While Triton College administration is hitting the brakes hard on various types of spending, it continues to make other large expenditures: independent consulting contracts, lobbyist bills, travel to out-of-state meetings and other confabs. An incomplete list totals more than $211,000.
As it has for many years, Triton continues to spend $36,000 a year on lobbying services with the politically connected firm of Dorgan McPike. Jack Dorgan is a Rosemont trustee and an ally of both Mark Stephens, president of Triton's board of trustees, and Bradley Stephens, Leyden Township supervisor and Rosemont mayor. But it's an outside PR consultant that has led several people to contact Wednesday Journal.
PR consultant gets $250 an hour
Triton President Patti Granados, who earns more than $175,000 a year and has numerous vice presidents under her, is paying $250 an hour for outside public relations services from a company owned by a former Triton employee, as well as other consulting services.
Snap-D Marketing Inc. is owned by Sandra Napoli D'Arco, who gets $5,000 a month for 20 hours of work. According to invoices she has presented the college, D'Arco has done writing for the president's office, "media interface," and provided "legislative marketing fact sheets."
D'Arco has an office at 505 N. Peoria in Chicago, in a condo she owns with her husband, John M. D'Arco. However, the business does not show up in numerous incorporation searches on the Secretary of State's Web site. Snap-D Marketing's Web site is "under construction."
D'Arco, who works full-time at a legal services firm downtown, had been director of admissions, marketing and college relations at Triton, but left several years ago.
She was replaced in 2007 by Tom Olson, a 22-year Triton employee and heavier contributor to Mark Stephens, Rosemont political funds, and Melrose Park mayor Ron Serpico. He received a 20 percent raise to $78,000 as executive director of marketing, which was soon raised to $81,120, with additional raises the past three years.
One person familiar with Triton and D'Arco, who holds a bachelor's degree in corporate communications and business administration and an MBA from Dominican University, called her "beyond qualified." Asked if those qualifications merited $250 an hour, the person laughed and said, "No one there is worth that amount of money."
D'Arco's effective $2,000 full-day rate of pay is nearly seven times that of another Triton veteran, 30-year faculty member John Frye. He signed a contract to fill in for a dean of arts and sciences who is on medical leave, earning $303 for a full day's work. In comparison, David Bonnette, who has 45 years experience in the education field, including 35 as a school superintendent, was paid $900 a day by River Forest Elementary School District 90 in 2008.
Travel, meeting expenses continue
In August 2007, numerous sources complained that Triton was spending freely on trips and parties for school administrators despite a tightening budget squeezing teachers and students. A headline in the Aug. 22, 2007, issue of Wednesday Journal read "Budget chills don't freeze Triton spending: Administrators spend freely on perks, budget shows."
That appears to still be the case. Triton spent nearly $30,000 last year on three off-campus retreats, and continues to pay for five-figure trips to out-of-state conferences which included dinner bills for multiple administrators and board members.
Sean Sullivan, Triton vice president for business operations, said that all travel requests approved prior to the recent freeze will be honored. He added, "However, all employees are encouraged to avoid all travel unless absolutely necessary."
An administrator's retreat on March 26-27, 2009, cost $6,234.88, plus $879 for "a Mystery presentation." The school's third annual Leadership Academy Retreat at Starved Rock Lodge and Conference Center Sept. 14-16, cost more than $12,000. And an Oct. 21-23, Fall Administrator's retreat cost another $9,000.
In January 2009, Granados and a vice president flew to Washington, D.C,, for a conference at a cost of $5,070 - $3,070 for lodging and meals. This month, on Feb. 2-5, Granados, three vice presidents and six instructors traveled to Charlotte, N.C., for the 2010 "Achieving the Dream" Strategy Institute, at a cost of $12,050.
Today, Feb. 17-21, a Triton instructor will accompany four students to Atlanta for a national campus activities conference, at a cost of $6,220. That same instructor and nine other students will travel to a student government conference in Texas on Feb. 27-March 2 at a cost of $11,980.
On April 17, Granados, a trustee and three administrators are scheduled to leave for four days at the American Association of Community Colleges Annual Convention, at a cost of $10,889.
Granados's office spends on brow-raising matters. On Dec. 10, the president's office spent $2,076 on catering for a "Tenure Track Holiday with the President." On Dec. 17, administrators were treated to a "Lucky Strike" Bowling outing, which cost $1,480. In December, the president's office also spent $687.89 on 25 leather writing pads and $1,957 for "Marinac" jackets from Land's End.
In January, $1,200 was spent at Café Le Cave, across from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont for participants in an Illinois Board of Higher Education Cooperative work study. Another $500 was spent at Maya Del Sol restaurant in Oak Park last May.
