Maine Township- You know there is a problem when……..

Cook Co. (ECWd) –

Anyone in business understands the importance of controlling the cost of doing business. It sets the baseline for pretty much every financial decision they make.  Not the case in local government, as it’s not their money, so they appear to have little concern over how much they take from you and how they spend it.

One thing the government has become masters of, especially with Townships, is the ability to ignore the law or lawyer shop to get the opinion they want.  In the case of the Maine Township Supervisor Laura Morask, she is the perfect example of why there are so many problems at the local level.  An attorney herself, who by the way has been disciplined by the ARDC as shared in this article, seems to be unable to follow the law again.

After we exposed what we considered violations of law by this Supervisor, she went lawyer shopping to get an opinion to support her actions. In doing so the township got presented with a bill for services from the attorney.  Services of which this Supervisor had no authority to seek without advice and consent of the board.  The Township statute is very clear and although the Supervisor has appointing power for an attorney, such appointment is tied to the advice and consent of the board, who were not privy to the hiring until after the fact. Her actions once again simply point to an inability to follow the law and considering she is an attorney, that is problematic both for her and the taxpayer.

Compound that malfeasance with a credit card charge for over $500 to a casino, and we can see oversite is not exactly on the top of the charts with the woman signing checks in Maine Township.  More on that in another article.  The bigger concern, not to minimize casino purchases with a public credit card, is information contained in the last two audit reports as it relates to General Assistance, which is financial aid that is supposed to be administered under Article VI of the Public Aid Act.

How much money does it cost the taxpayers to get a dollar to a person in need?

As shared in our last article,  $3.46 for every dollar in assistance according to the 2016 audit. So are things getting better or worse?

2017 audit information reflects Administration costs for General Assistance have climbed to $697,804.00 to provide $183,833.00 in assistance.  That equates to $3.80 for every dollar provided for public aid.  How on earth does it cost almost four times the amount provided?  With General Assistance being one of those Supervisor controlled functions, she owns it and must be held accountable to this out of control administrative cost, which is doing nothing but taxing the people and taking care of those she wants to be employed, commonly known as cronyism.

It’s good to see members of this board standing up and fighting the good fight at their meeting tonight as it is clear as mountain spring water, the Supervisor is out of control and needs to be held accountable for her actions that are costing the taxpayers of Maine Township a fortune.

This public body currently has stockpiled over nine times (9.09) the amount given in public aid.  Yes, they are sitting on $1,672,706.00 of which they provided a whopping $183,833.00 in assistance.  Comparing that to other townships in Cook and Dupage reflects Main Township as one of the highest Administrative operations we see.  Couple that with bogus budget numbers it’s clear this Supervisor is either unfamiliar with basic business accounting practices or she knows quite well how to manipulate information to avoid those tough questions about her Administration of Township Government.

We thank those trustees on this board that are willing to stand up and expose this malfeasance.

You can see a brief comparison of other Township General Assistance figures below.

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