Plainfield official resigns in dispute

A top official in Plainfield Township has resigned after admitting she stored her boat and jet skis rent-free on township property.

Andi French was the administrator of Plainfield Township, where she’d worked for 21 years before resigning Monday, effective immediately.

French had been placed on leave last month. In a separate letter to Township Supervisor Tony Fremarek dated Monday, the same day French resigned, she wrote that she “will be tendering you … a personal check in the amount of $1,300 representing rent for 13 months of storage of our boat and jet skis in the Plainfield Township Community Center.”

French wrote that the money was intended to cover rent from October 2015 to March 2016, as well as for October 2016 to March 2017 and for October 2018. She described the $100 per month as “the customary area rental rate.”

Fremarek said township officials were not allowed to accept the check from French, so they declined the offer. “We as a board feel betrayed by someone we trusted; who we believed was acting in the best interest of the township,” he said after a special meeting Monday at which the township board accepted French’s resignation.

Fremarek said French’s two daughters were also employed by the township but were terminated Monday. He said their duties included driving the township shuttle bus, answering phones and updating information for the township cemetery. French’s father has worked for the township’s highway department since 2004, officials said.

Fremarek noted the township does not have a policy regarding nepotism. He added that the township board was unaware that French, who was made a full-time employee in 2016 and collected an annual salary of $80,000, had been storing personal possessions at the community center on Des Plaines Street. The building is owned by the township but primarily used by the park district.

French did not return calls seeking comment.