Ex-Elmhurst D205 Official's Misspending Detailed

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst School District 205 on Friday revealed the monthly amounts of a former official's misspending.

The release of the two-page document was in response to a public records request from Patch.

The district has been largely silent about former Facilities Director Todd Schmidt's personal spending on his public credit card since Patch reported on it in December.

The district's document shows that Schmidt reimbursed all the money through regular checks, meaning he essentially received regular short-term loans on the government's dime.

It is against the district's policy to use its credit cards for personal purposes. And it's against the law to use government resources for private ends.

The district tabulated Schmidt's personal spending at $50,880. Patch's number had been $47,615, but those expenditures went back to January 2020.

Schmidt, who was hired in July 2018, started using his credit card for personal purposes that November, amounting to $406. But the amounts were relatively small for the next year, with no personal charges in some months.

The amounts increased in early 2020. Sometimes his personal expenditures exceeded his public ones. In December 2020, for instance, he used his public card for $2,686 in personal expenditures and only $16 for governmental purposes.

His personal spending peaked at $4,186 in June 2021.

After November 2021, such expenditures tapered off. He did not use his credit card for personal use from January to May 2022. Then he spent $966 and $65, respectively, in June and July 2022. He never did so again. It is unclear why.

His spending included booze, cigars, restaurant meals, airfare, groceries and country club and sorority payments.

In December, Schmidt resigned a couple of weeks after he was arrested in Rockford on charges of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his mother.

Over six years, Schmidt spent a total of $471,000 on his public credit card, including the $50,000 in personal expenditures.

The district has never disclosed who, if anyone, approved Schmidt's personal spending.

His supervisor, Chris Whelton, assistant superintendent of finance, resigned in February in the wake of the public revelations.

In February and lately, Patch submitted public records requests for the district's correspondence with the police department about Schmidt.

In both cases, the district produced no documents, meaning officials have not written the police about it.

In December, Patch asked the city's spokeswoman about the police department's approach to Schmidt's personal spending on a government credit card. She said the outcome of the district's audit would determine the police's next step.

As it turns out, the audit did not look into Schmidt's spending, but generally examined the district's credit card procedures.

On Monday, Patch sent the audit and the district's listing of Schmidt's personal spending to the city.

Some of the facts resemble a case from two decades ago in downstate Pekin. In that situation, Pekin's former mayor faced charges of official misconduct, a Class 3 felony in Illinois.

After being elected, the mayor used his city-issued credit card for cash advances of $1,400 to play video poker at a Peoria casino, prosecutors said.

The mayor paid back the money. In one instance, though, his check bounced, but he quickly reimbursed the city, according to court records.

In the case against the mayor, the state said he exceeded his lawful authority because he broke the public funds clause of the state constitution. The clause states that "public funds, property or credit shall be used only for public purposes."

In 2008, the state Supreme Court rejected the mayor's appeal, affirming his conviction.