2 Joliet Junior College trustees file lawsuit against the college

Two members of the Joliet Junior College Board of Trustees have filed a lawsuit against college officials attempting to throw out a censure vote taken in February.

The JJC board at that time censured Trustee Maureen Broderick on 13 separate allegations, although most of them accused her of making disparaging remarks against the college president and other trustees.

Broderick is a plaintiff in the lawsuit that was filed Friday in Will County. The other plaintiff is Trustee Michelle Lee, who not only voted for the censures but made the motions for the board to approve each one of them.

Joliet Junior College is named as a defendant along with President Clyne Namuo and four college trustees who voted to censure Broderick.

The lawsuit points to an opinion from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office stating that the censure votes violated the state Open Meetings Act because they were not on the meeting agenda.

“There was no due process,” Broderick said Tuesday when asked about the censure and what particular comments she was alleged to have made. “It was never disclosed.”

Minutes from the meeting do not specify what remarks were made. They do refer to most of them occurring at conferences for the American Community College Trustees in February and the Illinois Community College Trustees Association in September 2023.

Broderick was president of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association at the time of both conferences.

JJC spokeswoman Kelly Rohder-Tonelli said college officials could not comment on specifics of the litigation but pointed to a set standards adopted by the board in 2022 “which outlines advocacy, ethics, and accountability of members of the board.”

“There is undoubtedly a difference of opinion among JJC trustees regarding standards of behavior while serving in their elected capacity,” Rohder-Tonelli said.

The February censure votes were taken after a discussion by the board in closed session at the same meeting.

According to the attorney general’s opinion, that closed session focused on JJC President Clyne Namuo’s employment contract. The closed session included discussion about issues related to Broderick and Namuo’s concerns about his continued employment at the college, according to the opinion.

The attorney general did not find any violations with the closed session discussion. It did caution the JJC board about “future closed session discussions that pertain to the conduct of its members” but found that the discussion about Broderick was relevant to Namuo’s future employment.

The opinion that the censure vote against Broderick violated the Open Meetings Act was non-binding, meaning it did not force the college to take any specific action.

But Broderick said the opinion also made it possible for her to go to court.

“It’s non-binding, which allows me to go forward,” she said.

Lee referred questions to their attorney, John Nelson of Loves Park, who could not be reached for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

Reporter Felix Sarver contributed to this story.