Joliet Junior College Board Deadlocks on Vice Chair in Six Votes

Joliet Junior College | August 3, 2026

Article Summary: Trustees elected Nancy Garcia Guillen chair of the Joliet Junior College Board of Trustees on Aug. 3, then failed six consecutive votes to fill the vice chair seat her promotion vacated. The office remains empty, and the board’s legal counsel recommended the item return at the next meeting.

Board Re-Organization Key Points:

Garcia Guillen was elected chair 3-1 on a nomination by Trustee Alicia Morales, with Trustee Diane Harris opposed.

Bottomley, Morales and Harris each nominated themselves for vice chair; all three lost. The board reopened nominations, the same three nominated themselves again, and all three lost a second time.

A motion by Harris to table the entire re-organization item died for lack of a second.

Legal counsel said board policy offers no guidance on the resulting vacancy beyond directing the board to elect a replacement from among its members, and recommended bringing the item back at the next meeting.

JOLIET — The Joliet Junior College Board of Trustees on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, elected Interim Chair Nancy Garcia Guillen to lead the board following the resignation of former Chairman James Budzinski — and then voted six times in a row, without success, to fill the vice chair’s office that her elevation left open.

The special meeting at 1215 Houbolt Road was called to order at 5:40 p.m. with four voting trustees and Student Trustee Byron McCullum present. Trustee Maureen Broderick arrived at 6:41 p.m., after the officer elections had concluded, and Trustee Michelle Lee was absent.

The re-organization was the first substantive item on the agenda, and it nearly did not happen. After Morales nominated Garcia Guillen for chair, Harris moved to table the item to the next meeting. The board’s legal counsel, acting as parliamentarian, explained the mechanics to the room: “Technically, it’s a motion to continue to the next meeting, but it’s a motion that asks that this item be taken off of the agenda basically for tonight and moved to the next meeting.” No trustee seconded the motion, and it failed.

The board then closed nominations for chair on a motion by Bottomley, seconded by Morales, with Bottomley, Garcia Guillen and Morales voting aye and Harris voting nay. The vote to install Garcia Guillen as chair split along identical lines. McCullum favored both motions. “The vote is 3 to one,” the presiding administrator announced on the first of the two.

Six Votes, No Majority

Garcia Guillen’s election immediately created a second vacancy. She had been serving as the board’s vice chair, and as the chair’s facilitator noted on the floor, the outcome “now results in a vacancy in the office of vice chair.” Counsel later observed that the vacancy was “effective as of right now. It hasn’t been vacant until today.”

With the floor open, Bottomley, Morales and Harris each nominated themselves. Nominations were closed unanimously among the four voting trustees, and the board worked through the three candidates in turn:

Bottomley: ayes from Bottomley and Garcia Guillen; nays from Harris and Morales. Failed.

Morales: ayes from Garcia Guillen and Morales; nays from Bottomley and Harris. Failed.

Harris: aye from Harris; nays from Bottomley, Garcia Guillen and Morales. Failed.

McCullum favored all three. The announced tallies did not include his preference — the chair declared Morales’s vote “two to two” — and the minutes record his position separately from the ayes and nays on every roll call.

Asked what happened next, counsel told the board, “You don’t have a vice chair, right?” — drawing laughter in the room — before advising that the board could move to reopen nominations and try again.

Before that motion was made, a trustee who said she had previously held the office appealed to her colleagues for support. “Now because our vice chair is now officially the chair of this board leaves the vice chair open and I served in that capacity in the past, and with all due respect having been one of the senior members of this board, I would really like my fellow trustee colleagues to acknowledge and respect that,” she said. “And I would ask for your support in having me serve as the vice chair once again, respectfully.”

Morales moved to reopen nominations and Garcia Guillen seconded. The motion carried, with Harris opposed. Morales, Bottomley and Harris then nominated themselves again, nominations were closed unanimously, and the board produced the same three results — Morales 2-2, Bottomley 2-2, Harris 1-3. McCullum abstained on all three of the second round’s votes.

Explaining her vote against Bottomley, Morales said: “I think at one point Trustee Bottomley will make an excellent vice chair, but I’d like to see her serve longer and earn that position on this board. I think she will make a great vice chair and even chair it one day, but right now it’s going to be a no.”

Voting against Harris, Morales said: “Again, at one point, I think she will make a great vice chairwoman of this board, but considering all of her other obligations going on at this time, I don’t see the commitment how it’s feasible for the good of this board. So, for right now, I’m going to go with not now, which means no.”

Counsel: No Guidance in Policy

After the sixth failed vote, a trustee raised a point of clarification: “Per our bylaws, we are required to have a chair, but we are not required to have a vice chair.” Counsel said he would have to check the bylaws, noting that the vice chair “is an office. It’s typically filled.”

Another trustee asked whether the item could be moved or tabled to the next meeting. Counsel said the matter had already been voted on and failed, that no further motion appeared necessary, and that placing it on a future agenda “would be up to the chair and the administration.”

After a pause to review the policy, counsel returned to the point: “There’s no guidance in the policy. It just says if there’s a vacancy, the board should elect a replacement from among their members. So, I would just recommend that you bring it back next meeting.” Garcia Guillen said the administration had reviewed the policy and saw nothing precluding the board from carrying the item forward.

The agenda also listed an election of secretary “if needed.” Garcia Guillen said there was no vacancy in that office and the board took no action on it; the minutes contain no entry for the item.

The meeting had been called in response to Budzinski’s resignation, which left both the chairmanship and a trustee seat open. The board filled the trustee seat later the same night, appointing Tim Bradley 4-1 and swearing him in. The board adjourned at 8:28 p.m.