A recently released report outlines an array of questionable actions by the now-former village manager of Westchester leading up to his resignation and a now-concluded criminal probe — including signing off on contract awards to a friend’s company and potentially hiding information from the suburb’s elected village board.
But perhaps the most curious detail in the document about ex-Village Manager Paul Nosek involved “stress balls” he purchased with taxpayer money that may have crossed the line into illegal politicking — some of them were emblazoned with the name of Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch.
“We have no evidence and do not suggest that Speaker Welch,” a Hillside Democrat, was “aware that the Village had purchased [stress balls] imprinted with Speaker Welch’s name,” states the report completed in 2022 by a Chicago law firm and a consultant at the request of the village government amid concerns that Nosek engaged in improper conduct as the west suburb’s top administrator.
“We have reviewed Speaker Welch’s campaign disclosure filings and find no mention of any kind of contribution from the Village. . . . Nor do we have any evidence and do not suggest that Nosek’s decision to purchase the [stress balls] was in any way intended to influence or buy favor with Speaker Welch,” whose legislative district includes Westchester.
“However, Nosek’s decision to expend Village funds on what could be considered political campaign material may constitute a violation of the Village’s Municipal Code,” which defines political activity as “any activity in support of or in connection with any campaign for elective office or any political organization.”
Nosek used a company run by a friend to buy 2,000 “sponge rubber balls,” with 1,000 of them white with the words “Have a ball with Village Hall, Village of Westchester” printed on the exterior, and another 1,000 of them red with the words “Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives,” along with his office’s web address.
The total price tag was around $2,700, with $1,100 of that for Welch’s batch. The report stated that they were apparently distributed at a parade that summer.
The report notes the balls were ordered weeks after village officials began working with an Elmhurst lobbyist “to secure State of Illinois funding for various projects,” including “funds to assist with the relocation” of municipal offices.
“Letters were drafted to be sent” to Welch by late Village President Frank Perry and the public works director at the time, Scott Russell — who earlier this year pleaded guilty to using village resources to buy and install a bathtub in Nosek’s North Riverside home as part of a State Police investigation that led to no other criminal charges, for reasons officials won’t discuss.
Russell was hired by the village of Westchester in 2012 after he “found out about the village job opening through his brother-in-law,” former Westchester Mayor Paul Gattuso, the report revealed.
Neither Russell nor Nosek could be reached for comment.
The report was shared with the State Police and was only just released because that probe is now apparently over. It sheds new light on not only the bathtub scandal but also the municipal office relocation effort, which was scuttled after concerns over costs and contractors hired for various tasks.
Newly released Westchester report
“Regarding the relocation project, we found evidence that Nosek mismanaged the project,” according to the findings. “We also found evidence that Nosek at times withheld information from the [elected Village] Board, provided inaccurate information to the Board, and repeatedly circumvented existing procurement policies and procedures.”
“The result was that the Board was on some occasions acting based on incomplete or inaccurate information. The Board also appears to have deferred certain decisions to Nosek’s judgment without asking relevant or probing questions.”
The report found that some of the demolition work for the new municipal offices went to a Lockport firm run by the same Nosek friend who had provided the stress balls. The firm initially bid $69,925 for the demolition project but then quickly withdrew the bid and several days later submitted a new one totaling $55,000 for reasons that were never fully explained.
That revised bid turned out to be the lowest pitch and was accepted by the village board, but it wouldn’t have been the lowest had the pricing not changed, the report notes, as another firm put in a bid of $62,500.
Even so, “based on the evidence at our disposal, there is no basis to show that Nosek” and the firm “colluded in the bidding process.”
The report says that Nosek’s same contractor friend also once “remodeled Nosek’s bathroom for free.”
Another company affiliated with that friend had a no-bid deal to plow snow for the village, the report says.