EDITORIAL: Burnham latest victim of alleged corruption

May 14--Burnham is a village of 4,200 people south of Chicago, near Dolton and Calumet City. It has a police chief, a public works staff and even a freedom of information officer, among other public servants. It also has an elected clerk, earning a salary paid by taxpayers. That office was held for three decades by a local resident who is now accused of having robbed the village for years.

Sound familiar?

After Dixon's former comptroller, Rita Crundwell, admitted in 2012 to embezzling $53.7 million from the city, we wondered just how much public corruption exists outside the frequent targets of Chicago and Springfield. Is it rampant in the less scrutinized burgs? That's anyone's guess. For every Harvey or Cicero, suburbs that seem to regularly draw government and journalist scrutiny, there are dozens of local governments that attract little notice -- until taxpayers find out they've been fleeced.

Did we say dozens? Sorry, we meant thousands. At last count, this state had 6,963 units of government, far more than any other state.

Federal prosecutors last week charged former Burnham Village Clerk Nancy Dobrowski with wire fraud and filing a false income tax return. They allege that she pocketed at least $650,862 from her office and say she is expected to plead guilty. She stole money for nearly a decade and used most of it to gamble at nearby Indiana casinos, prosecutors say.

Who was watching in Burnham? For a long time, evidently, no one.

This does not appear to be some sophisticated financial chicanery. Dobrowski is accused of literally putting her hand in the till: She allegedly took money from the village cash register, time and again. She allegedly diverted money paid to the village by motorists retrieving their towed vehicles. Instead of making routine daily deposits into village bank accounts, she would hold back public funds for days at a time so she could cover her tracks. Then, apparently, it was off to Indiana to try her luck.

We know when her luck ended. On May 29, 2013, the FBI raided Burnham Village Hall. Credit goes to the Better Government Association, which followed up on questions raised by village employees about irregularities in their paychecks. Those checks were said to be late and improperly calculated. Automated payments reportedly weren't being made for health insurance premiums and other important matters.

Confronted by an investigator for the Chicago nonprofit watchdog group, Dobrowski insisted no public funds were missing. "I've been here for 32 years, and I would never cheat anybody," the BGA investigator said Dobrowski, 70, told her. "I would never, ever do that."

The details of what happened in Burnham are still unfolding. Dobrowski reported income on her federal taxes in 2012 of $309,181, according to court filings. Her actual income in that year was substantially higher, the feds allege, because she didn't report the money she took from the village cash register.

Hot streak at the blackjack tables? We don't know. Dobrowski's salary as clerk apparently was less than six figures. She and her husband filed for bankruptcy in 2004. In that filing, Dobrowski listed her annual public pay at $37,000. Her husband reported that he worked as a school janitor.

A Burnham spokeswoman refused to tell us the salary for the clerk position, either for Dobrowski (who resigned after the raid) or her successor. The village would consider disclosing that public information, the spokeswoman said, only in response to a formal freedom of information request, which the Tribune has made.

Is there more to the story in Burnham? What about the other Illinois townships, villages, mosquito-abatement districts and sewer fiefdoms? Those 6,000-plus governments make it harder for watchdogs to track every one -- and harder for taxpayers to get honest, efficient service from government.

___

(c)2014 the Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services