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College of DuPage board unlikely to fill trustee vacancy without outside help

A last-ditch effort to give the College of DuPage board a chance to name a new trustee appears to be dead before it even begins.

Vice Chairwoman Deanne Mazzochi on Tuesday called a meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday with just one item on the agenda: to pick a seventh trustee to break the 3-3 deadlock that has paralyzed the sharply divided board since Chairwoman Kathy Hamilton resigned Dec. 13 for unspecified reasons.

But Mazzochi had barely scheduled the meeting when two opposition trustees, Erin Birt and Dianne McGuire, made it clear they believe the board is incapable of selecting a new trustee. And Birt went so far as to say it would be unethical for Mazzochi and her two board allies - Charles Bernstein and Frank Napolitano - to even participate in the process.

That means the selection of a new trustee almost certainly will be left to an appointed outsider: Lazaro Lopez, the chairman of the Illinois Community College Board.

The COD board has been evenly split since Hamilton's unexpected departure, leaving her allies Mazzochi, Bernstein and Napolitano on one side and Birt, McGuire and Joseph Wozniak on the other.

Twenty-seven people have applied to fill Hamilton's seat, but the entire board has met only once since November and trustees still haven't even talked about how to pick her replacement.

By law, if the six remaining trustees can't agree on someone by Thursday, Lopez will be forced to pick the new trustee.

Mazzochi said she wants to avoid that.

So even though McGuire, Birt and Wozniak have skipped almost every meeting since Hamilton resigned, Mazzochi scheduled Thursday night's special session.

"I simply want to ensure that everyone has an opportunity up to the deadline to consider whether they would like to at least to try," Mazzochi said. "This represents an opportunity we shouldn't ignore."

If the board can't reach an agreement on who to pick, Mazzochi said trustees could identify the traits they would like to see in the person Lopez selects.

"Even if we can't pick someone, we at least can give some guidance (to the ICCB)," she said.

Mazzochi said she's going to give trustees until noon Wednesday to inform her whether they plan to attend the meeting.

If it's clear there won't be a quorum for Thursday's meeting, Mazzochi said she's going to cancel it.

Based on statements released Tuesday by McGuire and Birt, she may not have to wait that long to pull the plug.

In her statement, McGuire said she hopes Lopez, who is a COD graduate, "will bring his expertise and experience to bear upon the selection" of the new trustee.

"Sometimes, a fresh perspective and a view from the outside is just what is needed," McGuire wrote. "I am still supportive of the request to defer this decision to Dr. Lopez."

Birt, meanwhile, said she doesn't believe the remaining board members should pick the next trustee.

"Half of the COD board is being sued individually by a former COD employee for millions of dollars," Birt wrote in an email to the Daily Herald.

She was referring to a wrongful termination lawsuit that former President Robert Breuder filed against Napolitano, Mazzochi, Bernstein and Hamilton after they voted to fire him in October. Breuder is seeking more than $2 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

"Ethically, they should remove themselves from the trustee selection process and defer to a neutral selection by Mr. Lopez," said Birt, adding that she looks forward "to the board being whole again."

Whoever ends up becoming the seventh trustee will serve until the next consolidated election in April 2017 - and likely wind up serving as the tiebreaking vote on many issues.

In addition to selecting a new board member, the trustees still have plenty of other issues to address: paying legal fees for attorneys, who should be the next board chairman, the ongoing search for the school's next president, and determining when they are going to meet again as a full board.

They also have been asked by DuPage State's Attorney Robert Berlin to turn over minutes of a closed session last year in which renewal of Breuder's contract was discussed.

It was the board's attempt to secure Breuder's resignation with a $763,000 buyout that prompted the public furor that led to Hamilton's backing of the Mazzochi faction, which was elected in April and later fired Breuder.

That group enjoyed a 4-3 majority until Hamilton's resignation in December, which resulted in the 3-3 gridlock that apparently will be broken only by appointment of a new trustee.

The divided College of DuPage board: top row from left, Deanne Mazzochi, Charles Bernstein, Frank Napolitano; bottom row, Dianne McGuire, Erin Birt, Joseph Wozniak
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