Lake County State’s Atty. Michael Waller said Thursday that his office is investigating whether state law was broken by Waukegan officials in the purchase of hundreds of thousands of dollars in tires in apparent violation of city ordinances.
Waller said the allegations also are being reviewed to determine if further investigation is needed.
After a preliminary look at the allegations made this week in a report by the Task Force on Waukegan Neighborhoods, a local activist group, Waller said it appears that the purchases violated city law instead of state law, which is the state’s attorney’s jurisdiction.
The allegations that city officials routinely ignore laws requiring competitive bidding for purchases merit a hard look by his office, Waller added.
“The city has to follow written bid requirements for certain contracts, but if it doesn’t, that in of itself would not be a violation (of state law),” Waller said.
Meanwhile, Waukegan Mayor William Durkin and Donald R. Weakley, director of government services, said Thursday that the city did nothing improper or illegal.
TOWN based its conclusions on a two-month investigation that included the examination of hundreds of city documents and interviews with several city employees. The group charged that city officials used “cronyism and political influence” to award contracts and purchases, especially tires.
TOWN also alleged that some of the purchases in question involved companies that employed Weakley’s son, Steve.
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Donald Weakley denied that the tires were bought from Antioch Tire Co. of Antioch because his son works there, calling the TOWN report “a cheap shot.”
Efforts to reach Steve Weakley for comment Thursday were unsuccessful. The elder Weakley said his son holds a sales position with Antioch Tire.
City officials acknowledged that during the past 4 1/2 years, about $170,000 of city money has been paid to Antioch Tire and that during the same time the city bought $115,000 worth of tires from OTR Truck Tire Service of Lake Bluff, where Steve Weakley worked before going to Antioch. Both tire purchases were made without competitive proposals, quotes or bids.
According to Waukegan city ordinances, contracts for public improvements that cost more than $2,500 and are not financed by special assessments must be awarded by the City Council after public bids.
If the aggregate cost is between $4,000 and $6,000, as many quotes as feasible must be obtained, and the City Council awards the contract to the lowest responsible bidder. When the aggregate cost is $6,000 or more, a formal public bidding must occur.
Durkin disputed TOWN’s allegations about city purchases violating the limits on aggregate purchases. He said the purchases were made in small amounts to take advantage of sales and to supply tires as needed, not to avoid having to get City Council approval, as TOWN suggested.
“What (TOWN is) saying is we have a big contract and we submit a bill every week or month just to stay under (the limit),” Durkin said. “That’s not true.”
Durkin and Weakley said that contrary to TOWN’s allegations, Weakley’s job does not entail purchasing. Durkin and Weakley said department heads do their own purchasing, and Durkin said he trusts them to do what is right.
Both officials denied that the tire purchases were made on Weakley’s orders.
Thomas E. Hagerty, the city’s superintendent of sewers and streets, said tires are bought as needed and usually from either OTR or Antioch. Written bids on each purchase are requested, and the one with lowest bid wins, he said.
OTR and Antioch get most of the city’s tire business because they have the best prices and supply and offer road service, Hagerty said.
Durkin and Weakley also argued that the TOWN report was politically motivated, since TOWN’s founder and legal counsel is Newton Finn, a community activist and lawyer who lost to Durkin last year in the mayoral race.
“We have to realize where these allegations are coming from,” Durkin said. “They are not going to find anything, and I underline anything, any impropriety, that we do as far as purchasing is concerned, or any segment of the government.”
Finn said he had heard that complaint before and that Durkin and Weakley were “blowing smoke.”