CHA-CHA-KA-CHING, Taxpayer Approved

Documents I recently received through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the KC Coroner's office and County Board Administration reveal:

• Double charging for auto expenses by a coroner's office employee following a training trip - cost to taxpayers --  Is this a one time issue or ongoing?
• Purchase by a county employee of an electronic device from a local hardware store to allow TV programs to be watched on computers. Is this used during work hours?  By whom?
• Ignoring of County policies and procedures put into place to stop financial mismanagement.

http://yorkvilleinsider.org/Purcell/kckoronerklimek.pdf

Above is another example of wasteful and unmonitored  spending by our county board where “itemized receipts” were intentionally withheld by yet another county-wide elected official, this time it is Kendall County Coroner, Ken Toftoy, (current Kendall County GOP Chairman) who is the elected official responsible for the questionable county coroner’s office expenses and credit card charges incurred by Kendall County Taxpayers. In this government transaction found, not only did we pay to put gas in Kendall County Deputy Coroner Mike Klimek’s car three times on this St. Louis “Training” trip, for a total of $211.00, (See page 4 of 25, pages 9, 10, and 11 of 25 for gas receipts that total $211.00) but we, the county taxpayer, were also soaked three days later for this same “training” trip again by Deputy Coroner, Mike Klimek. Mike claimed an additional $260.00 for 520 miles of mileage for this exact same “training” trip to St. Louis. (See Pages 1, 2, 3 of 3) http://yorkvilleinsider.org/Purcell/kckoronermileage.pdf We taxpayers were required to pay twice for one ”training” trip.

I am not aware of any private sector company that pays their employees for both gas and mileage for employee training trips, nor does the IRS recognize this practice. I asked one former county board member about this practice on Saturday and his response was that it was highly unusual. It now appears it was acceptable with Mrs. Purcell. She also looks to be the one responsible for withholding the itemized credit card receipts for this voucher. Mrs. Purcell clearly is one party responsible for submitting the “double dip” $1259.36 “training” credit card voucher, which she signed off on 4-21-2011;(page 3 of 25) three days after Mr. Klimek already had submitted his 4-18-2011 “mileage” voucher for $260.00. Mr. Klimek knowingly pumped the gas and consciously charged the gas on the county credit card. Then Mr. Klimek submitted the $260.00 mileage voucher after pumping the gas, which in my opinion shows a purposeful effort to take advantage of us, county taxpayers.

Where is the county elected official oversight and review? Ken Toftoy is ultimately responsible for the bills generated and submitted by his employees, but where is he at and what is he doing?

Please note the Kendall County Board Finance Committee only reviewed the four-page voucher that included the $1259.36 in charges and the three page 4-4-2011 FIRST BANKCARD Credit Card summary statement. (Pages 3, 4, 5 and 6 of 25) Note all the original itemized receipts for this credit card bill were exclusively retained at the Kendall County Coroner’s Office. (Page 6 of 25 and for a different 4-4-2011 credit card summary bill, page 25 of 25) Those itemized receipts for this monthly credit card bill, the ones that were actually itemized receipts, were not made available for county board review by the Coroner’s Office. The Kendall County Finance Committee did not actually review any itemized receipts for this particular claim because the receipts in question were all still at the coroner’s office, yet during this monthly meeting, this claim was approved for payment. A violation of the 3-8-2008 Invoice Submittal:Procedures and Documentation Policy,

http://www.yorkvilleinsider.org/sheriff/brdreqfreceipt.
[See page 11 of 12 for county policy, also see page 2 of 12 (9-20-2010 Sheriff
Dept. memo) and page 12 of 12 (11-3-2009 elected official’s memo)]

This county “itemized receipt” policy http://www.yorkvilleinsider.org/sheriff/auditfind122707.pdf  ) has been ignored by both the Kendall County Sheriff’s Dept. and Mrs. Purcell’s husband, the former 2006-2010 Kendall County Board Finance Committee Chairman. John Purcell is now our current Kendall County Board Chairman. It is again and now appears to be an ongoing problem for us county taxpayers and this practice of elected officials withholding itemized receipts continues unabated.

Another example, on this very same bill, seen on Page 14 of 25 is where only the signed composite credit card charges were submitted by Mr. Klimek for credit card charges on 3-14-2011 at Carmine’s Steak House for $54.50 and on 3-16-2011 at the Brewhouse for $34.46. See Summary Credit Card entries, line item 6 of 17, and line item 10 of 17 on page 4 of 25. These two composite credit card charges were also submitted by Mrs. Purcell and Coroner Ken Toftoy with no itemized receipts. This oversight error could not have been caught because all of the itemized receipts for this trip were exclusively retained and were only on file at the coroner’s office. Since these itemized transactional receipts were not made available to the county finance committee that additional layer of required oversight became impossible. Please note the intent of this policy was to correct a problem identified by the county auditor, Tonya Mack, in Dec. 2007. This “Itemized Receipt” requirement was approved by a majority vote of the Kendall County Board on 3-4-2008 and has been formally adopted to be the current county accounting policy. The intent was to promote public trust in our county government.

(Page 12 of 12, 3rd to last paragraph) http://www.yorkvilleinsider.org/sheriff/brdreqfreceipt.pdf

Why was an employee at the Kendall County Coroner’s office, where this credit card bill was exclusively filed, allowed to circumvent official County Accounting Policy? Why was the “itemized receipts” kept exclusively on file at the Kendall Coroner’s Office? Why was the only copy of this credit card bill on file for retention at the Kendall Coroner’s Office? It took my FOIA request to get this bill released to the sunlight of public review. Again, here are county auditor’s 2007 findings for obtaining “itemized receipts” for county employee credit card transactions.

(Page 2 of 2, http://www.yorkvilleinsider.org/sheriff/auditfind122707.pdf)

 This Kendall County Board Policy has never been fully adhered to or enforced.

(Page 11 of 12 http://www.yorkvilleinsider.org/sheriff/brdreqfreceipt.pdf)

Please note it was Jacquie Purcell, the wife of County Board Chairman, John Purcell, that is the sole person who signed the $1259.36 Klimek credit card voucher, which included the three tanks of charged gas. (Page 3 of 25) John Purcell was the Kendall County Board Finance Committee Chairman from 2006 to 2010; the person the Kendall County Board entrusted to enforce this 3-4-2008 policy and implement the county auditor’s Dec. 2007 findings/recommendations. Now that Mr. Purcell is Kendall County Board Chairman, one can only guess what else is being paid with taxpayer money, without required itemized receipt documentation provided by the Kendall County Coroner’s office.

However, http://yorkvilleinsider.org/Purcell/kckoronernoresp.pdf who needs a credit card when you have an open county charge account at the Ace Hardware/Radio Shack stores in both Yorkville and Oswego owned by Kendall County Board Chairman, John Purcell. The link provided above is the purchase documentation for a very recent charge made by Kendall County Coroner, Ken Toftoy, at the Yorkville Ace/Radio Shack store on 3-15-2012. Also, please note that the FOIA Reply received on 8-24-2012 (Page 3 of 8) states that this recently purchased electronic item apparently no longer exists. Kendall Coroner FOIA Officer, Jacquie Purcell, declared that there are not any government records for this electronic item or apparently any other electronic items. Please note that in my FOIA request (Page 1 of 8) that I did ask for a complete inventory for all electronic assets possessed by the coroner’s office, and again, the 8-24-2012 FOIA Coroner’s Office reply was deemed non-responsive to my formal, written request for electronic assets owned by the coroner’s office.

Please see and review the 3-15-2012 Ace Invoice # 142799 (page 7 of 8) which was charged on the open ACE/Kendall Coroner’s Charge Account. This receipt is for three electronic items, two items purchased were for some type of laser pet toy and then a much larger purchase was labeled as “PCTV-HD MINI.” Below is the link for this distinctive electronic device purchased at Yorkville Ace/RadioShack on the open Kendall Coroner’s ACE “in-store” charge account. Please note and read the “Pinnacle” brand product description for this specific and unique electronic device, (click to see what its primary function is and what it actually does) then I would encourage you to read some of the product purchaser’s/users reviews for this electronic device to see how it actually functions.

http://www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-22427-PCTV-Mini-Stick/dp/B001PBKJ9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345227075&sr=8-1&keywords=pinnacle+pctv+usb

My question is why the coroner’s office needed to purchase this PCTV-HD MINI electronic device? What exactly is the specific government need? It makes me wonder if someone at the Kendall County Coroner’s office has so much under utilized time on his or her hands that one feels the need to watch HD-TV on his or her PC or Laptop to help lull the time away while there on the job. After all, when Republican patronage employee, Matt Prochaska, was hired to take Mrs. Purcell’s place from 6-10-2011 to 10-28-2011, Matt Prochaska publicly stated and put it in writing that he only logged 20 hours a week while Mrs. Purcell was absent and was receiving ghost payrolling benefits in 2011. This recent disclosure was made in the comment section by Mr. Prochaska of my last Patch blog. Mrs. Purcell is salaried, currently scheduled to work 40 hours a week and is a full-time county employee with very generous county benefits where her medical benefits alone cost county taxpayers $12,224.44.

The question now becomes, who is the one watching HDTV on their county computer and for how many hours a week, is it coroner Ken Toftoy or Admin. Deputy Coroner Purcell?