COD – Trustee McGuire – a Nazi? – or set-up with talking points from Breuder?

DuPage Co. (ECWd) –

Question the public body and demand accountability to the spending, proven to be out of control, and you get accused of being a Nazi.  (Click for that coverage here)

So what do you call it when the very person who spent 20 minutes defending COD President Breuder’s  actions, and then referring to concerned citizens who addressed their government as Nazi’s is caught doing exactly what the citizens were doing, expressing their concern?

Yes, COD Trustee McGuire has legitimate concerns, as do the citizens, regarding the no bid contracts taking place between COD Foundation board members or their affiliated companies, which according to an article in Reboot Illinois happens to total $192 million since 2010! (Click here for Trustee McGuire E-mails and the legal spin responses to her concerns!)

Why is it OK for her to question the very same things we are yet we are considered to be Nazis when we do it?

Legal Spin exposed!

From those very emails, it is important to identify the spin taking place.  Spin that appears to be well written in order to calm and/or mislead the trustee’s concerns. I will lay out in detail that not only are our concerns valid, the very trustee using hate speech when we questioned this matter shares the same justifiable concerns in her emails to Breuder.

The language clearly is a crafted response that if your not use to seeing it you many not even realize its existence.

• Dian Greenwood to Bob Breuder:
  HI Bob….the only thing I would say is this: the conflict of interest policy that our foundation members sign concerns their business interests and the foundation, not the college.
  

NOT THE COLLEGE!

So it is clear, they are aware that the conflict of interest policy that foundation members sign doe not concern the business of COD, so clearly it serves no purpose for the concerns raised by Trustee McGuire! Their conflict of interest policy is only tied to the individuals private business relationships with the Foundation, not those with the college!

• From Catherine Brod to members of the executive staff and Bob Breuder
  “this practice is considered to be totally acceptable providing there is a strict conflict of interest policy in place (which we have) and any conflicts are declared. (We require that our foundation board members sign conflict of interest statements and declare conflicts annually.)

Yes, the foundation requires a signed conflict of interest statement however as Diane Greenwood pointed out, those statements do not concern the business of COD, thus many are doing business with COD!  As far as the practice to be considered totally acceptable one must ask, acceptable by who?  The citizens darn sure are not accepting it as is evident by the continued attendance by citizens.  I think when we are done with this series she might want to find another job! 

The attitude appears to be one of pay to play is OK as long as you tell everyone your doing it.  Disclose the conflict and that makes it OK!  That makes about as much sense as a bank robber telling the bank they are going to rob them before he does it. Once caught can he claim he told them he disclosed his interest ahead of time?

• From Bob Breuder to Trustee McGuire
  “services do not have to be bid in Illinois. That is the crux of it. ….Herricane Graphics are all service providers. We can choose who we want to do do business with and then we negotiate price where applicable”.

Breuder lied to trustee McGuire in his claim that services do not have to be bid in Illinois. When you fail to tell the whole truth it is considered fraud in most courts. His representation is misleading to the trustee and we will lay out the foundational proof that not only was it a lie, but one of the very companies he is trying to defend is not a professional service provider as defined by statute!

(Click here for the above referenced e-mail exchanges)

What will be laid out over the next several days is the foundational evidence of wrongdoing by members of the COD Executive staff and their President.  Sadly, all indications are they have hoodwinked the trustees and are running their own little enterprise for the benefit of a few, all on the backs of the taxpayer.

This one tip we received regarding Robert Brueder, Catharine Brod, and Carl Burkhart is what took us down the many paths of exposing illegal spending at COD.   (note that both Catharine Brod and Carla Burkhart are COD Foundation Board members!)

“She (Carla Burkhart)  is a personal friend of Dr. Breuder and his hunting buddy and she received an exclusive contract with the school so no other vendors could bid for the amount of work she would provide and when there was outsourced bidding done, Dr. Breuder and Katheryn Brod said we must use Carla for relationship purposes even though her quotes had come in significantly higher. There is some significant hotel stays at the Waterleaf and Inn at Water’s Edge by Dr. Brueder that was all billed back to the school.”

Any validity to the tipsters claim? So far, of the numerous tips this person provided, each and every one has been accurate!

As it relates to Carla Burkhart, she was awarded a no-bid contract for over $90,000.00 in April of 2012. No bid, because COD used the “professional services” clause as a way to circumvent any bidding.  Nice way to ensure your COD Foundation Board member gets the business just as the tipster told us. (click here for copy of the no bid contract approval by the Executive staff and Breuder)

How do they explain going from a $90,000.00 contract to over $414,000.00 of payments to her company, of which 87% was paid through the IMPREST account since May of 2012? (Payments to Herricane Graphics -Owned by Foundation Board member Carla Burkhart)

What’s the excuse for additional payments totaling $150,457.67 prior to the issuance of that no bid contact? Even more concerning is how approximately 17 invoices from one company all containing the same date, totaling over $112,000 is handled through the IMPREST account?

And if you didn’t notice in the payment spreadsheet, this foundation member also just happens to provide invoices under the name Advantage Sign Installation Co. as well!

Stay tuned for all the follow-up articles and evidence to continue to expose the fraud being committed on the public in this pay to play environment.

Video of my comments at the meeting: