They don't need it vote no..JJC spends like the federal government they need to be stopped

I'm interested in the claims made in this letter, but I'm relatively new to Joliet. Would you be able to provide documentation and clarification? I've searched online (including the JJC board's website and meeting minutes), and haven't yet been able to find this information:

-The final cost of the City Center building, the original budget, the cause of the increase, and the source of funding
-The cost of the multipurpose building
-What referendum are you referring to in paragraph 6? Please explain what that is, and what it constituted.

Also, do we know how much it costs for JJC annually to rent the facilities at Lewis University? I feel that's important information. Renting Lewis is a cost that would never end, whereas the new building would terminate ongoing payments (besides maintenance).

I also wonder if the building would have any income potential. If it were rented out for other events, or perhaps even had the capability of hosting concerts, sporting competitions, or other events that might offset some of the costs. To me, this would all need to be taken into consideration before I'd want to take a side on the matter.

I do feel it must be a significant let-down for many graduating students to have their ceremony off campus. Families may come to Joliet from out of town, and may not have an opportunity to see the campus. Is this a need? The college does without it, but I feel it would increase student and family pride to be able to graduate on campus.

@Mark
I have all of that information. I have attended almost every regular board meeting and board workshop meeting since January 2011. There is a lot of information the public and students should know. I've also had to FOIA information from the college.
- The City Center Buiding project is currently at $58. The increase was because the board wanted to add more space and add more stuff as it went along. Then there were supposed to be 2 unfinished floors for "future expansion," but in the 11th hour before the vote, the 5 member board majority decided they wanted to go ahead and finish out those floors(an additional $8M). To do this they raised the propertax levy for 2012(voted on in Dec 2011) 16.98% that was not subject to the property tax cap. The county clerks office confirmed that the levying for building and leasing was not subject to the cap. Keep in mind that the $58M does not include additional staffing and benefits, some soft costs, and operating and maintenance. The building of it is just about to start, so there's no garantee that it will come in within that cost.
-Continued

-The estimated cost of the multipurpose building was $45M back in January when the board instructed the administration to do one only a few weeks earlier. Remember that the administration works at the direction of the board(or more specifically the board majority). As of last night's "Building and Grounds" meeting, that cost was increased to about $50M. Majority board members who were present did not seem phased by the additional cost and were exploring the borrowing options to get the money. I have video if you want to see it.
-In 2008 JJC had an $89M bond referendum on the ballot to help fund the $262M Master Building plan. Funding for this plan would come the $89M plus about $159M generated from a fee added tuition(tuition increase), and some would come from the state. The $25M that was supposed to come from the state for City Center has not come becuase the state is broke, yet the board still is borrowing and pushing forward without having the money.

-I don't have a rent number for Lewis, but 3 or so days a year to rent the building at Lewis versus a $50M building? I think it's easy to say we'd be better off renting 3 days or so. But don't forget, there is no reason that they can't hold graduation on campus at JJC if they break it up to more than one ceremony in the same day. In fact the current president said in last nights public meeting that even the new proposed Multipurpose building may not be able to hold the ceremony all at once becuase it's planned at 3500-4000 seats. She said they have to break it up into multiple ceremonies anyway.
- Income potential...They are trying to come up with justifications for this, like rent it out for conventions(how many industries want to rent in Joliet for a convention?How many days a year is that? What's the income? It's pie in the sky. If I propose a new product(I do product development), I have to prove that there is a reasonable market. I have to so surveys of customers, get pre-committments, etc. I need evidence. Apparently, these board members don't. They don't have any, so to me, they claims are just wishes.

I want a strong, healthy community college that provides good education to our students at the most affordable cost to students and the taxpayers. We can do that with responsible decision making as to what is needed versus what is desired.
JJC has bonded out many years for all of the building they’ve done at once, and now they are pushing to continue spending by significantly raising tuition on the students- again! Not only does this put the school in a financially risky position, but makes education for our community less affordable. All of the bonding against future taxes and tuition is like taking out a second and third mortgage on your house, and then maxing out all of your credit cards. How financially secure will you be going forward? They based the payment of the bonds on growth in enrollment and credit hours, which is now flat- not growing. Higher tuition only makes it worse. It puts the students, school, and programs at risk. It puts the staff, employees, and administration at risk.
Baber4jjcboard@gmail.com
815-723-2619

If JJC was a good college, then one could support the spending. But it is not. JJC has the same enrollment as a similarly sized college (Harper), but *half* the graduates. Graduation rates are near the bottom in the state, and thus JJC spends more than any other community college in the state per graduate (the highest cost).

http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/state/#state=il&sector=public_two

So, not only is it low quality, it is not efficient. Additionally, JJC treats employees terribly. It has very high administrative turn-over (discarding the good people, working hard to keep the bad ones) and there is a lot of micro-management at board meetings. In this case, Baber is correct - tax dollars spent on a better institution would be worthwhile, but not at JJC.

@ Brad, Got Cliff notes?

Time to taker the magic spending wand away from the board members, vote for conservative values, this tax and spend mentality must stop.~!!