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| Village Treasurer Anthony Finch |
TRUSTEES ARE CAUSE OF BUDGET DELAY; ONGOING FBI INVESTIGATION; 67 BROKEN FIRE HYDRANTS; $225,000 LEGAL TAB
Fourth of July fireworks may
have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic but fireworks were flying at
Village Hall Thursday evening during the first Talk with the
Treasurer. Village Treasurer Anthony Finch fired off salvos
during his opening comments for about 35 minutes in response to nonsensical
political criticism leveled against him and Village staff, who happen to be black,
by five of the six Trustees. Finch completely rebuked the personal
attacks as nonsense and leveled criticism right where it belonged, with the
Village Board of Trustees. “That is why the Board is mad at me
because I’m challenging them for being hypocritical. Prove me wrong and tell me
where I lied, but show me” Finch said.
“One thing that we have major
concerns about over the last few months is the budget. This is a
touchy issue. The budget is not done. The budget was started
back in April. I originally had the schedule to complete the budget by the end
of July. This is the first Village where I have worked where we have
not gotten the budget passed and approved by the end of
July. Personally, it’s embarrassing because it should be
unacceptable by anybody” Finch said.
“One of the challenges that is
holding up the budget is that our Trustees wanted to wait and do job
description reviews. So that to me has nothing to do with the
expenses of the budget, but that is the reason why the budget is not done”
Finch said. Trustees have had well over a year to review individual
job descriptions but are now holding the Village’s budget hostage and putting
the Village in jeopardy and at risk.
Residents who attended
Thursday’s event, which Finch said he will host monthly, called this “the most
transparent the village has been ever”.
Resident Larry Sapp vocally
spoke up “When these new Trustees took over (gaining a majority over Mayor
Derrick Burgess) in 2019 they had an axe to grind,” he
said. Debbie Williams, the former Village Clerk lost her bid for
re-election in 2017 joined forces with Sherry Jasinski, who was terminated by
Mayor Burgess in 2018 and Gary Bell who was terminated from the Village’s
Emergency Management Agency all had personal and political axes to grind. The
trio joined forces with their friends who were on the Board Linda Todd and
Bernice Brewer. The only Trustee who continues to support the
efforts of Mayor Burgess to move the Village forward is Trustee Rodrick Grant.
Williams sat silently in the front row during the meeting taking copious notes
during the event.
Finch told the crowd that the
Village, under Mayor Burgess has amassed a surplus in the Water Fund of $1.2
million and had ended the routine of taking money and using it for unrelated
water fund payroll. We ended the raids on the water fund for non-water fund
related uses that prior administrations routinely would do. Prior to 2019, we
amassed $800,000 from the sale of the property to Gas N Wash which is invested
in a Certificate of Deposit and [we also] obtained a $500,000 line of credit
avoiding the need to take out Tax Anticipation Warrants which cost the Village
about $40,000 each time. The finances of the Village have gotten far better
under Mayor Burgess and the team he brought in, which begged the question, why
do a forensic audit now? Why wasn’t this done to investigate where the money
went when money was embezzled, mismanaged, misspent and absconded by a rogue
criminally indicted and now convicted felon Ex-Village Treasurer James Griegel
who was appointed and convicted under the Hanks Administration?
Residents were shocked to
discover that there is an ongoing FBI Investigation stemming from 2014-2015
during the previous administration according to Finch, however, he did not
disclose what was being targeted. He did indicate that at least two
[current] Trustees know all about it.
With the Village’s water fund
being so healthy residents, were dumbfounded as to the reason why there are
still 67 nonfunctioning fire hydrants throughout the Village. Mayor
Burgess and Finch wanted this to be outsourced to get them all repaired,
however, they have had consistent push back from the Public Works Department
and their Union that they would file a grievance if the Village proceeded
without them, according to Finch. Finch also said the same thing
about the condition of the roads and dead trees; that this could not be
outsourced because of union grievances. “These (fire hydrants) have been broken
and unrepaired for years and PWD have given numerous excuses as to why repairs
can't be made even though there is money in the budget to repair or replace”
Finch said. The Village Trustees and their hired Village
Administrator refuse to get the work done and are enabling the Public Works
employees' incompetence over the resident’s needs, according to resident Arnold
Coleman. Other residents in attendance also questioned what Trustee Bernice
Brewer, who chairs the Public Services Committee since 2017 has done to get the
work done. “What has she done in the three years she sat on the Village
Board? Nothing, she has done nothing to fix a single fire
hydrant. Yet she complains about everything” a long-time resident
said. Trustee Bernice Brewer, to date, has yet to conduct a single committee
meeting to address the needs of residents, and the deplorable public services
conditions throughout the Village.
“The problem that I hear and see
is that it’s not the Mayor or you (Anthony Finch), it’s the
Trustees. We need to get people in there that care about Sauk
Village. We live here, this is our home a lot of us are retirees and
we came here because we like what we saw, but they are not taking care of the
business” a resident said passionately.
Residents also spoke about the
racial divide for employees who work for the Village, as it appears black
employees are targeted with harassment and being treated differently than white
employees by the Village Trustees. Finch questioned why Union
employees are getting a 2.5% pay raises and non-union staff get
nothing. Most union employees are white while non-union employees at
Village Hall are black. Tonya McCoy had her pay cut by the Trustees by some
$20,000; the only employee in the Village to have her pay cut with no
justification, according to Finch. Many suspect that it was done
because McCoy, who is black, was appointed by Mayor Burgess and the decrease in
salary was a personal and political retaliation. McCoy has since
left Sauk Village and now works for the Village of Matteson earning nearly
twice as much as she earned in Sauk Village.
Finch said he has been proud of
the accomplishments that he and his staff have been able to
accomplish. He clearly puts the blame upon the Trustees for not
allowing the audit to be completed on time because due to a Trustee routinely
calling the auditors and making false and unfounded allegations. Finch called the
actions of the Trustee “inappropriate” and costly to the
Village. The most recent audit is now delayed until after what Finch
calls the “unnecessary” forensic audit is completed. “The Audit Firm is not
going to lose their CPA license, just because (a certain Trustee) doesn’t think
they’re looking into financial matters they want them to look at” Finch said
attributing this to the ongoing delays.
Resident and community activist
Larry Sapp did not mince his words when he spoke out. “I commend you
for dealing with these idiots. Racism has no place here. These
people are hell bent on putting things back the way they were and I’m hell bent
on not letting them. We need to come together, this is turning into
a black and white issue and I’m not going to sugar coat it saying that it’s
anything other than that because I see the behavior of some of these
Trustees. That’s insidious to me” he said.
Lynda Washington one-term former
Trustee, who aligned herself with former mayor David Hanks and his trustees,
who subsequently and unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Burgess in 2017,
applauded Mr. Finch and his financial staff for their transparency. “This
is the most transparency that I have seen in years…” she said.
Mayor Derrick Burgess said
following the meeting “we have been transparent about everything we
do. There are no secrets here. The Village Treasurer is
appointed and has a legal responsibility to do his job without regard to
politics. Unfortunately, this board has brought undue complications,
pressure, division, chaos and confusion. This meeting sure did clear
up much of that. Mr. Finch has my complete support and confidence,”
he said.
