Ex-Kane board chair defends county spending nearly $60K on IT employee’s DeVry tuition

GENEVA – Former Kane County Board chairman Chris Lauzen has defended the county’s move to spend nearly $60,000 on a government employee’s tuition at DeVry University during his administration so she eventually could be promoted into a retired manager’s position.

In correspondence with the Kane County Chronicle, Lauzen defended Information Technologies Department Director Roger Fahnestock’s decision to spend the money for an employee in his department to attend the private school from 2017 to 2020 in 17 payments totaling $58,211.

“I knew we were going to have to replace Barb Garza. The fact that that’s training and it leads to a degree – so what?” Lauzen said of the private schooling Garza’s replacement received.

“I did not know the specific schools/programs where our 1,300 employees received their education/training, so I did not know the specific school/program in this case,” Lauzen wrote in an email response to the newspaper’s questions.

“During my eight years as chairman, we disbursed $2 billion,” Lauzen’s email stated. “No, I did not know the specific amount in these 17 disbursements made over a 4-5 (sic) year period, approved by the Board by overwhelming majorities … $58,000 represents 29/10,000th of 1% of that amount.”

In a previous telephone interview, Lauzen also faulted Auditor Penny Wegman, who was a County Board member and was among those who voted to pay the county’s bills – which included the tuition payments to DeVry.

Wegman’s audit of the county’s credit cards — known as procurement or p-cards — revealed the payments to DeVry. Two payments were checks cut directly to the school, the rest were included in Fahnestock’s credit card payments for various things, including lunches, computer equipment and subscriptions.

“She’s sitting on the sidelines, lobbing these things,” Lauzen said of Wegman.

Wegman said she stands by her audit.

“When he was county board chair, it was his responsibility to run the meetings and he never instituted a vote on p-card transactions,” Wegman said of Lauzen. “They are put on file and when a vote comes before the board, it’s not for a specific p-card transaction, it’s for the payment of Fifth/Third. ... He should have known that specific p-card transactions are never voted on.”

In a response to the auditor’s p-card audit, Fahnestock stated the payments to DeVry were “approved” because Auditor employees had approved them and county officials voted to pay the bills.

Wegman said the county is required by the contract with Fifth/Third to pay the bills by their due date. When the County Board votes to pay its bills, it is not voting to pay individual p-card transactions, Wegman said.

“The process here is that p-cards are shown in their respective committees – which do not vote to pay them, but to put the reports put on file. They go from Administration to Finance, then Executive committees, then on to the full board,” Wegman said. “As former county board chair, Chris Lauzen is very much aware of this order.”

Lauzen did not question DeVry payments

Meeting minutes show no County Board member — nor Lauzen, who was chairman at the time — questioned any of the DeVry payments.

In a phone interview on Dec. 17, when asked why he didn’t speak up about the DeVry payments when they appeared in the county’s bills, Lauzen defended Fahnestock as being in charge of “tens of millions of dollars a year” in his budget.

As chairman, Lauzen had roundly criticized Coroner Rob Russell in 2014 for spending $1,000 on items he called “trinkets” such as Silly Putty.

Russell had said the items were to give out at community events, such as National Night Out, held annually on the first Tuesday in August.

“You’re giving back to the community,” Russell had said then. “You want to create a good impression by giving a little gift.”

In a telephone interview, Lauzen said his criticism of Russell was justified because he was over his budget at the time. Fahnestock was not over his budget during the years he directed payments to DeVry.

Replacing Barbara Garza

As to the reason behind the employee’s DeVry education, Lauzen said it was to train her to take over for Barbara Garza who was “going to need to be retiring.”

“And so when it was identified that a person who … had the abilities but did not have the training yet, I knew that was the general direction (of) the person who’s in charge of that area,” Lauzen said. “He was going to work through those details,” Lauzen said, referring to Fahnestock.

Garza, who was Director of Administration for the IT Department, retired in Nov. 27, 2020, officials said. According to the county’s earnings documents for 2019, she was being paid nearly $93,000.

Records the newspaper obtained in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show that the DeVry-trained employee was promoted to Administration Services Manager Jan. 10, 2021, up from an Accounts Payable Analyst 1 position. In April 2021, her pay was increased to $64,000, records show.

“Barb Garza was a valuable, appropriately and highly-paid county employee who was going to eventually retire,” Lauzen wrote in an email. “Roger had decided to develop existing staff members, as he frequently has done during his 20 years with the county, and to ‘promote from within’ his own department. He was satisfied with the progress these employees were making during this extended transition.”

Garza has not responded to messages sent through social media seeking comment and there is no listed phone number for her.

“She had many years of experience,” Lauzen said in the telephone interview last month, speaking about Garza. “She proved every day her competence and an important role was going to have to be filled. And a whole team of people work for Roger and it is his responsibility to take care of those people.”

Garza’s position was not filled

Fahnestock stated in a Dec. 20 email in response to a question about the DeVry employee stepping into the Garza vacancy in November 2020 that, “The timing of the Administrative Services Director’s retirement was a consideration, but I decided not to pursue replacing that specific position at the time of retirement.”

“The position was not advertised or filled, and it is not in our 2022 fiscal budget,” Fahnestock wrote. “The position and the responsibilities were reorganized under the Deputy (Chief Information Officer), Administrative Services Manager and existing staff.”

A review of the Kane County Wage and Salary Reports from 2016 to 2019 does not show the position of Administrative Services Manager belonging to anyone. Wage and Salary Reports for 2020 have not yet been posted on the county’s website.

Lauzen said he did not know what degree or training Garza had in order to be a director of administration for the IT Department. Lauzen also said he did not know what degree or training the employee received in order to step into that role upon Garza’s retirement.

County Board Chair Corinne Pierog and State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser have stated that no policy or law was violated when the payments were made to DeVry.