Kurt Prenzler reaches tentative settlement with county official he compared to ISIS
Madison County Chairman Kurt Prenzler announced today that he and Auditor Rick Faccin reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit regarding access to the county’s financial software.
In March, Faccin sued Prenzler, County Administrator Dough Hulme, Treasurer Chris Slusser and the County Board to block access to Madison County’s financial information.
Faccin’s lawsuit was in response to a resolution passed by the county board to allow administration read-only access to the county’s financial software system.
At the time, he said because of an investigation of the administration by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office revolving around improper access and use of computer data, the administration couldn’t be trusted with access to the system.
Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons formed the task force that led to a January 2018 raid of two Madison County offices to seize public computers. The investigation is ongoing.
Prenzler and Hulme later filed suit to counter Faccin’s stating that the auditor was “keeping the books secret.”
Prenzler would later compare Faccin’s restriction of the financial data to the tactics of the Islamic State terrorist organization. In an email to his supporters, he compared the refusal of access to the use of “women and children as human shields.”
The compromise, Kern said in a press release, is tentative and allows Prenzler and Hulme to view the county’s financial data, including revenue and expenditures, for the past 10 years.
“This tentative compromise lets us see the financial data we need to manage the county,” Prenzler said. “Compromise between elected officials is always in the taxpayers’ best interest.”
The county’s planning for the next fiscal year starts later in July. Prenzler and Hulme have argued throughout the disagreement that the financial information will be needed during that process.
This story was originally published July 8, 2019 at 10:28 AM.