Deadbeat Schools Worried La Grange Area Agency

LA GRANGE, IL – A La Grange area agency that manages finances for area school districts may have had a reason for letting litigation with Lyons Township High School last so long.

The Lyons Township Treasurer's Office racked up $4.1 million in legal bills in its fight with Lyons Township High School. The school prevailed in 2021.

Unlike many government entities, the treasurer's office posts online its closed session minutes, which go back to 2016.

Most of the accounts of the closed discussions are bare-bones.

But in 2016, the minutes reveal a possible fear on the part of the treasurer's office's board in settling with the high school, which wanted to handle its own finances.

In a closed meeting on Nov. 28, 2016, the board discussed how it would approach a possible settlement with the high school and the circumstances in which it would settle.

According to the minutes, the office's board also talked about how a settlement would affect its relationship with its dozen other member school districts.

The board was particularly concerned with the impact on districts that were not paying their bills to the office and considering leaving its jurisdiction.

In short, the board wanted to prevent a mass exodus, which would render the office obsolete.

In August 2016, the board discussed suing districts for not paying their bills. That apparently never happened.

The minutes do not identify the deadbeat districts.

The districts include those in La Grange, Western Springs and Burr Ridge.

The minutes of the closed sessions revealed less and less information over the years. In the two years before the court ruled, the minutes typically stated, "The Trustees discussed the status of pending litigation."

The mentions of a possible settlement tapered off in 2019.

Although the high school was allowed to separate from the treasurer's office, it was required to pay $764,000 for its part of the office's legal bills.

The litigation started when the treasurer's office was mired in scandal. In 2015, the disgraced former treasurer, Robert Healy, was convicted of stealing $1.5 million in school money and sentenced to nine years in prison for the theft.

In the litigation, Lyons Township High School contended the treasurer's office's board refused to conduct forensic audits in 2012 and 2013 when Healy's issues started coming to light.

In Patch's one interview with Treasurer Ken Getty in 2021, he said he did not know why the treasurer's office board declined to conduct a forensic audit. He became treasurer in 2018.

The board's president, Michael Thiessen, has not returned a number of calls since 2021

At one time, treasurer's offices across the state managed finances for school districts. In the early 1960s, though, the state passed a law abolishing the offices everywhere but Cook County.

In 1999, the Lyons Township High School and the treasurer's office agreed the school would no longer have to pay for services it did not access from the office.

But in 2013, in the wake of the Healy scandal, the treasurer's office told the high school it would no longer recognize the 1999 agreement. That's when the litigation began.

Supporters of the treasurer's office say it benefits taxpayers by centralizing local school districts' finance functions into one office.