College of DuPage – Was Breuder FOIA violation felony record concealment?

DuPage Co. (ECWd) –

I would first like to begin with pointing out how much we appreciate the new leadership and their legal counsel at the College of DuPage.  Had it not been for them, this article may have never been written and we believe this one supports our allegation that former President Breuder and members of his Administration should be facing felony record concealment.

In 2014 I filed a Freedom of Information Act request to COD for all payments and membership documents pertaining to Breuder’s membership to Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation.   The attorney at the time was Ken Florey, who’s response failed to include the whole truth to the Attorney General Public Access Counselor (AGPAC), pertaining to the requested records.  It was clear certain records were not provided.

Today I received an additional response COD has provided to the AGPAC

Secondly, the facts laid out in the recent response proves COD, under the control of the past board and Robert Breuder, concealed public records that should have been provided under my FOIA request.

“The College has other Max McGraw-related records of dues paid and invoices from 2013 that were not produced in response to the July 11th FOIA request, but which have subsequently been produced in response to other FOIA requests. Jill Mosher, the College’s Supervisor of Accounts Payable, ran a search for records responsive to the July 11th FOIA request, attached hereto and incorporated herein as Exhibit 2, and Ms. Mosher sent those 29 pages of records to Ms. Mitchell. (Id., Ex. C thereto) Those records included a request for a check payable to Max McGraw in the amount of $2,500 for fiscal year 2013 membership dues and a purchase order for the $2,500 membership dues owed for fiscal year 2013. Those records were not produced to Mr. Allen.”

“Ms. Mosher sent Ms. Mitchell 29 pages of documents.”

“Ms. Mitchell received Ms. Mosher’s July 17, 2014 email along with all 29 pages of attachments.”

“She forwarded the email she received from Ms. Mosher along with the 29 pages of records attached to that email to Monica Miller, secretary for the College’s then-President Dr. Robert Breuder.”

“At present, neither Ms. Miller nor Ms. Mitchell can recall any specific communications following the sending of that email. However, later that day, Ms. Mitchell forwarded 15 pages of redacted documents to the College’s outside counsel for review. Ms. Mitchell did not provide all 29 pages to outside counsel. Instead, she only forwarded 15 pages. Thus, 14 pages of documents were not forwarded to the College’s outside counsel.”

“At this time, Ms. Mitchell does not believe she was the one who culled the number of documents down from 29 to 15.”

“Dr. Breuder is no longer employed by the College and was not interviewed as part of this response. At this time, the College takes no position regarding the identity of the person(s) who made the decision(s) to withhold any or all of 14 documents.”

We once again ask the FBI and the State’s Attorney to investigate this matter as a case of record concealment and we believe the paper trail points to Breuder as the one who culled the records from disclosure.

Not convinced this was a case of record concealment?

“Documents responsive to part 3 of the July 11th FOIA request were likely to be kept by the Office of the President because President Breuder held the Max McGraw membership. As such, before July 25, 2014, Ms. Mitchell called the President’s Office and asked for any Max McGraw membership documents. The President’s Office informed her that it did not have Max McGraw membership documents. As a result of litigation subsequently filed by the Chicago Tribune, the College learned that the President’s Office did, in fact, have Max McGraw membership documents. Such membership documents were subsequently produced to the Chicago Tribune and Mr. Allen in the summer of 2015.”

Only after litigation filed by the Chicago Tribune did we learn that the President’s Office did, in fact, have Max McGraw membership documents, contrary to his previous claim he did not.  Those records were clearly concealed from me!

We ask that each and every applicable law enforcement entity and prosecutor enforce the law on these people and set the example to the rest of the people in this state.  Violate FOIA  by concealing records and you will be prosecuted!  That is the message that needs to be sent if there is ever going to be any hope of fixing this problem that is, in fact, statewide.

You can review the current COD legal response here:

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