Eric Gregg
SALINE CO. – Those who were jumping up and down with glee back in October when a former Harrisburg mayor was reinstated to his state job – which he lied in order to obtain, as documents prove – might find their jumping slowing a bit.
The governor of the state of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, as well as Rauner’s general counsel, Craig Findley, were sued by Eric Gregg last year not long after Rauner terminated Gregg’s employment on the state’s Prisoner Review Board.
The termination came about after members of the governor’s office received an anonymous piece of information in mid-July of 2015, which indicated that Gregg “had to fill out the Secretary of State Economic Disclosure Form” (Statement of Economic Interest), and “he does not tell the truth about his income on this form.
“People are afraid to call in a complaint about Mr. Gregg,” the anonymous complaint stated. “Even filed anonymously, he will know it could be someone out of a group of 2-30 people.
“After a tornado hit the city of Harrisburg, the state stepped in with money to help. There was a local bidder from another county. The bidder from the other county offered a lower bid, but the money was rewarded to the local person. It was only changed when Mr. Gregg, the mayor at the time, was called out on this.”
At about the time this email came in (July 2015), Gregg, who was still on the PRB, was filing for bankruptcy in federal court and made a “mistake” on his filings, claiming annual income – something that’s against the law, as a person serving on the PRB cannot have any other form of income (since it could potentially be perceived as a conflict of interest if a person on the parole board, asked to consider the parole of an Illinois Department of Corrections inmate, might be beholden to an employer or other source of funds) – which he later explained away as both an error made by his bankruptcy attorney, Brad Olson of Marion, and as an error Gregg himself made, claiming income of his wife’s as his own.
The sequence of events raised red flags, and people from Governor Bruce Rauner’s office began making inquiries.
Not actually realizing the level of subterfuge Gregg is used to conducting in his life as a matter of rote, the governor’s office went forward with terminating him from his employ with the state. Using the various deceptions Gregg had listed on his Statement of Economic Interest he filled out in 2012 for the previous year – but apparently missing some of the obvious problematic issues, such as not claiming income that he’s in a battle with LuAnn Walker in Saline County Court over – the governor’s office advised Gregg that he was being terminated for “malfeasance.”
Gregg, who has gone through half a dozen local attorneys in his fight against Walker’s case (in which she claims he withheld money from her that year in their business partnership, an electricity aggregate outfit), lawyered up and demanded, through a court case, that the governor give him his job back.
The case was heard in front of Saline County Judge Todd Lambert.
Gregg argued that what he may or may not have done on his Statement of Economic Interest and application for the PRB didn’t rise to the legal definition of “malfeasance” and that his termination, as a result, was wrongful.
Cleverly shell-gaming the information on the paperwork the governor’s office had provided as evidence that he’d committed malfeasance, Gregg was able to distract from the real problematic areas of it and instead got Lambert to focus on time frames of submission of the SOEI, insisting that the material wasn’t “inaccurate.”
The biggest problem was that the omissions were the area of malfeasance. Gregg had omitted any reference to income from the electric aggregate business in the 12 months prior to his hire through the state; and it’s hard to know something’s missing if no one knows to even ask.
‘Victory’ short-lived
Lambert determined that “malfeasance” hadn’t been met…and ordered the reinstatement of Gregg to the PRB. He also ordered that the state pay all of Gregg’s income he’d missed out on since the year-prior termination.
The jumping-up-and-down being done by the Gregg camp was all over mainstream media for a few days, as Gregg apparently notified any and everyone that this was his “victory”…and he was going to rub it in the face of his haters.
He even had enough hubris to have his attorney file, three days after the judgment (September 29), a Rule to Show Cause as to why the governor’s office shouldn’t be held in contempt for not turning over his pay, as well as for “interfering” with him returning to the PRB. Gregg said he’d contacted the PRB to get the reinstatement going, and they’d told him they couldn’t do it yet; so he was going to the court to have Lambert “force” the PRB to put him back to work and on the payroll.
This motion was met with a stinging retort, however, by the office of Illinois’ Attorney General, Lisa Madigan.
She filed an answer on October 3.
In the response, which was a motion to stay judgment pending appeal, Madigan said that because the state planned to appeal Lambert’s decision, and because there was a money award involved (over $80,000 in back pay), state law allowed a stay until the appeal could be determined.
“The petition (for Rule to Show Cause) should be denied,” the response outlined. “It is groundless and frivolous. Three days after this court made its decision, and well before the 30-day deadline for taking an appeal had arrived, (Gregg) asked the court to hold the Governor of Illinois in contempt for not complying with the court’s order to restore (Gregg) to his Prisoner Review Board position. He cited no facts and no authority.”
On October 18, Gregg withdrew his petition for Rule to Show Cause.
The case is currently at the appeals court in Mt. Vernon.
SERS wants their money
Gregg’s apparent anxiety over getting his paycheck might be based in a couple of things on file in Saline County.
The first is the fact that the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS, one of the many overburdened retirement programs the state of Illinois made the mistake of enrolling in years ago, the combination of which has broken the financial back of Illinois) is making a pay-in demand (like a premium for an insurance policy) of a huge sum of money.
Gregg has been an on-and-off state employee for a number of years, sliming around with hit-and-miss jobs in an effort to be enrolled long enough to get some sort of retirement.
SERS, as of July of 2013, determined that he needed to pay in $83,084.72 to meet his required portion. He was making payments upon receipt of his first paycheck with the PRB that year, however, which he reported to Disclosure happened in May of 2013.
But because he hadn’t made contributions for the past year (as he wasn’t a state employee, having been duly fired), and because of other ‘lag’ time in past years, his in-kind contributions continued to mount, and in June of this year, he received a payment-due notice of $44,420.72 to SERS.
Additionally, on October 13, a Small Claims case was filed against Gregg’s wife Patti.
Apparently they hadn’t folded in all their debt with the bankruptcy; a Synchrony Bank credit card in her name, which Midland Funding (a collection agency for defaulted credit cards) claimed she’d stopped making payments on more than a year ago and which they’d charged off in October 2015, claimed she owed them $1,374.35 plus costs.
A hearing was set for Dec. 12.
At that time, the case was dismissed in favor of Midland, apparently because a repayment plan had been established; but whether that was in light of the bankruptcy or not wasn’t clear.
And the bottom line is…
In the meantime, the appeal continues through that court.
It appears the governor’s office needs to be made aware of the subterfuge that Gregg carries out, and the basis of this is in the case with LuAnn Walker, which Gregg had been attempting to bankrupt out of. Walker, in her suit, claims that Gregg had defrauded her of at least $10,000 in commissions between 2011 and 2012.
There is no claim of money made through their business partnership for 2011 in the SOEI Gregg submitted.
The very thing that can prove the governor’s case of malfeasance is a case that is in Judge Todd Lambert’s court; but apparently, Gregg’s sleight-of-hand – or the governor’s lack of knowing the right questions to ask or the right shell to look under – has prevailed up to this point.
Should the governor’s office be made very clearly aware of the case with Walker, things might change. All it takes, apparently, is someone who isn’t afraid of Eric Gregg to let them know.
Be watching for any upcoming developments.