By REGAN FOSTER - rfoster@nwherald.com October 5, 2007

WOODSTOCK – The chairman of the McHenry County Democrats called on the McHenry County Board on Tuesday to put pressure on State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi to reimburse thousands of dollars in expenses that Bianchi has charged to the county.

“You, ladies and gentlemen of the County Board, control the county’s purse strings,” Thomas Cynor said. “We are now at the point where the state’s attorney uses taxpayer dollars for his breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

But Bianchi, a Republican, said any expenses were legitimate business expenses and the office actually has saved taxpayer dollars during the course of his term.

“The only question Mr. Cynor mentioned was $17,000,” Bianchi said. “That’s over three years, so what has been questioned and what he’s questioning were $6,000 [annually] that were legitimate, routine, necessary business expenses that were audited, reviewed and approved.

“Our budget is $2.5 million,” he continued. “Six thousand dollars is only one-quarter of 1 percent.”

Cynor, who also is a research attorney for the 22nd District Circuit Court, said it’s up to the board to demand that Bianchi refund the money to the county’s coffers. He said he made his statement during the board’s public comment period not as a party chairman or as a county employee, but as a concerned resident.

He asked the board to withhold any vote on a requested $52,777 budget transfer from the county general fund to the state’s attorney’s office, but board members approved the request 21-1. James Kennedy, D-Lake in the Hills, cast the lone no vote against the request, which covered, among other bills, $19,537 for court reporter transcripts and $24,107 for expert witness fees.

If the dollars aren’t used for trials by the end of the year, Bianchi said, they will be rolled back into the general fund account.

Cynor said he didn’t take issue with the request itself, but saw it as a leverage mechanism.

“The county board, if they had any hope of getting that money back from Mr. Bianchi personally, they’re simply going to have to withhold additional requests for funds from his office,” Cynor said. “They really don’t have any other mechanism.”

Since taking office in 2004, Bianchi’s office has received expense reimbursements for more than $24,000 and used petty cash to pay for more than $32,000 in additional expenses. Cynor challenged $17,000 worth of reimbursements that he said were for items like meals, candy and parade expenses.

Bianchi, for his part, said he has saved taxpayers more than $1 million through practices such as having staff on-site from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. In the course of a year, an extra half-hour of work a day adds up to about 3 1/4 weeks worth of unpaid expertise, Bianchi said.

“No one is more mindful of taxpayer money,” he said. “We know we’ve saved at least $1.5 million in outside legal fees. That’s like saving the taxpayers $10,000 a week.

“If we have $6,000 a year in legitimate legal fees, that’s minuscule.”