Will County Gazette

Two DuPage Township trustees have sued the DuPage Township supervisor and others in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Will County over alleged violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

Alyssia Benford and Dennis Raga filed the lawsuit Dec. 8 against Supervisor Felix George and the township and named two other DuPage Township trustees, Maripat Oliver and Ken Burgess, in the filing.

“Defendants Maripat Oliver and Ken Burgess violated the special township meeting 14-day notice provision ... by filing an agenda on a Tuesday for a special township meeting that Friday,” wrote plaintiff’s attorney Jacob Smallhorn in the complaint. “The failure of defendants Maripat Oliver and Ken Burgess to provide adequate notice to the public of the purported special township meeting on Dec. 4 renders the meeting void for lack of adequate notice.”

DuPage County trustee Alyssia Benford. | submitted

Smallhorn is of Smallhorn LLC in Charleston, Illinois.

The complaint states the defendants allegedly also deprived the plaintiffs and members of the public of participation in and ability to hear and understand what was happening at the Zoom conference meeting due to audio difficulties that "plagued the meeting," by entering into an alleged executive session during the purported special meeting and allegedly by voting to censure Benford when the final action was not identified on the agenda for the special meeting.

Benford alleges that the meeting was arranged on Zoom to censure her.

“They have to try to find a reason to blame somebody for all the legal costs that we've incurred as a result of the $10,000 payments made to the former supervisor,” Benford said.

While reviewing the budget in April 2018, Benford noticed checks in the amount of $10,000 and more of public aid money issued to William Mayer, the former township supervisor, without the board’s approval, according to a news release.

“Since then the board has had to pay money to implement the policies and procedures,” Benford told the Will County Gazette. “The whole reason for having this meeting was because they wanted to try to blame me for all those legal fees.”

Benford, a CPA, reported the 2018 financial irregularities to local authorities. However, she said, it wasn’t until the Edgar County Watchdogs began investigating DuPage Township that the Will County State’s Attorney Office responded to a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA).

“All I could assume is that there was something that the Edgar County Watchdogs said to the FBI that made them finally listen because when I attempted to talk to them, they would not even meet with me and I'm an elected official in my county trying to report political corruption,” Benford said. “I'm trying to help report financial issues and they would not even return my phone call.” 

The Edgar County Watchdogs co-founder John Kraft is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit as the nonprofit's director.

“They are a nonprofit organization that teaches people how to be watchdogs,” Benford said. “That's their dog in the fight is to teach people how to be watchdogs. They taught me how, as a CPA, to be more of a watchdog, and I've been teaching other people how to do the same thing.” 

After receiving the Republican Party nomination for the April 2021 elections, Benford began campaigning against George to be the township supervisor. George, the current supervisor, is running independently as a write-in candidate. 

“Do what's right regardless of what other people think,” Benford said. “You have to do what's right and always put the residents first. That is why I joined this board was to put the residents first.”