CALUMET CITY MAYOR THADDEUS JONES TO DISCUSS RECENTLY REVEALED RESULTS FROM ACCOUNTING FIRM AUDIT OF CLERK’S OFFICE “FINDINGS ARE DISTURBING, ALARMING, AND CRIMINAL”

Calumet City, IL. (ECWd) –

***This event postponed until Monday***

***Edgar County Watchdogs will be livestreaming this event for your viewing***

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MEDIA ADVISORY
For more information contact:
Sean Howard
For Immediate Release

CALUMET CITY MAYOR THADDEUS JONES
TO DISCUSS RECENTLY REVEALED RESULTS FROM
ACCOUNTING FIRM AUDIT OF CLERK’S OFFICE
“FINDINGS ARE DISTURBING, ALARMING, AND CRIMINAL”
AUDITOR RECOMMENDS THAT FINDINGS BE DELIVERED
TO THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS (FBI)
BLATANT ABUSE OF TAXPAYER FUNDS
Thursday, December 16th, 2021@ 10:00 AM
Calumet City City Hall, 204 Pulaski Road, Calumet City, Illinois

(Calumet City, Ill) Mr. Thaddeus Jones, Mayor of Calumet City, will conduct a press conference on Thursday, December 16th^th, at the Calumet City City Hall to discuss the four-month long audit of the Calumet City Clerk’s Office.  This audit was performed by the accounting firm of Benford Brown and Associates, LLC.

Upon his election victory in Mayor 2021, Mayor Jones promised the residents of Calumet City transparency.  Immediately after Mayor Jones was sworn in, he ordered an audit of the Clerk’s Office to ensure reliability of the finances of the City as he was unable to obtain adequate details regarding the City’s financial operations from the prior administration.  He was also seeking a means to streamline and improve spending and procurement practices.

The Accounting Firm had the opportunity to review the operations for petty cash, credit card purchases, salvage revenue operations, document shredding invoice review, and parking tickets.  Some findings INCLUDE:

• Revealed several instances of Amazon purchases that do not appear to be in accordance with the City’s policies and procedures. The documentation shows that items were shipped to a former employee’s home.
• Findings discovered public works employees using city trucks, taking scrap items from city property, and selling them for cash. The cash was not being deposited into the city’s bank accounts.  Additionally,
• The city experienced a significant increase in document shredding expenditures in April 2021 compared to April 2020. Documents appears to have been shredded that were not a part of the Clerk Figgs City Shredding events and without notice and approval.
• Over 3,000 parking tickets not properly [processed/deposited] by the City Clerk’s office which resulted in a loss of 1.1 million dollars in projected revenue.

The mayor is appalled and insulted of the abuse of public funds. A full report of the findings will be distributed to the Chicagoland media prior to the start of the press conference.

The Accounting Firm is in the process of reviewing municipal liens, water liens, crime free housing, cash deposits, and real estate transfer stamps.  Results from the audit of Benford Brown and Associates, LLC indicated that internal controls processes related to many of the above-mentioned operations are not operating in compliance with the City’s policies and procedures with strong encouragement to the mayor and city council to implement controls to ensure compliance with the city’s policies and procedures, municipal code, and state laws.

City officials, City Attorneys and Auditor will be present at the Press Conference.