Former Kane County Board chair returned county documents 6 months after leaving office

GENEVA – Six months after his successor was sworn in, former Kane County Board chairman Chris Lauzen has returned county documents he took with him when he left office, according to official correspondence.

Lauzen returned two binders of codifiers – the county code – and documents he had that were related to the county’s former human resources director Sylvia Wetzel, according to a June letter Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser sent to Lauzen.

“This concludes this matter in its entirety and to the full satisfaction of the chairman and myself,” Mosser wrote to the former board chair. “Outside of advising the board that this matter has been resolved fully, there will be no further discussion on this matter.”

Lauzen took the documents with him on Dec. 8, 2020, the day Corinne Pierog was sworn in as the new Kane County Board Chair, according to the correspondence.

In an interview with the Kane County Chronicle, Lauzen said he had no idea what the county code binders were for during his tenure as chair.

“I didn’t open them, not when I was there,” Lauzen said.

The documents Lauzen said he returned that were related to Wetzel consisted of five pieces of paper that were his notes on human resources issues he took during their discussions.

Lauzen provided the June letter to the Kane County Chronicle. The Chronicle has a Freedom of Information Act request to the county seeking all letters relating to Lauzen and the county documents he was asked to return. That Freedom of Information Act request is still pending.

Lauzen said he had been cleaning out his office for two weeks before Pierog was sworn in, but needed more time.

“She kind of hurried me through the process,” Lauzen said of Pierog. “They rushed me out.”

Lauzen blamed Peirog for his decision to dump the remaining county records in bankers boxes and take them with him, along with his personal office furniture, when he left. Lauzen said he could have used another month to go through everything and would have used an empty office to complete his cleaning.

“I take notes of every meeting that I have – for eight years,” Lauzen said. “I take notes during meetings, six days a week, every week, for eight years.”

It was these notes that he ended up shoving into bankers boxes and taking home with him, he said.

Lauzen said besides that 100% of everything they wanted already was on a computer.

“At the heart of it, every memo I sent out of my office came through my administrative assistant,” Lauzen said. “When I was leaving, 100% of my files were on that computer.”

Lauzen said the notes he took at the meetings he attended were his personal “work product” and not public documents belonging to the county.

“Those do not belong to anybody but me,” Lauzen said.

Lauzen withdrew from the race in January 2020 and endorsed Kane County Treasurer David Rickert, who lost to Pierog in the November 2020 race.

Pierog said she just wanted to get into her office after being sworn in and Lauzen kept asking for more time.

The county code books were purchased by the county and Lauzen should not have taken them, Pierog said.

Because Lauzen used personal furniture in his office, when Pierog walked in for the first time, the room was empty except for filing cabinets, which also were empty. The filing cabinets in his former assistant’s office were all emptied, as well, Pierog said.

“I was laughing,” Pierog said of her reaction and thought to herself, “I have a card table and a couple of folding chairs in the basement.”

The furniture in her office is now the county’s furniture, she said.

The one thing Lauzen left Pierog was an autographed copy of Rick Bayless’ cookbook “More Mexican Everyday” for her husband. The book was left on top of one of the empty filing cabinets.

Lauzen said he sent Pierog flowers when she was elected as a gesture of goodwill and offered the cookbook to her husband as a gift. Lauzen said he got the book autographed at one of Bayless’ restaurants in Chicago.

“I knew her husband liked to cook and they liked Mexican food,” Lauzen said.

Pierog’s husband, Robert Krawczyk, died Jan. 27, 2021, 50 days after she took office.