COD misses deadline to pay for audit

College of DuPage trustees will miss a deadline set by state lawmakers to approve funding for a voluntary performance audit of the beleaguered community college.

Lawmakers gave the COD board of trustees until Thursday to authorize spending up to $234,000 for Illinois Auditor General Bill Holland to conduct the probe. But the board has not scheduled a meeting for Thursday and cannot legally do so now because such a session requires 48 hours notice.

COD Trustee Kathy Hamilton, who supports the call for an audit, last week urged the board to schedule a meeting and then repeated her request Tuesday morning with the same result.

“If we have this performance audit done, it will provide a road map for reform,” said Hamilton, adding the probe would evaluate whether the COD board has followed its own policies since fiscal 2011.

But on Tuesday afternoon, a college spokesman said there are no plans for the board to meet Thursday.

“The response to the audit is still under consideration,” spokesman Joseph Moore said in an email. “We have no further information at this time.”

State Rep. Jeanne Ives had called for a probe of COD's finances after the board approved a $762,868 deal for school President Robert Breuder to retire about three years earlier than his existing contract's expiration date. Hamilton was the only trustee to vote against the deal.

In a news release issued by Hamilton and three candidates she's supporting for the COD board in next month's election, Ives said a performance audit is “one of the best ways to reveal whether or not procedures were followed in accordance with the law and board rules.”

“Dozens of legislators have called for this audit,” Ives said. “The COD board of trustees should approve the state audit immediately and remove any suspicion that they are hiding more problems.”

College officials previously said they're prepared for an audit.

Hamilton now says she would be “surprised” if the current board decides to pursue an audit. She said a vote to pay for the audit might not happen until after the April 7 election.

In the meantime, she's supporting “Clean Slate” candidates Deanne Mazzochi, Charles Bernstein and Frank Napolitano.

“It (funding for the audit) will be ready for us to take up when the Clean Slate takes over the board in April,” she said.

The nine other candidates in the COD board race are Dan Bailey of Wheaton, Claire Ball of Addison, former Trustee David Carlin of Naperville, Roger Kempa of Darien, Matt Gambs of Naperville, Sandra Pihos of Glen Ellyn, Joseph M. Wozniak of Naperville, and incumbents Nancy Svoboda of Downers Grove and Kim Savage of Darien.