Unspecified

In the wake of an $8.7 million shortfall in Franklin Park, a village trustee said he was moved out of the position of chair of the finance committee when he suggested the village find another accounting firm to conduct its annual audits.

[FP resident]

It appears from this article that Greg Fisher would be the one to question since he had a direct connection to the finance committee. Who pooled the money into one large account and why are there no paper trails?

Somebody burned receipts?

Local Government - it's a great business to get into - free money from the taxpayers.

[joe]

Greg Fischer and Pritchett.. and the accounting firms.....

FP resident wrote:

It appears from this article that Greg Fisher would be the one to question since he had a direct connection to the finance committee. Who pooled the money into one large account and why are there no paper trails?
Somebody burned receipts?
Local Government - it's a great business to get into - free money from the taxpayers.

[bill]

bunch of thieves...greed at the utmost.

[Timeline]

Help add to the time-line. Don't be quick to come to any conclusion until the time is right.

Before the election Barrett Pedersen was either asked to step down or fired as prosecuting attorney for the Village of Franklin Park.

According to the article, Pritchett said he replaced Johnson because Johnson showed a decreasing amount of interest in the construction of the budget each year. Help with the time line here. When was that MM/YY?

John Johnson Jumps ship and joins with Barrett Pedersen. MM/YY?

The question might be asked of Johnson,'why did he jump ship?' And specifically why?

There seems to be a gap of creditability in the article between Pedersen and Johnson.

Here it is, from the article;
Johnson also said that over the course of seven years, the village trustees received updates on the village's various accounts: garbage, liability insurance, social security, corporate, etc.
Those updates showed money in each account, Johnson said.
In reality, however, money had been pooled into a single account, then spent, said Village President Barrett Pedersen.

Johnson says one thing and Pedersen says another.

Was Johnson funneling the accounting reports to Pedersen before election? Did Johnson know that something was wrong before the election about the accounting? Was Johnson angry and vindictive because he was replaced by Fisher?

At what point or over what course of time was the money missing?

Lots of loose ends.

[Timeline]

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[u are clueless]

Timeline wrote:

Help add to the time-line. Don't be quick to come to any conclusion until the time is right.
Before the election Barrett Pedersen was either asked to step down or fired as prosecuting attorney for the Village of Franklin Park.
According to the article, Pritchett said he replaced Johnson because Johnson showed a decreasing amount of interest in the construction of the budget each year. Help with the time line here. When was that MM/YY?
John Johnson Jumps ship and joins with Barrett Pedersen. MM/YY?
The question might be asked of Johnson,'why did he jump ship?' And specifically why?
There seems to be a gap of creditability in the article between Pedersen and Johnson.
Here it is, from the article;
Johnson also said that over the course of seven years, the village trustees received updates on the village's various accounts: garbage, liability insurance, social security, corporate, etc.
Those updates showed money in each account, Johnson said.
In reality, however, money had been pooled into a single account, then spent, said Village President Barrett Pedersen.
Johnson says one thing and Pedersen says another.
Was Johnson funneling the accounting reports to Pedersen before election? Did Johnson know that something was wrong before the election about the accounting? Was Johnson angry and vindictive because he was replaced by Fisher?
At what point or over what course of time was the money missing?
Lots of loose ends.

Barrett was asked to step down because he was running against the mayor. Why do you think he was fired???

[joe]

you sure know a lot about this... sounds like you work at the village.....

Timeline wrote:

Help add to the time-line. Don't be quick to come to any conclusion until the time is right.
Before the election Barrett Pedersen was either asked to step down or fired as prosecuting attorney for the Village of Franklin Park.
According to the article, Pritchett said he replaced Johnson because Johnson showed a decreasing amount of interest in the construction of the budget each year. Help with the time line here. When was that MM/YY?
John Johnson Jumps ship and joins with Barrett Pedersen. MM/YY?
The question might be asked of Johnson,'why did he jump ship?' And specifically why?
There seems to be a gap of creditability in the article between Pedersen and Johnson.
Here it is, from the article;
Johnson also said that over the course of seven years, the village trustees received updates on the village's various accounts: garbage, liability insurance, social security, corporate, etc.
Those updates showed money in each account, Johnson said.
In reality, however, money had been pooled into a single account, then spent, said Village President Barrett Pedersen.
Johnson says one thing and Pedersen says another.
Was Johnson funneling the accounting reports to Pedersen before election? Did Johnson know that something was wrong before the election about the accounting? Was Johnson angry and vindictive because he was replaced by Fisher?
At what point or over what course of time was the money missing?
Lots of loose ends.

[joe]

yea.. I can see like maybe $50,000 kinda of overlooked and spread across several accounts.. but $8.7 MIllion??? I think this has been going on for decades and is long running fraud and most trustees,village officials and past and present mayors have been involved. The whole leadership of FP is involved.....

bill wrote:

bunch of thieves...greed at the utmost.

[joe]

and that accounting firm needs to be investigated and lose its license or whatever accounting firms have to stay in business... like Arthur Andersen.

[fp resident]

joe wrote:

and that accounting firm needs to be investigated and lose its license or whatever accounting firms have to stay in business... like Arthur Andersen.

I heard that the controller Huff that was fired owned the accounting firm the village used for all those years. I've seen him on and off at village meetings for years. What's that all about? Is he involved?

[Timeline]

Time line Update/Edit

Help add to the time-line. Don't be quick to come to a conclusion. Fired, according to response #6.

Before the election Barrett Pedersen was either asked to step down or fired as prosecuting attorney for the Village of Franklin Park.

According to the article, Pritchett said he replaced Johnson because Johnson showed a decreasing amount of interest in the construction of the budget each year. Help with the time line here. When was that MM/YY?

John Johnson Jumps ship and joins with Barrett Pedersen. MM/YY?

The question should be asked of Johnson,'why did he jump ship?'

There seems to be a gap of oversight. Both Pedersen and Johnson present differing testimonial.

Here it is, from the article;
Johnson also said that over the course of seven years, the village trustees received updates on the village's various accounts: garbage, liability insurance, social security, corporate, etc.
Those updates showed money in each account, Johnson said.
In reality, however, money had been pooled into a single account, then spent, said Village President Barrett Pedersen.

Johnson says one thing and Pedersen says another.

Was Johnson funneling the accounting reports to Pedersen before election? Did Johnson know that something was wrong before the election about the accounting? If Johnson knew there was something wrong, why didn't he speak out then? Since Johnson was the head of the Finance committee, did he take the reports handed to him at face value and not question the reports? What is the purpose of a Trustee? Was Johnson angry or vindictive because he was replaced by Fisher?

Why does Pedersen say the money was 'pooled'? How does he know this? From whom did he get that information from? And why didn't Johnson see this?

At what point or over what span of time was the money missing?

fp resident mentions in response #10 that the controllers name was Huff. And that Huff did the accounting for Franklin Park for years. Does anyone know how many years? MM/YY-MM/YY

Lots of loose ends.

[fp resident]

Timeline wrote:

Time line Update/Edit
Help add to the time-line. Don't be quick to come to a conclusion. Fired, according to response #6.
Before the election Barrett Pedersen was either asked to step down or fired as prosecuting attorney for the Village of Franklin Park.
According to the article, Pritchett said he replaced Johnson because Johnson showed a decreasing amount of interest in the construction of the budget each year. Help with the time line here. When was that MM/YY?
John Johnson Jumps ship and joins with Barrett Pedersen. MM/YY?
The question should be asked of Johnson,'why did he jump ship?'
There seems to be a gap of oversight. Both Pedersen Johnson also said that over the course of seven years, the village trustees received updates on the village's various accounts: garbage, liability fp resident mentions in response #10 that the controllers name was Huff. And that Huff did the accounting for Franklin Park for years. Does anyone know how many years? MM/YY-MM/YY
Lots of loose ends.

Huff was heard to say he worked there for over thirty years but was asked to be controller I think maybe five years ago? Somebody else was sworn in at a village meeting and I think that was maybe in June or July. I was there but can't remember what month it was. If you remember in one of the village newsletters there was a big article about how Fisher keeps the budget under control it was also in his political brochures when he ran for Trustee, I remember that because he seemed like a nice guy, my son knows him from the school where Fisher works in maintenance. My son always spoke highly of him - you know, said he was a regular guy.

[fpa]

u are clueless wrote:

<quoted text>Barrett was asked to step down because he was running against the mayor. Why do you think he was fired???

Maybe, because he was trashing the department he was representing for the residents of F.P. while "earning over $300,000" as prosecutor.

[fpa]

Johnson is a tool. Did you ever hear him give a report on the "physical year", or instead of abstaining on a vote, "substaining" or just "staining". Credible? F.P. you got what you voted for.

[Veteran]

fpa wrote:

Johnson is a tool. Did you ever hear him give a report on the "physical year", or instead of abstaining on a vote, "substaining" or just "staining". Credible? F.P. you got what you voted for.

You're right we got what we voted for - AND IT SURE WASN'T YOU, that's why you lost your trustee position!

[resident]

How could pedersen be so surpised about the village being almost 4 million in the hole and not knowing this until he took office. ALso why should he have been surprised about over 8 million being misspent. Johnson was in a position to know what the finances were before he jumped ship, so are we to beleive he never told Barrett about this? If he didnt then johnson did not do his job either as a trustee or as a candidate running with Barrett. If he did tell he why did Barrett act so "Schocked"? Was just for the publicity?
As far as Barrett getting fired goes, maybe its possible there was a little misconduct on his part in a court room where he arranged to have case dismissed, even though the bad guy fought with the cop when he was being arrested, because he was a hiogh school buddy?

[fpa]

Veteran wrote:

<quoted text>
You're right we got what we voted for - AND IT SURE WASN'T YOU, that's why you lost your trustee position!

Obviously didn't vote for you Joe.

[fpa]

Veteran wrote:

<quoted text>
You're right we got what we voted for - AND IT SURE WASN'T YOU, that's why you lost your trustee position!

???????

[Blame Game]

Timeline wrote:

Help add to the time-line. Don't be quick to come to any conclusion until the time is right.
Before the election Barrett Pedersen was either asked to step down or fired as prosecuting attorney for the Village of Franklin Park.
According to the article, Pritchett said he replaced Johnson because Johnson showed a decreasing amount of interest in the construction of the budget each year. Help with the time line here. When was that MM/YY?
John Johnson Jumps ship and joins with Barrett Pedersen. MM/YY?
The question might be asked of Johnson,'why did he jump ship?' And specifically why?
There seems to be a gap of creditability in the article between Pedersen and Johnson.
Here it is, from the article;
Johnson also said that over the course of seven years, the village trustees received updates on the village's various accounts: garbage, liability insurance, social security, corporate, etc.
Those updates showed money in each account, Johnson said.
In reality, however, money had been pooled into a single account, then spent, said Village President Barrett Pedersen.
Johnson says one thing and Pedersen says another.
Was Johnson funneling the accounting reports to Pedersen before election? Did Johnson know that something was wrong before the election about the accounting? Was Johnson angry and vindictive because he was replaced by Fisher?
At what point or over what course of time was the money missing?
Lots of loose ends.

It looks like you are trying to point fingers at Pedersen and Johnson when you should be pointing fingers at Pritchett and Fischer.
When Barrett announced he was running for mayor of FP he was "replaced" by someone else, When Johnson disagreed with the mayor about accounting practices he was "replaced" by fischer. Yes, there is a trend! when you act out against the former mayor you get replaced.

[NEW Mayor]

fpa wrote:

<quoted text>
Maybe, because he was trashing the department he was representing for the residents of F.P. while "earning over $300,000" as prosecutor.

YOU ARE A MORON! You know as well as i do Pedersen was not paid $300,000! Stop spreading BS lies! I think he was making $30,000 as a prosecutor. Blatant lies!