Editorial: Time for COD trustees to see all spending, as other boards do
Whenever someone says, essentially, "That's the way we've always done it" when something is questioned, it's a red flag.
That usually means it hasn't been looked at in a different way and likely could be changed for the better.
That's how we look at the issue raised this week in a story by Jake Griffin, the Daily Herald's tax watchdog editor, about how the College of DuPage board approves school spending.
Unlike almost every other community college that the Daily Herald covers, COD board members do not receive an itemized list for all spending each month. Instead, any expenditures under $15,000 are not itemized.
That added up to more than $26 million over the past 16 months.
And, in some cases, vendors received checks well over that threshold because invoices were combined and one check written.
It's a long-standing board policy not to see the itemization. It's time to change it.
Only when a government finance watchdog filed a public records request for itemized spending reports did this policy come to light.
Elgin, Harper, McHenry County, Oakton and Waubonsee community colleges all provide itemized reports for all spending to the elected boards. College of Lake County sets a $5,000 threshold.
Every elected board member - at COD and elsewhere - should be asking for more transparency from college administrators, not less. That's why we are puzzled by why board Chairwoman Erin Birt told Griffin "it's not the inclination of the majority of the board to change the board's policy."
Why not? Is it because the person on the board who is questioning the policy is board Vice Chairman Kathy Hamilton, who was just censured for "making erroneous statements reflecting negatively against her fellow board members and the administration in an inflammatory, insulting, discourteous and defamatory manner."
It's time college trustees put aside their differences and do the job they are elected to do.
Part of that job is oversight of college spending. We are not saying anything is being done inappropriately by college administrators. They are doing as the board requests. It's up to the elected board to assert its right to see how money is being spent.
"There is little harm in having the board review or approve expenditures that end up representing a significant portion of the budget," said Laurence Msall, president of the Chicago-based Civic Federation, a government finance research organization.
As we said in a previous editorial after her censure, Hamilton needs to figure out better ways to address these important issues and seek consensus. On this specific issue, she's right and the rest of the board needs to change their "that's the way we've always done it" mindset.