CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION SOUGHT IN SAUK VILLAGE

Christopher Williams- Village Administrator

***Criminal Fraud Investigation Sought*** 

Calls and inquiries to the US Attorney, Cook County States Attorney and to the Better Government Association (BGA) to begin a criminal investigation for ghost payroll by Village Trustees are being made as Village Administrator Christopher Williams is paid for over 35 days of work missed at the apparent direction and/or knowledge of Fanatical Five Trustees!  Ghost payrolling is when employees are paid but have not actually worked or did not exist.  The Administrator's contract calls for no such time off, as all employees have to wait 12 months for vacation time and are not afforded 35 personal days when hired.  Taxpayers paid out $16,019.06 in salary and benefits for absentee Village Administrator.  No other Village employees are allowed to take such paid time off nor have any been permitted to do so like Williams has been allowed. 

Christopher Williams was given a contract by the Trustees to serve as Village Administrator to the tune of $112,000 with beneifts, yet Williams has not worked a single 5 day week since he began in July, 2019.   The same Trustees who gave us Williams are the ones saying they want to “watch the money”.  Mayor Derrick Burgess was forced by Court action brought by the Village Trustees to allow Christopher Williams to serve as Village Administrator.  Burgess had not had a Village Administrator for the first two years of his term saving residents some $224,000.  Burgess did not appoint Christopher Williams and has stated that Williams lacks the requisite experience to do the job.  Burgess was working full-time at a part-time salary of $20,000 per year.    

Trustees who fought to hire Christohper Williams have refused to answer which one of them allowed him 35 days off with full pay?  Many residents have been asking who gets 7 weeks paid time off from the day they start?  

Exacertbating matters, the Fanatical Five Trustees (led by ringleader Debbie Williams, Linda Todd, Sherry Jasinski, Bernice Brewer and Gary Bell) said they couldn't afford Mary Klopp's annual salary of $9,600 who had performed many more duties including the "dreaded" time-consuming Community Center Rentals.  The burden shifted to the overtaxed current Village Clerk causing delays in getting minutes timely completed which has resulted in the Illinois Attorney General to issue rare binding opinions claiming Village Trustees are in violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

FANATICAL FIVE TRUSTEES ACTIONS COSTING TAXPAYERS

$119,254 Missing In Action

$119,254-Administrator Missing in Action Where are you?  Taxpayers want to know!

A controversial closed and non-transparent hire In July last year on the heels of the Village Trustee election which saw opponents to Mayor Derrick Burgess swept into office which included Debbie Williams, Sherry Jasinski and Gary Bell.  The trio formed a coalition with Trustees Linda Todd and Bernice Brewer to not only shut down the progress made by Mayor Burgess but to also bring in their own Village Administrator to do their bidding.  They found an inexperienced and grossly incapable candidate in Christopher Williams who had only a few months of work experience in the Village of Hazel Crest.  Williams’ employment was terminated in Hazel Crest under the guise of “consolidation” but some of Hazel Crest’s Trustees and officials privately indicated there was much more to that story.   Mayor Burgess was brought to court by the Fanatical Five Trustees to impose their new administrator upon the Village.   The court did impose Christopher Williams on the taxpayers, despite Mayor Burgess’ fervent objections to avoid having more cost imposed upon the residents and not having the right to make his own appointment. 

Make no mistake, Christopher Williams does not work for or answer to Mayor Derrick Burgess or even the taxpayers of Sauk Village for that matter he is, however, at the beck and call of the Fanatical Five Trustees led by their ringleader Debbie Williams.   Christopher Williams was hired in at an expense to the taxpayers of $90,000 per year and we wonder if there is a relationship with Trustee Debbie Williams due to their very close relationship.  So far Christopher Williams has yet to give the taxpayers of Sauk Village a 40 hour work week since he was hired.  He has taken days off, despite the fact that he has not earned any “vacation days” according to the Village’s own policy.  Christopher Williams clearly does not work on Wednesdays at all, and during other “work days” sometimes shows up as late as 11am and leaving at 3pm.  Christopher Williams sequesters himself off all day in his office popping out to use the restroom or poke his head up around lunchtime.  

Union negotiations have been non-existent with the United Steelworkers for Public Works.  Many day to day tasks have gone undone at Village Hall, ignored and pushed to the side under Christopher Williams as the Fanatical Five Trustees placed him in charge of the “day to day operations of the Village” over Mayor Derrick Burgess’ objections.  In fact, Christopher Williams has given virtually no reports of any substance during Village Board meetings.   

Clearly taxpayers are not getting what they are paying for in Christopher Williams, nor have the Fanatical Five been delivering on their campaign pledges to those who voted for them.  Taxpayers are paying Christopher Williams $90,000 in salary and a total cost to residents of $119,254 with benefits but clearly are not getting what they deserve.  The Fanatical Five are allowing gross violations of Village policy as it applies to all other employees, but it appears it's just fine for Christopher Williams.  

The new regime, the Fanatical Five are now costing taxpayers of Sauk Village $20,000-$30,000 per month in legal fees each month but are not being transparent when it comes to the invoices to show what it is they’re actually doing.  Now the Village faces action by the Illinois Attorney General because Christopher Williams is serving as the Village's Freedom of Information Act Officer and clearly is not doing the job well.  Mayor Burgess had gotten that amount down to $7,000 per month saving taxpayers $312,000 from 2017 to 2019, but that all has come to a screeching halt and the savings out the window. 

TRUSTEE BREWER GETTING PAYOFF FROM TAXPAYERS

Bernice Brewer

 Village Trustee Bernice Brewer has claimed she wants to “follow the money” but what she didn't tell taxpayers of Sauk Village she was going to follow it into her own pocket!  Over the course of the last nearly three years Brewer has been in office, it’s clear she can barely pay attention, has not held a single meeting for the Village's Public Services Committee, a committee which was established by Mayor Burgess in 2017 to address streets, sidewalks, street lights, dead trees, and developing a plan for Lake Michigan water.
  

Village Trustees voted Tuesday night to pay Brewer off to settle a Freedom of Information Act request that she engaged lawyers to file on her behalf.  Trustee Rodrick Grant was the only “no” vote.  The request dates back to when Village Clerk Marva Campbell Pruitt was acting as FOIA Officer for the Village right before she abruptly resigned from that duty.  In the prior two administrations taxpayers footed the bill to have Village Attorney’s respond to simple FOIA request for documents and paid $165 per hour to fulfill those requests.   Following Campbell-Pruitt’s resignation from her FOIA duties, the FOIA duties fell upon Mary Klopp who was earning only $9,600 per year she received no extra for their duties as FOIA officer and fulfilled every request made according to the law. 

Village officials are now paying the Village Administrator $90,000 and he is using Village Attorney’s to fulfill FOIA requests costing taxpayers an additional $165 per hour which is a massive waste of taxpayer dollars.

Brewer, who has been on the Village Board continues to complain about virtually everything offering no solutions, has aligned herself with four other Trustees Debbie Williams, Linda Todd, Sherry Jasinski and Gary Bell comprising what we have termed the “Fanatical Five” Trustees, effectively the new “Bobbleheads”.  Each of the Fanatical Five team apparently has a personal and political axe to grind on Mayor Derrick Burgess which makes sense that they would want to effectively shut down any progress the Village was making and complete opposition to anything the Mayor has wanted to do.  It had taken them 6 months to put a budget together and approve because they wanted the Mayor's part-time assistant Mary Klopp because they claimed there was not $9,600 in the budget even though the Fanatical Five have spent some $20,000 plus per month paying Village Attorneys to handle routine FOIA requests.

AXES TO GRIND:

Debbie Williams- She is "big mad" at Derrick Burgess for many reasons, but most recently her axe to grind is because she lost her re-election as Village Clerk in 2017 to Marva Campbell-Pruitt and her daughter lost as mayor to Burgess as she attempted to take over Village Hall.  Funny how soon residents forgot because some of those same people voted for her as Trustee in 2019, but they will be reminded in 2021 when she runs for Mayor, again!  Debbie is trying to be “they mayer” by routinely bombarding Village Administrator Chris Williams with nonsense and trying to micromanage him like he is her personal puppet.  This woman still does not know how to “swim in her lane” like she was once told.

Sherry Jasinski-  Sherry had the biggest axe to grind!  Mayor Derrick Burgess cut her loose as the Village's Community Development Director.  Talk about a "do nothing" Director, Sherry was paid some $69,000 per year and also was cleaning Village Hall on Village time on many occasions under a no-bid contract which ended in 2017.  Of course she has an axe to grind!  

Linda Todd-  She's drinking, traveling and golfing buddies with Sherry and her clique so she's going to go along with her "friends".  She is effectively a patsy and cannot make up her own mind because she doesn't want to piss her friends off.  Oh and her brother also works for the Village too so she's got to make sure that her little brother is all taken care of.  After all if you did not know someone at Village Hall, drink with them you could never have gotten a job working in the Village, back then "they took care of their own... kind".  They just never said "kind" but that's how it was folks.

   

Gary Bell-  Well he didn't get to be Fire Chief and was not allowed back on the fire department, was cut loose from ESDA and refers to "certain people of color" as "those people" and "golden ghetto" and "TNT- typical nigger trama" (Quoting a post he made on social media) yes that's how he spelt trauma!  So instead of working toward progress he joined forces with the fanatical five to shut it down.

Now it appears that the Fanatical Five are looking for payouts at the taxpayers’ expense!  They want a “forensic audit” which is not likely to show any wrong doing, unless they go back and look at the record of previous administrations.  If you want to “follow the money” Brewer, here are a few items you can look at if you’re looking for dirt.  Maybe someone (maybe many) will go directly to jail and not pass GO:

1.     Bullet Proof Vest Grants which were not purchased until far later with illegal reports to DOJ

2.     Fire Engine Grant Money from 2008-2009 and the lack of segregation co-mingling of funds

3.     COPS Grants from 2009 and 2014 and the lack of segregation co-mingling of funds, where are all those police officers? 

4.     OSLAD Grant Money from 2015-16 and the lack of segregation illegal co-mingling of fund

5.     Illegal “borrowing” of funds from the water fund, no public votes from 2008-2016

6.     Illegal “consensus” meetings held by the Trustees from 2013-2017 under David Hanks’s regime and Debbie Williams as clerk

7.     Theft of Village funds by Village Clerk in 2013 for a “personal trip” to Washington DC

8.     Employees being paid outside of the terms of Collective Bargaining Agreements 2009-2016

9.     Sherry Jasinski’s over-paid IMRF Pension

10.  No Surety Bonds for the Trustees as required by the Village Code

11.  Routinely amassing over $1 million in unpaid bills due to malfeasance

12.  Ongoing Litigation in US District Court by long-time employee and Police Sergeant Rebecca Sailsbery who was berated by then Mayor David Hanks during public meetings he hosted to attack her character and her sex. 

13.  A 14 year Contract Extension on a No-Bid Garbage Contract

14.  Disgraced Village Treasurer James Griegel indicted and convicted by the Feds for embezzling funds from the Village with no follow up forensic audit of the Police Pension Fund or Village Funds?  No forensic audit of the Police Pension Fund to find out where the actuarial data is for pensions being paid out.  Hmmm something really shady here.

Funny ALL of the above had NOTHING to do with the Administration of Derrick Burgess but they want a forensic audit?  Let's start with the REAL problems here and address those first!  So Trustee Bernice Brewer and your Fanatical Five Wrecking Crew, if you want to do a forensic audit to find out the TRUTH about “where the money at”.  I suggest you start here with the above.  Maybe you can find out why the broken fire "hydrates" as you call them Bernice are not fixed, or the broken streetlights, or potholes are still not fixed.  Do something!  Better yet how about just resign now and save the taxpayers of Sauk Village some money and a headache of hearing your screechy voice every week.