On a December afternoon last year, 10 people gathered at the Pioneer Building in Joliet to interview candidates for the upcoming Joliet Junior College trustees election. The group told the aspirants they planned to form a political action committee that would support two candidates and pump thousands of dollars into the campaign.
They talked about the embarrassment the college had suffered over recent squabbling among trustees, and about their desire to unseat the current chairman of that board, according to those present. They also asked candidates whether they’d step aside if not selected by the group.
The meeting, in and of itself, does not seem noteworthy, and certainly does not seem out of the ordinary in terms of political powwows.
But what makes the Dec. 18 meeting unusual is that most of those gathered either sit on–or have ties to–the Joliet Junior College Foundation, the non-profit arm of the college. In fact, one group participant was then-president of the foundation’s board of directors and two others are past presidents.
State law enforcement officials say members of the college’s non-profit foundation did not break any campaign laws by gathering last December, nor did they violate laws by helping form the PAC–known as Friends of Joliet Junior College. But not-for-profit advocates say their political involvement raises serious concerns because foundation members run the risk of alienating potential donors.
“What if (donors) support the other candidate?” asked Ellen Dick, director of the Illinois Association of Non-Profit Organizations. “Will they be turned off, and decide to give their money to other causes? I can’t say it will necessarily happen, but why risk it?”
Not-for-profit groups, such as the Joliet Junior College Foundation, are granted tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service. And under the tax code, those groups are barred from recruiting, endorsing and supporting political candidates.
But foundation members involved in the PAC insist the political group and the foundation are separate entities.
“This meeting and this (PAC), in no way, have any tie to the foundation,” said Walter Zaida, a lifetime foundation member who was president of the foundation when he helped interview candidates during the Dec. 18 meeting. “What we have here is a group of about 30 people very concerned about the direction the college has taken and they have come together to try and right this ship. Just because a few of us are on the foundation does not mean it’s the foundation’s doings.”
Paul Darrah, of the Illinois attorney general’s office, said members of non-profit groups have the constitutional right to engage in politics.
“As individuals, they have the same rights as any other citizen in this country,” he said. “They can support anyone they choose and they can donate money to any candidate they choose. But if they use the foundation’s money to support candidates, they are in trouble.”
There is no evidence that Friends of Joliet Junior College used foundation money to further their attempts to unseat John Hertko, chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees. One foundation member did donate $5,000 to the PAC, but she was well within her legal right to do so, Darrah said.
But Hertko and numerous college employees charge that foundation members are, at the very least, indirectly using the foundation’s clout to further personal political agendas. Hertko and seven other people are vying for two open seats on the college’s board of trustees.
“It’s obvious what they are doing,” Hertko said. “They’ve been sticking their fingers in the elections for years and now people are sick and tired of it.”
Adds one longtime college employee who asked not to be identified: “We think they should spend more of their time worrying about scholarships and good causes, instead of who they want elected as trustees.”
Foundation members chafe at accusations the charitable group is in any way involved in the election. William Kaplan, president of the foundation’s board of directors, said: “The foundation is a fundraising organization and we are not engaging in political activity.”
Said Zaida: “If you can find out how we have interfered or done anything illegal, then by all means bring it forward. But all the accusations have been generalities and innuendo and none of it has any supporting evidence.”
He agreed it would be a problem if the PAC was composed only of foundation members, but he said only about half a dozen of the group’s 30 members sit on the foundation. Zaida would not provide names of other members in the group.
Questions about the foundation’s actions bubbled to the surface last month when Jeff May and Richard Dystrup, the two candidates backed by the Friends of Joliet Junior College, publicly attacked Hertko, alleging he illegally obtained a college memo and used it to disparage the foundation and foundation member Vera Smith.
The July 1997 memo is a letter from Fred Holzrichter, former head of the foundation, to Thomas Gamble, former college president. It contains notes of a phone conversation Holzrichter had with Vera Smith in which the two discussed the upcoming 1997 election and the possibility of who would run and who would “need assistance.”
Hertko and several college employees say the memo proves the foundation was–and is–involved in recruiting and endorsing candidates.
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Holzrichter could not be reached for comment, but Gamble contends the memo disproves Hertko’s theory. Gamble points to a paragraph where Holzrichter and Smith are discussing a candidate who needs financial help. “I explained that I could not help from this office nor could I help as executive secretary of the foundation . . .,” Holzrichter wrote in the memo.
“The problem John Hertko has is that his paranoia suggests if any foundation members talk to each other, then they are scheming politically against him,” said Gamble, who left Joliet last year to take a job with a Florida college. “Maybe he should worry more about the bad image he is giving the college instead of worrying about what foundation members are saying to each other in private conversations.”
Still, no one denies there are numerous ties between the foundation and the Friends of Joliet Junior College.
For starters, Dystrup and May publicly called on the Will County state’s attorney’s office to investigate the release of the confidential memo. But the memo has nothing to do with the two men or with their campaign. Instead, it focuses only on the foundation and its alleged role in the 1997 election.
Second, according to election documents, the Friends of Joliet Junior College has named the college foundation as the repository of leftover election contributions. And Vera Smith has given the campaign $5,000.
May and Dystrup have close alliances with foundation members also. For instance, four foundation members, including Zaida, signed Dystrup’s election nominating petition. John Lukancic, who is the PAC’s co-chair and Zaida’s brother-in-law, signed May’s petition.
Also, William Kaplan, who heads the foundation’s board, is a partner in a law firm with Dystrup’s half-brother, Andy. Zaida acknowledges that the ties could raise questions, but only if “you are a suspicious type of person.
“In my estimation it is not a conflict of interest for me, or any other foundation members, to be involved in the election,” Zaida said. “After all, we obviously have a deep interest in making sure the college is not further embarrassed by the antics of the Board of Trustees.”