Lyons hires auditor to review school roofing project tied to hardware store
BY JON SEIDEL Staff Reporter September 23, 2013 9:12PM
A poster for Cicero Town President Larry Dominick is displayed in the window of Lembke & Sons Hardware in Berwyn on Feb. 1, 2013. | Sun-Times Media files
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Updated: September 24, 2013 2:14AM
A west suburban school district has voted to hire a Chicago auditor to look into an elementary school roofing project that netted a politically connected hardware store and its owner big bucks.
The Lyons Elementary District 103 school board voted 6-1 to hire Gould & Pakter Associates LLC to review that and an expansion of the district’s middle school.
The school board capped the auditor’s bill at $60,000, asked for bi-weekly reports and said the firm must come back to authorize additional expenses.
A school board member concerned about the total cost of the audit introduced the spending cap.
“Each 60 [thousand dollars] is one teacher,” said board member Joanne Schaeffer.
People in the audience — many of whom were parents seeking air conditioners for their children’s schools — grumbled about the cost as well.
“Kiss the air goodbye,” one parent said.
Sharon Anderson, the school board’s president, has called the roofing project at Edison Elementary School in Stickney “a repair gone psychotic.” The board’s attorney also recommended the audit.
The project required neither a bidding process nor a bond under Illinois law because the school district predicted it would cost $35,000 — well below the $50,000 threshold in state law that would make them mandatory.
But when the 2012 project soared over budget by at least four times the estimated amount, records show the bulk of the business kept going to a pair of apparently connected companies: Lembke & Sons True Value of Berwyn and A1 Building Maintenance and Plumbing of Darien.
Lembke & Sons president Alan Lembke’s home address appears on invoices from A1 obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. When contacted Monday about the school board’s pending vote, Lembke said he wasn’t aware of it and asked a reporter to call him back in an hour.
When the reporter did so, no one answered the phone.
Lembke also has ignored previous calls from the Sun-Times.
The audit will determine whether the project’s budget, district policies and state law were followed. It will also explore the ramifications if they weren’t.
A1 does not have a business license in Darien, nor is it incorporated in Illinois. Stickney officials have said no permits were pulled for the roofing project as required.
Lembke’s hardware store also came under the scrutiny of the Cicero inspector general in 2012 for its cozy relationship with town officials.
However, the Lyons school district’s director of maintenance has defended the roofing project that is bringing new attention to Lembke.
The school board also voted to review monthly a list of vendors who have been paid more than $10,000 in the previous year by the district. It also extended the contract of Supt. Mary Jo Vladika.
Contributing: Becky Schlikerman
Twitter: @SeidelContent
