A Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm that has a $500,000-per-year, no-bid contract with Lewis & Clark Community College employs a son of the college’s president, Dale Chapman.
But Chapman says the firm does important work for the two-year college, and that his son’s employment there is not a factor in the college’s awarding of the contract.
Lewis & Clark began employing the firm, The Horinko Group, in 2008, and has since then paid the firm a total of about $4.6 million.
Much of the firm’s work has involved the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center in East Alton, which the college operates. Chapman told the Record that Horinko’s work “has led to funding opportunities, strategic alliances, and national awareness of the work being done at the Lewis and Clark National Great Rivers Research and Education Center and the re-commitment to the rural mission of the college.”
Chapman said a goal of the contract has been to “get your voice known” and “establish credibility” of the river research center among government agencies, scientific researchers and the business community.
However, one member of the Lewis & Clark board of trustees, David Heyen, questions the need for Horinko’s work. Heyen said it sounds like lobbying. Heyen said Lewis & Clark is a member of statewide community college associations which can advocate on behalf of the college, along with federal and state lawmakers from the region.
“How many lobbyists do you need?” Heyen told the Record. “What are we lobbying for? I have no idea why a junior college needs to have a firm out of Washington, D.C. doing lobbying for them.”
Chapman said Horinko’s work has “nothing to do with lobbying.” He said the firm serves as “a think tank consultant service amplifying the core mission of Lewis and Clark Community College”
Chapman said one example was Horinko’s help in pursuing a Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant initiated when the economy crashed.
“Horinko suggested that rather than applying for a federal TAACCCT grant as a state or regional program, we put together a proposal to the U.S. Department of Labor that used the Mississippi River as a theme for technical vocational training,” Chapman said. “That concept evolved into a successful $23.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor where Lewis and Clark was the lead institution including nine community college institutions in eight states coordinating with the six U.S Army Corps of Engineers districts located along the Mississippi River.”
Lewis & Clark, as the lead institution in the grant application, received more than $4.9 million for programs involving welding, logistics, operations technology and truck-driver training, Chapman said.
Chapman said the college, since 2013, has received more than $12.8 million in federal, state and private grants “directly related to our work with Horinko.”
An example of Horinko’s work, according to Champman, is the firm’s assistance in establishing a database of information held by government and private entities on the river system stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
“Horinko has played a significant role in establishing the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center as a pre-eminent river center locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally,” Chapman said.
On his Linked In page, Chapman’s son, Isaac Chapman, describes his occupation as a program manager for Horinko. It also states that he earned a degree in media communications in 2008 from Webster University. Before earning that degree, he studied English and computer science for two years at Boston University. Isaac Chapman could not be reached for comment.
Dale Chapman said his son began working for Horinko in the months after Lewis & Clark began working with Horinko, in 2008.
“He applied for a job and got it,” Dale Chapman said. “I had nothing to do with it.”
Dale Chapman said his son’s job includes doing work for the Lewis & Clark contract. Dale Chapman said he is not directly involved in his son’s day-to-day work, but his understanding is that his son helps translate scientific jargon into everyday language that is more understandable to people who don’t have a scientific background.
“I’m not in direct contact with him on this work,” Dale Chapman said. “I don’t supervise him or have direct day-to-day contact with him in terms of this work.”
The Horinko Group, on its website, describes itself as “an environmental consulting firm operating at the intersection of policy, science, and communications. Founded in 2008, our firm has established itself as an innovator and trusted, third-party convener. We have a proven track record of addressing complex natural resource challenges, while meeting the needs of the broader community. We have expertise in the revitalization of urban and rural communities. We specialize in regulatory intervention, the water-energy-land use nexus, and strategic communications in problem-solving.”
Also listed as a member of the Horinko team is Frank Miles, a former Madison County treasurer who now works as the neighborhood services director for the city of North Port, Fla. Miles is listed on the Horinko team’s site as a senior adviser for community empowerment and management. Chapman said he’s not aware of Miles being involved in Horinko’s work for Lewis & Clark. Miles could not be reached for comment.
Until now, the younger Chapman’s work connection to the college has not been publicly reported. But Dale Chapman and his wife, Linda Chapman, who serves as a vice president at the college, have previously drawn criticism for their pay. The Chapmans earn salaries that, combined, top $550,000 annually. Dale Chapman noted, however that his wife holds a doctorate degree from Harvard and that she was hired by a previous president.
A report issued in 2015 by Illinois lawmakers found that lavish salaries and perks are given to the state’s university and community college presidents. The report said the salaries and perks have “led to a culture of arrogance and a sense of entitlement reflected in many of these executive compensation plans, with an apparent disregard for middle-class families whose taxes and tuition dollars are funding these exorbitant salaries and excessive fringe benefits.”
In 2010, Dale Chapman retired from Lewis & Clark so that he could get access to his pension, then was rehired after two months. He had financial trouble at the time, due in part to a real estate deal that went bad. Chapman said he took a lump-sum payment of “about a million” for his pension. According to the State Universities Retirement System, the lump-sum payout was about $1.8 million.
Chapman in 2010 said he had to start over with his pension after he was rehired, but that he was “probably close” to being eligible for another pension.
To view the college's contracts with Horinko from 2017-2019, click here. To view the college's contracts with Horinko from 2014-2017, click here.