The "heir apparent"?

I'm disappointed. Kept hearing rumors about another big Southern Illusion expose about board members, but if it was there I missed it. Seems Mr. Killquist is all but underground, and the rest are keeping mighty low profiles.

Still rankled by several points in last week's front-page story, but especially the hypocrisy of ex-prez Hancock calling for a law to prevent others from doing what he did, setting his own inept son up for life in a cushy job where he can't do any damage, and also by the incredible arrogance of Steve Okeefe referring to himself as the "heir apparent." He says that's why Herb Russell had a grudge against him.

Couldn't be that he irritated Russell by his poor writing skills, poor people skills, inability to respond to requests, or that he was hired part-time so as to avoid a competitive hiring process then BUMPED to full time by his dad, and given a big raise. Nope, it was that he was GUARANTEED to inherit Russells job just by virtue of who his dad was.

Inept heir to a corrupt kingdom. Go vote.

Can You Trust a Trustee?

The root word in Trustees is trust.  It's hard to trust the JALC Board when not one member has ever publicaly spoken out about the unethical behaviors of fellow board members.

 

The most recent egregious example of this was the hiring of Bill Kilquist while he was still serving as a member of the board.  He should have resigned when he first applied for the job of director of emergency planning and risk management at the College.  Instead his resignation came AFTER the executive session where he was hired.  And he should have resigned from this job when he first submitted his petition last fall to run for the board again.  Instead that resignation came in January.

 

Following the Kilquist hire in August 2010, the JALC Faculty Association called for his immediate resignation during a board meeting and openly questioned the Board's reluctance to police their own. 

 

There are some good, honest members of the current board who have to recognize the damage being done by a few.  Please speak up and you will find you are not alone – especially if some new voices are added on April 9.

A Hierarchy of Distrust

It should be noted that all the Logan Board members be equally distrusted.  Board members in the top tier of distrust are clearly Don Brewer, Jake Rendleman, John O'Keefe, and Bill Kilquist (although not a board member now, he has a proven track record of distrust, questionable ethics, and intimidation).  The second tier of Jim Snider, Jackie Hancock, Mike Hopkins, and John Sanders are public officials who try hard to do the right thing and are intimidated by the Don to do his bidding.

In order to really change this culture of threats and intimidation that rewards silence and/or obedience through nepotism, patronage, and cronyism, the composition of the board will have to change!  The April 9 election represents an opportunity for the voters of the five counties that make up the Logan district to select a Board of Trustees that is committed to providing a quality education and supporting student success.  This election is about moving the Board decision making process from under the rocks of the Pinch Penny Pub Brew Club and from behind the closed doors of executive sessions to the transparency of open meetings.  It is only  through open board meetings where the faculty and staff of Logan and the voters of the district can witness what Board decisions are being made and what the criteria for those decisions are.

So, on April 9, vote for Cheryl Graff or Jim Snider!  These are the two candidates endorsed by the John A. Logan College Faculty union.  Both of these candidates are willing to make the tough decisions that will move Logan away from the kind of hiring practices described in the Southern Illinoisan on Sunday, March 24.  (More on why these two candidates are the preferred candidates by the IEA in a later post.)

Two other candidates who have made a huge contribution to the exposing the unethical and quasi corrupt hiring practices of the Logan board are Russ Williams and Mike Vanhorn.  Each of these candidates is honest and ethical and deserve a huge amount of credit for making this Board election one of the most high profile elections that John A. Logan College has ever seen.  Each is committed to supporting the current administration, faculty, and staff and not undercutting or micromanaging decisions made at the college. 

Finally, if you are interested in eliminating the hierarchy of distrust at John A. Logan College, Do not vote for Bill Kilquist, John O'Keefe, or Chuck Hamilton.  These individuals are part of the unholy alliance.  They are part of Godfather Brewer's plan to make Clay Brewer president.  What else do you need?

 

Shaking the Family Tree at JALC

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..

 

 

 

 

 

What's the answer?

A worrisome development in the race is the apparent union of Jim Snider and John O'Keefe.  There are reports of yard signs, in Jackson County, presenting O'Keefe and Snider as a team. 

Snider's campaign literature asks the question, "Why would you want to replace or remove existing board members when the college is operating so smoothly?"  It goes on to state, 'Don't vote for change when change is not needed.'  Along with saying he wants to 'Stay the course', the candidate asks that voters please give him, "along with the other present board members...  the opportunity to keep JALC 'Steady as she goes.'"

The faculty union has endorsed Cheryl Graff and Jim Snider.  Even a Snider/O'Keefe ticket would keep Bill Kilquist off the Board.  But, returning the incumbents, especially both of them, implies one buys Snider's contention that change is not needed.  If that's the case, one has to be satisfied not only with the finances, building program and academics that he touts, but also with the hiring procedures, micromanagement and alleged cronyism. 

The question should be, "Is the college operating as smoothly, and as ethically, as it could be?"

What is at Stake in the April 9 Board of Trustees Election

What's at Stake on April 9 for John A. Logan College?

Why is this particular board of trustees' election so important to the future of John A. Logan College?  A good question!  This election represents an opportunity to change the institutional culture of cronyism and lack of transparency perpetuated by some members of the Logan Board

At present, John A. Logan College is a solid educational institution.  It is the place where students get second and third chances to get it right and to find their way to success. The college admits students who may not have gone to the best high school or who often do not have adequate math and communication skills. That is what the college does, and there is an obligation to help those students gain both the skills and confidence to succeed and graduate.  As the demographics of our region change, so do the students who enter through the doors of John A. Logan College.  The fact that Logan is open to anyone who has an interest in furthering his/her education and improving her/his chances of getting a meaningful job and making a decent living is a great asset to Southern Illinois and the rest of the state. But if the college doesn't have a board concerned with providing the best possible education, then we all suffer.

John A. Logan College is in the final stages of developing a strategic plan that will help to guide Logan to become a better educational institution in the future. There was greater participation in this plan by the faculty, staff, non-teaching professionals, maintenance and all others who work at the college than ever before. The preliminary findings show that John A. Logan College has the administration, faculty and staff to address the challenges of students who arrive unprepared and to help students graduate at a higher rate than in the past. 

However, the findings also show that John A. Logan College is failing miserably when it comes to leadership from the Board of Trustees!  The survey results show that faculty and staff have absolutely no confidence in the Board of Trustees to do the right thing and to provide leadership in helping students succeed.  What the survey results do show is that the Board is interested in providing jobs for their children, friends and cronies in the community.  In fact, the survey shows that faculty and staff attitudes towards the Board of Trustees are at their lowest in almost 40 years. 

What is remarkable about this survey is that the questions about the board are the same questions that have been asked of the faculty and staff for the last 30 years. Bottom line is that the people who work at John A. Logan College simply do not trust the Board to make the right decisions when it comes to improving the quality of education offered at the college. It has also become known that there is an effort on the part of some Board members to postpone the release of this information until after the election on April 9.  And if the election goes the way the Brewer and Rendleman are wanting, it is possible that these survey results will never see the light of day.  That is what at stake in this election!

 

What is Bill Kilquist's Real Agenda?

What is Bill Kilquist's  Real Agenda for the Logan Board?

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Today the Southern Illinoisan ran a story raising concerns about how Bill Kilquist was hired as College's director of emergency planning and risk management. It is about time that the Southern Illinoisan starts paying attention to the Logan Board's hiring behavior and not just a patsy for the powerful and status quo in this community.  

But it is doubtful that the Southern would have run this story at all if Kilquist hadn't gone to the Southern's offices in Carbondale to make his case.  Kilquist believes that he is being libeled because he has been questioned about how he got his job and how jobs are determined at Logan.  Kilquist knows exactly how certain jobs are determined at Logan!  He was part of the Board that has traded jobs for favors within the community.

And this is not the first time that Kilquist has gone to the Southern to push a story. Remember the story the Southern ran about Don Lowery (now SIU Board member and public enemy to Glenn Poshard) using his influence as a judge to get his wife Nita a job at John A. Logan College?  Apparently that story was the product of Glenn Poshard urging Kilquist to question the credibility of Lowery.  However, in the process of being a shill for Poshard, Kilquist revealed that jobs at Logan are often the product of nepotism, political patronage, and cronyism.  In the case of Nita Lowry, she was hired through her husband using leverage with Logan Board members and the Human Resources officer, Larry Peterson.

What Kilquist didn't disclose and what the Southern didn't uncover in that story was that the reason Nita Lowry wanted a raise had to do with another Logan Board member's daughter getting a starting salary $5,000/year more than Nita Lowry was making at the time.  Don Lowery decided to use his influence with Kilquist again, then a Logan board member, because Lowery had done so in the past. (Note that Peterson was a facilitator in each of these hires.)

Side note, the board member's daughter who was hired at $5,000/year more than Nita Lowery also happens to be the current Human Resource Officer's (Clay Brewer) wife and Don Brewer's daughter-in-law.  Not the central point of this story, but it sort of paints a picture of what certain board members at Logan expect from Logan…."follow the money" becomes "shake the family tree" when looking at Logan hiring practices.

So, why does Kilquist so badly want to be on the Logan Board again?

Unholy Alliance III

Interested in what the future may hold for John A Logan?  Just look down the road to SIU.  The SIU Board of Trustees and President Glenn Poshard are in a fight again.  The last time that happened, they drug Logan into their mess. This time the stakes are higher.  Some Board members terms have expired.  The state Senate used the governor's new SIU Board nominations as an opportunity to poke him in the eye.  Poshard used the occasion to reopen his public feud with SIU Board member Roger Herrin. 

 

What's that got to do with John A. Logan's Board of Trustees election?  Everything. 

 

After the previous spat at SIU, a strange thing happened.  Former Logan Board member, director of security and current JALC Board candidate, Bill Kilquist approached the Southern Illinoisan with a story that SIU Board member Don Lowery (an ally of Roger Herrin on the SIU board)had attempted to pressure Logan to hire his wife and later pressured Logan staff to give her a raise.  Ms. Lowery apparently received the raise in 2007.  Kilquist, and his co-accuser, former Logan vice president Larry Peterson, gave no reason for why they were coming forward so many years later.  The Southern Illinoisan offered no explanation in its article.  So, what prompted Kilquist and Peterson to come forward, with this serious accusation, so many years later?  What was the prompt?  One has to conclude that Kilquist and Lowery were delivering a message from Poshard to Lowery:  'back off the calls for my resignation'. 

 

If Bill KIlquist is elected to the John A. Logan Board of Trustees, how much more deeply will Logan be pulled into SIU's political swamp? 

"We hire and fire."

Listening to the audio from that forum, when asked "what does the Board do," it was O'Keefe who said--first thing--"we hire and fire." At other colleges and organizations governed by trustees, that's NOT the main function of a trustee. Usually, they trust those in administrative positions and those who review resumes (well, those who USED to review applications before the recent ceding of those powers to the Director of Human Resources, who squeezes it in before golf), and those who sit through hours of interviews to choose the best candidate. These guys can't let go of the power trip, even for the good of the college. Time for a change.

Who's picking "number one"?

A reader tells us that the JALogan hiring rules say that a search committee submits three names, but not in any order (which is dumb enough). That means the board can pick whichever of the three they like, though board members don't sit through the hours of interviewing. If that's true (anyone want to confirm?) then why is Mr. OKeefe saying the board picked "the number one" candidate for 63 out of the last 64 hires? Whose number one? The unbiased Director of Human Resources? Stinks.

Tell YOUR stories! You can add anonymous comments...

At the bottom of any post, click on the link that says "0 comments" or "1 comment" (or whatever). Click it, and you'll get the option to add your own stories about these candidates and your personal experiences with them. All voters should make informed decisions on Election Day, Tuesday April 9.

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.