Addison Township sues ex-supervisor over money spent for pickup truck

Addison Township is suing its former supervisor, claiming he used grant money intended to support the township’s food pantry to buy a pickup truck for his personal use.

The suit, filed Thursday in DuPage County Circuit Court, accuses Dennis Reboletti of breaching his fiduciary duties.

Reboletti is also chairman of the Addison Township Foundation, a nonprofit group, according to the suit and the foundation’s 2023 tax return, filed in December 2024. The tax return lists its purpose as providing “food and various forms of assistance to low-income people.”

Reboletti said Friday in a written statement that the lawsuit “is nothing more than a smear campaign designed to attack me and my family. The allegations are completely baseless, frivolous and without merit.”

The township board authorized the suit at its meeting Wednesday.

According to the complaint, the township applied for a grant in May 2024 from DuPage County to get a vehicle and information technology-related items for the pantry.

The application used the township’s tax identification number, and the $78,617 check was made out to the township and mailed to its office in August 2024.

However, a township employee endorsed it with the foundation’s stamp and deposited it into a foundation bank account at Reboletti’s direction, according to the lawsuit.

The foundation then bought a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck for $47,352 in October 2024. The suit alleges Reboletti regularly drove it for personal use.

“I have gone on the record explaining the truth about the grant funds the (Addison Township) Foundation received,” Reboletti said in his statement.

“The intent of the grant money was to fund equipment for the food pantry, and that is exactly how the money was spent,” Reboletti added. “I have and will always continue to act in the best interest of the community I have served with integrity for the last 25 years.”

On Friday, Addison Township Supervisor Bobby Hernandez said township workers told him that they saw Reboletti drive the truck to the township office in the morning and home at night.

The attorney for the township, Ed Mullen, said the township asked for the truck and money to be returned, but received no response. He also said some iPads and several refrigerators purchased with the grant money are missing.

Reboletti said the truck is at the foundation’s office in Addison.

In August, the township put up a banner in front of its offices, saying “Ask Dennis: Where’s Our Truck?” Reboletti sent a cease-and-desist letter to the township, saying the statements that he had the truck were false and defamatory.

At a news conference earlier in August, Bobby Hernandez said that after he and a whole new township board took office in May, they had a consultant study the township staffing. The study found that the payroll was bloated, he said. Hernandez announced he was going to lay off 30% of the staff of about 48 people.

Hernandez and the new board members are Democrats. Reboletti is a Republican. He was elected in 2017 and lost to Hernandez in April.

The suit also names three former township employees, including its former executive director.