New Bensenville president concerned about potential sabotage

Last-minute changes to Bensenville's budget and a "spring cleaning" session at village hall have President-elect Frank Soto questioning how smooth the transition of power will be next month.

Soto, who defeated six-term incumbent Village President John Geils in Tuesday's election, said he's concerned some officials may be taking steps to sabotage his administration before it even begins.

He said he already has asked DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett to intervene and weigh in on whether anything improper has occurred.

"Until I take office, I really don't have the authority to do anything other than to establish that we see things going on here and then alerting the authorities of a potential problem," Soto said Friday.

The night after Soto defeated Geils, Bensenville village trustees added $900,000 in new expenses to the current budget, which runs through the end of the month.

Those expenditures include a $250,000 payment to the Elk Grove Legal Defense Fund to help pay for both communities' ongoing fight against O'Hare International Airport expansion.

Then, during the day Thursday, workers were seen carrying numerous boxes out of village hall, Soto said.

Some of the boxes were put into the back of a pickup truck and taken away.

Geils could not be reached for comment.

But Village Manager Jim Johnson on Friday insisted workers were simply cleaning out the village hall basement to remove old signs, outdated stationary and "other miscellaneous garbage."

"It was just junk," Johnson said. "It was spring cleaning."

Soto concedes the incident "could be something innocuous." He also admits he doesn't know if any vital records were removed.

However, he said, the incident "has the appearance of impropriety."

"We want to make sure that when we get into office, the documents and paperwork and computers are the way they should be," he said.

He said he notified authorities because if something is missing, "we at least have a paper trail of what happened."

Birkett said his office investigates all public corruption allegations. He would not confirm if prosecutors in his criminal or civil bureaus are looking into the Bensenville complaints.

But his office has taken no formal action, such as issuing subpoenas, or cease-and-desist or impound court orders.

"I look into everything," Birkett said. "If there's something there, we'll find out."

Still, Birkett said it's not uncommon or necessarily illegal for those in public office to discard large quantities of paperwork they've accumulated, "especially with someone (like Geils) who has been in office 24 years."

Soto said he is especially concerned because the items were removed from village hall just one day after the budget increase was enacted.

"I just find it curious that within 15 days of leaving office, they are increasing the budget $900,000 and transferring all this money into this legal defense trust," he said.

But Trustee John Adamowski, a Geils supporter who will serve another two years on the board, said there's nothing going on other than "business as usual."

"We're here to serve the people," he said. "We're not here to serve to Mr. Geils."

Johnson pointed out that the $250,000 earmarked for the Elk Grove Legal Defense Fund is part of a series of regularly scheduled payments to help pay for the O'Hare fight.

Bensenville and Elk Grove Village have been evenly splitting the cost of the legal bills since other towns withdrew financial support for the Suburban O'Hare Commission.

To date, Bensenville has contributed roughly $6 million, officials said. Next year, the village's budget calls for a total of $1.2 million to be spent.

Unless Soto's administration intervenes, that money will continue to be paid to the fund in monthly or bimonthly payments.

But Soto said he's concerned because the $250,000 was an amount above and beyond what was in the original budget.

"They should not be increasing the budget now," he said. "And they should not be trying to lock the village into long-term obligations to prevent the new administration from doing things that are in the best interest of the village."

Johnson, however, said it's not unusual for the village to make budget adjustments at the end of the year to keep the spending plan balanced.

"This is silly," he said. "We're not trying to do anything underhanded here. We're just trying to deal with the transition. That's all."

• Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer Christy Gutowski contributed to this report.

Moves: Village manager says nothing underhanded is going on

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