Fired Madison County aides threaten to appeal and go to court over board’s decision
Two Madison County aides who were fired Thursday night after facing corruption allegations say they plan to challenge the county board’s decision.
Doug Hulme, former county administrator and adviser to Republican Chairman Kurt Prenzler, said Friday a two-year state attorney general’s investigation into allegations of wrongdoing already cleared his name.
The investigation did not result in any criminal charges.
Hulme said the county board’s decision not to give him “due process” was a “mistake.”
“It forces someone like me to assert my rights in a court of law which would have been avoidable and unnecessary,” Hulme wrote in a prepared statement.
Hulme said the county’s state’s attorney, Democrat Tom Gibbons, was behind the county board’s nearly unanimous decision to fire Hulme and Information Technology Director Rob Dorman.
Dorman also said he disagreed with the board’s decision.
“I disagree with the decision and expect to be appealing it,” Dorman wrote to the Belleville News-Democrat in an email.
When asked if Gibbons advised the board to fire the two men, board member Tom McRae, R-Bethalto, said the board came to its own decision.
“I think the board members came to their own conclusions,” McRae said.
Another board member, Bruce Malone, D-Alton, said simply “the evidence” is what influenced his vote.
Dorman and Hulme were directed to surrender any property belonging to Madison County by 9 a.m. Friday, according to the board’s resolution, though the effective date of their termination is May 17.
The board found the men’s actions “were outside the bounds of ethical conduct and standards” expected of them in their leadership roles, and that their actions violated public trust, according to the resolution.
Hulme accused Gibbons of pursuing the investigation to harm Prenzler’s reelection campaign.
Gibbons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Board member Michael Parkinson, D-Granite City, said the bipartisan vote shows the decision was not political.
“I’ll tell you that last night was a perfect example of how people want their government to run,” he said. “... This was based on actions that were taken that shouldn’t have been done, and that’s it.”
The county board voted 26-1 Thursday night to fire Hulme and Dorman.
Donald Moore, R-Troy, cast the lone “no” vote. He said he did not want to be part of the group of board members who wrote the resolutions. When asked to identify themselves at the meeting, none spoke up, he said.
Moore added he did not think it was the county board’s place to decide whether the men kept their jobs, especially given the state attorney general’s investigation cleared them of illegal activity.
”I went through a number of iterations to get to where I got to last night,” Moore said. “I decided that if the AG report said there were no criminal charges, who am I to say that they are wrong? ... I wasn’t going to be part of anonymous board members working behind the scenes.”
Earlier in the week, some Madison County board members 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, citing documents from the state’s investigation.
The board members, citing the documents, also accused the aides of:
Initiating a “scheme” to hack into and spy on emails 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 giving access to a non-employee to conduct searches of county email for campaign purposes.
Fired in executive session
Prenzler called for a third-party investigation into the allegations, but the board overruled the chairman and decided to pursue its own course. In an email to the board, Prenzler said any action would be a “rush to judgment” that could be expensive to taxpayers.
Board member Michael “Doc” Holliday Sr., D-Alton, said he thought it wouldn’t be in the best interest of taxpayers to foot the bill for another investigation that “in my opinion wouldn’t have brought up anything more than we already knew.”
Board members met virtually in a closed meeting on the web-based platform GoToMeeting, Prenzler said. Over the course of three hours, members discussed the allegations.
“The better process was the one that’s more normal in a disciplinary matters,” Prenzler said. “But I think the board wanted something to happen very quickly.”
Prenzler described the meeting as “civil.”
Board members first became aware of affidavits from the state attorney general’s investigation last week after they were released publicly and began circulating among officials and the press. McRae said a “fellow elected official” sent the affidavits to him on Wednesday. He declined to name the official, though he said it was not Gibbons.
By the end of the week, all county board members had copies.
Over Easter weekend, board members reviewed accusations in the documents as well as other evidence from the Attorney General’s office, McRae said. Within a week, Republicans and Democrats alike had come to the conclusion that “just because something may not be illegal doesn’t make it ethical,” McRae said.
According to affidavits from the Illinois Attorney General’s investigation, which were obtained by the BND, County Treasurer Chris Slusser, a Republican, said that Hulme and Dorman accessed the emails of county employees and elected officials.
“(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.”
Shroud of investigation
Over the course of the two-year investigation, Madison County turned into a rumor mill.
Employees and elected officials knew law enforcement had raided offices and confiscated computers. Rumor had it the investigation related to emails, but no one or few people knew for sure.
The chairman was also in the dark about Hulme’s and Dorman’s involvement in corruption, McRae said.
“I think the good thing is I don’t believe that Kurt Prenzler knew anything about it, especially the extent of it,” McRae said. “He was as disappointed as anybody.”
Prenzler, who was elected in 2016, will face Democratic challenger Bob Daiber in the November election.
Prenzler announced Wednesday he was placing the two men on paid administrative leave and investigating the issue as “a disciplinary matter.” The board voted to fire them the following day.
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 1:01 PM.
