COD – Dave Carlin participates in illegal meeting?

DuPage Co. (ECWd) –

I spoke briefly with Dave Carlin after the last COD board meeting and one of the questions I asked was if he knew when an elected trustees term of office ended.  He assumed upon the organizational meeting of the new trustees.  When I explained that was not the case, he expressed two disturbing things.  “Isn’t there a lame duck session?” and “that’s the way it has always been done“.

WRONG!

He had no clue what the law was and considering he once again wants people’s votes to get back into a COD position of trust it is important to show how his actions may be party to not only a crime (illegal meeting is a class C Misdemeanor), but a party to a secret contract extension held in a meeting that was not allowed by law, as in the people running it WERE NOT ELECTED at that time! 

“Terms of members are subject to Section 2A-54 of the Election Code.” (110 ILCS 805-3-8)

• Election Code: “The term of office of a person elected to succeed to a term of office of a person elected at a nonpartisan election shall end after the next consolidated election at which a successor is elected and at the regularly scheduled time for the ending of terms of office as provided in the Act or Acts creating or governing that unit of local government or school district. (10 ILCS 5/2A-54)
• Community College Act: Unless otherwise provided in this Act, members shall be elected to serve 6 year terms. The term of members elected in 1985 and thereafter shall be from the date the member is officially determined to be elected to the board by a canvass conducted pursuant to the Election Code, to the date that the winner of the seat is officially determined by the canvass conducted pursuant to the Election Code the next time the seat on the board is to be filled by election. (110 ILCS 805/3-7(b) )

Both Chairman McKinnon and Vice Chair Nowak’s term of office ended, statutorily, on April 7th, 2009 when the election canvassing was completed.   The term of office for the elected candidates begins April 7th 2009 as that was the date the election canvass was conducted by the county.

Pay Close Attention!

• April 16th, an unelected person, Michael McKinnon calls a meeting.   Unelected because his term ENDED on April 7th, 2009 which was the date of the election canvasing of the new candidates
• People present -Trustees Kory Atkinson, David Carlin, Michael E. McKinnon, Mark Nowak, Joseph T. Snyder (by conference call), Joseph Wozniak

(110 ILCS 805/3-8) (from Ch. 122, par. 103-8) Sec. 3-8. Following each election and canvass, the new board shall hold its organizational meeting on or before the 28th day after the election. (Community College Act)

What is the soonest a Community College could hold its organizational meeting? 

In this case, April 9th, 2009!  (48 hour posting requirement) By statute, their term begins on the date the member is officially determined to be elected by a canvass conducted pursuant to the Election Code. That would be the first date that the canvass is published, which in this case appears to be the evening of the election. (Click here for 2009 Election canvass results)

What authority did an unelected person have to call a meeting on April 16th, 2009?  What happened in that meeting?

Breuder’s first contract addendum was voted on extending his contract, which was only 4 months old, into 2016!

Even more disturbing, as if that is possible, this meeting DID NOT even have a quorum!  There is no doubt two of the people in the meeting were not allowed to be there as they were not elected. Their term ended!  Considering they started with 6 people according to the minutes, that would leave 4 people that were duly elected however one of those was not physically present and instead participated by phone.  That leaves only three people physically present at the meeting, which is not complaint with the law, not to mention the first meeting after the election is supposed to be the organizational meeting.   (2009 minutes)

(5 ILCS 120/7)
Sec. 7. Attendance by a means other than physical presence.
(a) If a quorum of the members of the public body is physically present as required by Section 2.01, a majority of the public body may allow a member of that body to attend the meeting by other means if the member is prevented from physically attending because of: (i) personal illness or disability; (ii) employment purposes or the business of the public body; or (iii) a family or other emergency. “Other means” is by video or audio conference.

They did not have a quorum present, therefore they could not allow a member to participate by “other means”.

Why is all this important?

For starters, Dave Carlin was a party to this fiasco that led to the secret contract extension of Brueder, and has no business in public office if he can’t even follow the most basic principals required for proper meetings.

In addition, I believe a case can be made in the Quo Warranto action to void the first addenda to Breuder’s contract because there was never a public meeting in the first place.  Many have argued that even though they voted on it in open session it can’t be reversed because the law doesn’t allow that.  Well, the law does allow for action taken at a meeting that never had a quorum to be determined ultra vires, as in VOID!   Void the first addenda and all action taken after the termination date of his first illegal contract is null and void.