Tiny, troubled Aurora water district spent freely (“Somebody ran away with the purse strings")

Chicago Tribune ^ | February 14, 2011 | Steve Schmadeke

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The president of a suburban water district on the verge of financial collapse reportedly paid himself, his girlfriend and her daughter a total of $111,000 a year to work jobs that an expert said are typically handled by volunteers.

With little oversight, the water district — one of the smallest in the state, serving a working-class neighborhood east of downtown Aurora — became the first in Illinois to go into foreclosure in more than 30 years.

The federal government took the highly unusual step of placing the Moecherville Water District in foreclosure last fall after it failed to make a single payment on a $3 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The loan, with grants from Kane County, was used about five years ago to rebuild the water system.

The USDA kept tabs on where its loan money went, but the rest of the district's finances have been difficult to untangle, its federally appointed receiver says. Among other things, there are no meeting minutes and, in some cases, no explanations for what happened to the money people paid for water.

....."I got a whole pile of (expletive) dumped on my lap," said McDonald, who became president in 2007. "I didn't even know what I was doing. I didn't have a clue. But we managed to figure it out."

Either way, none of the three was responsible for actually operating the system, a task that fell to another man, who earned about $13,000 a year.

.....One of the mysteries surrounding the rebuilding project, which the report called "grossly overbuilt," was why it ever got approved. After securing millions in grants and loans, the roughly six-square-block community is now served by a 250,000-gallon water tower that dominates the skyline and feeds into 8-inch water mains.

[2banana]

Why are these people not in jail?

[ClearCase_guy]

Moecherville Water District

Pronounced Moocher-ville.

[Mr. K]

I propose a three month amnesty for any official who has done this, followed by repayment of the money.

Or else they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Credit will be given for providing info on how they were able to steal and get away with it.

Any OTHER fraud or waste can be reported to reduce their fine and payback amount, at 10% of the value they report.

If ANY other government employee points out fraud and waste they will receive 10% of the value.

---

I don't care if we have a bunch of bureaucrats getting rich with keeping 10% of the millions of dollars of wasteful contracts- we put the perps in jail and we save the millions.

make this a permanent program. REWARD whistle-blowers

[HamiltonJay]

Water Authorities are basically licenses to steal... not a one of them I have ever seen in operation has not been anything but cronism and legalized theft.

This is just an extreme case of business as usual.

[Red Badger]

One of the mysteries surrounding the rebuilding project, which the report called "grossly overbuilt," was why it ever got approved.

I'm sure a local Congresscritter had nothing to do with it.............

[autumnraine]

Aurora Il?

Party on Wayne, party on Garth...

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I’ve run a small plant for 30 years. I can’t change a light bulb without first getting the plan approved by the EPA. So,,, what’s going on here? Did they not have to get approval from the EPA , the Public Utilities Commission. Something is very fishy! I’m serious! Just to add a simple phosphate pump, I had to submit engineering plans, etc., to the EPA.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

... not a one of them I have ever seen in operation has not been anything but cronism and legalized theft.

I dunno. I have private water now, but town I used to live in had a three person water board, with rotating chairman. None of them did it as a full time job, I'm not sure it even paid and water was almost free. They rented space on the storage towers to cell phone companies and that just about paid for all our water. And the town had difficulties with aquifer contamination by W.R. Grace and insane state regulations. One of the guys on the water board lived on our cul-de-sac and he was absolutely a straight shooter.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

And another point, and it may be a BIG POINT!!!!! I had to pay a fee to the EPA that was based on a percentage of the cost of the installation! This system was grossly overbuilt, for a fantastic sum of money! I’d bet the EPA got a nice cut of that moola! Follow the money!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....Follow the money!

Always!

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

What I’m implying is that if the EPA was involved, a lawsuit might be in order!