County Auditor

I'll admit that I have paid little attention to local news lately.   I feel guilty when I listen to radio personalities talk about local newspapers going out business as I read the WSJ.   Now that the BOT BS is behind us...now that the Gov appointed someone with a big political last name with no affiliation to the UofI...at a university where prominent professors didn't think the behavior was newsworthy...I'm looking forward to re-engaging in the local news scene.

So what's interesting?

1. Has the local media done anything besides puff pieces for city-backed development projects?
2. On that note, have the local small business been getting paid on these projects or do they continue to file liens as developers finance projects on their backs?
3. Have they asked a city council member to mathmatically explain how the return on investment is calculated on a project like the parking deck? 
4. Any follow-up on Tony Fabri or did the media take it easy on him?   They were brilliant with the phone record idea. 
5. Is it safe to assume the media didn't follow-up on Mayor Prussing's tax evasion?  http://www.illinipundit.com/2009/03/31/mayor-prussings-house-s.
6. Does either city have a plan to address rising pension costs or are they going to grow faster than the ponzi scheme requires?   
7. Does WCIA continue to report on interest groups who shockingly conclude that tax increases are the only solution to fund their special interest?
8. How's the Gorski house project coming along?   Are they required to pay prevailing wages?  
9. Is the nursing home going to make money and what happened with the negotiations?

I know blogs have a bad reputation and sit at the center of the misinformation debate.   I just wish the local media could be half as interesting as the Illini Pundit.   I will give it another chance in the name of preserving local media and sign up for a subcription and start to TIVO WCIA news.

Thank you in advance with help answering my questions as I get back into the swing of things.

Tom Kacich in the NG:

Thursday night's 14-12 Champaign County Board vote for a binding referendum on the future of the county auditor's office guarantees a 15-month-long campaign about the issue.

It might take that long to explain the issue – whether to appoint or elect the low-visibility position – to voters.

But the sides already are chosen.

The incumbent auditor, Democrat Tony Fabri, said he's eager to campaign to keep the position elected by citizens.

"Regardless of whether I'm the county auditor, regardless of whether I run for re-election (his term runs out in 2012), I truly believe that it is important to have an elected auditor," Fabri said. "I will definitely campaign for this because it's critical for good government in Champaign County."

Stop laughing.

Voters will get a chance to decide whether the auditor is elected or appointed.

Unsurprising:

But he appeared to be the only sure vote for the referendum among the 10 Democrats at the party caucus Tuesday. Five other Democrats missed the meeting, and at least one of them, Brendan McGinty, who also supports the referendum, will miss Thursday's vote.

A board committee voted 5-4 earlier this month in favor of calling for the referendum.

It's unclear how the board's 12 Republicans will vote. They aren't scheduled to caucus until shortly before the meeting Thursday.

Meanwhile, most of the Democrats at their caucus indicated they will resurrect the idea of combining the offices of county recorder and county clerk as well as county sheriff and county coroner.

"If it results in two less offices, I think it's worth discussing; I really do," said board member Barbara Wysocki of Urbana.

"The original idea," said board member Alan Kurtz of Champaign, "was to bring in all the elected officials and have them defend themselves, and let's see if we can find some efficiencies and money-saving. That was what the objective was in the beginning. The true story, though, was (County Auditor Tony) Fabri and his party, the Democratic Party.

"When we could have done more investigating about the recorder and clerk, and the coroner into the sheriff's office, those questions never arose."

Kurtz called the plan "political."

That may be true, but the opposition to a referendum on the Auditor is clearly political, too.

Last week, a County Board Committee recommended to the full Board that County voters should be able to decide at the 2010 election whether the office of Auditor should remain elected or become an appointed position.

If the board follows its policy committee's recommendations, a referendum on the auditor's office would go before the county's voters in November 2010.

The key vote on the future of the auditor's office, and perhaps on the future of Democratic Auditor Tony Fabri, came from Urbana Democrat Brendan McGinty. Fabri was the focus of a News-Gazette story earlier this year that, using phone records, contended that he frequently missed work.

"Perhaps the issue would be moot completely if Tony was in there doing his job," McGinty said. "During the testimony I asked directly, gave him an opportunity to tell us, why weren't you there? He did not answer the question."

But Fabri said the issue should be about the office, and not about him or his performance.

And county board Chairman C. Pius Weibel said there was no evidence that the auditor's office was not meeting its statutory requirements.

Tom Kacich had an very good column on the political ramifications of this as well, but that's not online anywhere.

Our County Auditor, Tony Fabri, knows that the law requires him to file his campaign finance reports electronically, yet he still keeps doing so on paper. 

Also notable is that this report is signed and dated January 20, 2009, which is when it was due, yet Fabri didn't get around to sending it to the State Board of Elections until June 15, nearly five months later.

I don't know if I've ever seen an elected official who is either this incompetent or arrogant or both.

The Champaign County Board's hearing on changing the office of County Auditor to an appointed position was last night:

The county is looking at whether the auditor, coroner and recorder's offices should be changed to appointed positions, rather than elected. If deemed suitable by the county board, a resolution to have public votes on any of the changes could be placed on the November 2010 ballot. Another option might be to combine some functions, such as the coroner's with the sheriff's office.

Some county board members from both parties were critical of Fabri's job performance after an investigative story in March by The News-Gazette showed that he was apparently frequently not in his office, based on phone records. Between Aug. 20, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2008, only one phone call was answered on Fabri's personal line, while no outgoing calls were made on that line. Al Nudo, R-Champaign, and Steve Beckett, D-Urbana, presented a joint resolution to put the issue of whether to eliminate the auditor's office to the voters.

Even though the absenteeism of Tony Fabri is the reason these reorganizing discussions are occurring, I still think it's best for the office to remain elected.  Poor accountability or accountability only every four years is still much better than absolutely no accountability, which is the actual track record of the County Board regarding appointed positions.

Kudos to the NG for mentioning Fabri's absenteeism in the context of the reorganization debate, and also for quoting Fabri's pathetic attempts to defend his work ethic.

Interesting:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS
ELECTED OFFICIAL vs. APPOINTED OFFICIAL

OFFICE OF RECORDER OF DEEDS
OFFICE OF CORONER
OFFICE OF AUDITOR

You are invited to attend Public Hearings sponsored by the Policy, Personnel & Appointments Committee of the Champaign County Board, to hear presentations and receive information regarding whether the Elected Offices of Recorder of Deeds, Coroner and Auditor of Champaign County should instead be made appointed. The County Board sponsors these public hearings as a step in its study of whether to place the questions of appointment vs. election of the offices of Recorder of Deeds, Coroner and Auditor to the voters through referendum ballot questions.

The meetings are June 9 and 10 at 6 PM, one right after another.  To preempt the obvious question, two of those offices are currently held by Republicans, and one (Auditor) by Democrats.

(UDPATED to fix error in meeting dates. Sorry!)

Another hard-hitting editorial:

With the Champaign County auditor being exposed as a political slacker, fellow Democrats are forced to distance themselves from Fabri and to reassess the usefulness of the office itself.

"... in six months, you're going to say, 'Wow, I wish I'd voted for him because he's doing a good job." – Champaign County Board member Tom Betz, praising in 2007 the nomination of Tony Fabri to fill the vacant position as county auditor.

That was then.

"His fan club is shrinking." – Champaign County Board member Brendan McGinty, referring to declining support for Fabri following revelations that he rarely shows up for work at the Brookens county building while receiving an annual salary of $83,000.

This is now.

Apparently hell hath no fury like a local Democrat who's discovered that the secret of Fabri's no-show work habits is no longer a secret. Fabri, the auditor and chairman of the county Democratic Party, is discovering that his party loyalists aren't being as loyal now that he's been revealed as a shirker, even though everyone who knew him has known for a long time that he's a shirker.

Will Fabri do anything to start stemming the criticism?

Today's News-Gazette:

Champaign County Board members will look at options for changing the county auditor's job.

Al Nudo, a Champaign Republican, introduced a resolution at the board meeting Thursday in Urbana to let voters decide whether to eliminate the office of auditor.

John Farney, a deputy county clerk and vice president of the county workers union, delivered a letter to county board members calling for the resignation of Tony Fabri as auditor. If Fabri did not resign, the county board should work to eliminate the post, he said.

Discuss.

Ouch:

Elections mean different things to different people. For Champaign County Auditor Tony Fabri, last November's election, in which he eked out a victory over a better-qualified opponent, apparently meant the start of a four-year vacation paid at $83,245 a year.

And:

As an elected official, Fabri sets his own hours. If he chooses to steal a living from the taxpayers, they can only blame themselves for electing him.

As a matter of simple right and wrong, however, Fabri owes it to the public to show up and carry out his statutory duties. Conversely, if it makes no difference whether he's there or not, and it certainly appears that it makes no difference, the Champaign County Board should abolish the position.

I'm thankful they include this point:

Sadly, it's not just Fabri who is responsible for this outrage. He never would have been in the position to take advantage of the public if he hadn't had an influential political patron (former auditor and current state Sen. Michael Frerichs) and supportive friends among the Democrats on the county board.

Fabri couldn't have been elected by himself.  Influential people supported him, and vouched for him, and convinced people to vote for him.

Today's News-Gazette:

Alan Kurtz of Champaign said of Fabri, "He doesn't answer phone calls," even to county precinct officials. "He is, literally, discourteous to people," Kurtz said.

Ralph Langenheim of Urbana added, "We have known about Tony for a long time. We know he shows up late and he's a remarkably relaxed person."

As for Fabri's leadership of the Democratic Party, Langenheim said the problem is finding someone willing to take on the job and all the work it entails.

"If we could find somebody to do the job, it would be to our advantage, because he's inefficient," Langenheim said.

Tom Betz of Urbana acknowledged the auditor's office is not a constitutional office in Illinois, but a statutory one. That means the county board has the power to abolish the post or combine it with other county offices, he said.

I haven't commented much upon this, partly out of chagrin that I didn't think to FOIA the phone records prior to November's election.  If the County Board has the power to consolidate the office, they should do it.  Clearly, Fabri's not providing any value to the County taxpayers in exchange for his $80,000-plus salary.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2009/03/15/phone_records_show_county_auditor_frequently_absent

URBANA – County government telephone records indicate that Champaign County Auditor Tony Fabri has been missing from his office for well over half the workdays in the last year, including two different periods when he apparently was gone for more than a month.

Between Aug. 20, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2008, only one phone call was answered at Fabri's personal phone exchange at the Brookens Building in Urbana. No outgoing calls were made from his office during that 41-day period.

I applaud the N-G for conducting this investigation.   Discuss.  

Our Champaign County Auditor:

Fabri, Wright and Hooper all had filed pre-election reports in mid-October indicating that they had relatively healthy campaign funds.

Fabri's pre-election report, filed Oct. 19, showed that both he and his parents had given his campaign $5,000. In addition, he had received $500 each from the East Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades, Electricians' Local 601 in Champaign and the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union in Savoy. At that time, there was $6,229 in his campaign fund.

Fabri won his general election race over Republican Brad Jones, 38,716 to 36,845. Jones reported spending $14,057 in his campaign and collecting the same amount. His biggest donation was $2,500 from the Illinois Republican Party.

"I had faxed it in," Fabri said Tuesday, "but apparently they're not accepting faxes anymore. I guess maybe they're enforcing that rule now."

But a prominently displayed rule on the State Board of Elections Web site (http://tinyurl.com/b3xces) makes it clear that Fabri would have to file electronically and not by fax.

Discuss.

This thread is for you to talk (respectfully, please) about the following countywide races Tuesday:

Auditor- Tony Fabri (D)/Brad Jones (R)

State's Attorney- Julia Rietz (D)/Janie Miller-Jones (R)

Circuit Clerk- Kim Hooper (D)/Linda Frank (R)

Coroner- Mark Medlyn (D)/Duane Northrup (R)

Recorder of Deeds- Danis Pelmore (D)/Barb Frasca (R)

-Forest Preserve tax increase

-School Sales tax increase

Today's editorial:

Finally, we agree with one of Jones' main campaign points: that it's not a good idea for the chairman of the political party that controls the county board to also serve as county auditor. It certainly would be more difficult for the chairman of the Democratic Party to hold the Democratic county board accountable for misspending and other fiscal-related mistakes.

Jones promises to do more with the auditor's office than to make sure the bills get paid. He said he will be vocal about overspending and offer more thorough financial analysis on issues like early retirement plans and budgets. We believe Brad Jones is the financially prudent choice for county auditor.

Absolutely.

The NG ran this on Saturday, so please forgive my tardiness.

Challenger Brad Jones, a Republican, claims incumbent Tony Fabri can't watch the Democratic dogs while serving as the county chairman of the Democrats. Fabri said he can, and has, gone after members of his own party.

Yes, that's been my argument all along.  Either Fabri is a good Auditor and a lousy County Chairman, or a lousy Auditor and a good County Chairman.  He can't be both, not while the Board is controlled by Democrats and with the County's finances in such bad shape.

(And  I don't think it makes much sense to have a GOP County Chairman as Auditor "watchdog" a GOP-controlled Board, either.)

You might recall this past April when I posted about the new sign at the Champaign County Nursing Home.  I finally got around to finding out the cost of it a month or so ago and am just now posting about it.  The sign cost $16,088.  I think that amount is pretty ridiculous for a sign on an operation that's bleeding money every month, but apparently it's fine for the Auditor who didn't peep a bit.

What's most remarkable is that the purchase didn't follow the County's purchasing policy. 

B.  CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION OR FACILITIES MAINTENANCE PURCHASES EXCEEDING $5,000 AND LESS THAN $20,000
1.  Shall be submitted to the Purchasing Division on a Purchase Requisition, including detailed information of items to be purchased.
a.  If the good or service is in a category covered by the Pre-qualified Vendor List maintained pursuant to Article IX, the County Administrator shall first set a reservation price less than $20,000. The County Administrator shall then attempt to obtain quotes from at least three vendors from the Pre-qualified Vendor List. The County Administrator may award the contract to any of the vendors from the Pre-qualified Vendor List who provide a price less than the reservation price.

You'll recall I've written a few times about the prequalifed vendor program that was the brainchild of Steve Beckett in an attempt to steer more contracts to minority contractors.  Like so many actions by government, it made for nice press and looked good on campaign brochure, but there has been absolutely no follow up on it.  Now you can put Fabri in that category too.  This bid clearly fell under the prequalified vendor area of the purchasing policy yet no one decided to act on it and contact any of the vendors that are on the list that Inman has, which hasn't even been properly formed.  And Inman's failure to follow the purchasing policy got nary a complaint from Fabri.  He routinely touts that he makes sure the county's purchasing policy is followed, but he's done nothing to enforce this particular provision.

WDWS has podcasts from both incumbent Auditor Tony Fabri (last week) and GOP challenger Brad Jones (this week).  For such an important race, this has gotten precious little coverage.

I've said, since Fabri appointed himself, that it's unwise for a County to have the Democratic Party Chairman as the Auditor, responsible for oversight of the very people for whom he is campaigning.  The only response to that concern I've ever gotten is, "Trust him," or "His oversight responsiblities are handled by staff," neither of which is very reassuring.

On page 17 of tonight's agenda for the Champaign County Board Finance Committee:

As happened last year, we did not receive several footnotes to the financial statements, or the Management's Discussion and Analysis until the date of this letter (June 27, 2008) from Tony Fabri, the elected County Auditor.  I want to make it clear that no one else beside the elected Auditor is responsible for providing this information to us. The footnotes are considered to be an integral part of the financial statements.  We cannot finalize our review of the financial statements until we receive all of the footnotes.  Also, it forces us to date our opinions as of that late date, perhaps making our firm look bad.  In addition, it puts extreme stress on both us and the Chief Deputy Auditor, who cannot accurately page-number the over 300 page document, print it, and get it bound until we have everything we need in order to provide audit opinions, all of which, under a 30-day extension granted by GFOA, is due June 30, just 3 days after he finally provided the documents.  In our estimation, this simply is not fair to our firm, is not fair to the Chief Deputy Auditor, who puts in an enormous effort trying to get the document published on time, and is not acting responsibly to the County Board.  We ask the County Board to officially name someone other than the elected Auditor to be responsible for these documents being prepared and provided to us and the Chief Deputy Auditor on a more timely basis, so that the report can be issued by May 31, its official date.

Bray, Drake, Liles & Richardson, LLP

Channel 3 did a story on this last night as well.