Ex-waste agency chief moonlighted as garbage consultant

Former Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County Executive Director Brooke Beal parlayed his 20-plus years of experience working at the government agency to land several garbage-related consulting contracts throughout the suburbs.

The agency's board approved of his freelancing gigs, though the practice raises eyebrows with a municipal management group and an expert on government ethics.

The 47-year-old Beal who resigned from his $160,000-a-year job in late October after an audit uncovered upward of $400,000 missing from a professional development fund earned at least $75,000 in consulting fees from two suburbs over the past seven years. Agency officials said Beal likely had more outside contracts over the years, but there is no official record of municipalities that hired him.

“I talked to him periodically and he would tell this community or that community had asked him to help them,” said waste agency board Chairman George Van Dusen, who is also mayor of Skokie. “It was all done verbally. As long as it didn't involve any conflict of interest with the solid waste agency or interfere with his work with the agency, we always looked upon it as something of a popular nature because it got the SWANCC name around the state. I always thought it was a good thing other municipalities wanted our advice through Brooke.”

However, critics complain the board showed poor management of its resources by allowing its top employee to moonlight.

“If he's out hustling up other business and stuff, there's no guarantee you're getting his full attention,” said Kent Redfield, a University of Illinois professor emeritus of politic science specializing in ethics policies. “You'd expect with the kind of money you're paying, you'd want 100 percent of his time. You don't want him engaging in activities where it's not clear what master he's serving.”

Through his attorney Thomas Breen, Beal said he did nothing wrong.

“If you look at the contract, you will see the side work and consultation was approved in the contract,” Breen said.

Beal had worked at the agency since 1989 and been its director since 1993, officials there said. The agency handles solid waste transfers to landfills for nearly 30 suburban communities.

While government officials are sometimes paid for their expertise or assistance on outside projects, experts said it's rare for someone in such a position as Beal to operate a separate commercial enterprise.

“It isn't something that is standard practice,” said Dawn Peters, executive director of the Illinois City/County Management Association. “I could see where there could be a possible conflict of interest and using his position for personal gain.”

Naperville financial records show the city paid Beal $60,550 for multiple consulting contracts from 2003 through 2009. City officials there said Beal assisted on waste-hauling contract language. Most recently, he assisted in putting together a prospectus for a possible citywide commercial waste-hauling contract, Naperville officials said. The proposal was rejected.

Beal was paid almost $16,000 by Zion for his help evaluating a request to enlarge a landfill in the village. Zion made its last payment to Beal in June.

Attorneys at the law firm that recommended Beal to Zion said they did so because Beal had often done consulting jobs elsewhere around the state, though they didn't have his resume on file to pinpoint where else he had worked. Breen did not provide a list of his client's freelancing work, either.

A forensic audit is currently being performed to determine what happened to the money missing from the waste agency. Agency officials would not say why they believe Beal is responsible for the money's disappearance. Agency attorney Bob Smith said there is no timeline to complete the audit but noted officials from the agency and the outside auditing firm have been “cooperating fully” with a “parallel investigation” of the missing funds being conducted by Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's office.

An Alvarez spokesman said he could neither “confirm nor deny” that an investigation of Beal or the waste agency was underway.

However, Breen said his client has also been cooperating with the state's attorney's office.

“I have no idea when they will conclude their investigation,” Breen said.