‘Misappropriation of funds’: FBI probe underway at water district

The manager of the Pontoon Beach Public Water District has been fired under allegations of misappropriating funds, and an FBI investigation is underway.

Minutes from the June meeting of the water district board show that following a closed session regarding personnel, district manager Brian Buske was terminated for “misappropriation of funds.”

Buske could not be reached for comment. A phone number listed for him was disconnected, and no one answered the door when a reporter visited a home address listed for Buske in Pontoon Beach on Thursday.

Pontoon Beach Police Chief Chris Modrusic said the department started a preliminary investigation into possible employee misconduct at the Pontoon Beach Public Water District on June 6, but that they immediately requested assistance due to the complex financial nature of the case. Modrusic said they received boxes full of materials from the water district.

“We did open an investigation into misappropriation of funds,” Modrusic said. “We have forwarded that case over to the FBI task force out of the Fairview Heights office.”

No charges have been filed, Modrusic said. He did not release any further details about the case.

The water district, in a written response to a News-Democrat request for records of expenditures made by Buske, replied that the documents “have all been physically turned over to the Pontoon Beach Police Department, who in our understanding have provided those to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for investigative purposes.”

Brad Ware, a spokesman for the Springfield division of the FBI, said he could not comment. The Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office also declined to comment on the investigation, as did the water district board’s chairman, Chris Hankins.

Minutes from the water district board’s June meeting state that Buske’s employment was terminated in a unanimous vote by the seven-member board. The minutes reported that, prior to the vote, board members went into a closed session for 24 minutes to discuss a personnel issue.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show the district as a whole to be in a healthy financial state. The district ended fiscal 2015 with a profit of $44,064, after a $34,470 loss in fiscal 2014, according to its most recent audit. Revenue increased by 10 percent while expenses decreased 1 percent.

In the same meeting where the district fired Buske, however, board member Scott Smallie requested a new audit going back to May 2014. His request was unanimously approved. Smallie also requested a full investigation of procedures and policies regarding how funds are handled in accepting payments at the district, “and make some improvements.” The motion was accepted in a unanimous voice vote.

Buske’s annual salary was about $60,000.

Buske did not file a statement of economic interest with Madison County this year. Under state law, any public official or department head whose job description includes authorizing expenditures of public funds, executing contracts or issuing licenses and permits is required to file a statement of economic interest, disclosing any conflicts. Those statements are then placed online in a database maintained by the county clerk.

However, the list of officials in the database is dependent upon the districts themselves. Madison County Clerk Debbie Ming-Mendoza said that each public body submits a list of officials who meet the requirements, and she follows up with each of them to make sure they file their statements and manages the database.

Ming-Mendoza confirmed that Buske was the official who compiled the list for the Pontoon Beach Water District, and listed his own position as “manager.”

“He did not put himself down as required to file a statement,” Ming-Mendoza said. The only people listed in the database are the board members, all of whom have filed their statements.

The minutes for earlier meetings of the Pontoon Beach Public Water District board indicated they had received letters from Madison County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan clarifying the rules of statements of economic interest and asking all Madison County public bodies to adopt new, clearer policies on the filing requirements. Those policies were adopted unanimously at the March 2016 meeting of the water district, according to their minutes.

Dunstan had sent out those letters in response to a controversy surrounding Andy Economy. A News-Democrat investigation showed that as a member of the Metro-East Sanitary District board, Economy had voted a dozen times to pay his own body shop for more than $44,000 in repair work. Economy resigned hours before a County Board meeting where he was to be removed.

The Pontoon Beach Public Water District serves about 3,800 customers, according to its website. Its annual budget is $810,600, of which $450,000 is the cost of water purchases.

The water district is not a part of Pontoon Beach village government.

This story was originally published August 12, 2016 at 11:53 AM with the headline "‘Misappropriation of funds’: FBI probe underway at water district."