Joliet Junior College board incumbent likely to retain seat despite controversy

A Joliet Junior College board trustee has appeared to have survived her reelection bid after fellow trustees censured her 15 times since 2024 and released a report a month before the election that claimed she harassed the college president.

Unofficial results from Tuesday night’s election showed Maureen Broderick of New Lenox gained the second-highest number of votes to win a seat on the JJC Board of Trustees.

Six candidates competed for three seats across seven counties: Will, Grundy, Kendall, Kankakee, LaSalle, Livingston and Cook.

The top vote-getter was Nancy Garcia of Romeoville. She was followed by Broderick and newcomer Timothy Bradley of Coal City.

The rest of the candidates, including Robert Wunderlich, who had been on the board for 44 years, trailed behind Garcia, Broderick and Bradley.

Broderick and JJC Trustee Michelle Lee, Broderick’s ally on the board, have been the subject of controversy since early 2024.

Broderick and Lee were accused of harassment by JJC President Clyne Namuo in a Nov. 6, 2024, report from law firm Laner Muchin.

“This is the hardest one I had to race because I never had negative criticism that came out like this.”

—  Maureen Broderick

The Board of Trustees did not approve the public release of the report until just weeks before the election. Broderick, who opposed the release of the report, questioned the timing of its release in light of the election.

Despite the report and Broderick’s clashes with other trustees, she said Tuesday night that she believed the public realized the “value of having me as a board member.”

“They realized I’m still a taxpayer advocate,” Broderick said.

She said she appreciated everyone who came out to support her.

“This is the hardest one I had to race because I never had negative criticism that came out like this,” Broderick said.

She said there was a political ad calling her “Mugshot Maureen” that focused on her arrest by the New Lenox Police Department over accusations that she stole political signs.

However, Broderick never was formally charged with any crime, and the record of her arrest has been expunged. Broderick said she was “arrested for no reason.”

Broderick called the Laner Muchin report a “political scam” and a waste of taxpayer money.

“It should never have been held back like it was. It was only speculation,” Broderick said of the report.

According to the Laner Muchin report, Broderick and Lee violated “multiple board policies and rules,” and they engaged in unprofessional communications and actions that were “demeaning, threatening, offensive” and created a “hostile atmosphere.”

The report was issued by Laner Muchin several months after Broderick and Lee sued JJC on Sept. 13, 2024.

In court filings, Broderick and Lee claimed that they were “unlawfully censured” by their fellow trustees at the behest of Namuo, who allegedly “wished to silence” trustees disagreeing with his plans.

Broderick and Lee were critical last year of Namuo receiving a base salary increase from $275,000 to $325,000, along with a $5,000 retention bonus and other benefits.

Broderick said she was concerned about “overspending” during “inflationary times.” She said there are lot of taxpayers, students and constituents who are “living paycheck to paycheck.”

JJC Trustee Alicia Morales, on the other hand, was part of the majority of trustees who supported Namuo’s salary increase.

Last year, Morales said Namuo’s salary is a “very fair salary” and “very justified.”

“[Namuo] has a higher level of education. Lots of experience. He has already proven his skills and abilities. OK, if other people want to make that salary, they can go back to school, get a Ph.D. and apply for a presidential job,” Morales said.

Broderick and Morales have fiercely clashed with each other since they joined the board in 2015.

During the state budget crisis in 2017, Broderick was one of the seven trustees who supported a budget that included a tuition increase in light of uncertain state funding.

Morales opposed the budget, and she didn’t believe the tuition increase was fair to students.

Broderick accused Morales of engaging in micromanaging while Morales accused her of being disrespectful.

Broderick said the board agreed to give the money back to students once the state budget was balanced. In 2017, students received an “unprecedented” reimbursement through debit cards after state funding improved better than expected, according to college officials.

At the time Broderick and Morales joined the board, the college was in the midst of a crisis in leadership.

Former JJC Police Chief Pete Comanda claimed that former JJC President Debra Daniels subjected him and other staff to a hostile work environment and engaged in bullying, abusive and demeaning conduct.

But a law firm investigation cleared Daniels of those allegations. The law firm was then retained as the main legal counsel for the college.

Daniels’ supporters on the board, Tina Markley and Barb Adams, resigned in the middle of a board meeting in 2015.

Markley claimed that there were trustees who were trying to humiliate her, but she refused to name them.

Another law firm was retained by the college to conduct a “climate survey,” which included examining personnel issues under Daniels’ leadership.

Daniels resigned in 2016 after board trustees reviewed the results of that survey, which have never been made public.

Comanda retired in 2020 about seven months after an investigation by yet another law firm alleged that he made “racially based statements” and engaged in bullying, intimidation and threats to his staff.

Comanda said allegations from the investigation were “untrue.”

Wunderlich had received backlash from students regarding the Comanda situation. In 2021, Wunderlich chose not to run for another term on the board.