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.
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4 Comments
Jim
Posted at 17:11h, 14 DecemberLook past the sweeper.
Rumor has it there was a constant stream of new equipment coming and barley used equipment being ‘sold’ to other municipalities and townships on a yearly basis.
Why would this be going on? Who knows… if it were true, certainly the taxpayers of Algonquin wouldn’t have agreed to cover the apparent want for new toys in the township IF they knew what was going on.
I’m guessing the sellers of that equipment must have been wonderful salespeople, if this practice was as prevalent as it was rumored to be. I’m guessing that they were able to kick back and enjoy life, given the commissions they were earning.
The money train is ending. At least in Algonquin…I wonder if Nunda has purchased any new toys since their new consultant came on board.
Jbw
Posted at 12:32h, 13 DecemberI worked for a municipality with an Elgin crosswind sweeper. We had 100 center line miles of streets and ran the sweeper from March to December. We always kept sweepers at least 10 years sometimes longer depending on maintenance history. The number of hours on this one is nothing.
John
Posted at 08:13h, 13 DecemberWhere is the states attorney in this case? Is there a reason they are staying silent? This is the best of investigative reporting. The Watchdogs need the citizens support in order to continue to peel back corruption. Without the Watchdogs and tipsters this would have gone unnoticed allowing this guy to enjoy his retirement and laughing all the way to the bank.
NiteCat
Posted at 23:24h, 12 DecemberBoy o boy…Mr. Miller looks like he’d been scrambling to stay one step ahead of the Township and the law before he high-tails it out of town in his retirement. CYA doesn’t work out too well when you have so many spoons in the pot. Is anyone anywhere in this state watching out for the taxpayers??