Pingree Grove village president under fire for meals, child care

Although an in-house audit into Pingree Grove President Wyman "Clint" Carey habits cleared of him any wrongdoing, three trustees have forwarded the audit to the Kane County State's Attorney's office to see whether criminal charges apply.

The audit focused on two subjects: Carey's spending habits and allegations that village staff was intimidated into watching his 3-year-old son at village hall, Trustee Stephanie Mette said.

Last week, Mette and trustees Steve Wiedmeyer and Greg Marston approved sending the documents onto the state's attorney's office under a vaguely worded agenda item that suggested the audit would look into everyone's expenses.

The audit, conducted by then-Village Manager Scott Hartman, found Carey didn't do anything wrong.

But Mette, one of the board members who requested the audit, doesn't see it that way.

"I disagree with staff's recommendation... that there was no problems," she said. "From reading (Hartman's) memo, I can't really understand why he would say something isn't wrong when he's making recommendations to have things changed for the future."

There currently aren't any laws on the books in Pingree Grove that govern village spending.

Hartman was fired last week under a convenience clause in his contract that says he can be let go for any reason - Mette, Marston, Wiedmeyer and Trustee Josh Cossiboon voted to terminate him.

The Daily Herald requested the audit under the Freedom of Information Act and the village responded by releasing the part that deals with Carey's finances.

According to the audit, Carey, who became village president in April 2007, spent a total of $17,689.27 from the time he was elected until February 2010 - either with a village issued credit card, debit card or petty cash.

As village president, he draws a salary of $150 a week - or $7,800 a year.

Some expenses dealt with Carey's business travel, paint he bought for the village hall, his village cell phone and cell phone plan, a laptop for village business and accompanying Internet service.

But out of the 146 transactions made, 102 were for food and coffee expenses.

The audit revealed that $2,552.60 was spent on food, coffee and baked goods, but Carey says he reimbursed the village for $223.52 of that.

From November 2007 through April 2008, Pingree Grove was between village managers.

Carey said he quit his part-time job as a jeweler in West Dundee in 2007 to fill the gap in the manager's office and provide more day-to-day direction to staff, while the village searched for a new manager.

He was not paid anything beyond what he makes as village president.

Carey said he did what he had to do to secure precious property along Route 47 and to persuade other landowners to annex into Pingree Grove.

And that sometimes included taking them out to breakfast, lunch or dinner, or bringing food into village hall for them.

"We had to convince people to come to Pingree Grove," Carey said. "They had to feel safe coming to Pingree Grove. To me, it was a ... more casual way to explain the benefits of coming to Pingree Grove and working that system."

Mette doesn't have a problem with wining and dining developers or landowners.

She takes exception to taxpayers footing the bill to feed and entertain paid consultants, employees and fellow board members.

For example, village credit card records show Carey spent $63.90 on a fruit basket for Village Engineer Jeremy Lin, who recently had a child, and $15.50 on movie tickets for Public Works Director Pat Doherty.

Records also show that the most expensive meeting took place July 29, 2008, at the Burnt Toast restaurant in South Elgin. That day, he ate with then-Trustee Ricky Popilek, Hartman, Lin and Village Planner Jeremiah Yeksavich.

The meal cost $86.99.

"Morally and ethically, it's inappropriate to be spending tax dollars on these types of things," Mette said.

But records also show that shortly after she was elected to the village board, Mette had a $25.76 breakfast with Carey at Burnt Toast on the taxpayer's dime in August 2007.

Mette says she started to pay for herself, but that Carey stopped her, pulled out a debit card and said, "I got it."

"I didn't realize he meant the taxpayers got this," Mette said, adding that she intends to reimburse the village for her portion of the bill.

As far as meals with staff go, Carey said he wanted to be a good host and reward his staff for going "above and beyond what I think they had to do through a lot of this process."

He said he also wanted to boost morale.

"The fact is that sometimes, I had to ask my staff to meet at seven in the morning or eight o'clock at night," Carey explained. "If your meeting is at seven in the morning and you're driving a long way, I'm probably going to bring you bagels."

The section of the audit focusing on child care alleges that in a three-year period, staffers watched Carey's young son for a total of four hours and 10 minutes during business hours.

Carey, a stay-at-home dad, would only say he never left his son unattended at village hall and never asked staff to feed him or change his son's diapers.

"I thought we were a family down there," he said. "The village hall was his second home."

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