Should Madison County Republicans resign even after investigation yields no charges?
A two-year state investigation into the office of Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler failed to produce enough evidence to charge any of its “potential targets,” a spokesperson for the Illinois Attorney General said Tuesday.
But Prenzler’s opponent in the Nov. 3 general election says documents from the attorney general probe, which were unsealed on Monday, uncovered a pattern of corruption that warrants the removal of at least three Prenzler aides from office.
Marine Township Supervisor Bob Daiber was joined by a pair of Democratic members of the county board in demanding the resignations of County Administrator Doug Hulme, Information Technology Director Rob Dorman and Coronavirus Czar Steve Adler. In a statement, they accused the three of email surveillance of their political opponents and of pay-for-play schemes.
Daiber is challenging Prenzler, a Republican, for county board chairman on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. The other county board members making the accusations include Mike Parkinson of Granite City and Chris Hankins of Pontoon Beach.
Prenzler, also through a statement, dismissed the allegations and investigation as political gamesmanship.
“A highly-politicized investigation of these allegations has gone on for over two years, and everyone was exonerated when the Democrat Attorney General’s office decided not to file charges,” he said.
Prenzler says he has always stood up to corruption, pointing out that it was he who blew the whistle on former Madison County Treasurer Fred Bathon, a Democrat, who in 2013 was found guilty of rigging delinquent tax sales to favor political allies.
“Democrat county officials knew exactly what Bathon was doing, but remained silent. This includes Bob Daiber,” he said. “I have always fought public corruption, and will continue to do the right thing. The public corruption I have blown the whistle on has been schemes with big dollars, millions of dollars.”
Citing documents from the state’s investigation, the Madison County Democrats accused Prenzler’s aides of an attempted pay-for-play scheme by offering a county job to a member of U.S. Rep. John Shimkus’ staff if Shimkus endorsed attorney Don Weber for a U.S. attorney position.
The Madison County Democrats, citing the documents, also accused the aides of:
Initiating a “scheme” to hack into and spy on e-mails of the Madison County judiciary and offices of elected county officials for political purpose;
Compromising victim information, releasing sensitive and legally privileged information regarding ongoing cases;
Reviewing emails of judges and gave access to a non-employee to conduct searches of county email for campaign purposes.
More allegations
Daiber and the other Madison County Democrats say their allegations are corroborated by the documents from the attorney general’s investigation, which were made public Monday.
According to affidavits from the Illinois Attorney General’s investigation, which were obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat, County Treasurer Chris Slusser, a Republican, testified that Hulme and Dorman accessed the emails of county employees and elected officials to gain political leverage. He also testified that the two installed printers in Madison County offices that could tell them what people were printing.
“[Slusser] testified in February of 2017 a Madison county employee by the name of Doug Hulme bragged about having evidence of circuit judge using county resources for political fundraising,” a search warrant complaint from the investigation read. “When Slusser confronted Hulme on how he obtained this evidence, he alluded that they have access to everyone’s emails.”
Slusser also testified that Hulme at one point told him GPS devices had been put on all county vehicles so Dorman could monitor them.
Prenzler said in a statement that, even if Hulme accessed the email accounts to look for “evidence of corruption, it’s allowed by the Madison County Personnel Policy Handbook.
“I encourage anyone to read pages 43 through 46, specifically the section called ‘Madison County’s Right to Monitor Use,’ which basically says that any email ‘created, sent, received, or stored’ on the county system may be read,” Prenzler said. “Large corporations and other governmental units have similar policies. If the county board chooses to revise this policy, it can do so.”
Through an affidavit, former Madison County Board member Lisa Ciampoli testified about “improper activity” by Dorman, who she said interfered when she tried to file a petition to run for precinct committeeman, an office for which Dorman’s father was also running.
She said during one encounter, Dorman attempted to swipe filing paperwork from the clerk’s hands. According to the unsealed documents, investigators believed video surveillance footage corroborated that accusation.
‘Miscarriage of justice’
Hulme echoed Prenzler’s comments, calling the investigation a “miscarriage of justice” that should never happen again.
“I have fought over two years for the truth of the investigation to come to light and the affidavits show clearly that the “Task Force” was a fishing expedition and smear campaign for political purposes,” Hulme said in a statement.
Hulme went on to call the newly released affidavits “shallow” and said the evidence never supported assertions by investigators.
“The documents are shallow, one-sided accusations and the intent is clearly to hurt the re-election of Kurt Prenzler for the benefits of others, regardless of the collateral damage,” he said. “I would like to apologize to those who work under me at the county who suffered through multiple police raids, interrogations, personal threats, and the unimaginable stress of dealing with a two-year-long police investigation in which I was cleared.
“Dozens of county employees endured this witch hunt and in the end, it was a complete fiasco that has only ended in wasted resources and public political bickering.”
Adler and Dorman did not return requests for comment.
Investigation dropped
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office dropped the investigation into Prenzler’s office after almost two years.
The district’s state senator now is calling on the Illinois Attorney General for answers about why no further legal action was pursued. State Senator Jason Plummer, a Republican from Edwardsville, said he sent a letter to Raoul’s office regarding the review of the case. He also pressed Prenzler to publicly address the allegations.
“Regardless of any further legal action pursued on this matter, elected officials and public servants should be held to a higher standard,” Plummer said. “If Chairman Prenzler is not willing to transparently and publicly address these issues with immediacy, I call on the members of the Madison County Board to take swift action to provide accountability and restore the public trust in their local government. Corruption and unethical behavior at any level can not be tolerated, no matter the person or the party.
“No elected official should, in good conscience, be willing to stand by while questions of these allegations remain unanswered,” he said.
Daiber, the Madison County Democratic Party’s candidate set to run against Prenzler in November, said in a statement there have been clear “abuses of power” during Prenzler’s time as chairman.
“A criminal investigation by six law enforcement agencies has made it clear how extensive corruption and abuses of power are in the Prenzler administration,” he said. “Madison County must act now to restore public trust by immediately dismissing the Prenzler aides who have committed these truly shocking actions.”
Investigation prompts push for security upgrades
County Board Members Mike Parkinson, D-Granite City, and Chris Hankins, D-Pontoon Beach, in the statement called for the county to establish stronger data security protocols and evaluate outsourcing the county IT system and having an outside firm manage it.
The two board members laid out a plan they say will make county data more privileged. It would include removing the IT department’s access to emails, assigning a compliance officer from each department to manage FOIA request, installing only software that provides an audit trail of every search or request in the county’s network, requires bids for IT work in excess of $5,00 to have two-thirds consent of the county board, and hiring a security consultant to review the system and install firewalls to limit access to county emails.
“We need to act quickly to protect the citizens of Madison County and not allow Kurt Prenzler and his aides to sweep this under the rug,” Hankins said.
Madison County law enforcement officials, including State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons, joined the criticism Tuesday, calling for stronger protections for legal communications in the wake of the investigation.
“It is a shocking abuse of power requiring immediate steps be taken to create stronger safeguards to protect the information security and confidentiality, as well as the taxpayer dollars of the citizens and public we are sworn to protect,” he said in a statement.
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 2:19 PM.