Waste agency director on leave as money disappearance investigated

The longtime executive director of the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County is under investigation after the disappearance of an undisclosed sum of the agency's money, the group's chairman confirmed Thursday.

Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, chairman of the waste agency's executive board, said Executive Director C. Brooke Beal has been placed on paid leave and the missing money is being investigated by the Cook County state's attorney's office.

“We're very upset about this,” Van Dusen said. “We're very angry. We're going to pursue it and we're going to work to rebuild the public's trust.”

Attempts to reach Beal by both phone and at his home were unsuccessful Wednesday and Thursday. The Daily Herald has been unable to determine if Beal has an attorney, or someone else who is empowered to speak for him.

The investigation surrounds “a significant amount” of money connected to a budget line item for professional development, Van Dusen said. Some Daily Herald sources have estimated the amount to be as high as $400,000, but Van Dusen said an exact figure has not yet been determined.

“It could be lower than that, it could be that figure,” he said.

Investigators are paying special attention to expenditures taken specifically from the professional development line item. Those expenditures should have been authorized by executive board Chairman James Norris, who never saw them, Van Dusen added.

Van Dusen's remarks came before a special agency meeting Thursday night where officials told members about the allegations. Officials from the 23 member municipalities attended. They voted to retain the law firm of Clark, Baird Smith to deal with allegations. Attorney Robert Smith said the agency hasn't ruled out a civil action against Beal.

It was an independent auditor hired by the agency who called Van Dusen last week about the discrepancies.

“It was enough to convince us there was a serious problem,” Van Dusen said. “There was a record that appears to have been falsified, and that set off alarm bells.”

Van Dusen said he, an agency attorney and Norris also the Hoffman Estates village manager then went to the agency's Glenview headquarters to meet with Beal.

Beal, however, was not at the office and could not be reached by agency officials, leading them to place him on indefinite paid leave from his $160,000-a-year job.

Van Dusen said officials secured Beal's office and computer, temporarily shut down the agency's headquarters and contacted the Cook County state's attorney's financial crimes unit in Skokie.

The state's attorney's office advised Van Dusen to share only limited details about the documents.

No charges have been filed. Van Dusen said the agency is fully cooperating with the investigation, and neither the inquiry nor the missing funds will disrupt the agency's operations. Asked if he has spoken to Beal since Monday, Van Dusen replied, “That is one of the things the state's attorney's office has told me I should not talk about.”

The Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County is a local government entity and nonprofit corporation formed in 1988 by 23 municipalities. It facilitates waste hauling for towns in the North and Northwest suburbs.

Though not itself a taxing body, the agency is funded primarily through taxpayer dollars. Member municipalities that have independent contracts with the agency are charged fees based on the tonnage of waste produced by each town.

The agency's members are Arlington Heights, Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Kenilworth, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Mount Prospect, Niles, Palatine, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, South Barrington, Skokie, Wheeling, Wilmette and Winnetka.

Beal, who turns 47 this month, joined the agency in 1989 and became executive director in September 1993. No one answered the door to his home in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, which is up for sale for a listed $1.7 million. He was present at the agency's regular monthly meeting Oct. 13 and exhibited no changes in behavior recently, Van Dusen said.

Van Dusen stressed it was the waste agency that contacted the state's attorney's office. The agency is also conducting its own investigation, he said, and prior yearly audits had not revealed discrepancies.

The agency is reviewing those older audits again, as well as its policies, he added.

It “makes me very angry to think there's been some kind of betrayal of my trust,” Van Dusen said, adding he feels “victimized.”

Cook County state's attorney's office spokeswoman Sally Daly declined to comment on whether there is an open investigation.

Ÿ Daily Herald staff writer Madhu Krishnamurthy contributed to this report.