Morales Elected JJC Vice Chair After Motion to Table Vote Fails

Joliet Junior College | September 16, 2026

Article Summary: The Joliet Junior College Board of Trustees elected Trustee Alicia Morales as vice chair on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, after an attempt to table the election died for lack of a second and after three trustees were nominated for the seat.

Vice Chair Election Key Points:

A motion to cancel, then table, the election failed for lack of a second after the board’s attorney questioned whether it was appropriate.

Three nominations were made: Morales, a self-nomination by Trustee Maureen Broderick, and Diane Harris, nominated by Trustee Elaine Bottomley.

Morales’s nomination was voted on first and carried; the chair announced the result as 4-2, though the roll call recorded five yes votes and two no votes.

No election was held for secretary; the chair said item 4.3 was not needed.

JOLIET — The Joliet Junior College Board of Trustees on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, elected Trustee Alicia Morales as its vice chair, filling a leadership vacancy after a procedural attempt to postpone the vote collapsed for lack of a second.

The election, listed as agenda item 4.2, was reached late in a meeting that had already featured extended disputes over board process. As Chair Nancy Garcia Guillen introduced the item, a trustee asked to remove it.

“I would like to cancel that piece on the agenda,” the trustee said, later moving “to cancel it right now.”

Garcia Guillen asked the board’s attorney, who served as parliamentarian for the meeting, to explain what the motion would do.

“I have no idea,” the attorney said. “I don’t know what a motion to cancel is.”

The trustee then modified the motion to table the item indefinitely. The attorney said a motion to table is “typically a motion that’s made because there’s some emergency that would not allow the board to address the issue at this time,” offering a fire alarm as an example.

“I don’t know that it’s appropriate under these circumstances,” he said.

Garcia Guillen confirmed with counsel that the motion required a second and, if seconded, a vote, and that it was not debatable. No second came.

“OK, we don’t have a second. Therefore, we’re not going to continue with this motion,” Garcia Guillen said.

Three Nominations, One Vote

The chair then opened the floor. Garcia Guillen nominated Morales. A second trustee nominated herself. Bottomley nominated Diane Harris. A motion to close nominations carried on a roll call in which every member present voted yes.

The board then took up the first nomination. On the roll call, Garcia Guillen, Morales, Trustee Bradley, Harris and Student Trustee Byron McCullum voted yes; Bottomley and Broderick voted no. Garcia Guillen announced, “Motion carries by 4 to 2.”

A trustee asked whether the board still needed to vote on the remaining two nominees.

“We’re done,” Garcia Guillen said.

No election was held for secretary. Agenda item 4.3 was listed as “Election of Secretary (if needed),” and the chair said after the vice chair vote, “At this time, we don’t need to do a nomination for secretary.”

Context and Reaction

Trustee Michelle Lee was not recorded as responding at roll call and did not vote on any item during the meeting. The board’s roster has changed recently: Trustee Bradley told colleagues during an earlier item that he was “just completing my sixth week” on the board, and Broderick later referenced a former chairman by name in the past tense while urging that his name be removed from material posted on the college website.

Morales, who said during her trustee update that she has served 11 years, thanked the board.

“I’d like to sincerely thank the board for your confidence in me and for voting me as the vice chairwoman,” she said. “I’m honored by the opportunity to serve and look forward to working alongside each and every one of you. I am committed to supporting the board, listening to our community, helping us continue moving forward together as I have been doing for the last 11 years, even through a major sickness.”

Bottomley, who had voted against the nomination, opened her trustee update by congratulating Morales. “Wishing you the best as you fill out the term,” she said.

Harris, who had herself been nominated, also congratulated Morales at the start of her ICCTA report.

Bottomley used her update to address the board’s internal dynamics, saying the way trustees treat one another “matters.”

“Not making quippy remarks across the dais matters,” she said. “I think that following up with a snide, witty comment after someone speaks is not necessary and creates a dynamic on this board that I don’t like and I don’t want to see, and we as leadership need to make sure that we continue to uphold that.”

Harris echoed the point in her own update. “We’re not going to always agree, and we may not even like each other anymore, but we’re here for the people. We’re here for the students and we’re here to get things done,” she said, adding that she did not accept the characterization of the board as dysfunctional. “When we stop getting the work done, then I will accept that.”