Same last names often dot payroll
Townships must weigh convenience against nepotism
December 20, 2000

By SONYA KLOPFENSTEIN
of the Journal Star

PEORIA - Take a close look at your township's payroll records, and there's a good chance you'll find one or two matching last names.

In Medina Township north of Peoria, Bernie Thieben made $19,476 last year as supervisor. His wife, Beverly, managed the office for $15,750. She retired this past June after more than 10 years.

Also on the payroll was assessor Gayle Lippert, who made $25,069 that year. His wife, Shirley, was paid $10,000 to assist him.

It's just one of dozens of examples of multiple layers of relatives on taxpayer-funded township payrolls in the Tri- County Area.

During a recent records inspection of 30 area townships, 22 of them - or 73 percent - showed at least one instance of matching last names.

That doesn't include 26 other townships in Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties that did not have treasurer reports on file with the county clerk. It also excludes consideration for in-laws and shirttail relatives.

It's the convenience

Thieben calls hiring relatives convenient. His wife was available at the time of an opening, she had the skill - so she got the job with the blessing of the board, he said.

But township critic Michael Richardson considers such instances nepotism and an injustice to the public.

"Nepotism is a blight on public service. It doesn't set a high moral standard. It's not good public practice," said Richardson, who's spent years fighting to abolish townships in Rock Island County.

"How do you supervise relatives? It just makes inherent problems," he said. "I think absolutely there should be codes of conduct to prohibit that."

Still, township supporters say it's a matter of supply and demand.

Especially in rural areas, they say, few people are willing and able to fill the handful of part-time and temporary township jobs - plowing snow on an emergency basis, patching roads and the like.

And because the dollar amounts involved typically are small, some say it's really not worth worrying much about.

But that's not always the case.

Three years ago in Groveland Township, east of Pekin, the Journal Star revealed former road commissioner Bob Carpenter was paying his wife $34 an hour to do administrative work.

On the heels of that, former supervisor Larry Riviere let go the administrator of township relief, who'd made about $400 a month, and replaced her with his wife, for $480 a week.

"I do not encourage it at all," said Bryan Smith, executive director for Township Officials of Illinois. "But that's the decision of the local officials. It's not illegal."

Cincinnati Township

In Cincinnati Township in and around Pekin, Ronald Hawkins made $22,429 last year as road commissioner. His wife, Donna, did his paperwork for $3,600. His son, Ronald Jr., helped plow snow for $1,710.

Also that year, Hawkins hired the husband and daughter of township secretary Monica Connett to do occasional road work and pick up garbage, paying them $780 and $315 respectively.

He also paid the son of full- time road employee Chuck Wikoff $145 for temporary labor.

And then there are the Eertmoeds. Fred Eertmoed has been Cincinnati Township's assessor since 1983. Somewhere along the line, he hired ex- daughter-in-law Diane Eertmoed to give him a hand, as well as his wife, Sally. Diane has since gone on to work full- time for the supervisor, making $19,458.

Hawkins said precedence calls for the hiring wives and children at the township level. The road commissioner he replaced four years ago had his wife doing the books also.

"It's probably - I don't want to use the word convenience - but it's someone that you have at your beck and call every minute," he said. "For me to have someone (else) come in to do the paperwork at the odd hours we work would kind of create some friction.

"Just like tonight, we'll flip the phones over to (Donna) until midnight," Hawkins said last week, during a heavy snow that required plowing into the late-night hours.

So far, he said, he hasn't received a complaint about his employee selection style.

"I have no applications. Nobody has come and said 'I want to fill out an application,'" Hawkins said. "What I do is (ask), 'You know anybody who needs some work?'

"I've never put an ad in the paper. It's just people who've come along at the right time at the right place."

Fondulac Township

Fondulac Township Supervisor Kevin Schmitt says, "You have a better feel for people that you know."

Maybe that's why last year the East Peoria-based township employed four Schwabs; two Levertons; a pair of Staleys and two Tuckers. Two of them - cemetery sexton Stephen Leverton and Road Commissioner Terry Tucker - made more than $15,000.

Schmitt said his sense of trust for outside employees faded after a previous worker racked up a whopping township phone bill with unauthorized calls unrelated to work.

"Certainly, trust is a big concern. When you know people, it gives you a higher level of confidence that they're going to do the job you ask them to," he said.

But where cozy employment puts Schmitt at ease, Richardson says it tends to create tension for the general public.

"From the outside looking in, I sure don't feel that way," he said. "It really deprives the public of confidence in a job well done."

Hollis Township

In Hollis Township south of Bartonville, there may be three Baileys listed on the payroll, but Supervisor Jim Bailey only claims one of them as direct kin.

"Our township clerk has the same last name, but as far as I know, we're not related," he said of clerk Donna Bailey.

However, his wife Joleen does secretarial work for the township, earning an annual salary of $2,700, compared to Jim's $5,040.

She worked for free for about three years before the township board decided several years ago that she should be compensated, Jim Bailey said.

"I abstained. I didn't get in on the discussion," he said, adding that the opening was advertised and two or three candidates were interviewed, although "the other people had no township experience."

Hollis Township also has an elected father-and-son team - Road Commissioner Dennis Beckman and trustee Terry Beckman. Oddly enough, though, they represent different political tickets, Jim Bailey said.

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