College of DuPage to make another offer to Glen Ellyn
A day after a judge issued a ruling in an ongoing court battle between the College of DuPage and village of Glen Ellyn, both sides said Wednesday they're going back to the negotiating table.
COD President Robert Breuder said during an interview with the Daily Herald editorial board Wednesday that he will be sending the village a proposed intergovernmental agreement, which would lay out what local ordinances the college is subject to.
On Tuesday, Judge Terence Sheen issued a 20-page ruling that said the college isn't exempt from the village's jurisdiction, and indicated that the college may be subject to village building inspections, permitting and approvals — which the college didn't seek after beginning a major building program in 2007.
However, the ruling didn't go so far as to say the village has complete control, and college officials have emphasized that the decision shows there is overlapping jurisdiction in many areas.
What is more clear is that Sheen said he wants both sides to try to work things out. Taking that overture, Breuder said he would send the village an intergovernmental agreement by today.
The version of the agreement he said he would send is the one approved by the college's board of trustees April 28 — and would include amendments requested by Village President Mark Pfefferman in an email to him on May 3.
Those amendments are the village's so-called “life safety” ordinances, such as regulations against air pollution and littering. Village officials sought to include those rules in an agreement in May, but college officials said those additions weren't part of the deal both bargaining teams agreed to during a meeting April 19. As a result, the COD board voted to rescind its approval of the agreement May 23.
Now, Breuder says he's on board with the “life safety” ordinances proposed by Pfefferman. However, he said he wouldn't be open to one phrase in the agreement that could allow the village to enforce other ordinances not included in the document.
“They want to say everything is applicable to you,” Breuder said. “We're saying if there's something applicable to us, tell us what they are.”
Breuder said he would ask the COD board to approve the agreement at its December meeting. If approved by both sides, the agreement would last through June 30, 2013.
Pfefferman, meanwhile, said the village would carefully consider the college's proposal, though he expressed some skepticism because the college wasn't previously open to some parts of that agreement in the past.
“I'm curious to see what it is since it's been rejected,” Pfefferman said. “The village is going to have to look at this brand new.”
Pfefferman indicated that the village board would likely be open to recertifying a 2007 intergovernmental agreement that COD withdrew from in December 2008.
The college wouldn't be interested in pursuing that agreement, according to COD spokesman Joe Moore.
“Our position has been the 2007 IGA unnecessarily ceded too much authority to the village that should be held by the college,” Moore said.