Austin exceeded committee budget by 65 percent

Alderman Carrie Austin last year spent 65% more than the annual amount allotted to the City Council's Budget Committee she chaired in the run-up to a federal raid on her ward office.

An annual audit known as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report shows the Budget Committee's annual budget was $543,968 and that Austin blew past it - by $352,629. The audit was conducted by the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Sources attributed at least some of that overspending to Austin's decision to place Chester Wilson, her 34th Ward chief of staff, on the Budget Committee payroll at an annual salary of $118,440.

Wilson's name is among those mentioned in an attachment to a subpoena delivered to the city and other agencies of local government in advance of the June 19 raid on Austin's ward office.

Newly appointed Budget Committee Chairman Pat Dowell said Monday she could not explain Austin's overspending or the city's apparent decision to allow her to exceed her annual budget by so much.

Dowell would say only that her annual committee budget has been reduced to $280,000 - plus court reporting and supplies - and she intends to live within those parameters.

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