Remarks prepared for delivery by Katharine S. Hamilton
Chairman
College of DuPage Board of Trustees
On the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget
Sept. 28, 2015
The governing majority of this board came to power in April based on its pledge to: o end corruption, o respect taxpayers, o put students first, o and build a new relationship with faculty and adjuncts.
No single act shows our priorities more than the budget we pass.
Here is what this budget reveals:
FIRST, we are telling the truth.
The last several budgets were not management tools. They were political statements intended to deceive the taxpayers. They obscured the fact that Dr. Breuder, with Board support, ran COD as if it was a for-profit business.
Under the last Board and president, COD’s operating revenues exceeded operating expenses yearly. Let that sink in.
The fund balance grew and grew with taxpayer dollars we should never have collected in the first place -
- or tuition dollars that we never should have charged.
But the budget never said that. In fact, no one said that.
And if you spoke up, and questioned it, you might just get censured for asking questions.
Here are the actual figures -- on COD’s operating side:
For fiscal 2011, $26 million.
For fiscal 2012, $16 million.
For fiscal 2013, $25 million.
For fiscal 2014, $34 million.
For fiscal 2015, it was $25 million.
COD collected over operating expenses: $126 million.
COD Board and administration played our taxpayers and students for Cash Cows.
SECOND, all of that extra cash in the system put FLUFF in the budget.

When Frank Napolitano and Charles Bernstein took over, one of the first lessons they learned was that no one had been challenged on their spending.
The budget was constructed with initial spending estimates.
No refinement, no skepticism, no attempt to economize. Just, “Tell us what you want, and that’s where we will start!”
That approach makes COD budgeting an exercise in wish-fulfillment.
And it filled the April COD budget, and prior budgets, with phony numbers, against which folks could spend less – while still spending a lot – and actually look good.
It made COD’s budget an extensive game of hide-the-money from the folks who foot the bill.
That is exactly what will never happen with this Board.
THIRD, we start with a new foundation -- fiscal certainty.
For example, the last Board and administration invested more than $160 million against its own policies.
They shredded their bond of trust with taxpayers.
Now, as the ones who uncovered that, folks KNOW they can believe in COD’s fiscal policies.
FOURTH, no budget in COD history has had more public involvement.
As I reviewed a minute ago, over the last five months, the budget committee has set a new standard for
COD.
All of that fiscal certainty and public involvement has sent us in the right direction.
This budget puts students first by cutting tuition $5 per credit.
This budget respects taxpayers. It cuts our property tax levy by almost FOUR – POINT – TWO MILLION
DOLLARS, or approximately FIVE PERCENT.
This budget recognizes staff. It provides modest but appropriate pay raises for the professors, adjuncts and staff, by funding an almost THREE PERCENT average raise, across the board.
This budget cuts the deficit. April’s budget had a $16 million deficit.
This budget cut that deficit to $11 million – a reduction of more than THIRTY PERCENT.
This budget marks the end of outrageous waste at Waterleaf and the taxpayer-funded parties and drinking that took place there.
The April version of this budget actually assumed continued losses at Waterleaf.
But this Board closed Waterleaf, so those losses will not happen, and those dollars will go to education.

This budget funds the clean-up costs we bear for investigation-after-investigation that were left us by the prior board.
It also funds our sorting out the prior board’s UTTER failure to manage its senior employees.
Those costs – for investigations and employee action -- belong solely to the six members of the board who sat here until April 30, and who defied reason and common sense by refusing to resign after the catastrophe they oversaw.
As I said, that fund balance is too big. COD has more than TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IN THE
BANK.
But, later tonight, a small portion of it will come in handy -- as we protect ourselves from Springfield’s impasse.
We are helping our students, respecting taxpayers and building trust with our educators.
And we are telling the truth. This budget has no secrets. These cuts are initial, they are not huge -- but they are indicative.
Next year’s budget will be our product from beginning to end. I am excited by the prospect and I anticipate the results.
Voters wanted – and deserved -- change at COD. That means restoring credibility.
Credibility means telling the truth about important things. Like how we spend people’s money.
We must improve – educationally and fiscally -- every day.
This budget – thanks to Frank, Charles Bernstein, Claire Ball and Paul LaFort, John Dishner, Kurt Beckman and staff support – this budget is a major improvement over where we began.
And it points the way to many more improvements to come.
# # #