Evanston officials were already reconfiguring the city’s revenue department last year when an independent auditor notified them that city employees had neglected to deposit millions of dollars in cash and checks, city manager Wally Bobkiewicz said.

The city’s former accounting manager alleged in a March 7 letter that $3 to $5 million had accumulated in “unsecure locations” in a municipal office for just over a month last year. He sent the letter to five aldermen on the Administration and Public Works committee, the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the news website Evanston Now, as first reported by the Chicago Tribune.

Eileen Boyce, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office, acknowledged receipt of the former accounting manager’s letter and said the office was still “reviewing it.”

City officials disputed some of former accounting manager’s claims, namely that the total backlog amounted to only $2 million, less than $50,000 of which was cash. They also denied that any money had been left in unsecured locations.

Ald. Judy Fiske (1st) said she was “clueless” that the money had gone unaccounted for, and that she hoped City Council would further investigate the incident.

“Procedures were not followed and we need to find out why that is,” Fiske said. “That’s not our money. That’s money coming from taxpayers in Evanston. We’re supposed to be doing a better job than that. It’s embarrassing for the entire city.”

The former accounting manager wrote in the letter that he disclosed the incident in Evanston residents’ public interest. He also requested whistleblower protection under a state law that shields employees who report “a violation of a State or federal law, rule or regulation.”

The former accounting manager alleged city officials had violated the state Public Funds Deposit Act, which requires that “cash receipts be deposited within two working days of receipt,” according to the letter.

Once he learned of the backlog, assistant city manager Marty Lyons said in a statement that he instructed staff to deposit the cash within two business days and the checks by the end of the next week. He also said no money had been lost or stolen in the process.

Bobkiewicz said Lyons — who also serves as the city’s chief financial officer and treasurer — and his office had decided to divide the supervisor’s responsibilities between two revenue coordinators and add additional oversight to the process. Officials enacted those changes last spring following an announcement that the city’s revenue supervisor would be retiring, Bobkiewicz said.

“Instead of having one position responsible for making daily deposits, we have now two positions responsible,” he said. “They do coverage for each other. It’s an additional set of eyes.”
In addition to the coordinator positions, Bobkiewicz said the city added another stage of checks to ensure proper financial procedure. Previously, only two representatives from the city had to sign off on a deposit, but now three individuals — a representative from the accounting department, the city’s revenue manager and a revenue coordinator — have to verify that the money is handled correctly.

“We had made that plan moving forward when we knew the other employee was retiring, and we were in the process of implementing all that in the midst of this,” Bobkiewicz said. “We hope this additional scrutiny will keep this from happening again.”

David Fishman contributed reporting.

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