Mautino stays mum amid probes
With the U.S. attorney’s office in the mix, questions about state auditor general Frank Mautino’s campaign spending aren’t likely to go away anytime soon.
There is, of course, one way for Mautino to put questions to rest. He could produce records showing exactly who got money and why during his time in the General Assembly, which ended late last year when he became auditor general. But Mautino hasn’t done that.
More than four months have passed since questions first arose about disclosure reports showing more than $200,000 paid to a Spring Valley service station, often in round-number payments, in the space of 11 years. Reports also show tens of thousands of dollars paid to a bank for parking, travel expenses, poll watchers and other things that have nothing to do with banking. From 2013 through 2015, Patty Maunu, the campaign fund’s treasurer, was paid $23,800 for “meeting expenses” in a series of 16 payments – individual vendors need not be itemized if payments don’t exceed $150 in a three-month reporting period. Tabs for such seemingly simple things as waste disposal raise questions – Mautino last year spent more than $3,000 on disposal bins for trash.
How many records might exist isn’t known. State election law requires politicians to keep records for two years. Mautino, before he stopped talking to the press about his campaign fund, told Illinois Times in January that he had shredded documents going back more than two decades, including papers from his father, who served in the House for 16 years. If Mautino doesn’t have records, banks presumably do, at least for part of the auditor general’s tenure in the General Assembly, and so there may be some electronic trails to follow.
The U.S. attorney’s office is taking a look, with Mautino campaign workers receiving subpoenas and the auditor general confirming that he’s under investigation by the federal government in Springfield, which has demonstrated a certain tenacity in going after public officials. Since 2013, the Springfield office’s public corruption unit claims more than a dozen convictions in connection with illegal government contract and grant schemes, with former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock now in the unit’s crosshairs.
In addition to the U.S. attorney, Mautino is facing a probe by the Illinois State Board of Elections, which has given the auditor general until July 1 to file amended reports that include more details on spending. The board acted after a hearings officer determined that a February complaint filed by David W. Cooke wasn’t frivolous.
“The scope of the documentation issues and failure of citizens to be able to obtain answers from the (campaign) committee or Mr. Frank Mautino leaves this board as the mechanism with the only authority to obtain records (including invoices) and force responses,” wrote Cooke, who acted as his own attorney, in his complaint.
Mautino has sent a lawyer to board proceedings, and he’s hired a spokesman to field questions from reporters. He has said that some money was spent to fix or fuel vehicles owned by campaign workers, but he hasn’t otherwise answered when asked for details on how he spent campaign funds. He has refused to produce documents demanded by GOP lawmakers who want to see records proving that the auditor general’s spending has been legal and properly reported.
Mark Wykoff, a Springfield criminal defense attorney who has no involvement in Mautino’s case, said that the auditor general, in not producing documents and refusing to answer questions, appears to be doing the right thing from a legal perspective. Mautino shouldn’t testify before the elections board, nor should he make public documents that GOP lawmakers have demanded, the lawyer said.
“Now that the handwriting is on the wall that, potentially, he’s being investigated by the U.S. attorney’s office, the best thing he needs to do is not help them,” Wykoff said. “The best way he can not-help them is to do nothing. … What’s the worst thing the board of elections can do to him? I know one thing they can’t do to him is throw him in jail. What’s more important, continuing on his political career or going to the pokey?” The number of lawmakers who are publicly demanding answers from Mautino is growing, from 11 Republicans who signed a letter in February to 20 Republicans who signed a letter sent earlier this month. That’s less than one-third of the 67 Republicans in the General Assembly, and the call for disclosure has been called political by Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.
Susan Garrett, a former Democratic legislator who now chairs the board of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, says that Mautino should provide answers to the state elections board and cooperate with any board investigation.
“I would say it’s in the spirit of the law, in his office that he is now running, that he should be above reproach,” Garrett said. “The way to ensure that he is above reproach is to responsibly respond to all inquiries and respond to all of the questions that will be coming his way. I hope he doesn’t try to outsmart the system on legal technicalities.”
State Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, has been calling on Mautino to resign for more than a month.
“It’s very obvious to the casual observer that he has a problem,” Ives said. “Regardless of how this ends up, his accounting for things is inexplicable. You cannot explain how he accounted for his campaign cash, and he can’t tell you how. … The guy’s got a problem even without a grand jury indictment.”
Ives suggests that Mautino may be playing for time, given that his annual pension would swell from $74,000 to more than $133,000, which is 85 percent of his current $157,000 salary, if he keeps his post through the end of this year.
“I think it’s really important to him,” Ives said.
Pointing to Aaron Schock, the former congressman who remains uncharged more than a year after a federal investigation began, Ives said that a federal probe of Mautino could drag on for more than a year.
“He should have resigned immediately,” Ives said. “But this is Illinois.”
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].