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)