Mercer County treasurer corruption case reveals red flags for county

Mercer County Treasurer Mike Bertelsen has been charged with stealing $13,000 from a county 911 fund. As reported by a local NBC affiliate: The County Treasurer in Mercer County, Illinois has been arrested. Michael Bertelsen, 53, faces a charge of felony theft. On the afternoon of July 31st, the Mercer County Sheriff made the arrest and...

Mercer County Treasurer Mike Bertelsen has been charged with stealing $13,000 from a county 911 fund.

As reported by a local NBC affiliate:

The County Treasurer in Mercer County, Illinois has been arrested. Michael Bertelsen, 53, faces a charge of felony theft.

On the afternoon of July 31st, the Mercer County Sheriff made the arrest and took Bertelsen to jail, where he was being held on $75-thousand bond.
…
This arrest stems from that investigation. Bertelsen is facing three class 2 felony theft charges and is accused of stealing government property and funds.

While only Bertelsen is charged in connection with this crime, a look at the current policies and practices of Mercer County shows the county is leaving itself wide open for a repeat occurrence of public corruption.

These red flags include:

• A lack of online transparency
• A failure to file annual reports on a timely basis
• Violations of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
• Violations of the Open Meetings Act (OMA)

A recent Illinois Policy Institute audit of the Mercer County website showed the county is failing in all 10 categories of the Illinois Policy Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist. Mercer County’s score was a 9.5 out of a possible 100 points and one of the worst in the state as part of our report “Obstructed views: Illinois’ 102 county online transparency audit.”

The audit revealed that Mercer County fails to post any information online in eight categories of online transparency, including corruption-fighting areas such as posting budgets, audits, and expenditures online. We have repeatedly contacted employees and board members of Mercer County over the last year in an attempt to help them improve online transparency – to no avail.

There’s no excuse for this lack of open government. As of fiscal year 2011, Mercer County spent nearly$10.7 million and had 92 full-time employees. Every government body has a responsibility to disclose to the public how it’s spending citizen’s tax dollars. Unfortunately, despite its large budget and abundance of employees the county has not prioritized online transparency.

Mercer County is also late in filing its annual report with the Illinois comptroller. With a fiscal year that ended Nov. 30, 2012, Mercer County was supposed to file its annual report within 180 days – or May 29, 2013. It still has not filed the annual report, meaning county officials are 65 days late and counting.

FOIA is an important tool for the public to hold the government accountable by enabling the public to request public documents regarding most activities of government. According to state of Illinois FOIA law local governments with a website are required to disclose information including “a brief description of the methods the public may use to request information and public records, a directory of the Freedom of Information officer(s), the address where requests sent, and any fees.” Unfortunately, Mercer County does not post this information on its website, ultimately making it harder for the public to be a meaningful watchdog to deter and expose corruption like what Treasurer Mike Bertelsen has been charged with.

Mercer County is also in violation of the state’s OMA website transparency laws. State law requires public bodies to post minutes of meetings online, but Mercer County has none. Public bodies are also required to post agendas of future meetings online at least 48 hours before a meeting, but Mercer County doesn’t. Mercer County’s calendar page has no information and doesn’t disclose future meetings, in violation of state law.

In fact, when we re-scored Mercer County’s website today, we discovered its score actually fell since we last graded them earlier this year. The pages on the county’s website, which should point to measures in the meeting information category, are no longer working. This means the county’s new online transparency score would drop 5.5 points to 4 points out of a possible 100.

All of these troubling red flags contribute to an environment where public corruption can thrive undetected. While increasing online transparency won’t stop all individuals with a willful intent to defraud taxpayers, transparency gives citizens a fighting chance to hold their government accountable.

If Mercer County is serious about fighting corruption and preventing another case like Treasurer Mike Bertelsen’s, officials need to address these issues immediately and embrace a culture of open and transparent government.

The Illinois Policy Institute has filed a request for review with the Illinois Attorney General’s office regarding Mercer County’s FOIA and OMA violations.