A report from an attorney tasked with investigating claims of political fundraising by McLean County officials at the Government Center last year found there was no evidence to support the allegations raised by a former assistant state’s attorney.
Michael Butts, a partner with Bloomington-based law firm Wood, DeVary, Armstrong and Houska, sent the results of his investigation to the McLean County Board and state’s attorney Erika Reynolds on Feb. 11, according to documentation obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.
Butts was retained by Reynolds at the behest of the county board in mid-December to investigate allegations raised by Trevor Sierra, a former assistant state’s attorney.
In an email to all board members in late November, Sierra accused county administrator Cassy Taylor of “unethical conduct,” saying she had “used her position as County Administrator to orchestrate political activities intended to promote the passage of the referendum.”
Sierra said Taylor solicited county employees at the Government Center in downtown Bloomington for donations to a political action committee aimed at supporting a ballot initiative to eliminate the county’s elected auditor position. He also said Taylor informed him that Elizabeth Johnston, then the county board’s vice chair, would be “coming through the County Administrator’s office to collect donations from any employees who desired to contribute.”
In a December interview with WGLT, Sierra indicated support for an investigation into his claims, saying it was “important for … any authorities that may be interested to look into these facts and make their own conclusions about what should happen thereafter.”
But efforts to corroborate the allegations were challenged, Butts wrote in his investigative report, when Sierra declined to sit for an interview or provide “any documentation that he believed corroborated his claims.”
Sierra said in a Dec. 30 email to Butts that he declined the interview after receiving advice from his attorney.
Asked this week, Sierra also declined to offer further comment to WGLT.
‘The evidence … does not substantiate the allegations’
In interviews with 10 county administration employees, Butts said “not a single employee” said they were ever asked for a donation for the auditor referendum or any other political cause, or that they had overheard anyone else being asked for the same.
None of the employees said they were ever instructed on how to vote by Taylor or Johnston on any political issue, including the referendum itself. None recalled ever seeing Johnston come through the office to collect donations and “multiple employees … had never met Ms. Johnston until” Dec. 18, the report said.
The only conversation about the political action committee [PAC], Butts said, was in a meeting with Taylor, Sierra and assistant county administrator Cathy Dreyer. The conversation was logistical in nature, the report indicated, because it was focused on whether the “County Administration Office needed to be ready for any issues” as a result of the PAC’s formation.
Butts noted in the report that Dreyer said “she recalls Mr. Sierra unprompted, stating that he needed to get ahold of Ms. Johnston to donate.”
Reynolds and Judge Don Knapp said in interviews with Butts they were both contacted by Sierra for donations to the PAC and declined to donate due to conflicts of interest — Reynolds because the auditor is a client of the state’s attorney and Knapp because “there was a chance he would be assigned to hear any cases brought pursuant to the election results.”
In his Nov. 28 email to the county board, Sierra alleged that Taylor told him to reach out to Reynolds and would “lie” about the conversation if asked. The email did not mention outreach to Knapp, and Taylor, in an interview with Butts, denied both requesting Sierra reach out to Reynolds and saying that she would lie about such a request.
Butts also wrote that reviews of text messages, emails and other available documentation from county staff showed nothing that “corroborated any of Mr. Sierra’s claims,” including that Dreyer and Taylor communicated about donations while Dreyer was on vacation.
“Without Mr. Sierra’s involvement I am left to exclusively rely upon the testimony of those who participated in the investigation [which was called for by Mr. Sierra], available documentary evidence and my impressions of the credibility of the witnesses,” the report said, adding later that the “evidence reviewed and information provided to me does not substantiate the allegations raised by Mr. Sierra, or present probable cause of any actions in violation of either state law or county code committed by Ms. Taylor or Ms. Johnston.”
Taylor declined to offer comment beyond what was contained in the report; Johnston did not respond.
Other complaints
While Butts’ investigation did not find probable cause to suggest violations of state law or county code, the allegations originally made by Sierra have since been taken up by Chad Berck, a Republican candidate for Normal Township supervisor who ran unsuccessfully against Johnston for a seat on the county board last year.
He was not involved with or mentioned in any of the original allegations.
On Feb. 5, Berck filed a complaint with the county board, which then triggered a meeting of the McLean County Ethics Commission. The complaint mirrored the allegations Sierra made in his Nov. 28 email. [Butts' investigation into Sierra's allegation was sent to the full county board on Feb. 11 and discussed in closed session at a regular meeting on Feb. 13.]
The three-member board met on Feb. 20 to review the documentation Berck had provided, which included Sierra's original email and publicly available financial disclosure forms submitted to state from the PAC.
The commission, which had not met since 2018, then voted to submit Berck’s complaint to the state’s attorney’s office for further review; assistant state’s attorney Don Rood said the matter would subsequently be sent to the Illinois attorney general’s office — a "more independent, fact-finding organization, given they don't know anyone involved with the complaint."
Berck has also filed a similar complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections. He did not respond to multiple WGLT requests for comment.
