DeWitt County – Chairman Comments On The Record

DeWitt Co. (ECWd) –

The Illinois Attorney General’s office is currently reviewing a criminal investigation of matters in DeWitt County.  We covered it in this article.  As referenced in the article, we had not received any response from the County Chairman at the time of publication.

March 1, 2024, DeWitt County Chairman Dan Matthews responded to the following questions.

• Can you provide any comment as to why your Statement of Economic Interests filed with the Clerk do not disclose that company as one doing business with these units of government?
• Can you provide any comment regarding any sales commission or compensation package from CDS Office Technologies you have for sales to Dewitt County and the CUSD 15?
• Can you provide any comment regarding an alleged criminal investigation into this matter and recent indications that the Dewitt County State’s Attorney is seeking a Special Prosecutor?

Matthews’ Response:

• I have no economic interest in CDS.  
• I am a salaried employee.
• I am not compensated for any sales.  
• Both entities did business with CDS for many years before I was on the Board.
• I also have no knowledge of any criminal matter that involves me.

I provided him with a follow-up question as I did not see any response to the Statement of Economic Interest question.

• Thanks for your comments, however you did not address your statement of economic interest not disclosing CDS? 

Matthews’ Response:

• Based on the fact I have no economic interest I believe I accurately filed.

Considering Matthews is the VP of Sales for the company we must admit confusion as to how he has no economic interest.

Subsequent Freedom of Information Act Requests have confirmed large purchases to CDS Office Systems which appear to require bidding, but were not bid out, or the County had no records of any bidding taking place.  We will cover this issue in another article that we hope will include comments from the current State’s Attorney.