College of Dupage – Trustee McGuire costs taxpayers over $23,000.00 in expenses

DuPage Co. (ECWd) –
May we suggest another criminal investigation be started on Diane McGuire for filing expense reimbursement requests for matters outside the scope of the Community College Act?
Based on records provided by COD there are over $23,000.00 in expense reimbursements made to Diane McGuire since she was elected in 2011.   Now there are numerous legitimate expenditures, however, it doesn’t take long to review the documents to find events she is getting reimbursed for that are not an obligation of her duties as a Trustee.
For example, why is it the taxpayers obligation to pay her expenses for foundation dinners, foundation donor wall and foundation meetings?  Is this yet another example of how COD and the foundation are tied as one?  I suspect the Chicago Tribune attorney’s will take interest in that little tidbit.
She even billed the school for Chamber meetings, which I can only assume are Chamber of Commerce meetings, which again is not a valid College expense as I can’t find anything in agendas asking her to attend on behalf of the school.  She just goes places and bills the College and has implied that she is there as an “Ambassador” for the college.  Can’t find that title in the Community College Act either.
It appears her husband goes with her on these vacation business trips as page 50 outlines she owes the college money for her husband.  How does that work out?  Is this not an admission she used public credit for private purpose?
She even bills the college for the MAC Madness event, not once but twice!  Now I may be mistaken but how is a night of entertainment and drinking at the MAC an obligation of the taxpayer?  I know, some will say since it was a fundraiser so it was appropriate.  The voters can decide on this one but reviewing the video of  the event it appeared to be more of a night of entertainment with free drinks on campus.

Photos from the event show former trustees Svoboda and Kim Savage in attendance as was Erin Birt and Diane McGuire.  We already know that Erin Birt did not turn in any expense for this event so it will be interesting to see if McGuire was the only one, which is where I place my bet.
I understand an elected official’s right to be reimbursed for expenses, but after reviewing McGuire’s reimbursement records it does point to numerous questionable expenses that by all indications were nothing more than a chance to get paid for socializing or attending meetings that were not COD business meetings.
When the next election comes around I suspect the voters are going to want to know this particular candidate cost the tax payers over $23,000.00 in expenses.  Did you get what you paid for?
We are pleased to report that our FOIA request for these expenses turned up NO EXPENSE reimbursement for Erin Birt. Did free booze and food outweigh the need for expense reimbursements?
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