Manager defends costs
Report sheds light on police chief ’s suspension
The manager of the public University Park Golf Club and Conference Center is pushing back against criticism about the use of public funds to operate the facility.
The golf club is at the center of a controversy over the suspension nearly four months ago of the community’s popular police chief, Deborah Wilson.
University Park Mayor Joseph Roudez a year ago introduced Sonia Coffee, founder and president of CHW Management Group, as the first Black woman to manage a golf course in Illinois.
The management company has overcome operational obstacles caused by years of neglect, Coffee said Thursday during a tour of the club at 23520 Crawford Ave.
“This was a bigger challenge than it looked,” she said.
University Park Village Board member Theo Brooks has questioned a reported $800,000 in village funds he said University Park has paid to the company over the past year. The facility draws fewer golfers than other courses in the area, he said.
“We’re paying them, nothing is happening,” Brooks said during a March 22 public meeting.
The board approved a motion by Brooks to withhold two payments totaling $52,666 to CHW Management Group until Village Manager Ernestine Beck-Fulgham delivered to trustees a detailed report accounting for the expenses.
Coffee explained costs to me and showed pictures Thursday that supported her account that emergency repairs were needed to address problems with plumbing, ventilation, pest infestation and maintenance equipment.
“With the previous administration there was a lot of neglect of the golf course,” Coffee said.
Pictures showed filters in heating and air conditioning systems that looked like they hadn’t been changed in years. Exterminators removed a large wasp nest from a kitchen ceiling.
Nobody cleaned grease traps, she said, which caused drains to back up and raw sewage to flood restrooms and a bar area. Refrigeration equipment broke down and had to be repaired. Raccoons got into a building and caused problems, she said.
In addition to issues affecting the clubhouse, restaurant and banquet hall areas, all the mowing equipment needed to maintain the golf course broke down, she said. Workers who mowed the greens quit in frustration in late May 2021, she said.
“The maintenance crew that kept up the grounds just walked off,” Coffee said. “The last employee was on a mower. When it went out he said, ‘I’m done, we need new equipment, here’s the keys.’ ”
All the equipment and maintenance issues Coffee described were also documented in a quarterly financial report for October through December. The report presented to the Village Board listed three-month revenues of $169,905 and expenses of $139,150 for a net income of $30,755.
However, $154,000 of revenue was public funding subsidized by taxpayers while actual sales accounted for just $14,393 of income, according to the report.
Coffee defended her record, saying she spends less money than comparable facilities to keep operations running.
“We’ve done more for this golf course than any other management group, with a much smaller budget,” she said.
The quarterly report also is the only available public record that sheds light on an altercation at the club that resulted in Beck-Fulgham placing Wilson, the police chief, on paid administrative leave.
Roudez and other village officials have refused to answer questions about the incident, citing confidentiality over a personnel matter. The village cited the same reason in declining a request through the Freedom of Information Act for a copies of police reports.
Wilson has served with the department for many years and is the first Black woman to head a law enforcement agency in Will County.
Coffee’s report stated the first of two related incidents occurred Nov. 4 when members of the village’s Public Works Department arrived at the club and said they were there to perform winterization work.
They were told they needed to consult with Coffee and Beck-Fulgham to schedule a time to do the work, according to the report. Public works and golf club personnel reportedly argued about a piece of equipment used to change tires, the report said.
“Then somehow or another it turned into they were seeking to retrieve a tire changer,” the report said.
Golf course workers insisted there was no such piece of equipment on site, according to the report.
“The matter escalated into a major incident resulting into (University Park Police Department) being called,” according to the report.
Wilson was suspended six weeks later, on Dec. 16, following a subsequent incident at the golf club. Coffee’s report provided no additional detail about the Dec. 16 event, described as an “unfortunate incident.”
“The matter is currently under review by administration/legal counsel internally and externally,” according to Coffee’s report.
Residents and elected officials have indicated in comments during public meetings that Wilson visited the club Dec. 16 to investigate the Nov. 4 incident and an altercation ensued.
A week after the Dec. 16 incident, the University Park Village Board voted Dec. 23 to reject Roudez’s request to appoint Eddie Ray Bradley acting police chief.
Bradley previously was the village’s police chief. Former Mayor Vivian Covington fired Bradley in 2015 without notice or good cause. Bradley filed a federal lawsuit and won a court ruling that the village violated his due process rights, court records showed.
Roudez has said criticism over his leadership is politically motivated. Roudez defeated Covington and two other candidates in 2019 to become mayor.
Star Lawson, one of the other candidates in the race, recently filed a formal complaint with the Illinois attorney general’s office accusing Roudez of violating the Open Meetings Act by refusing to convene a Village Board meeting in person.
The board has met via teleconference for most of the past two years due to the pandemic. The March 22 session appeared to be the first time the village board met in person since a budget hearing in November.