McHenry Co. (ECWd) –
We exposed the sale of a used sweeper by former Highway Commissioner Bob Miller in this article.
According to the minutes from the Village of Island Lake, this sweeper had 25,000 miles on it. Considering numerous Miller supporters lashed out at us about that story and provided some great insight, we followed their lead! The supporters claimed we had no clue why Miller got rid of the sweeper and tried to claim it was because it has so many hours on it. Thanks for the tip!
We filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the Village for the hours on the used sweeper they purchased and the information they provided is troubling, to say the least, as they provided not just the hours but the mileage!
Troubling because the Sweeper chassis miles was not 25,000 miles as claimed. According to the FOIA response, as of the date of the response, the chassis only had 15,015 miles on it. That is 40% less mileage than was claimed in the minutes so we must ask, who told Island lake this sweeper had 25,000 miles on it?
Better yet, considering the 15,015 miles that the sweeper has as of November 30th, 2017, we can only wonder how many fewer miles this sweeper actually had when it was sold in April, 7 months ago.
Why would anyone get rid of a sweeper with only 15,000 miles on it? Especially when the main engine hours were only a whopping 2612 hours while the sweeper engine hours were 1263.1…………7 months after purchase!
With so few miles and hours on this sweeper it clearly was not a surplus piece of property that had no more usable life so what was the real reason for getting rid of it?
Additionally concerning is the fact the Village of Island Lake has no record of the mileage or hours on this sweeper when it was purchased? Who spends $70K of taxpayer money and does not check the mileage or hours prior to buying it?
Stay tuned for the next article on the Intergovernmental Agreement used to make this transaction happen, of which it cites a statute that is not the governing statute for such a transaction as they claimed.
Sweeper hours.
Our work is funded entirely thru donations and we ask that you consider donating at the below link.
