Atlanta, Illinois Public Library files false information with Illinois Comptroller

Logan Co. (ECWd) –

The Atlanta Public Library appears to have a few problems percolating as it relates to conflicts of interests with board member William Thomas, whom the library pays rent to.  Now we find false information contained in the annual financial reporting to the Illinois Comptroller.

The first page of the reporting, which can be downloaded at this link, is where we identified the first of several false reportings.  Board member Thomas is listed not only as the contact person for the library but is also listed as the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Purchasing Agent.  Of interest is the fact he is not, and best we can tell never has been the Chief Executive Officer.  The filing instructions are quite clear on this section.

B. Chief Executive Officer (Enter your name here ONLY if you are the elected or appointed official responsible for the EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION, i.e. mayor, supervisor, or chairman. Your name will be listed with this responsibility on our website.)

Mr. Thomas is not the Chairman, so not sure why his name appears as the CEO on the Compotroller financial report. Also of interest is the failure to mark YES or NO on the question of the information being correct and complete.   Convenient oversight?

Additionaly, the previous two years of reporting there was no debt reported for the library. In 2016 we find $187,958.00, listed as “contractual commitments”.  The reason this number jumped out at us was that we could not find anything in the minutes for that year that point to a contractual commitment of $187,958.00.  We concede that this number may not be false reporting, but if in fact, it is accurate, there are no minutes reflecting any kind of a vote for the library to take on this contractual commitment.

The salary reporting points to zero full time employees and 5 part time employees with a total salary paid of $48,666.  With salaries being paid, one must pay taxes to the State and Federal Government.  Based on this reporting, they failed to report any payments to other government entities to inlcude State and Federal.   If they did in fact pay taxes on salaries, the claim of $0 to other governments would in fact be false.

Getting back to the salary reporting, take note the claimed appropriations for 2016.  Does anyone believe that his unit of government has the ability to apporpriate $1,451,999.00?  Yes, ONE MILLION, FOUR FIFTY-ONE THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED NINETY-NINE dollars!  That number is false, yet that is what they reported to the State of Illinois Comptroller.

The 2014 Appropriations totalled $125,463.00, 2015 was $101,979.00.  That being the case, we can only wonder who filed this report and why the claimed approximatly Eleven times the appropriations from the previous year, especially since the same report reflects their revenues are only $145,258.00.

Addition points of concern are the listing of $1,511.00 for “Retirement”.  Considering a public library would be tied to IMRF, (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund), we found this entry concerning as well.  Under the Pension Funds/retirement benefits tab, you can see they reported $0.00 for any pension.  So what is this $1,511.00 retirement expense?

Considering Mr. Thomas is listed as holding the position of Treasurer in the minutes and also the Chief Financial Officer on the Comptroller listing, may we suggest an independent audit of the books?

We are still working on determining who filed this report and will update as soon as we get a response but for now, all indications are there are several false bits of information communicated to the State of Illinois by someone.

We have one question for now.  Did board member Thomas file this report?
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