COD board playing nice - just for now
The Daily Herald's June 6 editorial on College of DuPage looks like it was written by the Tea Party Board's PR Department.
Ignored were the $11 million deficit in FY 2016, and the $5 million in FY 2017.
Ignored was the $9 million they expect from the state in FY 2017. Some fantasy.
Ignored were the political firing lawsuits that are costing taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees. And the out-of-court settlement of one of those cases at taxpayer expense after running up huge legal fees. Firing the previous lawyers and hiring their politically-connected law firm.
Ignored the board's reneging on a severance package that the previous board had negotiated down from $1.2 million to just $760,000. Breuder was being pushed out the door by the previous board. This board brought it back and has run up $4 million in costs to "save" $760,000.
The only positive coming out of this was hiring Ann Rondeau. Educational quality is preserved. However, this has more to do with ensuring the college retains its accreditation than anything. After all there is a college to run.
Also ignored was that this board has violated existing ethics standards using patronage hiring and firings.
Ignored that, because of the political firings of the financial directors, they hired a politically-connected financial firm at a higher cost to do the same work.
The only thing "clean" about the "clean slate" is their ability to use PR to clean their dirty slate of the free-spending of tax dollars on patronage and political retribution.
They are "playing nice" now till the reaccreditation. At which point, they can revert to the typical Tea Party Agenda we see at other school boards they have taken over.
Jeffrey Crowell
Naperville