Portage releases clerk investigation report; Stidham says it's retribution for testifyingin disgraced former mayor’s trial
Chicago Tribune
July 02, 2019 - 6:24 PM
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-portage-council-investigaton-st-0703-20190702-tuo7z4l6k5h27dclzxowrgnqqe-tuo7z4l6k5h27dclzxowrgnqqe-story.html
A committee report investigating alleged wrongdoing by Portage Clerk-Treasurer Chris Stidham notes that it is “sufficiently likely” that Stidham’s payments to his then-girlfriend for contract work for his office violated a number of state and federal criminal as well as civil statutes, and questions whether the work was performed by her at all.
Mayor John Cannon’s office released a redacted version of the 15-page report Tuesday afternoon. Redactions include the agencies looking into the matter, Social Security numbers and other personal information, and eight bullet points of recommendations from the committee.
“They got everything from public documents. Everything is public information. They can’t go any further in the investigation because they don’t have subpoena powers,” Cannon said, adding the bipartisan committee, comprised of a city council member, a member of the board of works and a department head, consulted with their attorney, Christopher Buckley, before releasing the redacted report.
City council members have been provided redacted copies, Cannon said, adding they had the opportunity to view the full version of the report over the past several days.
“The investigation at this time is completed. They have done everything I’ve asked. It’s now been turned over to the proper authorities,” he said.
The report details the amounts paid out to Keeping the Books, ERG Advisors and Paramount Technology Solutions, all owned by Rachel Glass, including thousands of dollars paid from the city’s cable fund. None of the payments, according to the report, had accompanying invoices, descriptions of work performed or vouchers and none of them are listed on the city’s “Financial Transparency Portal” on its website, which the report said includes “the exhaustive list of hundreds of other vendors paid by the City.”
The report notes that given the evidence, it appears “that Mr. and Mrs. Stidham were sufficiently financially intertwined to implicate civil and criminal liability,” including a relationship that began in 2014 or earlier, the birth of a child the following year, and the purchase of a home in Portage in 2016 around the time they married.
Cannon has asked Stidham, whose term ends on Dec. 31, to resign in light of the committee’s report, which he has refused to do. Cannon also will ask the Board of Works during a Wednesday morning to seek repayment of what he says is almost $70,000 in unauthorized payments to three companies affiliated with Glass, now Stidham’s wife, for contract work with his office.
The report notes that no contracts with her companies are on record with the city and the invoices did not receive approval from the board of works, in violation of an assortment of laws.
A representative from the State Board of Accounts met with two committee members, Cannon and Buckley on Monday, Cannon said, declining to note which other authorities have received the report.
Stidham has said the investigation is politically motivated because of testimony he gave during the federal trial of former Mayor James Snyder, who was convicted in February on two public corruption charges and awaits sentencing.
He has said the figure for the contract work was closer to $50,000, and that the work, including database tasks, took place in 2015 and 2016, and stopped once he and Glass married. Stidham also has said the board of works did not see the invoices for the work because of a procedural matter.
Stidham said he has not been provided a copy of the redacted report and has reached out to the State Board of Accounts as well, asking them to review the committee’s allegations and other matters as part of their next annual audit of the city, which he expects in the coming weeks.
“They are the proper entity for this type of thing as an independent entity and not politically motivated like the mayor,” he said. “I’m concerned that this is all in retaliation for matters the mayor believes I had already reported to the state board.”
In his letter to state board, Stidham asks the board to “review the process of payment of claims by this office for 2012 through current. While Mayor (Cannon) has hand-picked selected claims in order to make salacious accusations, the underlying process for paying claims in the City of Portage has been in place since before I took office on January 1, 2012 and remains largely in place to this day.”
Council President Sue Lynch, D-At large, confirmed she had received a copy of the redacted report but said she has not yet had a chance to review it. The full report, she said, has been turned over to the Porter County prosecutor’s office.
Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann confirmed his office has the report, and that he will be meeting with a representative from the Lake County prosecutor’s office to see if they will serve as a special prosecutor in the matter.
Lynch said that because the city council’s attorney, Ken Elwood, shares office space with Stidham, the council has hired Dan Whitten, who has an office in Portage, as its conflict attorney. She expects he will meet with prosecutors and, once the investigation is further along, she will schedule an executive session for an update from Whitten. Whitten is a member of the Porter County Council.
“Now that it’s been turned over to the proper authorities, the council needs to sit back and let that process work. That’s what we need to do,” she said.
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