Mayor's Accounting Firm Picks Up Another Local Contract

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL — G.W. & Associates, the accounting firm headed by Chicago Heights Mayor David Gonzalez, will be paid an average of $75,000 a year for the next three years by Prairie State College after picking up another local contract in recent months. The Prairie State board of trustees voted 6-1 in June to approve the appointment of G.W. & Associates as the college auditor in agreement that will give Gonzalez' firm $74,000 for the 2018 financial year, $75,000 for 2019 and $76,000 for 2020.

Minutes from the Prairie State meeting in June indicate that the college sent out a request for proposals for the finding of an auditor, but that the wording had changed from the last time an RFP for an auditor was sent out in 2015.

The minutes state board discussion during the meeting noted that the old RFP elicited numerous proposals from companies in downtown Chicago and it "did not open it up to anyone within the College's district."

"By removing that wording, it allowed others to submit proposals," the minutes state.

Joelle Mulhearn, a teacher in Flossmoor School District 161, was the only Prairie State board member to vote against approving the contract with G.W. & Associates. Mulhearn did not respond to a Patch request for comment on this.

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G.W. was the lowest bidder in Prairie State's call out for an auditor and one board member noted that the company is located across the street from the college. Two other companies the board considered, Crowe Horwath and Plante Moran, were said to have had "substantial" experience in working with community colleges while G.W. only listed experience with municipalities in their proposal.

The contract is the latest reported for G.W. & Associates, which has secured several in Bloom Township since Gonzalez became mayor. A Better Government Association report from two years ago showed Gonzalez' firm totaling 22 municipal contracts worth $2.1 million in the first three years of his mayorality, including a deal that netted the firm more than $20,000 from Bloom Township High School District 206.

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