CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. (CBS) — Unexplained invoices, checks made out to friends, and her husband hired as a contractor – these are just a few of the items a fired library director in south suburban Chicago Heights was being asked to justify Monday night.
CBS 2’s Jermont Terry on Monday dug into the so-called mismanagement of nearly half a million taxpayer dollars.
The doors to the Chicago Heights Public Library were closed for months, but how the former director spent the money during and before the pandemic is the root of the audit.
The audit does more than raise red flags. It points out there is no accountability on who approved nearly half a million dollars in spending.
Kelley Nichols-Brown worked as the library director for Chicago Heights until the city fired her in June. She made $70,000 a year to help her oversee the city’s library.
As director, Nichols-Brown had oversight of a more than $850,000 a year budget.
A forensic audit questioned where and how half of that money – $400,000 – was spent.
“We’re talking taxpayers’ money when it all comes down to it,” Chicago Heights Mayor David Gonzalez said last week.
CBS 2 first reported this past Thursday how the audit reveals Nichols-Brown’s credit card had countless purchases and how she switched janitorial services – bringing in her husband’s company, Clay Custodial, to clean the empty building.
All of this went down without board approval.
But the audit goes deeper, accusing Nichols-Brown of paying out $143,960 to “23 independent contractors,” many of whom were “personal acquaintances” of the director.
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One contractor’s check was “mailed to Ms. Nichols-Brown’s personal address” and the others “lived within close proximity,” or on the same block, the audit said.
At a virtual board meeting in April, weeks before her firing, Nichols-Brown said: “I just send you the invoices. I don’t have access to checking account. The treasurer’s office cuts checks for me. It was in the budget which was approved. Nothing went over the budget.”
The doors to the Chicago Heights Public Library were closed for months, but how the former director spent the money during and before the pandemic is the root of the audit.
The audit does more than raise red flags. It points out there is no accountability on who approved nearly half a million dollars in spending.
Kelley Nichols-Brown worked as the library director for Chicago Heights until the city fired her in June. She made $70,000 a year to help her oversee the city’s library.
As director, Nichols-Brown had oversight of a more than $850,000 a year budget.
A forensic audit questioned where and how half of that money – $400,000 – was spent.
“We’re talking taxpayers’ money when it all comes down to it,” Chicago Heights Mayor David Gonzalez said last week.
CBS 2 first reported this past Thursday how the audit reveals Nichols-Brown’s credit card had countless purchases and how she switched janitorial services – bringing in her husband’s company, Clay Custodial, to clean the empty building.
All of this went down without board approval.
But the audit goes deeper, accusing Nichols-Brown of paying out $143,960 to “23 independent contractors,” many of whom were “personal acquaintances” of the director.
READ MORE:
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One contractor’s check was “mailed to Ms. Nichols-Brown’s personal address” and the others “lived within close proximity,” or on the same block, the audit said.
At a virtual board meeting in April, weeks before her firing, Nichols-Brown said: “I just send you the invoices. I don’t have access to checking account. The treasurer’s office cuts checks for me. It was in the budget which was approved. Nothing went over the budget.”
Source: chicago.cbslocal.com