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March 29, 2024

College of DuPage – McGuire’s Road to Damascus?

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On April 27, 2016

DuPage Co. (ECWd)

College of DuPage (COD) Trustee Diane McGuire appears to have had a Road to Damascus conversion to a watchdog.  I say appears as we are not yet convinced her conversion is truly a change of heart and mind.  We suspect, based on her ongoing attacks on the law firms representing the school, she is agenda driven to embarrass those firms instead of actually protecting the taxpayers.

During the April 7, 2016, Trustee meeting, McGuire claimed ignorance on a legal firm bill presented for payment.  We initially covered that meeting in this video article.

We finally received our Freedom of Information documents from COD regarding the law firm in question.  Just as expected, both McGuire and Erin Birt were asleep at the wheel during their short reign of terror on the taxpayers of District 502.  Had McGuire been paying attention back then like she is now, maybe the drama she created during that meeting could have been avoided.  Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Trustees actually paying attention to the details like she is currently doing, however, her actions appear to be more about gotcha politics than actually doing what is right for the taxpayers.

The very law firm that McGuire and Birt claimed ignorance on was actually hired, we argue illegally, by the General Manager of the WDCB Radio station owned by COD and all done under the leadership of former Chairman Erin Birt.   We can only wonder how both of them failed to notice the legal bills back then considering they seem to have such a sharp eye for them now?

We asked for a copy of all invoices from Schwartz-Woods-Miller law firm since 2009, which was the law firm referenced by Dianne McGuire during the April 7, 2016, board meeting.  In addition, we asked for the engagement letter for Schwartz-woods-Miller and copy of the minutes approving the engagement of Schwartz-Woods-Miller.

Not surprisingly, the past board never approved the hiring of this law firm and they don’t even have an engagement letter with the firm.   The bills were pushed through in the IMPRESS accounting system, meaning they were never viewed by the board in the past, an issue former Chairman Hamilton fought hard to fix.   We are glad to see they are looking at them now but can only wonder when these two will admit they were asleep at the wheel and failed the public.

The first bill from the law firm was in January 2015, and as you can see on the billing, they were addressed to Dan Bindert, GM WDCB – College of DuPage.   Both Birt and McGuire appear to understand it’s the Board that hires legal counsel and approves such hiring, yet while they were in charge they ignored the proper process.  The argument that they did not know he was hired only holds water to the point of the first bill being presented for payment, which they clearly failed to notice as is evident from their silence when those bills were paid.

Below are the billings received from COD and as you can see, Birt and McGuire should have to explain how this happen under their watch?

[gview file=”https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/FOIA-SCHWARTZ-WOODS-MILLER-CHK-0174341_Redacted.pdf”]

[gview file=”https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/FOIA-SCHWARTZ-WOODS-MILLER-CHK-E0053840_Redacted.pdf”]

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5 Comments
  • David
    Posted at 12:26h, 27 April

    A minor typo in your article “During the April 7, 2015, Trustee meeting, McGuire claimed ignorance on a” – should be 2016.
    It is interesting in the video that Trustee Birt never said a word to help clarify why the law firm was hired. Perhaps Birt never knew???

  • Danni Smith
    Posted at 13:15h, 27 April

    Why am I, not a Board Member, not a CoD resident taxpayer, not an accountant, an attorney or a super sleuth, less confused than Diane McGuire?

  • Vic
    Posted at 16:20h, 27 April

    Tell us who was the chairwoman Hamilton. Why don’t you get all the billings hired by the clean slate group. All of them. Will you publish those?

    • Kirk Allen
      Posted at 20:21h, 27 April

      Vic, feel free to FOIA that information and send it to us. Happy to publish it but you seem to miss the point.

      McGuire claimed to not know about the billing for a firm that was hired when she was part of the majority ruling things.

      This was not about the amount of the bill. It was about how once again McGuire cant seem to hold herself to the same standard she attmepts to impose on others.

    • Danni Smith
      Posted at 22:21h, 27 April

      Vic is your issue about attorney fees spent to disclose criminal wrongdoings by certain officials at CoD or attorney fees spent to coverup criminal wrongdoings by certain officials at CoD? Anyway, I sense you may know where Brit is…recovering documents, shredding documents or from a very long hangover?

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