Say it with me:
First rule of holes–stop digging.
Still unexplained is a $1,300 charge listed to “Chicago Food & Beveridge” that was made the same night as the bachelor party.
Smith said he can’t remember what he purchased.
“I’m trying to fgure out what that is myself,” he said. “It would have to be a banquet or something.”
I can answer that question
He has some serious violations as well since he did not report the reimbursements to the town from his campaign finance reports–something I wondered about yesterday, but wasn’t sure.
New Lenox Mayor Mike Smith has failed to tell the state about at least $10,500 in payments made from his campaign committee to cover bar tabs, $100 tips and $300-a-night hotel rooms charged to the village’s credit card, records show.
Other personal expenses Smith has charged to the village credit card ? like baseball merchandise and theater tickets ? did not have to be directly reported to the Illinois Board of Elections because they cost less than $150.
In contrast, the charges totaling more than $1,500 at a Chicago strip club were reimbursed from a private bank account held by Smith and his wife.
For at least three years, records obtained by the Daily Southtown reveal, Smith has repaid personal expenses charged to the village from his Friends of Mike campaign committee.
The checks are signed by New Lenox Township clerk Sharon Boyd, the committee’s treasurer.
Smith did not report payments of $150 and higher as required by the Illinois Board of Elections in either 2004 or 2005, the years reviewed by the Southtown.
“If there are checks written to the village and not reported, that’s something that needs to be addressed,” said Rupert Borgsmiller, director of campaign disclosure for the Illinois Board of Elections.
Smith told the Southtown he did not know why the bills ? mostly for Chicago hotels like the Hyatt or Chicago restaurants like Tavern on Rush ? were not reported.
Perhaps he needs to be screened for Alzheimers since his memory is so bad.
At first, I thought the reimbursement scheme was to avoid having to report the specifics on his campaign finance report. It’s usually done where someone charges something and then Visa payment shows up instead of what was actually purchased. In this case, he wasn’t even doing that–he just didn’t report the payments at all.
ArchPundit