No misconduct on Gaffney's part, state's attorney says in dismissing complaint

St. Charles school board member Jim Gaffney has been cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation into a complaint of potentially illegal activity by one of his former colleagues, authorities announced this morning.

Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti said in a news release that, "due to a lack of evidence and prosecutorial discretion, I am not authorizing or filing any charges of any kind against James Gaffney for the activities alleged in the complaint."

Former school board President Bobbie Raehl said she filed the complaint in August, asking Barsanti to investigate whether Gaffney broke the law by trying to get undue perks for then-retiring District 303 Superintendent Barbara Erwin.

Raehl cited an undated, internal district memo to administrators that bore Gaffney's signature and incorrectly asserted the school board had agreed to credit Erwin with 340 sick days in 2004.

In fact, the school board didn't agree to the sick day allotment until 2005. Raehl suggested Gaffney might have been attempting to help Erwin get vested in the state's pension system behind the scenes.

"This matter has been fully investigated by attorneys and investigators of the Kane County State's Attorney's Office," Barsanti said.

The investigation was the latest probe by Barsanti into the school board, which admitted in July that it had broken the law by approving Erwin's contract extension in 2005 without a public vote. That matter also was brought to Barsanti by Raehl.

Last spring, Raehl lost her seat to Gaffney, who is also a former board president, but she has adamantly maintained her complaints were unrelated to the election.