Secret Information In Lyons Treasurer's Office?

LA GRANGE, IL — Under state law, virtually all financial records are open to the public. But the Lyons Township Treasurer's Office has refused to provide information on its investment income, an official says.

Through a public records request, Patch has obtained records showing that Lyons Township High School has asked for the investment income information since 2014. The treasurer's office serves school districts in La Grange, Western Springs and Burr Ridge, among other towns.

A school spokeswoman said last month that it has never gotten an answer to its questions about investment income.

In May, a judge allowed the high school to separate from the treasurer's office after an eight-year legal battle.

Every year since 2014, the high school's recently retired superintendent, Timothy Kilrea, has sent a letter to the treasurer stating that the school would pay only part of its share of the treasurer's office's costs. For instance, it refused to pay for anything related to the treasurer's office's lawsuit against the high school. The district, Kilrea said, did not intend to pay fees to "sue ourselves."

However, in May, the judge ruled the high school was required to pay its portion of legal costs, amounting to $764,000. The treasurer's office's total legal bills were $4.1 million.

The wording in most of Kilrea's annual letters was almost identical.

"The District's payment of $218,150.11 is grossly excessive for the services received from your office — signing checks and managing the district's portfolio — and a patent waste of money," Kilrea said in his 2018 letter. "This is why the District remains committed to removing itself from the auspices of the Lyons Township Treasurer's Office and saving taxpayers in our communities money and resources."

He said the district continued to have concerns about the lack of information, accountability and explanations from the office.

In several annual letters, Kilrea, who retired June 30, said the treasurer's office refused to give the total amount of interest income earned by the office during each fiscal year. He also said it would not give a complete breakdown of how the income was distributed to the member districts and the formula for that distribution.

"Why you continue to refuse to provide this information for interest income that rightfully belongs to the member districts is troubling and unacceptable," Kilrea said. "(The high school) does not stand alone in these concerns."

On Thursday, Patch filed a public records request with the treasurer's office for the information that Kilrea said his school was unable to get. Treasurer Ken Getty has not returned numerous messages for comment.

Other districts remain with the treasurer's office, as they are required to do under state law.

In an interview last month, Brian Barnhart, superintendent of Western Springs School District 101, said his district opposed the litigation because taxpayers were paying for both sides. The district, he said, expected to pay about $300,000 of the treasurer's office's legal bills.

Barnhart said he believed Treasurer Getty was doing a good job.

The litigation started when the treasurer's office was mired in scandal. In 2015, the disgraced former treasurer, Robert Healy, was convicted of stealing $1.5 million in school money and sentenced to nine years in prison for the theft.

In the litigation, Lyons Township High School contended the treasurer's office's board refused to conduct forensic audits in 2012 and 2013 when Healy's issues started coming to light. In Patch's one interview with Getty in early June, he said he did not know why the treasurer's office board declined to conduct a forensic audit. He became treasurer in 2018.

The office's current board members, President Michael Thiessen and trustee Shakana Kirksey-Miller, have not returned messages for comment. The third board position recently became vacant.