COD "Misrepresented" At Special Board Meeting

The felt they were “thoroughly misrepresented” at the Village of Glen Ellyn’s special board meeting on Monday.

Those were the words of Joseph Moore, the college’s associate vice president of external relations. Moore said his reaction was based off of media reports, as the college did not attend the village board’s special meeting on COD’s de-annexation.

One of the complaints presented at Monday’s meeting was the lack of transparency of the construction occurring on COD’s campus. At the meeting, Terry Burghard, interim village manager, and Staci Hulseberg, director of the planning and development department, said they had not seen any inspection reports from COD.

Moore said the college was going to provide the village with complete inspection reports, but he said the village had not requested the reports up until now. Hulseberg said the village planned to request the inspection reports Thursday.

But even with the inspection reports being sent to the village, neither side really expects the relationship to improve.

“The college has been very forthright through this entire process, not only with the village but with the public and the media,” Moore said. “It’s very important for people to understand that we’ve been bending over backwards for a very long time…to operate in a transparent matter.”

HOW COD INSPECTS ITS BUILDINGS

Inspectors are another matter, however. The village wants to have “independent, third party inspectors” look at the buildings COD is constructing. Moore, on the other hand, greatly disputes this point.

“We are already using third party inspectors,” Moore said. “In fact we use three levels of inspectors to ensure safety and compliance well beyond Village requirements.”

The first level of inspections is the architects and engineers who designed the buildings, and that those designers are certified by the International Code Council. The second level of inspections can be best described as “peer review” – another set of architects and engineers double check the work that has been done.

The last level of inspections the college does, Moore said, is done by a different architectural company.

“Village officials are attempting to portray the college as being (1) not willing to communicate and (2) not taking the appropriate architectural and inspection steps,” Moore said. “In fact, we have truck loads of documentation demonstrating that we have met all standards for good, safe construction here at the college.”

THE VILLAGE’S OBJECTIONS

Despite the college’s assurances that they are taking all of the necessary steps, the village still maintains its call for village inspectors for three reasons. The first is a matter of focus.

“Here is part of the problem. When you hire an architect, their training and background is design,” Hulseberg said in an interview. “They are not code experts.”

Hulseberg added that the peer review of an architect’s work cannot match the review done by an inspector.

“You’re not going to get the level of expertise that you need,” Hulseberg said.

 Another reason Glen Ellyn keeps pushing inspectors is a matter of vigilance. Hulseberg said every inspectors will always find issues with buildings, no matter how careful the architects and designs might have been.

And then there’s the matter of an independent review.

“When you hire someone to evaluate their work, you are beholden to them,” Hulseberg said, adding that it is not an independent review.

ANOTHER SPECIAL BOARD MEETING

Moore said COD has no plans to attend the village board’s second special meeting. In regards to the policy statement that was drafted by Board President Mark Pfefferman, Moore said they are still reviewing the policy.

The village board will meet at 7 p.m. Monday at the .