College of DuPage – Employees were ordered to attend meetings and fill seats in Board Room –

College of DuPage (ECWd) –
We have always held the belief that the truth will always come out in every situation. This is simply a confirmation of that.

“We were ordered to attend the meetings and sit in the reserved seats”

Last fall, when the COD board meetings were held in the small board room, and two overflow rooms were open for attendees to observe the meeting in closed circuit television of poor quality, I had submitted a complaint to the Attorney General about the lack of adequate seating in the room where the trustees were meeting.
My complaint stated that there were only about 30 seats, with over half of those reserved by the college. The college attorney responded by stating that all the seats were on a “first come first seated” basis and there were plenty of available seats.
So I tested that statement at the next meeting, only to find out the college had “misinformed” the AG’s office, because I was directed to move to a non-reserved seat. I even sent the AG a picture of the seating arrangement with all the reserved seating in it.
During a July 2015 meeting, we met up with a former COD employee who informed us that Breuder had arranged for the reserved seating  and also ordered nontenured staff to attend the meetings and sit in those reserved seats. The purpose was to eliminate as many citizen attendees as possible from being in the same room as the board of trustees. Further evidence was the formation of a “camera” area, which eliminated even more seats, and not allowing standing in the rear and sides of the room.
I recognized, in my letters to the AG, that the majority of those in the reserved seating never said a word during the meeting and never stayed for the entire meeting, thinking it was odd that employee nonparticipants would need a reserved seat. I even suggested this was on purpose to eliminate available seating.
I was correct. From the information provided to us, everything I thought was happening at that time was actually happening for the very reason I stated in the AG letters.
Breuder was attempting to provide the illusion that fewer people were attending, and to minimize all opposition by providing preferred access to “supporters” (on the COD payroll) of the board by eliminating the number of available seats. While at the same time telling the AG that all seats were open to anyone who showed up.
This illustrates the level of madness shown by Breuder, if he couldn’t control the public, he would try to control who was in the room by reserving seats.
This failed miserably for him and culminated with a lawsuit in January 2015, where the Court directed the Board of Trustees move to a larger space. Over 500 people attended the following meeting.
CALL TO ACTION!
We are seeking further information on this, to include names of all those ordered to attend, and whether or not they were paid to attend the meetings. Anyone with further information, please drop us a note – we can keep it confidential.
 

COD Board Room, Oct 2014, showing the 11 seats available for the public – what they considered “adequate” opportunity to attend the meeting.