Democrats don't have to pay for DuPage health forum

Democratic DuPage County Board members won't have to pay for the health care reform forum they sponsored in September.

DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said Monday his office would "take no action" requiring the trio to reimburse the county for the more than $5,000 spent on the event.

"I don't see any reason to go further with this," Birkett said. "The county has policies in place to address these issues, but they may want to review their policies in light of recent practices."

The legal opinion issued by Birkett's office suggests the county board should enact guidelines to "govern the determination of what distinguishes use by a county board member or other county official in an official capacity from that person's private use."

Republican board members criticized Democrats for organizing the event, arguing the county board has no voice in the decision-making process of health care reform and it was hastily staged with no opposition to the reform efforts.

Organizers planned for 600 people to attend, but county officials said less than 100 showed up. Most of the associated costs were related to paying off-duty Wheaton police officers to provide security. Other costs included chair rentals and interpreters for Spanish-speaking and hearing-impaired residents.

County Auditor Bob Grogan refused to approve invoices for the event, which prompted the county board's finance committee to seek a legal opinion from Birkett about whether the county could be reimbursed by the sponsoring board members. In the meantime, the vendors' bills were paid.

Democratic board member Dirk Enger was pleased with Birkett's ruling and suggested his colleagues on the board should show as much interest in county contract increases as they did to the forum invoices.

"Everything that's coming in for more money, the contractors seem to get it," Enger said. "I'd like to have the contractor come in and explain."

Finance committee Chairman Paul Fichtner said this is the first he's heard of Enger's concerns over such increases.

"The board welcomes any member to bring forward any contract they feel is questionable," Fichtner said. "My experience has been that every time something has been brought to the committee for an increase there have been extremely good answers to any questions."

Grogan said his office fields questions all the time about increases in contracts, but the county's procurement process vets any increase requests before passing them on to the board. There was no opportunity to vet the funding request for the health forum because board members sought emergency funds through Chairman Robert Schillerstrom.

Fichtner said his committee would look into updating the board's policies regarding use of county facilities in the wake of the complaints over the health forum.