Taxpayers Pick Up $1000 Lunch Tab for 41 to Attend Broda's "State of the Village" Address

More Waste of Public Funds in Lisle

Lisle taxpayers were stuck picking up the tab for 41 local elected officials, government employees, spouses and guests to attend Mayor Broda's 2014 "State of the Village" address presented at a Lisle Chamber of Commerce 2.5 hour luncheon held at the Hilton Naperville-Lisle on Jan 16, 2014. 

The "2014 State of the Village" address could have been presented at the Village Hall Board room (Lisle's $10M Taj Mahal) in the evening and broadcast live for the convenience of Lisle residents, taxpayers and citizens to attend for free in person or watch it live on cable or internet from home. Not to mention that holding this event at Village Hall in the evening would have allowed all of the boys in Boy Scout Troop 108 ( who were presented with an community service award on a school day during school hours) to attend. 

More than 50% of the people who attended the 2.5 hour event received lunch on the backs of taxpayers. 

A Lisle citizen would have been charged $35 to attend the luncheon event at the Hilton Naperville-Lisle. An edited video of the 45-minute speech portion of the 2.5 hour event was posted online by the Village of Lisle 11 days after the event. The video was later removed from YouTube and re-posted on Feb 4, 2014.

In response to FOIA requests, Lisle Watchdog obtained public records from the Village of Lisle, the Lisle Park District, the Lisle Library, the Lisle-Woodridge Fire District and Lisle Community School District 202 that included the costs for employees, elected officials and guests to attend the 2.5 hour luncheon to hear the 45-minute "State of the Village" address. Each public body was asked to provide the names of those employees who were paid to attend and to provide the documents that contained the public purpose and public benefit of the taxpayer funds expended. 

The Village of Lisle responded that they had no records that contained the public purpose and/or the public benefit of the expenditure of public funds for this purpose. 

Village of Lisle picked up the tab for 28 people:  
   13 Village employees were paid salary to attend during regular work hours.
     7 Village of Lisle Elected Officials (all elected officials except Trustee Mandel)
         (Open meeting violation?)
     9 Guests, including the mayor's wife, an employee from Benedictine University 
         and the scouts/leaders who received an award. 
     Mayor Broda was given a "free" lunch ticket. A gift from the Chamber.   
     * Cost $700.00

Lisle Park District picked up the tab for 4 people:
     3 Park District employees were paid salary to attend during regular work hours.
     1 Park District Elected Official (Buchelt)
     * Cost: $100.00

Lisle Library picked up the tab for 3 people:
     2 Library employees were paid salary to attend during regular work hours.
     1 Library Elected Official (Flint)
     * Cost: $75.00

Lisle Community School District 202 picked up the tab for 3 people:
     1 School District employee was paid salary to attend during regular work hours.
     2 School District Elected Officials. (Alhmann, Narot)
     * Cost: $75.00

Lisle-Woodridge Fire District picked up the tab for 2 people:
     2 LWFD employees were paid salary to attend during regular work hours.  
     1 LWFD Trustee, Tom Althoff attended the event, but LWFD did not pay for 
            his lunch  - Mr. Athoff is the president of the Lisle Chamber. 
     * Cost: $50.00

_____________________________________________________________

                                  TOTAL COST  = $1000.00
 (not including salary/benefits paid to employees to attend a 2.5 hour event)

                                Benefit to Taxpayers = ZERO 

                   Public Purpose of Expenditure of Funds = NONE

_____________________________________________________________


Article VIII Illinois Constitution:

    (a)  Public funds, property or credit shall be used only
for public purposes.
    (b)  The State, units of local government and school
districts shall incur obligations for payment or make
payments from public funds only as authorized by law or
ordinance.
    (c)  Reports and records of the obligation, receipt and
use of public funds of the State, units of local government
and school districts are public records available for
inspection by the public according to law.
(about 10 tables of 7 persons  = 70 attendees)
Records:
Response from Village of Lisle HERE. 
Response from Library HERE.
Response from Park District HERE.
Response from School HERE.
Response from Fire District HERE.