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New allegations in Rock Island County whistleblower lawsuit

Attorneys for a fired Rock Island County worker are raising questions about what they call falsified legal documents sent to the Illinois Municipal Retirement F...

Attorneys for a fired Rock Island County worker are raising questions about what they call falsified legal documents sent to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund by two elected officials.

The allegations are in connection with a whistle blower lawsuit filed in May by former Human Resource director Meg Hoskins.

The motion alleges that County Board Chairman Phil Banaszek and County Clerk Karen Kinney signed off on making Banaszek the IMRF agent for the county, telling the state the county board had voted him in by resolution.

There is no resolution on file, however, and one county board member says that it never happened.

"We never passed it, it's a bad situation for Karen Kinney because it looks like perjury. She signed it," said board member Drue Mielke.

Under the terms required by IMRF, the new agent must be voted on via resolution by the governing body, and then certified by the clerk.

Hoskins filed the original lawsuit claiming she was fired after refusing to file what she says were inflated earnings reports for a few county board members to boost their pensions.

The suit says Hoskins was terminated 13 days after Banaszek signed the paper declaring himself the new  IMRF agent, without board approval.

A Whiteside County judge has been assigned the case, after five different judges based in Rock Island County declined to hear it.

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