Bloomingdale Township supervisor calls for highway chief's resignation
Bloomingdale Township Supervisor Michael Hovde Jr. is calling on the township's embattled highway commissioner, Robert Czernek, to resign.
Federal agents executed a search warrant Tuesday at Czernek's township offices as part of a federal and local probe into his financial dealings as highway commissioner and his relationship with "a handful" of vendors, Hovde said in a written statement Thursday evening.
Czernek has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Reached my email Thursday evening, Czernek replied "no comment."
"After the execution of the federal search warrant of the Bloomingdale Township Highway Department relating to alleged financial improprieties at the Bloomingdale Township Highway Department, the current highway commissioner must resign immediately." Hovde said in the statement.
Hovde stressed the highway commissioner is an elected official and his office operates separately from the rest of the township.
"The Bloomingdale Township office was not the subject of the federal search warrant, which related solely to alleged conduct within the Bloomingdale Township Highway Department and a handful of its vendors," Hovde said. "The Bloomingdale Township Supervisor's Office is housed at a different facility than the Bloomingdale Township Highway Department."
The FBI and DuPage County state's attorney's office have remained mum about their investigation. The FBI issued a statement saying it conducted "court-authorized law enforcement activities" on Tuesday in the Bloomingdale area but declined to say anything more. State's Attorney Robert Berlin also has declined to comment.
Township officials on Tuesday issued a statement saying the supervisor's office is "fully cooperating with the investigation into the road district commissioner."
Czernek is in his second term as highway commissioner.
"Mr. Czernek is really a wonderful man who has spent his life helping the township of Bloomingdale," his attorney, Michael Monico, said Wednesday.