College of DuPage’s President Robert Breuder has officially reached the end of his COD career. On Tuesday, Oct. 20 the board of trustees held a special board meeting and voted to fire Breuder. This vote voids his severance package, which promised $763,000 at his retirement in May 2016. This also ends Breuder’s paid leave, active since April.

The 4-1 vote passed with elongated applause from the public audience. Trustees Erin Birt and Joseph Wozniak did not attend the special meeting. Trustee Dianne McGuire voted no.
McGuire supported her vote by explaining that she felt the decision to fire Breuder was a “politically driven vendetta.”

Trustee Charles Bernstein defended his vote, responding that Breuder had a hand in everything flagged by the Higher Learning Committee’s accreditation report. “This is not a politically inspired witch hunt,” said Bernstein. “I will cast my vote based on what I see.”

Frank Napolitano, board secretary, spoke of COD’s future. “I look forward to turning the page and looking forward,” said Napolitano.

Breuder is now the third administrator to be fired this semester. His termination comes just weeks after those of finance officials Lynn Sapyta and Thomas Glaser. Read more on the COD Courier.

FY16 Budget
Secretary of State suspends mailing motor vehicle registration renewal reminders. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White announced Monday that his office will suspend mailing out vehicle registration renewal reminder notices to the public due to the lack of a state budget.

White noted that by suspending this service, which will save approximately $450,000 per month, his office will be able to prolong the ability to mail vehicle registration renewal stickers, titles and license plates to vehicle owners for a few months longer before the postage account is depleted.

College of DuPage trustees voted 4-3 Thursday night to void the employment contract of embattled President Robert Breuder and declare him an at-will employee, putting his controversial severance package in jeopardy.

During a meeting of a deeply divided board, trustees also passed a measure that effectively rescinds an agreement to name the school's Homeland Security Education Center after Breuder. The building instead will be named, effective immediately, for Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, who grew up in Wheaton and died in Afghanistan in 2008 while saving his team during a firefight. The measure passed 4-2, with one abstention.

The two decisions are the latest efforts to undo past board actions and change the legacy left by Breuder, who is on paid administrative leave pending termination proceedings. Read the story in the Chicago Tribune.

9-11 Observances
State observes anniversary of 9-11, honors victims and first responders. In Illinois by order of Gov. Rauner, flags flew at half-mast throughout Patriot Day in honor of the victims and heroes of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and rural Pennsylvania.

Leading the way towards observance of the somber day of remembrance were Republican members of the University of Illinois student and teaching community, who successfully advocated for permission to set up a memorial installation on the U of I Quad. After a facet of the university administration temporarily attempted to block organization of the installation, the Illini Republicans led the way in a successful push to reverse the prohibition and allow the placement of 2,977 flags on the Quad. Each U.S. flag will represent one victim of the atrocity.

The College of DuPage’s top two finance officials were fired Wednesday, following internal reports that found weak financial controls and violations of the school’s investment practices.

Treasurer Thomas Glaser and Controller Lynn Sapyta, who have been on paid leave since June, were the first college officials to be fired following a regime shift at the Glen Ellyn-based school, where a new majority took over the board of trustees in April. President Robert Breuder remains on paid administrative leave.

“We are going to be embarking on a search for highly capable individuals and it is part of the new era for the College of DuPage,” said board Chairwoman Katharine Hamilton.

Glaser’s attorney, Shelly Kulwin, said he plans to file a lawsuit for wrongful termination and breach of contract.

Read more in the Chicago Tribune.

Termination proceedings could begin as early as Thursday night against College of DuPage President Robert Breuder if authorized by the school's board of trustees, officials said Tuesday.

If the board votes to begin those proceedings, the process could take months, officials said.

Breuder has been on paid administrative leave since the end of April after a new majority was elected to the board amid a public furor over a $762,867 severance agreement that was approved for the president.

Since that time, the Glen Ellyn-based school -- the largest community college in the state -- has been subject to state and federal investigations as well as internal probes into questions about its finances and administrative practices. Read the story in the Daily Herald.

FY16 Budget Crisis
Democrats continue push for unbalanced, unconstitutional budget. As the State of Illinois entered the second week of its fiscal year without a balanced budget in place, the Democrat majority continued to take a piece-meal approach to the budget crisis.

Democrats again backed a temporary budget to fund certain services at a level that is not sustainable over the course of the entire fiscal year. SB 2040, passed by the bare minimum of 71 partisan Democrat votes in the House Thursday, does not contain one-month spending levels based on the projected FY16 revenue estimate of $32 billion.

Legislation that limits the size and scope of community college buyout packages and severance agreements, and limits the length of employment contracts, has passed in the Illinois House and Senate and now moves to the Governor’s desk to be signed.

In response to the $763,000 contract buyout approved by College of DuPage Trustees for President Dr. Robert Breuder earlier this year, State Representative Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) carried HB3593, which would limit the amount of future agreements to no more than one year of salary and benefits. “The agreement that the majority of the COD trustees approved for their underperforming president was excessive and not in the best interest of the taxpayers who fund the college,” said Ives. “I would have liked to have been able to roll back his agreement, but at least moving forward there will be taxpayer protections in place.”

The College of DuPage's top two finance officials were put on administrative leave Tuesday afternoon amid the release of an internal audit that blasted the school's investment policies.

The scathing review – which college officials now say was buried for months -- found multiple instances in which the college violated its own investment policies. One decision cost the college nearly $2 million in a single, high-profile fund, according to the audit.

In light of the report, college treasurer Thomas Glaser and controller Lynn Sapyta were placed on paid leave Tuesday while the financial investigation continues. The school's board of trustees plans to consider hiring a financial services firm at its meeting later this week. The Chicago Tribune has the story.

In a unanimous showing of support for the taxpayers who fund the College of DuPage, members of the House of Representatives approved a resolution on Thursday that will launch a thorough performance audit of the college.

HR55, Sponsored by State Representative Jeanne Ives, was filed in response to the decision by the COD board to provide outgoing College President Dr. Robert Breuder with a $763,000 severance package in exchange for his early departure as College President.

During a decidedly bitter meeting, the new College of DuPage board of trustees followed through with plans Thursday night to put the school's embattled president on paid administrative leave.

The move capped a whirlwind week at the state's largest community college that saw its president, Robert Breuder, getting approval for a medical leave hours after the board announced it would vote to sideline him at Thursday's meeting.

Before a crowd of about 200 people, trustees elected Katharine Hamilton as the board's new chair, putting the longtime lone board dissenter in charge. She will oversee a new majority on the seven-member board following a political shift in last month's election that included the selection of three new trustees.

Hamilton was elected chair in a 4-3 vote, setting the tone for what is likely to be a divisive board. Indeed, the three-member minority, all of them returning trustees, voted against the entire agenda because it was not created with all trustees' input. Board members were at odds with one another on every issue throughout the nearly-five-hour meeting.

Read more in the Chicago Tribune.

State Representative Margo McDermed (R-Mokena)’s bill to address runaway severance agreements passed the House on Wednesday with a vote of 114-2. HB303 amends the Illinois Freedom of Information Act to ban to ban a government body from concealing the terms of a severance agreement funded by tax-payer dollars.  It provides protection for trade secrets, proprietary information, or other exempt information.

“Taxpayers should be entitled to look at the terms of an agreement that a public body, using taxpayer funds, reaches” Rep McDermed said. “This is a victory for public entity transparency.”

The bill was initiated in response to egregious cases of severance payments in the past few years such as a $763,000 severance agreement provided to the outgoing President of College of DuPage, Robert Breuder, and a $700,000 severance agreement given to former Metra CEO Alex Clifford. The bill is a part of the College of DuPage reform package. Read more.

The College of DuPage Board of Trustees will soon be looking at a Clean Slate.

The trio of candidates that campaigned under the name the Clean Slate and received significant support from Vice Chairwoman Kathy Hamilton swept the April 7 election.

Deanne Mazzochi came in the lead with 42,903 votes, according to preliminary reports from the DuPage County Election Commission and the Will and Cook county clerks. Frank Napolitano followed with 34,011 votes. Charles Bernstein was third with 28,352 votes. All candidates will commit to 6-year terms on the board.

The slate won all three seats in DuPage and Will counties and two out of three in Cook County, with incumbents Nancy Svoboda and Kim Savage pushing Bernstein into fifth place. Read more in My Suburban Life.

Without receiving a single competitive bid, the College of DuPage has paid a member of its foundation board more than $630,000 to design and install signs for the school over the past four years — with much of the work made possible through a contract that references her experience as an architect.

That's where it gets tricky.

Foundation board member Carla Burkhart is not an architect. Her company, Herricane Graphics, does not provide architectural services.

A Tribune analysis of records from Burkhart's work at the school since 2011 raises questions about how Illinois' largest community college awards contracts, especially to vendors who serve on the board of the College of DuPage Foundation, the school's private fundraising arm. Ten of the foundation's 22 board members work for companies with financial ties to the college, according to documents obtained under the state Freedom of Information Act.

After questions from the Tribune, the chairwoman of the school's board of trustees, Erin Birt, recently ordered a review of contracts between the school and its foundation members. The publicly funded college does not have a policy regarding contracts with foundation board members.

The college's dealings with Burkhart also have prompted a state investigation.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation recently filed a document with an administrative court against Burkhart, asking her to address the claim that she falsely represented herself as an architect when she signed a contract with the College of DuPage in 2012. Under state law, it's a misdemeanor to portray oneself as an architect without a license. Read the rest of the story in the Chicago Tribune.

In an attempt to get answers to questions concerning the governance of the College of DuPage, Representative Jeanne Ives introduced a resolution directing the Auditor General to conduct a performance audit.  House Resolution 55 cleared its first hurdle today passing out of committee unanimously and advancing to the House Floor. 

Under the resolution, the performance audit would be paid by the College of

Last month a group of lawmakers sought to advance a package of legislation aimed squarely at a $750K severance buyout that left local taxpayers reeling. Now revelations by the Chicago Tribune that College of DuPage administrators spent hundreds of thousand of dollars on taxpayer-funded outings at the high-end publicly-owned restaurant on the campus of College of DuPage has raised the ire of those same lawmakers.

Here's what they have to say:

Rep. Steve Andersson (R-Geneva)
“The article today by the Tribune is just another example of the largesse that Dr. Brueder engaged in to the detriment and expense of the taxpayers. The COD Board has failed its citizens in allowing this sort of abuse to occur. It is unfortunate that such an “asleep at the wheel” attitude by the Board has cost so many so much. This will likely cause other districts to lose flexibility due to the actions of the COD board.  However, reform must occur to stop this sort of misconduct from recurring.”

Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield)
“I think once people read these new revelations, there will be a renewed call for an electoral remedy for the college board members who allowed this to happen. There should be resignations, but short of that, voters should have the right to recall these officials.”

Rep. Peter Breen (R-Lombard)
“This situation clearly extends beyond just an egregious severance package, to the point we need to hold immediate public hearings, and possibly to demand resignations of those involved. We’ve been measured but firm in our call to action thus far, but it is clear we need to move more quickly.”

Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton)
“This is just one more example of the type of malfeasance that has been going on at the College of DuPage for years. It is also an example of exactly why the COD trustees need to comply with the legislative request that the Illinois Auditor General be allowed to come in and do a thorough performance audit.”

Rep. Ron Sandack (R-Downers Grove)
“As more details emerge about the impetus of the ousting of the head of the College of DuPage, the taxpayer funded, high-end restaurant on the College of DuPage campus, it only adds to the clear need for this situation to be fully vetted in the eye of public hearings.”

Rep. Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville)
"Once again, we have seen irresponsible, reckless spending out of our leadership and elected officials from the Community College of DuPage. This is just another reason why a full compliance audit of C.O.D must be completed by the Illinois Auditor General to create better transparency, reinforce accountability and start to regain the trust of the taxpayers."


Read the Chicago Tribune story in its entirety here:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-college-of-dupage-waterleaf