College of DuPage trustees propose end to meeting boycott
Three College of DuPage trustees who have been boycotting board meetings for more than a month have scheduled a special session for Wednesday to address routine college business.
Dianne McGuire, Erin Birt and Joseph Wozniak announced the special meeting on Sunday, two days after filing a lawsuit against the school's law firms to obtain all billing records, memorandums and other documents the attorneys have produced while working for the college.
"The agenda includes only routine items and excludes issues impacted by the lawsuit for legal information," according to a short statement released by the three trustees.
According to the meeting agenda, the session is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Student Services Center on COD's Glen Ellyn campus. Most of the meeting topics are consent agenda items, which normally are approved without discussion. The long list of consent agenda items include the purchase of ethics training for college staff and faculty, the purchase of computers, and the purchase of meat for the culinary and hospitality programs.
Other topics that would be addressed during the planned meeting include the approval of minutes, financial reports, legal bills, architectural services, and personnel action items. There's also a spot for public comment at the start of the meeting.
Deanne Mazzochi, the board's vice chairwoman, said she and the two other members of the board - Charles Bernstein and Frank Napolitano - look forward "to all opportunities to get the college's business done."
"We appreciate any positive, productive discussion that can be had amongst all six voting trustees," Mazzochi said in an email to the Daily Herald.
Wednesday's meeting would be first time the full board has met since former Chairwoman Kathy Hamilton unexpectedly stepped down on Dec. 13. Hamilton's resignation for unspecified personal reasons left a 3-3 split on what already had been a deeply divided seven-member panel.
McGuire, Birt and Wozniak previously said they were boycotting meetings because they wanted an organizational session held to pick a new chairman. They also complained about being denied access to legal information from the college during and after Hamilton's tenure as chairwoman.
There is not an organizational session on the agenda for Wednesday.
Meanwhile, McGuire, Birt and Wozniak on Friday filed a lawsuit against the law firms of Rathje & Woodward, Schiff Hardin and Schuyler, and Roche & Crisham to get the documents they claim they were denied.
Because of their lawsuit, McGuire, Birt and Wozniak declined to comment on Sunday.