State's attorney says Lauzen can't approve own expenses
Three weeks after Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen cast the deciding vote to reimburse personal expenses, State's Attorney Joe McMahon is calling on Lauzen to return the money.
Lauzen broke a 10-10 tie at the most recent full county board meeting where members used a $149.07 reimbursement request to shine another light on a total of about $12,000 in personal expenses Lauzen has billed taxpayers since 2012.
Board members have questioned Lauzen's spending on lunches, magazines and books several times. They never mustered enough votes to deny the reimbursements until last month.
In a letter obtained by the Daily Herald, McMahon cited several state laws and Illinois attorney general opinions in determining the impropriety of Lauzen's vote. The letter indicates Lauzen's tiebreaker invalidated the reimbursement.
"We advise no county board member, or the chairman, should vote on any approval of their own reimbursement request, or on any agreement where they have an interest," said McMahon in the July 2 letter. "We advise the correct course of action is return of the reimbursement funds obtained by those votes."
The letter cites Lauzen's vote and a Nov. 14, 2017, vote by county board member Jarett Sanchez as improper votes. The November vote featured Sanchez voting on a $222.77 car rental reimbursement for himself. The rental came during Sanchez's participation in a United Counties Council of Illinois leadership training session in Champaign.
It's not clear if either Lauzen or Sanchez will repay the funds. Lauzen, in an interview, said he expects the board will revote and give him the money.
He said all his reimbursements stem from efforts to build a base of knowledge and relationships that could be helpful to the county. Lauzen will make a presentation on the benefits of his efforts to the full county board next Tuesday.
"I'm going to present it because no one could be as petty as it seems on the surface with this last vote," Lauzen said. "Nobody could be consciously voting to take away initiative. It can't be that. Nobody could be that bad. So I'm going to take it at face value that they just need more information."
Lauzen said anyone concerned about his expenses should pay attention to hypocritical votes cast by the same board members while wearing their forest preserve commissioner hats.
He pointed to expenses for hotels, registration, mileage and meals racked up by Commissioners Theresa Barreiro, Becky Gillam and Mark Davoust while attending the annual Illinois Association of Park Districts' legislative conference in Springfield last April. Barreiro had $408.64 in expenses, Gillam had $543.70 in expenses, and Davoust had $583.62 in expenses. All three voted in favor of their own reimbursements at the most recent forest preserve district finance committee meeting.
"The people voting 'no' for me are over in the forest preserve district voting 'yes' for themselves," Lauzen said. "If Joe (McMahon) and his staff think they really got me over a barrel on $149, well, you kind of missed the plank in your own eye."
Davoust is chairman of the forest preserve district's finance committee. He said the three commissioners did vote in favor of their own reimbursements. But the votes, he said, came only after consulting with the district's attorney.
They were necessary, Davoust said, because the committee membership at the meeting was too small to muster a majority without the three votes. Moreover, the vote was not final and did not release any taxpayer dollars to the commissioners. That final vote will come next Tuesday when Davoust expects he, Barreiro and Gillam will all abstain.