Controversial Lyons Township Agency Decides Against Appeal

LA GRANGE, IL — The Lyons Township Treasurer's Office, which is alleged to be under the control of a state lawmaker, decided this week against appealing a decision in favor of Lyons Township High School.

Because of this, the Lyons Township High School Board pulled out of the office, which provides financial services for a dozen local school districts, including those in La Grange, Western Springs and Burr Ridge.

In an interview last month, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs told Patch that Sen. Steve Landek, D-Bridgeview, controls everything in the treasurer's office.

"This is old Democrat politics providing jobs and contracts to friends and family," Durkin said. "There is some value that Landek and his cronies get from it."

Treasurer Ken Getty has not returned Patch's calls for weeks. Landek and the two remaining board members, President Michael Thiessen and Shakana Kirksey-Miller, have not returned messages for comment.

The third member, Nicholas Kantis, resigned last week. Kantas, a Cook County prosecutor, told Riverside-Brookfield Landmark that he was leaving for personal reasons.

Thiessen was described by Landmark as the driving force behind the lawsuit against Lyons Township High School.

At one time, treasurer's offices across the state managed finances for school districts. In the early 1960s, though, the state passed a law abolishing the offices everywhere but Cook County.

In 1999, the high school and the treasurer's office agreed the school would no longer have to pay for services it did not access from the office.

But in 2013, in the wake of the embezzlement by then-Treasurer Robert Healy, the treasurer's office told the high school it would no longer recognize the 1999 agreement. That's when the litigation began.

After an eight-year legal battle, a state judge ruled in May that the high school could separate from the treasurer's office. The high school led a campaign to pressure the office not to appeal.

The litigation has cost the treasurer's office $4.1 million, while the high school says it has covered its costs through insurance.

In an interview in early June, Treasurer Getty said the treasurer's office has benefitted taxpayers by centralizing local districts' finance functions into one office.

In 2012 and 2013, the treasurer's office declined to conduct forensic audits, despite Healy's wrongdoing. In the interview, Getty said that decision was made before he became treasurer three years ago and that he had no idea why the board decided against such an investigation.