Audit accuses candidate of ‘potential misuse’
of $440,000 in funds
The audit by Chicago-based accounting and consulting firm BKD identified $39,130 in alleged unapproved credit card purchases, $355 of alleged improper petty cash disbursements, $93,421 of transactions that alleged a potential conflict of interest and $307,577 of payments that allegedly violated library policies or state procurement practices.
Kelley Nichols-Brown, the former library director, denied wrongdoing and said the unfounded accusations are part of a political smear campaign. She is running for Bloom Township clerk on a Democratic slate as Kelley Nichols, a variant of her name.
Bloom Township supervisor candidate Lori Wilcox heads the slate. Wilcox is township Democratic committeeperson, Chicago Heights city clerk and until recently was library board president.
Current board President Jamie Paicely said the board voted Tuesday to hire an attorney to pursue a lawsuit seeking restitution from Nichols-Brown.
“We plan to move to recoup some of it if we can because it’s over half our budget,” Paicely said. “You can’t in good conscience walk away with that on the table.”
The library’s budget this year is $895,000, she said.
“It’s very heartbreaking,” Paicely said. “It’s taxpayer dollars.”
The library board asked the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to open a criminal investigation, Paicely said.
“We’re in the process of reviewing the matter to determine if an investigation is appropriate,” a spokesperson for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in response to an inquiry.
Nichols-Brown said she executed board-approved payments related to a library remodeling and refurnishing project that began before she was promoted to director in October 2018. The library board voted in June to fire Nichols-Brown, according to the audit.
“I’m a disabled veteran,” she said. “This all started as soon as I filed for a work accommodation.”
Nichols-Brown said she was pursuing a wrongful termination complaint and that the allegations in the audit are unfounded and motivated by political rivals.
“I did not have access to the petty cash fund,” she said. “It seems like this is what they will try to use as a smear campaign.”
The $93,421 of transactions that alleged a potential conflict of interest included $31,730 worth of payments to two businesses owned by Nichols-Brown’s husband, Dondrell Brown, according to the audit.
Payments to Clay Custodial Services were for cleaning services and payments to Supreme Martial Arts were for taekwondo classes offered on Saturdays, according to the audit.
It is not unusual for the library to do business with associates of library officials, Nichols-Brown said. The library paid $5,000 to Paicely’s husband to design a website, she said.
A $5,000 payment to Taylor Media that promoted the taekwondo classes was flagged as improper, according to the audit.
“We were paid to do advertising,” said Michael Taylor, who publishes a newspaper and provides media-relations services. “Everything was done above board like we always do.”
The library paid $8,430 for painting and other services to Building Block Development, a vendor owned by an alleged close friend of Wilcox, according to the audit. Another $48,261 in payments to a locksmith and other vendors were flagged as unusual.
Some of the expenditures were for a T-Mobile account and for credit card payments for purchases at Walmart, Home Depot, Target and other stores. Not all expenses could be verified due to a lack of receipts, according to the audit. Items that may have been bought for personal use included food, a CD player, CDs, a knife block set and gift cards, according to the audit.
The $355 in alleged misuse of petty cash funds paid for pizza parties and other expenses, some of which may have been personal in nature, according to the audit.
“Kelley took money out of the drawer,” an unnamed employee told an investigator who questioned the petty cash disbursements that allegedly were not properly documented in a ledger, according to the audit.
Investigators could not determine if funds were used for personal gain, according to the audit.
The $307,577 worth of payments that allegedly violated policies included $145,690 for independent contractors, $133,383 for office furniture and $28,503 in lease payments for computers during Nichols-Brown’s tenure as director, according to the audit report.
Some of the independent contractors allegedly appeared to be acquainted with Nichols-Brown and Wilcox, according to the audit. The use of independent contractors to perform “menial tasks,” such as cutting paper, appeared to be an attempt to circumvent a hiring freeze imposed by the city, according to the audit.
One vendor “is believed to be an employee of the Chicago Heights Park District where Ms. Nichols-Brown is an elected commissioner and Ms. Wilcox is believed to be employed,” according to the audit.
The Chicago Heights Public Library is a city library, as opposed to a separate district governed by elected trustees. Mayor David Gonzalez and the Chicago Heights City Council appoint members to the nine-person library board.
Gonzalez provided a statement in response to an inquiry.
“For former Library Director Kelly Nichols-Brown and former Library Board President Lori Wilcox to have allegedly mishandled more than $400,000 in library funds, that represents an outrageous betrayal of the public trust,” Gonzalez said in the statement.
“Given that more $90,000 of public money was spent for personal expenses, the decision by the new Library Board President Jamie Paicely to refer the case to the Cook County State’s Attorney for a criminal investigation is absolutely necessary and appropriate,” Gonzalez said.
Nichols-Brown denied using any funds for personal gain.
“As a library employee, I simply submitted the monthly bills to city hall, picked up the checks when they were ready, and mailed out the checks to pay the bills,” she said. “I believe these allegations are a political retaliation because I am running for Bloom Township clerk.”
Wilcox said she served on the library board for 10 years and that she left the board this year when her most recent term expired. The board includes an alderman, a school board member, a township official and South Chicago Heights village employee.
“She finished up the long-range plan that was voted on by the board,” Wilcox said of Nichols-Brown. “You can’t allude to a president and director for not being fiscally responsible when you have nine board members.”
“To single out one board member, I think, is weak,” Wilcox said. “I think I know where this is going.”
The library announced the audit findings the same day Wilcox and her slate filed nominating petitions for township offices, she said.
“The timing is impeccable,” she said.
Six of the eight members of the Democratic slate are military veterans, and Nichols-Brown is among five who served together in the same combat unit, Wilcox said.
“There is no way they would run with anyone that does anything like this,” Wilcox said, referring to the alleged misuse of funds.
Wilcox, in her role as Democratic committeeperson, recently prevailed when
T.J. Somer, Bloom Township supervisor and Chicago Heights city attorney, was lead plaintiff in the suit against Wilcox and others.
“I’m disappointed and bewildered if there’s truth to it,” Somer said when asked for reaction to the library audit. “It’s by an independent auditing firm. I think you’ve got to give that a lot of credibility.”
Somer said politics had nothing to do with the investigation into alleged mishandling of library funds.
“Public trust is a hard thing to come by,” he said. “As a criminal defense attorney, no one respects the burden of proof and presumption of innocence more than I do.”
But as for Nichols-Brown’s response that the claims of mishandling funds are politically motivated?
“You’ve got to defend somehow,” Somer said.
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