Candidate Accuses Oswego Township Of Fraudulent Billing For Leaf Pickup

Leah Philpot claims the Oswego Township Highway Department failed to open leaf collection work to public bidding. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, she obtained documents indicating that leaf collection cost the township over $20,000 each year for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

State law requires townships to conduct public bidding on services costing more than $20,000.

The Kendall Sheriff's Department is investigating allegations that the highway department split large projects into several contracts strung together to avoid the bidding process. Philpot said the allegations over leaf pickup billing were not included in the complaint submitted to the Kendall County Sheriff because they were not as clear as the other alleged violations.

The documents that Philpot obtained show that contractor Western Gradall Corporation charged Oswego Township the following for fall leaf collection:

• 2013: $30,750
• 2014: $32,025
• 2015: $26,100

Philpot said avoiding public bidding "guarantees excessive charges be passed on to the taxpayers."

"This sickens me," Philpot said in an email to Patch. "I am tired of paying excessive property taxes for the limited amount of government services provided to me and my family."

Gary's son, Aaron Groskopf, is the operations manager for the highway department. He is running to replace his father as highway commissioner.

"Aaron knew these companies billed different rates for the same work or spread out charges for work across consecutively numbered invoices in order to avoid going to public bid, and the current Trustees approved payment of these bills," Philpot said. Philpot is running for the Oswego Township Board of Trustees in the April election.

Oswego Township Supervisor James Detzler said the trustees rely on the highway department to explain the invoices they approve.

“They could look at it all day long and not know if it’s a good bill or a bad bill,” Detzler said in a phone interview with Patch. “The Highway Department wouldn’t bring us a bad bill.”

Detzler said it is possible that the Highway department made a mistake with invoices, but he doesn’t believe there was any intentional wrongdoing.

“He’s a straight shooter” Detzler said of Gary Groskopft. He also noted that Freedom of Information Act records requests have been “very burdensome“ on his office. Detzler said he would prefer for residents to just come into the township office and he would allow them to inspect any public records.

Two of the invoices from the Western Gradall Corporation for construction work that Philpot obtained included a written-in amount for an unspecified service. Fellow activist Todd Milliron said the township trustees have not explained the written-in amounts despite multiple requests.

Documents provided by Todd Milliron

Leah Philpot on her Engaged Citizens of Illinois Facebook Page

Calls from Patch to Oswego Highway Commissioner Gary Grosskopf and the Western Gradall Corporation were not immediately returned.

Photo: "leaves in the gutter" by Jennifer Feuchter via Flickr (https://creativecommons.org/li...)