When Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan built a $111,000 storage facility two years ago on the South Side, he did not seek County Board approval.
He contends approval was not required because the structure was paid for with money obtained through drug arrests and not board-appropriated funds.
But some county commissioners Tuesday questioned the autonomous nature of the sheriff’s asset-forfeiture funds, which total more than $3 million, after reviewing outside audits.
The storage facility and vehicles purchased with the money may be appropriate uses, commissioners said, but taxpayers still must pay for ongoing maintenance and upkeep for the acquisitions.
“I don’t quarrel with what you buy with the money,” Commissioner Gregg Goslin told sheriff’s office finance chief Jack Kelly during an Audit Committee meeting Tuesday. “My interest is that there’s some kind of tracking and accountability. … All of a sudden these vehicles or this real estate pops up on the screen, and we’re paying for it.”
Sheriff’s office spokesman Bill Cunningham said officials are checking to determine if repairs, gasoline and insurance are permissible uses of the funds.
The sheriff holds forfeiture funds separate from his regular budget. At the end of last year, the funds totaled about $3.2 million, although about $2 million was frozen in escrow accounts while individual drug cases work through the court system, Kelly said.
According to audits, the money has been used for the storage facility, a graffiti removal truck, a color copier and other vehicles and equipment.
Asset-forfeiture funds from drug arrests also were used to build a $222,000 bus garage in Maywood on Forest Preserve District property.
Commissioners approved the garage in 2000, sheriff’s officials said.
The unapproved storage building at 103rd Street and Woodlawn Avenue is large enough to hold eight or nine vehicles and was built on county property that includes a sheriff’s maintenance garage and impound lot.
“I don’t think anybody realized, or knew at the time, that we needed to come to the County Board for approval, since it was county land,” Kelly said.
“Only the board holds title to all of our real estate and improvements,” Commissioner Carl Hansen said.
Cunningham said the sheriff has vowed to seek board approval for future building projects that use drug forfeiture funds.
But some commissioners say tighter controls are needed.
“Whose property is it? Is it the sheriff’s or is it the people of Cook County’s?” Commissioner Jerry Butler said. “If it’s the people of Cook County who are responsible for it, then we ought to know where the money is coming from, where it is going, and probably the money ought to wind up in our budget some place.”
