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MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

In court battle over access to county financials, judge allows Prenzler independent counsel

Lawsuits

EDWARDSVILLE – Madison County Board chairman Kurt Prenzler can hire independent counsel in a suit over access to financial information, Circuit Judge Sarah Smith ruled on March 29. 

Prenzler made an oral motion for an outside lawyer at a hearing, and state’s attorney Tom Gibbons asked Smith for a conference in her chambers. 

Smith granted it, and returned to open court to rule for Prenzler. 

She said Gibbons would continue to represent county board members in the suit, which county auditor Rick Faccin filed on March 29. 

Smith continued the hearing to Monday, April 1, at 1 p.m. 

Faccin seeks to block enforcement of a resolution the board passed on March 20, “to ensure access to the Madison County USL financial system.” 

The county board declared that USL Financials serves as the official book of accounts, and that it is essential for honest government that details be accessible to the chairman, the administrator, and the treasurer. 

The 13-12 vote went along party lines, with Republicans carrying the majority. Four members were absent. 

For the lawsuit, which seeks declaratory judgment and injunction, Faccin hired Kevin Green and Thomas Rosenfeld of Goldenberg Heller in Edwardsville. Rosenfeld represented Faccin at the hearing. 

The suit says that Faccin began using USL software in 2001. Records kept by USL contain data protected under federal law, and other information is subject to exemption from disclosure under state law.

Faccin claims that the only people with full access are the auditor, deputy, and staff. 

And, when computers and records were seized from county offices in a raid in January 2018, neither the auditor nor the USL system was subject to seizure, he claims. 

He further argues that the county board has access to information needed to complete the annual budget through a detailed financial statement, as the auditor provides a monthly expenditure analysis and a monthly comparative report for all funds. Faccin also states that he provides on request a spreadsheet with a general ledger detail for all county accounts, with redactions.

 “The county’s checkbook is also available for review through a computer portal that the board may access at any time,” the suit says. 

A few days after the county board’s vote on March 20, Prenzler notified Gibbons that he would implement the resolution on April 1. 

Faccin claims the county board seeks to circumvent his duties and internal control over his office. 

Turning data over to parties whose prior computers and records were seized pursuant to an investigation by the Illinois attorney general would disclose private and protected data and could expose the auditor and the county to significant liability, he claims. 

However, the attorney general didn’t seize anything. Gibbons did. 

The attorney general took over the investigation last September, after a visiting judge found it conflicted with Gibbons’s duty to represent Prenzler. 

After Friday’s hearing Prenzler said, “I was elected to look into things. Faccin believes he is here to hide things.”

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