Quinn promises action on U of I trustees who refused to resign

CHICAGO -- Gov. Pat Quinn said Tuesday that he needs one more day before he reveals what he will do about the two members of University of Illinois' Board of Trustees who have refused to resign after an admissions scandal.

One of those trustees, Chicago lawyer James Montgomery, already has said he'll take Quinn to court if the governor removes him.

Quinn said that today he will detail his plans for the board and holdout trustees Montgomery and Frances Carroll, who have refused the governor's call to resign. The governor wouldn't say what he plans to do, but he promised to act "with certainty and with dispatch."

He said he hopes Carroll and Montgomery will step down before then.

"I talked to them and I think that's the best course to follow," Quinn said. "It's not about any person, and I don't think they should take it personally."

Carroll has not returned calls for comment. But Montgomery said he's ready to fight.

Montgomery said that if Quinn removes him, he'll seek an injunction to stop the action, then try to force the governor to prove in court that he was incompetent, neglected his duties or was guilty of malfeasance. The state constitution says political appointees may be removed for those reasons.

"I'm not going to take the responsibility for conduct that I had nothing to do with, and I don't want to voluntarily acknowledge that I did something that I did not do," Montgomery said.

Quinn asked all nine trustees to step down, following the recommendations of a panel he appointed to examine the effect of political influence on university admissions. News reports this summer revealed the university tracked the applications of politically connected students through a since-discontinued list known as Category I and that some underqualified students on the list were admitted to the Urbana-Champaign campus.

Seven trustees have offered their resignations, but Montgomery and Carroll say they've done nothing wrong.

Montgomery criticized both the Illinois Admissions Review Commission for saying the trustees should step down or be removed and Quinn for following the recommendation.

"You've got to use judgment in these things, and unfortunately that's what the commission and the governor, in my opinion, did not do."