COD – What is Birt and Breuder hiding?

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On December 15, 2014

DuPage Co. (ECWd) –

What is the College of DuPage, President Breuder and COD Chairman Birt hiding from the public?

September 27th, 2014 FOIA Request

1. Copy of invoices submitted for payment to COD from a company using the name “Broadcast Technologies”, “1 Broadcast Technologies”, Broadcast Technologies 1” since 1999.

2. Copy of any invoice submitted for payment to COD from John Valenta since 1999.

3. Copy of any expense reimbursement and/or claim turned into COD by John Valenta since 1999.

4. Copy of all payroll records and/or payments for services for John Valenta during his employment and/or contracted service to COD.

5. Copy of all titles assigned to John Valenta during his employment/business relationship with COD.

6. Copy of the employment application and resume submitted to COD by John Valenta prior to his employ with COD

7. Copy of discipline records for the last 4 years of Mr. Valenta’s employ with COD.

Response from COD

1. Records responsive to your request #1 are exempt from disclosure under FOIA Section 7(1 )(d) which exempts “Records in the possession of any public body created in the course of administrative enforcement proceedings, or any law enforcement or correctional agency for law enforcement purposes”. 5ILCS 140/7(1 )(d).

2. No documents responsive to my request

3. (Click here for Expense Reimbursement)

4. (Click here for Payroll Records)

5. (Click here for copy of Title’s for John Valenta)

6. (Click here for copy of employment application for John Valenta)

7. No documents responsive to my request

(Click here for cover letter provided with the above responsive records)

(Click here for my response informing them of the improper denial)

Shortly after we exposed their second improper denial for the same information we ran this story that explains why it was an improper denial, which after notifying them of the improper denial they published this on the same day.

“College of DuPage officials uncovered a possible case of fraud by an employee of WDCB, the College’s radio station”

I think its clear the possible case of fraud is being covered up by the College with their improper denial for the invoices from Broadcast Technologies, which according to our research is owned by John Valenta who just happens to no longer work at COD. If this is in the hands of law enforcement then great, however one must wonder why its taking so long to identify fraud. Their refusal to provide the invoices requested might clear that mystery up.

Is it possible that COD policy failures allowed this to happen, thus no criminal charges?

Unfortunate for COD, their improper denial is going to end up in court as the public has a right to public documents and even after informing them of their improper denial, twice, they have refused to provide the records. Filing a complaint with the attorney general is one path but has proven to take as long as 2 1/2 years to get resolved. That is why court action is the next option. This week we intend on having our law suit filed in DuPage County against COD for violating the Freedom of Information Act.

Since they clearly are not listening to the people maybe they might pay attention to a judge?