Embattled DuPage water commission chief resigning

All I can say is: It's about time!

Halle-freaking-lujah!!!!

The DH reporter? Jake Griffin? He's pretty good and maybe you haven't noticed his byline but he is pretty much the Lone Ranger on the DH's coverage of Dirty Water World.

He will likely ferret out this EXPENSIVE [did I read $500 per hour? Jenner & Block LLP, if I recall] "forensic investigation".

I know I want to see it. Heck, I paid for a portion of it and so did every DuPage Water customer.

For Jenner & Block, that's probably their government discount rate. They're a heck of a lot more expensive for private litigation. BTW, was a forensic auditing firm hired (that's not cheap either).

If stupidity were a felony, three or four people would be going to jail. - Mayor of Carol Stream and DuPage Water Commissioner, Frank Saverino

Quote of the week, perhaps the young year.

All right wags - roll your own! I'll start....

"If stupidity were a suit, you'd be wearing it!"

* cue Freddy Mercury and Queen *

Another one bites the dust! And another one gone, and another one gone...

DuPage water commission treasurer resigns

[loved this bit]

quote:

Commissioners said the report suggests Thorn's post - which is currently a mostly symbolic position - has some actual authority over the commission's finances.

Say, how much does this "symbolic position" pay? I am known for my symbolic positioning in Yoga class!

But seriously folks, doesn't every quasi-public, droning old Commission have a Symbolic Treasurer? Maybe the $19 million Accidental Spend-A-Thon has been symbolically explained by this very symbolic symbol?

But of course! If you cheapskates would fund a REAL Treasurer instead of a Symbolic one.......

Inquiring Water Commission Customer minds want to know:

1) How much did this forensic audit cost?

2) Who conducted it?

3) Was it openly bid? Or just "Crony'd"?

4) Was Rathje's legal firm [or close partners] involved in any way? Especially, monetarily?

5) When will this forensic audit be made available to the public?

I'll go back to swabbing the poop deck now, Cap'n Ack.

And in an update to this Daily Herald story, I read:

quote:

The Daily Herald filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the ["forensic audit"/"investigation"] report late last week, but has yet to receive a response from the commission.

Admiral Ackerman: Good Yob!

Now, in addition to seeing and reading this investigative report, how about my other four questions?

You know: The cost, who conducted it, was it openly bid, any Rathje involvement?


Oh, and if I may rant a tad, I read Elliot's "I don’t know if you’ve attended any of our meetings" sop. I have noticed a recent uptick in this type of blame deflection from all of the Public Insider Clubs in recent days.

Statement of Fact: If I had to attend every village, water commission, school, library, county, township, fire district, forest preserve, park district and on and on "bored meeting"? The day would need an extra 12 hours!

Throwing out the stinky fish guts of "So, why aren't you at every one of our meetings? Why aren't YOU getting involved to make a difference?" is nothing more than deflection of the basest kind.

In fact, what does it say about our elected/appointed officials that they need Joe Citizen at their meetings to babysit them? You chair warming pocket stuffers were either:

a) ELECTED or
b) appointed

to do a job. If you aren't capable of doing said job, get off your arse and get the f*ck outta here! Don't try to cast aspersions on us "little people" [after the fact, by the way] in a transparent attempt to deflect the blame that RIGHTFULLY falls on your incompetent tuckus.

OK, I'll go back to pumping the bilge water now, Admiral.

Beautiful shot across the bow, by the way. Your next shot might even draw some blood!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ByTheNumbers,

OK, looks like the Herald's FOIA request for the investigative report has been fulfilled.

DuPage Water Commission audit details cavalcade of errors

Yes, Captain, Oh my Captain - It is a "cavalcade of errors" that reveal a "slew or mistakes" and "bad decisions" - Just what we want from our County Board/Municipal Apointees!

This Major Domo Boner will need a bit more "Cavalcading" though:

quote:

Bad accounting is essentially the root for the spending of the commission's entire reserves that were falsely reported to be at $109 million in 2007, but were actually just $69 million.

Man, that's some bad accounting! $40 million bad by my math.

Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

P.S. My "Who did this audit" question has also been answered/confirmed:

[-The report was compiled by the commission's special counsel Jenner & Block-]

I never knew that S. Louis Rathje sat on the Illinois Supreme Court for about 22 months [1999-2000].

Did you?

What does this say about his "judisciousness"? Are we supposed to believe that a former Supreme Court judge couldn't even catch a whiff on this rotting pile of dung?

We have some additional scuttlebutt on the McHale's Navy, I mean, Martin's Navy affair over at da watah werks, Admiral Dewey.

Some, but far from all, of the contents of the investigative report explained

Frank Saverino, the Mayor of Carol Stream and Water Commission member was quoted the other day as saying:

quote:

"If stupidity were a crime, four or five people would be going to jail."

OK, read this:

quote:

The commission's auditing firm escaped substantial blame because the investigation revealed the firm was never given any of the inaccurate spreadsheets Richter created, "though they, too, made mistakes," according to the report.

OK, is it legal for the Water Commission finance genius [Richter] to be giving this "auditing firm" SOMETHING OTHER THAN WHAT HE HIMSELF IS USING?

When I read: "the firm was never given any of the inaccurate spreadsheets Richter created" - I said: Hey, isn't that keeping two sets of books? One for the auditors and one for Max Richter?

Is that stupid enough to be felonius?

Yes, I saw that CINCINNATUS comment. He has mucho manlove for Danny, doesn't he? Karl Rove, maybe?

By the way Cap, have you heard anything - a prepared statement, off-the-cuff comments, ANYTHING - Water Commission related from our current DuPage County Chairman, Bob Schillerstrom?

By my sextant and dead reckoning, he still sits in the Big Chair for well over six months yet, no?

Also, his name is ALL OVER the Daily Herald reports, what with the appointments, the $75 million skim job, the push, the pull, the give, the take.

Even as the lamest of lame ducks, you'd think he might want to chime in on SOMETHING, no?

Quack!

IMO, Bobs a really dim bulb compared to Cronin. Which is not actually saying that much about C, except I think he's a brighter bulb than Bob, though I'll wait and C. I do think C will get rid of a lot of the BS patronage contracts and other wasteful tax $ crap that goes on there.

I'm a poet and I don't even know it.

Well, Dan Cronin is acting like he's already the Can't Miss winner for DuPage Chairman in November. And that is a common historical pattern. Just as the winner of the Democratic primaries for Cook County office [see: Toni Preckwinkle, I like that gal!] are lead-pipe cinches to win the General, the opposite, party-wise, applies to DuPage County.

Dan already has a well-feathered nest here in DuPage, what with the Blago-Cronin-Dillard-Millner "Free Rides for Seniors" RTA tax passed - by Dan and the other "No To New Taxes But Bring on the Red Light Cameras" pledgers - bubbling and flowing into the county coffers.

And, with the recent law being proposed - by Dan - to yank the Goodies away from the Water Commission Circus and bring those Klowns, by the scruff of their necks, into the County, well, gee - looks like even the well-feathered nest might be getting even MORE tricked-out.

The "Goodies" include about $30 million in additional sales tax, lest we forget. And based on the financial bufoonery now coming out in the press about this Water Commission, it doesn't appear they really NEEDED that much money. They sure couldn't keep track of it!

Could Dan just be helping Carole Cheney with all of these selfless legislative acts of generosity?

What a guy!

Birds of a feather..

Not followin' ya - Well-feathered birds of a feather?

...stick together.

The folks from DuPage United are 100% percent correct. They were calling out the Water Commission many years ago and are right to now call out the late-to-the-game Tribune. Props to them.

It is my belief that a major problem that anyone faces in prying open the closed doors of something like this Water Commission is: Almost no one in DuPage County even knows what you're talking about. They all are quite satisfied with the quality, delivery, taste and 24X7X365 On-Demand availabilty of the water. I know I am.

This part of the plan is nearly flawless - water delivery. Residents and businesses of Charter Member towns/villages pay their own town for the water. They never even think about something called the "DuPage Water Commission". Or, if they do? They are only vaguely aware of what it really is. Most likely think of it as a "part of the County".

I know that not a one of my family, friends or neighbors know one tiny thing about the unfolding scandal over on Butterfield Road. When I told my 87 year-old dad about it he was flabbergasted.

"First I heard of this. No one in my circle is talking about it and I don't even know who this water outfit is."

There ya have it. They have been largely invisible for the past 25 years. That, it is turning out, is a big part of their current mess - of their own making.

Some of the things I am reading about the on-going train wreck over there boggles the mind. Like, the commissioners are now all saying about the Jenner & Block investigation: "We had NO IDEA it would cost this much!" [$365,000 and counting]

Yet, they are the same people who APPROVED the deal, just a few months ago. It is just public official malfeasance of the worst kind. Worst I have ever seen.

And this guy Bob Martin? Good Lord! Asleep at the switch doesn't even begin to describe the [nearly criminal] lack of even the most minimal oversight.

I mean, what WAS his job supposed to be anyway?

I suspect that there is much worse stuff that is yet to come out.