Weis Expected to Suggest Auditor for Kendall County Board Pay Review

Eric Weis plans to suggest an individual on Tuesday to audit county board members’ meeting pay over the past three years.

His suggestion will include an approximate cost, although his original estimate was between $5,000 and $10,000, Weis said at the board’s Committee of the Whole meeting Thursday. The county board’s Finance Committee, which also met Thursday, supported spending county money on the audit.

The County Board's next meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the .

County board members have been squabbling for weeks over which meetings their colleagues could claim for an $85 per diem – and whether County Board member Dan Koukol purposefully submitted claims for meetings not covered. County board members request meeting payments by submitting vouchers listing individual meetings they attended.

Long-time County Board member Anne Vickery has said Koukol had received more than 50 improper per diems since he took office in December 2010. Vickery, who chairs the Finance Committee that approves the per diem payments, said but decided against discussing it publicly until after the March primary. She did not receive one of the , while Koukol was the second-highest vote-getter.

Meanwhile, County Board Chairman John Purcell found Koukol was improperly paid for three meetings since June 2011. Unlike Vickery, Purcell believes Koukol was justified in seeking payment for meetings related to his chairmanship of the county board’s Economic Development Committee, such as meetings with other local economic development organizations.

Weis suggested the board hire an outside auditor after recent Kendall County Board candidate , seeking a criminal investigation of Koukol's pay, and of Purcell for allegedly conspiring with Koukol.