VILLAGE FACES $1.3 MILLION PROBLEM

DAVID HANKS, Mayor of Sauk Village

©2014 Sauk Villager News

By Joseph Wiszowaty

SAUK VILLAGE |  Rumors of village vendors not being paid for months and the village not being able to purchase the necessary equipment it needs to keep the village functioning have led to yet another Freedom of Information Act Request(FOIA).  The Village is currently delinquent on paying its vendors to the tune of $724,352.39 according to the FOIA request received on Friday morning.  With the village’s recent borrowing, the Village is currently more than $1.3 million short in funds to pay its bills; $500,000 more than when Lewis Towers left office in November, 2012. 

Mayor David Hanks has transferred so much money from the Water and other Village Funds to pay employee payroll, the Village cannot make the necessary payments to the Water Department's vendors.  As a result, some vendors have stopped extending credit to the Village until consistent payments can be made, making it virtually impossible for Public Works to perform any normal maintenance or critical repairs.  Because Sauk Village is now on a "cash and carry only" status with many of its vendors, the Water Department cannot purchase the critical parts needed to make needed repairs to fire hydrants and buffalo boxes, according to one vendor.  

Of course, Hanks has pledged, with insistence from the Village Board, to repay the $600,000 owed to the Village's other funds by the end of March 2014.  This deficit was not planned as a contingency in the 2013-14 budget process and as a result has unbalanced the Village's General Fund entirely.

The cash strapped village has been hemorrhaging money since Hanks became interim Mayor in November 2012 and has not offered any recommendation or plan to curtail spending.  Hanks touted in his 2013 campaign bid for mayor, that as interim mayor, he had successfully reduced the amount of outstanding bills owed to vendors to just $300,000.  However, since the election, that number has skyrocketed yet again and this time Hanks need only look in the mirror to assign blame. Hanks has doled out raises retroactive to 2011 to some employees, increased payroll and fringe benefits expenses to the general fund despite the warning from former Village Manager Richard Dieterich in 2011 to not do so without "corresponding increases in revenue to offset" these payroll expenses. 

With his abacus battery on the blink, Hanks has been continuously transferring money from various village accounts including the water fund just to meet payroll.  To date, the Village's water fund has been depleted by several hundred thousand dollars which contributes to much needed water related repairs to go undone. Hanks has also hired a lobbyist, unlike any of the neighboring towns, costing the village an additional $36,000 per year.  "Generally, the mayor of the community serves as the lobbyist in Springfield when they need something done" said Gene Williams Mayor of Lynwood at the recent Economic Forum hosted by Sauk Village.

Hanks' unabated overspending has added tremendously to an already strained budget and growing deficit. Yet Hanks failed to acknowledge the Village's true picture in his recent State of the Village press release painting a less than rosy picture “The village is currently averaging three months behind in payment to our vendors; however, we have reduced that from the average of five months in the past. The village remains in debt but we are currently working on ways to reduce increased debt and searching for ways to address that which has already occurred.”   The facts are that some vendors get paid much quicker than others, while others go unpaid for several months beyond the 90 days Hanks acknowledged in his press release. 

Hanks stated several weeks ago that now he and the entire Board of Trustees will have to make “tough decisions” on how to manage the Village's mounting debt and inter-fund borrowing practices now that the Village's financial crisis of 2009 has returned with a vengeance!

HERE IS A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE VILLAGE’S FINANCIAL WOES:

• ·       The Village is currently 60 days delinquent in paying for the lobbyist Alfred G. Ronan, Limited, that Hanks wanted and put on the payroll this summer to the tune of $36,000 per year

• ·       delinquent in paying legal bills for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission actions brought by employees to the tune of $27,929.00 from as far back as July, 2012. 

• ·       The Police Department vendor, John’s Arrow Transmission shop  is owed $6,802.44 for work it did on three police vehicles going back as far as September, 2012 according to the FOIA request.   

• ·       The Police Department Brackman & Company is owed $4,465.78 in repairs on the Village’s police squad fleet.  

• ·       delinquent in its membership dues to the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association to the tune of $3,778.00 which was billed in September, 2013.

• ·       The South Suburban Emergency Response Team membership dues of $1000 invoiced to the Village in July, 2013.

• ·       $137,872.50 is due to Robinson Engineering.  It is expected that this vendor will be paid from the IEPA low interest loan the Village just received.  The loan is to be repaid over the next 20 years. 

• ·       The biggest single vendor who has not been paid since June, 2013 is the Village’s law firm Odelson and Sterk, LTD.  Invoices show the village is delinquent to the law firm to the tune $226,674.27, however, these do not include services for December and January which could likely balloon the bill to near $310,000 for 7 months service.  Hanks and the Village Board only budgeted $500,000 and the Village is likely to exceed this amount despite the fact that the litigation with the village has decreased since Lewis Towers left office.  

• ·       The Village is also delinquent to Municipal Code Corporation for codification of the Village’s Municipal Code book in May, 2013.  Municipal Code Corporation is owed $7,118,76 which was suppose to come from money set aside and earmarked when Winpak reimbursed the village for expenses in 2012. 

• ·       Kane McKenna and Associates, who has helped David Hanks with his Economic Development is owed $13,437.75 for their services since the summer of 2013.

One of the village’s vendors is not happy with the way the Village is paying its bills.  “In Sauk Village if you get a water bill and don't pay they will shut off your water right? ‘AHHH We will pay them later’.  Now 30 days goes by and still nothing” the frustrated vendor said.

HERE IS THE LINK TO ALL VILLAGE VENDORS NOT PAID:  ***CLICK HERE***

Original material, and photographs, copyright 2014 Sauk Villager News; all rights reserved.