Shaking the Family Tree at JALC
With hundreds of employees in a not-so-populated region, John A. Logan College is bound to have family and friends working together. However, there have been enough questionable hires going back decades that have created the image of cronyism, patronage, and nepotism still prevalent today. Whether through direct action or complicity, current and past boards and previous administrators have all had a hand in this. Let's look at some of the most notable examples:
This started back in the mid-90s when Barry Hancock, Associate Dean for Community Education, was hired when his father Ray Hancock was president. An attempt first was made to hire Barry as a full-time faculty member but faculty protests thwarted that effort.
Mike Middleton, Retention Facilitator, was first hired when his father, Don Middleton was a Vice President.
Steve O'Keefe, Director of College Relations, is the son of John O'Keefe and hired while his father has been on the board.
Clay Brewer, Executive Director of Human Resources, is the son of Don Brewer and hired (and promoted) while his father has been on the board. From approximately 2002 to the present, Clay has had at least five job title changes starting with Coordinator of the Center for Business and Industry and Administrative Assistant to the VP for Administration through Director of Personnel to Director of Human Resources to Executive Director of Human Resources. Obviously, daddy has put him on the fast track!
Don Brewer has been the godfather of questionable hires at the college and is the best reason there is for term limits for board members! He has used Logan as a personal employment agency for friends and family for 35+ years and continues to work to assure his hiring power with handpicking candidates to run for the board. Such is the case with candidate Chuck Hamilton who is the Director of Tri County Special Ed. Guess who works for him? Clay Brewer's wife who is, of course, Don Brewer's daughter-in-law. Looks like Don is trying to guarantee his personal super majority..
It all stinks! And what about the Brothers Pulley? One works, but the other does not. It appears that Eric cannot be touched even after the new college president tried to get action taken. The board says, "Back Off"! To what friend or family member does Eric owe this unique protection?
ReplyDeleteThe article in the Southern Illinoisan Sunday says it all. Incumbents keep saying they stepped out of the room as if it makes any difference. They think we are stupid and can't figure it out.
ReplyDeleteEveryone can complain all they want but if they DON'T GO AND VOTE FOR A CHANGE on April 9th it is all immaterial. I praise the Southern for continuing to cover the JALC Board behavior and hopefully the public does something about it by voting them all out of office in the next two elections.
The Southern articles seem to be more help to the incumbents and want-to-be returning members. The articles seem to be written by someone who doesn't believe that political and family influence is still being used. Even the title of the latest one has a ? after rather than being a declarative statement.
DeleteAccording to the 03/24/2013 SI piece, Don Brewer claimed that salaries and raises for his son and O'Keefe's son were set by an independent firm that was hired to match Logan's pay grade to comparable community colleges statewide.
ReplyDeleteThis is news to me. Never heard about it. Has this "firm" made any recommendation to match faculty and staff salaries and pay rises to comparable community colleges statewide? I don't think so. While children of Board members and higher-level administrators enjoyed handsome salary increases, the JALC faculty was forced to teach some classes for free just to keep their salaries.
This firm is a survey done for all colleges in the state. It shows everyones salaries at every level and the average salary. Shouldn't it be that the local administration evaluate an individuals performance and base the raises on their evaluations and reflect their increases based on local economics and budget? It just seems the 'WORKHORSES" GET shafted when it comes to raises every time an increase is merited. Stop giving those astronomical raises to the administration. A couple of the higher paid ones do not even pay taxes due to them living in out of district residences.
ReplyDeleteGive the money to the faculty and staff who work directly with the students and cut back the over staff of administrators