An outside audit of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District’s $180 million landfill funds will be completed by the end of September, before the general election, a district committee decided Tuesday.
The timing allows the district’s 24 commissioners to make long-range policy decisions about the funds and possibly start spending some of the money, even though by January the commissioners will no longer be running the district. Next year, they will hand over the reins to a separately elected six-member board.
Despite the fact that an outgoing board might be making decisions that will have ramifications for the new board, commissioners who support the audit said the current 24-member commission should make the decisions.
“We have the most experience on this matter and we’re best adept at deciding what should be done,” said Commissioner Patrick O’Shea, who heads the district’s Environmental Services Committee. He is not seeking election to the new Forest Preserve Commission in November. “If this report says that some action should be taken, I don’t see any reason to wait.”
But Commissioner Roger Kotecki (R-Carol Stream), who is trying to be elected to the new commission, said he has concerns about giving that much authority to an outgoing board.
“If this report shows there are excess revenues, there’ll be an enormous temptation by some of these outgoing commissioners to tie up this money in contracts, buy some golf courses or things like that,” Kotecki said. “And that would be a mistake.”
The audit has become a contentious issue.
A majority of commissioners support the study because they think the district does not need all $180 million in the landfill funds and some of it should be spent on projects or rebated to taxpayers. Those who oppose the audit say the money may eventually be needed to deal with the potentially expensive environmental problems that may occur at the closed landfills, which are now owned by the Forest Preserve District.
Commissioners who endorse the study initially wanted to hire Deloitte & Touche to do the study, but some commissioners questioned whether the accounting firm had the engineering expertise to conduct a detailed-enough analysis. On Tuesday, commissioners approved a request for proposals in which both engineering and accounting firms will bid for the work. A firm should be chosen by early June and complete its work by Sept. 20.
