Unholy Alliance II

The unholy alliance on the John A. Logan College board of trustees consists of Don Brewer (aka “The Godfather”), Jake Rendleman and John O’Keefe.  If trustee-turned-employee-turned-trustee candidate Bill Kilquist wins his seat back, Brewer would have the 4 votes he needs to make any changes that he sees fit.  Keep in mind that there is no record that Brewer actually cares about students and student success (or faculty or staff) but he does care about hiring his political patrons from Murphysboro and hiring and promoting his son over better-qualified and much harder-working employees. So what would the Godfather do with his immense power?

First, the Brewer-led alliance would force out Mike Dreith. When Dreith was hired last year (2012) the board vote was 5-2 to hire him.  Don Brewer and Jake Rendleman voted against Dreith, in large part because the Don didn’t get his handpicked choice for president and because Dreith informed that Board that their primary job was to make one hire, the president—as opposed to their view of the trustee’s job as doing ALL the hiring and firing, which O’Keefe actually said at the recent candidates forum.

Dreith also informed the board that they ought to get out of micromanaging the college and in particular get out of the hiring business at Logan.  But why would the Unholy Alliance want to get out of the hiring business?  Over the years the Godfather has clearly demonstrated he cares more about giving jobs to his friends and political hacks than he was ever interested in providing the tools for faculty and staff to deliver a quality education at John A. Logan College!

Second, the godfather and his gang would then fire Brad McCormick.  Brad is a standup guy who is competent, transparent, honest, easy to work with, etc.  The Godfather-led board wants secrecy, and most importantly, members who will do their bidding.  Brad will also have to go because when Bill Kilquist worked for the college as the head of security, Bill still wanted to be treated as if he were a board member.  Unfortunately for Brad, he treated Kilquist as an employee, not his boss.

Third, and here is the tricky part, part of the Godfather’s mission and purpose in life (other than intimidating the hell out of anyone who doesn’t obey him) is to provide protection for his son, Clay Brewer, the Human Resources Director.  The Godfather would have his minions set up a jury-rigged hiring process that places Clay Brewer in the President’s office.  For anyone who works at John A. Logan College, can you imagine what a Brewer presidency would be like?  Say goodbye to our accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission. A guy who wanders in around 9 a.m. and is on the golf course by 2 p.m. is hardly up to the task of shepherding the accreditation process.

Fourth and final for today, the Godfather would also have to find a place for Steve O’Keefe at the Vice President level.  Since the Don will undoubtedly threaten and intimidate John O’Keefe into going along with the coup in removing Mike Dreith, O’Keefe will want his son protected too.  So, rigging a process that puts Steve in Brad McCormick’s job would be a way of taking care of that.  Unfortunately, Steve is no more qualified to be a VP than Clay is qualified to be a President.

Get out and vote, folks. You’ve got qualified, ethical candidates who will deprive the Godfather the ability to use the College to further his own sneaky agenda at the expense of the integrity of the college and the reputation of its graduates.