DuPage Co. (ECWd) –
“And here is a complicating factor — some might think efforts by the college to communicate with some, but not others, is an illegal or inappropriate technique for attempting to influence voters for a bond referendum. We need to talk about all of this.”
The above quote was in an e-mail sent to Joe Moore in April of 2010 from what now appears to be another marketing firm assisting in the taxpayer funded push to pass the $168 Million dollar bond referendum. (See highlighted section of the email). Joe Moore is the very person who set up the Political Action Committee that we exposed in great detail in this article.
Now, with the production of a key email, it is clear the vendor raised concern of legality in the action that was being taken and felt it should be discussed. There is no question, the use of ANY taxpayer funds to influence an election is illegal.
We also believe that Breuder knew it was not legal based on his comments found in the board minutes for April 15th, 2010 meeting.
“A District 502 community survey of 500 people was conducted by Unicom ARC to determine the pulse of the taxpayers. Fifty-four percent (54%) of those surveyed said they would favor supporting such a referendum. (The margin of error is ±4%.) The College’s employee groups were also surveyed; the three largest groups said they would support such a referendum, and they are willing to work on behalf of this Referendum on their own personal time and NOT using any public money to do so.
The capital letters used for the word “NOT” was not our addition! That is the way it is in the minutes from that meeting so it is ever so clear that Breuder knew you can not use taxpayer money in support of a referendum. That being the case, how on earth does he think its OK to violate law and board policy by spending tax payer money by conducting a survey of voters in the district as well has COD employees? (See page 11 of the minutes below or download here)
More concerning is that their legal counsel, Frank Garrett, was present and said nothing about this questionably illegal activity. The lawyer present represents Robbins Schwartz, the same firm that sitting trustee’s Wozniak and McGuire insisted are more qualified to represent the college.
At the 1hr, 20 minute, 25 sec part of the board video you can see Breuder’s comments to the board. Watch for yourself and see the total disregard for board policy that forbids the political activity of surveying voters pertaining to a referendum, which we pointed to in this article.
Not only does it appear they ignored board policy and the law, the video PROVES they knew what the state law was. Note Breuder’s detailed comments at the 1hr,26min, 20 sec mark of the video.
Also note that the legality concern pointed out to Joe Moore just days before this meeting was never mentioned or discussed.
We will update with additional information that proves beyond any doubt, the tax payers funded the push to convince them to vote for the referendum in 2010, which violates board policy and state law in our opinion.
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