Preckwinkle, watchdog at odds over travel finances

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the inspector general are at odds over whether she should reimburse the county for security costs associated with her political travel.

In his office’s most recent quarterly report, Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard wrote that the county should be logging when government vehicles are used to transport Preckwinkle to political events and she should reimburse the county for related expenses. But Preckwinkle, who is running for Chicago mayor, argues that her office entitles her to taxpayer-funded security.

Cook County’s vehicle policy prohibits the use of vehicles for any non-official county business, and the ethics code prohibits county property or resources to be used for political activity, Blanchard said.

“All government funds should be used only for official government purposes,” Blanchard said in an interview last week. He also said there needs to be a “better effort to create a process to delineate official business from non-county business, political or otherwise.” Blanchard said the county should be reimbursed for miles and employees’ time on the clock related to political activities.

Preckwinkle’s office says the vehicle and security detail are used “solely for protection purposes and not political purposes.”

Preckwinkle spokeswoman Becky Schlikerman said in a statement that Preckwinkle is president of the county board “24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.” She also said that previous board presidents have been given full use of security detail.

“As part of this office, she is entitled to protective services. It’s insulting for anyone to suggest that President Preckwinkle, the first African-American woman elected to this office, would be entitled to less protection than the men across the hall and the men who have previously held this office,” Schlikerman said.

Schlikerman added that the president’s office is “in compliance with all policies related to travel and any suggestion otherwise is inaccurate.”

Elected officials have been known to disagree with the inspector general’s findings, recommendations and even the scope of his power.

Blanchard and then-Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough clashed in April 2017 after he found that she hired U.S. Rep. Danny Davis’ nephew in violation of a ban on political hiring. She countered that Blanchard’s report was “much ado about nothing.”

When Blanchard investigated allegations that an employee of then-Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios took property tax exemptions he was ineligible to receive, Berrios balked, and a legal fight ensued over whether the inspector general had the authority to investigate the assessor’s office. The Illinois Supreme Court ultimately sided with Blanchard in December 2016.

The dispute comes as Preckwinkle campaigns to succeed Rahm Emanuel as Chicago’s mayor.

Emanuel does not reimburse City Hall for any travel to campaign-related events in Chicago, his administration confirmed, because “the mayor is the mayor wherever he goes in the city” and requires protection from Chicago police officers. Emanuel does, however, have a policy for reimbursing the city for expenses related to any political trips out of town.

That policy was established after a 2014 Chicago Tribune report found Emanuel had used city funds to pay for trips during which he solicited campaign contributions and attended political events that included little or no official city business. The Tribune detailed at least 15 such taxpayer-funded trips, and Emanuel personally repaid the city nearly $22,000 in response and directed his staff to draft travel rules to ensure no taxpayer money was spent on any “campaign-related business.”

In cases where Emanuel mixed government and campaign business on a trip, the policy calls for the city to be reimbursed for the percentage of time on the trip that was related to politics. His travel guidelines, though, did not spell out what the mayor considered campaign business, leaving him wide discretion to deem which travel costs he would cover and which taxpayers would pick up, without having to disclose what he did on the trips.

Records released by the county in response to a Tribune request show Preckwinkle has reimbursed the county just once as county board president. In that instance, the state previously paid her for mileage after she attended a December 2016 meeting of presidential electors in Springfield, records show. Preckwinkle cut the county a check for $231.92, records show.

Schlikerman said in a statement that Preckwinkle “covers costs when the travel is for non-county business.”

Former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot, who is also running for mayor, said Preckwinkle should reimburse the county for her political expenses.

Mayoral candidate Amara Enyia, a public policy consultant, echoed Lightfoot.