Du Page Township Conflict of Interest Combined with Pay to Play

By Bonnie Alicea
According to the Bolingbrook Number Crunchers:

May 20, 2011

By Jim Kadlec

At its May 10 meeting, the DuPage Township Board, including Supervisor Bill Mayer and Trustee Faisel Rashid, approved a $2,000 sponsorship requested by the Bolingbrook Cricket League.  The Board also approved two other sponsorship / donation requests at the meeting -- $1,000 to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and $500 to the Bolingbrook Rotary Club Fundraiser.  In addition, at its April 26 meeting, the Board approved sponsorships / donations totaling $4,500 to six other community organizations.

Before approving the $2,000 to the Bolingbrook Cricket League, neither Mayer nor Fashid disclosed that each serves on the League's Board.  The Bolingbrook Cricket League's website (http://www.bolingbrookcricket.com/rules-bcl.pdf) lists Mayer as the League's Treasurer and Rashid as its Secretary, both with two-year terms that began in 2010.

Mayer and Rashid should have disclosed their conflict of interest and excused themselves from discussing and voting to approve the $2,000 sponsorship. 

As Board members of both DuPage Township and the Bolingbrook Cricket League, a reasonable person could consider their approving the $2,000 to the Bolingbrook Cricket League as a breach in their duty and loyalty to DuPage Township residents.

If either Mayer or Rashid is unclear regarding the meaning of a conflict of interest, they should refer to Section VII. - Conflict of Interest - of the Bolingbrook Cricket League's By Laws:

Any member of the board who has a financial, official interest in, or conflict (or appearance of conflict) with any matter before the Board, of such nature that it prevents or may prevent that member from acting on the matter in an impartial manner, will offer to the Board to voluntarily excuse him / herself and will vacate his seat and refrain from discussion and voting on said matter.

Mayer and Rashid had a second opportunity to disclose their conflict of interest during the Public Comments / Questions portion of the Board meeting.  After specific questions were asked to Mayer regarding Township donations and sponsorships, including the Bolingbrook Cricket League sponsorship, Mayer mentioned that the Board would consider donating to any Township group that serves either the community's youth or seniors.
Most readers are members of groups that support such causes, but may be unaware that Township funds are available for the good works of their organizations.  According to Mayer, youth and senior organizations need only submit a written request to the Township Board for donations / sponsorships. 

Now I come in to give you the last part of the story...

The Bolingbrook Cricket Club paid a donation to Mr. Claar during the time when they were passing the sponsorship from Du Page Township.  So essentially, they were acting as a middle man to cipher funds from Bill Mayer to Roger Claar.  ie...Receive $2K from Du Page Township, pay a quarter of that to Roger as a thank you.   

Bolingbrook Cricket Club

1805 Brignton Lane Plainfield, IL 60544

$500.00 2/10/2011

Individual Contribution Citizens for Claar

You see, apparently the money switches hands.

Furthermore, Bill Mayer, who is notorious for NOT being able to build a war chest, received two donations lately, even though he is not up for re-election for a few years and has not had many donations lately other than from Roger Claar himself.  These donations came from individuals that we heard are allegedly involved in the cricket league.

http://www.accleague.org/index.php?/component/option,com_omrcricsys/ch,1015/layout,match_scorecard/view,stats/

Saeed, Moazzam	7946 Windsor Court Darien, IL 60561	$1,000.00 5/16/2011	1A Citizens for William Mayer
	Akhtar, Muhammed and Rehana	9202 Falling Water Drive Burr Ridge, IL 60527	$1,000.00 5/16/2011	1A Citizens for William Mayer

So in my opinion, I would call that PAY TO PLAY and ILLEGAL ACTIVITY.