Interim Lake County Administrator Amy McEwan

Deputy Lake County Administrator Amy McEwan was named interim county administrator, replacing the departing Barry Burton, by a unanimous vote of board members, at their Oct. 9 session.

She has served the county with distinction since 2006, when she was initially hired as an assistant county administrator. Her appointment has also renewed calls in public forums for full disclosures on county vendor contracts that are awarded to employee relatives.

Coming to light through documents, obtained through the freedom of information act, are four county vendor contracts with Gurnee-based Robison-Guarney, Inc., totaling $1.109 million for work on the county courthouse expansion and clock tower. McEwan’s husband is Matthew Guarney, a partner in the company. Also disclosed were 21 contracts totaling $18.9 million since 2008 for Itasca-based CivilTech Engineering, Inc., which lists Jonathan Vana as its president. He is married to Jennie Vana, Lake County’s chief communications officer.

Allegations of preference surfaced during an August county board committee meeting when concerns were raised over transparency and materials requested through FOIA over specific vendor contracts, and later, during a committee-of-the-whole session. A more current discussion on vendor contract disclosures was delayed by the county board, during its Oct. 5 meeting. Burton has vigorously defended the contracts, and the reputations of both individuals.

“The relationships between these companies and the county go back more than a decade, and we follow a selection process, a state (mandated) process, and professional people look at these proposals, so we don’t just select any architectural firm,” he said. “CivilTech has worked with the county since 1994, they have competitive experience and knowledge of the county rules so they bring quality to the table, made of that experience. We have prohibitions influencing the selection process, and immediate firing.

“She (Vana) has no operational oversight at all, and handles communication for my department. The relationship between the county and her husband existed years before their relationship, and there is no influence or oversight on her part … I will attest to that. There is not a single ethics complaint … our ethics policy is the toughest in the region.”

CivilTech is an architecture and design firm, dealing “with civil and transportation engineering partnering with public and private sector clients,” according to their website. They have worked extensively with Lake, Cook, and McHenry counties, and state projects. In Ela Township, their work included the Quentin Road improvements, from Route 12 to Route 22, and in Algonquin Township, the Route 31 western bypass.

In an emailed statement, Vana said the county is mandated to follow state law in procuring architects and engineers, and “… Lake County has a thorough internal professional selection process … the professionals in these departments vet the proposals … (I) never served on a selection committee for CivilTech, Inc.

“Additionally, Lake County has one of the strongest Ethics Ordinances that clearly outlines the ethical and legal standards that county officers and employees must follow while conducting county business.”

Purchasing Manager RuthAnne Hall outlined the county’s purchasing policy with monetary thresholds on vendor contracts: $30,000 for contractual services such as janitorial, food, or supplies; $35,000 for data or internet technologies; and $50,000 for engineering or design services. If the contracts are above the thresholds, they must go through the committees such as Law and Judicial, along with Finance and Administration, prior to reaching the county board level for a vote. There must also be competitive bids.

If below the monetary thresholds, the contract is executed between the department head and the vendor. However, the contract must be validated through Hall’s department, if it is more than $3,000. Competitive bids are not mandatory, but “suggested.”

According to the FOIA documents, all 21 contracts for CivilTech, and the four contracts for Robison-Guarney Inc., were all unanimously approved by the various committee and county board members, except those members absent at the time of the vote.

Hall said the county policy concurs with the state procurement law extending to conflict of interest statements that must be filed, if a county employee is directly or indirectly involved, tries to “influence or attempt to influence,” the procurement of any contract. A waiver of the statement can also be issued by the county’s Finance and Administrative Committee. The applicable policy section #12-104 is stringent when the “county employee’s immediate family has a financial interest in said procurement.”

A Sept. 12 response to the FOIA documents stated “there are no records meeting this request,” for conflict of interest statements from Vana and McEwan, along with current administrator Burton, former administrator Gary Gordon and on-leave ounty board chairman Aaron Lawlor who signed the vendor contracts.

Matt Guarney was a county employee until resigning, and moving to Texas, to work with another firm. He returned in Sept. 2011, and Robison-Guarney, Inc. was later engaged by the county, with resolution #12-0384 and final action taken April 12, 2012, “for owner’s representative services for the Phase III Justice Agency Master Plan Implementation and Project Study in the amount of $230,500.”

“Dan Robison was a construction manager,” said Burton. “The courthouse project … they act as the owner’s representatives, they know the players, and have experience on-site. When the project (evolved), we entered an agreement with Director Gordon … I brought Matt (Guarney) in, I asked (him) to stay on. It was a very public process. He had no (marital) relationship before the clock tower project, once he’s there. We made sure there was no conflict of interest.”

Burton also said the company, also listed as R-G Construction Services, Inc., has no further contracts with the county, beyond the courthouse project, due to McEwan’s post.

The new courthouse addition was opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony held in July, and attended by Lawlor in one of his last public appearances as county board chairman, along with other dignitaries. The entire addition project was budgeted at $110 million, although a final reconciliation of the actual costs cannot be calculated until summer 2019, when the entire project is complete.

Regarding the discussions on vendor contract disclosures, county board member, Diane Hewitt (District 2) said, “I have a problem with hearing all this (in anonymous public forums) and picking on one sentence of a policy. We’ve discovered a problem … things don’t change overnight. The board has to look at current policies and procedures regarding procurement cards for members, and vendor contracts.

“Things are really being taken out of context, and that’s very upsetting. From a public standpoint, it doesn’t look good. The contracts are vetted and discussed,” she said. “We need to get it right the first time, we want it settled, and to get on with county business.”

Hewitt, who also serves on the county’s Rules Committee, said several dates including Nov. 12 and 14, have been floated to find consensus for a meeting among the committee’s nine members. The Lake County Board begins formal deliberations Oct. 22-23 on its Fiscal Year 2019 budget, a process which began in April to quantify various county department financial needs.