and keep faith with our promises.

Trustee discussion:

McGuire. Important matter to consider. Not convinced by specious arguments. Going to let the attorneys sort through the cases. Ludicrous to say that a board only has two years to make agreements. We enter into agreements all the time that extend over time – such as faculty contracts. This motion is a breach of contract and a desperate attempt to circumvent the law. The cost of the severance agreement will be nothing compared to the cost of the lawsuits, has heard this could cost $3-5million. Ridiculous.

Wozniak. Very concerned about potential cost of lawsuits. No one is mentioning the good things that Breuder did. Will vote against with Diane.

Mazzochi. Procedural is separate from substantive issues. This is not about job performance, but about procedural issues. The one person the board hires and its one direct report is the president. The people of the community have a statutory right to act through the elected board. Separate statutory authority governs contracts like the one for faculty. Illinois AG and States Atty have found OMA violations, and legislators have found this also. If there was an illegal act, we have a duty to remedy and ensure compliance with the law. Approving this resolution means that the contract is void as of the constitution of this board, and this board has the responsibility to make sure that the public

Napolitano. Emphasizes issue of not binding future boards.

Hamilton asks attorney to shed light on the legalities being mentioned. Clarify the discussion that has just happened.

Elliot: The upshot of tonight’s action would be to state that the contract of 2008 is now void as a matter of law. College is staking out a position that Breuder is and always has been an at-will employee. The severance agreement would be voided. Breuder would have only the rights of any at-will employee. Line of authority going back to 1892 says that outgoing board cannot saddle incoming board with contracts, especially in the case of a favored employee.

Roark: abstain

McGuire: No

Wozniak: No

Birt: No

all others yes. Motion passes.

Public Hearing on the FY2016 Budget

Sec Napolitano described process of developing proposed budget which has been online for a month. Includes a reduction in tax levy as well as decrease in tuition starting in spring semester. Maintain level of service.

Kirk Beckman with David Virgilio explains that the new budget more closely reflects actual spending. Surplus of over $700k for fiscal year. Main focus was on operating funds. Example is that budget includes a “vacancy” rate in staffing. In years past, there has always been a very large surplus of salary because the vacancy rate was not built in.

Public comment:

Trustee McGuire. Calls the budget process political theater. We are short $17million and not properly accounting for issues with funding from the state. Wrong time to spend our savings account. Wrong time to enhance the political careers of trustees.

Roger Kempa. Responding to rousing political speech. The era of automatic increases is over because COD has accumulated $195million surplus after those years. Screw the public on taxes and the students on tuition – those years are over.

Kirk Allen. Responding to McGuire, asks if she was at the meetings, if she had given her input during the budgeting process. Says the record should show that she did not respond. The accusations about political aspirations are getting old. Services are not being cut, obligations are being met, stop politicizing this.

Laura Reigle. I’m tired of being overtaxed. You have $200million in the bank – your proceeds from not having a balanced budget. Taxpayers and students need the relief.

Jan Shaw. We’re going to be spending out of savings, like putting a new roof on your house. Expenses for cleaning up the mess should start to come down. Describes McGuire’s tone of talking down to the community. Calls on McGuire to resign.

Adam Andrzejewski. Replies to McGuire’s theme that this is not the time. It was never the time to correct all the abuses in the past either. This is a clarion call to do more than less. This board is leading on fiscal responsibility and on the future of this state. McGuire and past board on “ash heap of history.”

John Kraft. Purpose of a budget hearing is for the public to ask questions and get answers from the public body.

Kirk Beckman is recalled to the podium and explains that the deficit McGuire referred to is not in the operating fund but in construction funds. “Apples and oranges.” Also replied about state funding. Historically this has been a risk area. Analysis of the past five years showed that much more state money than was budgeted for was actually taken in, which contributed to surplus. Also covered in the case of cost shift for pensions.

Bernstein comments that this is a much tighter budget, and that the apparent deficit is not a deficit but an “accounting artifice” in that it will not necessarily be spent in the current year.

Chair Hamilton comments that it is unprecedented to have members of the public involved in budgeting and asks for thanks to the budget committee. Asks counsel about the construction reserve, $33million. Is the college required to spend this money? Counsel: No, we do not have to spend that – it is a projection. Ham: Can we go ahead and spend that money? Counsel: There would have to be board action. Ham: we do not have a plan for a building. If there is going to be a building, there will be public discussion and discussion in front of the public.

Sec Napolitano clarifies that the next meeting will focus on approval of the budget. The budget hearing is closed by roll call vote.

After this agenda item, Item #6 closed session is called.

Chair Hamilton comments that the closed session will last about one hour (this is at 7:57pm).

Call to Order.

1. Pledge of Allegiance

2. Roll Call

All trustees are present.

3. Agenda 

Motion to approve the agenda passes. Trustee Birt is opposed.

4. Public Comment 

Chair Hamilton announces that there will be a 5-minute time limit at the later session for public comments. There will be public comments on the budget as well.

Glenn Hansen, CODFA President.

Good evening, I’m Glenn Hansen, president of the Faculty Senate and Association.

Positive change comes slowly, it’s often not easy. It’s been an ugly year since our VNC. Tonight you can take bold and decisive action sending a clear message and move on. It is difficult to make a decision but to do nothing is a decision too, a weak action but a decision too. You’ll argue about cause for dismissal, as you have for a long time. Some claim you debated this firing for longer than we knew, but in the end you decided it was better not do anything and failed in your leadership. If you want cause, close your eyes and throw the proverbial the dart. Let me be clear, No One did anything here at COD without Robert Breuder’s approval. He may not have said “do this” for everything that happened, but he set the conditions. He showed how he wanted things done and everyone mimicked that freely and happily. But, I would say that the first time something more than bottle of “2 buck chuck” was charged to a house account, funded by student tuition dollars, you had cause. Whether the board endorsed it or not, the students were betrayed and that is something to be held accountable for.

We can debate the future for everyone who participated in the abuses of money and people for the last 6 years, but their fate is cast by their actions and a new President will decide their future. Instead, tonight you decide the future for one person; don’t mistake Robert Breuder for a leader, don’t make him a fallen hero, don’t make him a scapegoat for others’ decisions to follow his directives, simply make him unemployed.

Move forward and begin to look for a leader. Leadership is not about appearances. Leadership is not about authority or power. Leadership is not telling someone to

do something or “else”. Leadership inspires others to do the right thing, to make the right choices, to achieve beyond the expected, leadership respects and values everyone, and most of all leadership is not about self. The preamble to our VNC described leadership, the qualities we, the Faculty, expect in a college president. We are not lemmings, we will not follow a flawed leader. In 2008 we said no, in 2009 we said no, and every year since we have said no leading up a very clear “no more” last year. Tonight, we urge you to say no and goodbye to anymore failed leadership.

Thank you.

Richard Jarman, CODFA Vice-President. 

The 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain was commemorated this week, and I was reminded of one of Churchill’s speeches during those dark hours concerning a recent victory: “..this is not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning.”

I take the optimistic view that the vote to be taken tonight on item 10 does represent the beginning of the end; the end of the beginning was marked by the election result April 7th and reforms subsequently enacted.

I was in the boardroom in April 2009 when that lame duck board muscled that extension through; 3 years after 3 months on the job! How about that for fiduciary responsibility Messrs. MacKinnon, Carlin, Atkinson et. al. Guardians of the taxpayers’ purse? I think not.

Little did we know then the onerous consequences of that (possibly illegal?) stunt. They could have been prevented, yet those three added years mushroomed into four more, as supine board upon supine board sat in silence, as if under a spell, as the date advanced each April. That is, until one person had the temerity to ask a question.

Many will argue that it is better to let it all go; give up the $760 K and move on. It would be expedient perhaps, but it would not be right. Sometimes, doing things the right way takes more time and costs more money. So be it. Thanks to the giant mattress of cash the college now happily nestles on, courtesy of the previous regime ironically, the money is not the point.

The likes of the Daily Herald editorial board opine that it is just a personal vendetta on the part of that upstart trustee. I would not begrudge her a little, given what had been meted out to her in the past. I don’t think she is alone. But vengeance is not the motive here. Setting the record straight is. This institution must be purged of the stain of the past six years and a precedent established that future boards and its leaders will act responsibly with the interests of the institution uppermost.

In light of item 11, a proclamation that I wholeheartedly support, and who among those here could possibly not, it seems fitting to reflect on another Churchill utterance from the battle 75 years ago, “that the gratitude of every

home in our island, and indeed throughout the world, goes out to the those, who, undaunted by odds, unweakened by their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and their devotion.” I think Robert Miller fits that bill.

Thank you.

Kirk Allen. Commenting on item 11 as a veteran of the Air Force. Naming the building after a Medal of Honor hero is the right thing to do. Item 10: have laid out the case (about Breuder’s contract) with legal background for this action. My hat’s off to those who vote for this. He listed several questions to the board which he will provide in writing, relating to misuse of public funds and Breuder improperly serving on a board.

John Kraft. Applauds the board for renaming of the building. Asked questions about the COD’s classification of SLEA trainees as students, costs of maintaining the firing range.

Adam Andrzejewski. Founder of Forthegoodofillinois. Asked questions, must government employees follow the law? Was it legal for Breuder and others to bill luxury goods and memberships to the college? Were no-bid contracts legal? Agenda shows that the board has heard from faculty and community. Vote to invalidate any contract that has not been legally conferred.

Matthew Turmand. Deputy Director of American Transparency. Spoke to board in the past after Trustee McGuire’s speech invoking Nazis. Strongly critiqued McGuire again for improper reimbursement of expenses related to her partisan political activities with Naperville Democrats.

Laura Reigle. Calls out Trustee Birt for missing meetings. Recalls the meetings when there were 10 seats for the public and fences around the trustees. Who was behind this? Calls on board do what is morally right.

Paul Lefort. DuPage taxpayer. Asks questions. Repeats request from last month to know final construction costs of large projects.  Mentions large legal bills from law firms that are no longer retained. Also outstanding bills to Herricane Graphics. Would like to see analysis for why COD has highest cost per student among IL community colleges.

Jeanne Ives. State Representative. Recounts story of Robert Miller and comments on the meaning of duty and honor. His story should be remembered. His name should be on the building – so that people will find out who he was. The community built the building, the community deserves the right to name it. Thanks board for the agenda item.

Roger Kempa. Asks questions about financial reports, audit proposal, and whether master list of new committee assignments is available.

We are grateful for our loyal readers! Thank you for visiting this site, keeping up with our news, and caring about transparency in COD’s governance. We plan to continue this blog, but we will not be covering the meetings in as much detail as we have been. We’ll give the highlights – please watch the video if you want more. [Click here for Multimedia Services link]

The COD Faculty Association started this blog because there was no other way for the public to stay informed of what happened in the BOT meetings. Things have changed – the meetings are being live-streamed, and after the meetings, the complete video is posted very promptly. We thank the Trustees for their attention to this important matter.

Tonight’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:45pm. The first substantive items are Public Comment and a Public Hearing on the FY2016 Budget. After that, a closed session is scheduled before several agenda items of very great interest to the faculty as well as the broader community. [Click here to open the PDF of the agenda]

Item 11, initiating termination process for Breuder. Chair Hamilton says that the integrity of the process will be carefully guarded. The public as well as President Breuder should have confidence in the outcome. This is the beginning of a process, not a finding.

McGuire has a statement. Not convinced that the board has a valid and legal basis for this action. The board majority is determined to deliver on a political promise. Will vote no.

Wozniak is against moving forward with termination because should he file a lawsuit, it will cost more than the buyout.

Bernstein: convinced that there is more than sufficient to proceed. Calls on Breuder to put the college first, forego the severance, and walk away. [applause]

Mazzochi: in April, one of the first actions of the BOT was to authorize the investigation. The four months have passed and here we are. I look forward to bringing some resolution to this issue.

Napolitano: would like to hear legal opinion about the super-majority issue. Then there is back and forth with Hamilton about what can be said in public versus closed session:

Motion passes 4-2. [significant applause]

Item 10. Mr. Elliott explains the issue of the violation of Open Meetings Act in which Breuder’s contract got its third addendum. The Board is asking law enforcement to act in relation to the ruling that the OMA was violated.

Motion passes 4-1-1 (Wozniak abstains).

Mazzochi read out lengthy recommendation naming specific firms and referencing firms that would no longer be retained.

McGuire and Wozniak state objections to the motion and say they will vote no. McGuire says that there are complaints made against two of the attorneys to the Attorney Registration and Discipline Commission and they are being investigated.

Hamilton consults with attorney who leaves the table briefly to talk with someone else.

Mazzochi states that McGuire herself filed frivolous complaints in order to further her own political positioning here. Violated confidentiality provisions.

The two attorneys named by McGuire responded at the podium.

Mr. Elliott says that “a child with a crayon” can write a letter to the committee, and a letter does not start an investigation.

Consella also states that the letter written about him by McGuire is baseless and frivolous. There will be no action taken by the Attorney Registration and Discipline Commission.

Motion passes 4-2. (Birt is not present, so only 6 trustees are voting tonight.)