An ongoing feud between Calumet City Mayor Thaddeus Jones and City Clerk Nyota Figgs has led to questions about consulting fees paid to a state lawmaker and a company hired to register vacant properties.
In July, Figgs publicly accused Jones, who also is a state lawmaker, of creating a hostile workplace at City Hall by allegedly harassing and bullying her. Last week, supporters of Figgs issued a statement criticizing a $5,000 monthly consulting fee being paid to state Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Gurnee.
Figgs shared screen shots of social media posts in which Mayfield appeared to imply Figgs was criminally liable for alleged mismanagement of funds.
“She was costing the city thousands in uncollected fees,” Mayfield purportedly commented on social media, according to Figgs.
Figgs denied any wrongdoing. Mayfield did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
“This raises the question, did Mayor/State Representative Thaddeus Jones actually hire consultant/State Representative Rita Mayfield to work for Calumet City, or, just to be a crony in his bullying campaign against Clerk Figgs?” according to last week’s statement from Figgs supporters.
When I asked Jones to respond to the allegations by Figgs in July, he issued a statement that seemed to accuse Figgs of wrongdoing.
“My administration will soon release the findings from a forensic audit that will detail multiple errors within the office of the clerk,” according to the statement.
Jones was elected mayor in April and sworn in May 1 with Mayfield in attendance. Minutes from a May 13 City Council meeting show Jones issued an executive order for an “outside auditor to conduct a forensic audit of municipal spending by city personnel in all city departments, excluding only the police, fire and water departments.”
Typically, the three departments excluded from the audit account for the vast majority of a municipality’s annual spending. Any “audit” that excluded them would be like trying to determine which room in a home generated the most food waste, other than the kitchen.
Figgs told me she believes the audit is a scheme to use taxpayer funds to smear a political rival. I asked Figgs whether it seemed odd that Jones and Mayfield seemed to know the outcome of the audit before it was completed.
“I spoke with the auditor last week, and the audit is not about me,” Figgs said. “There are no findings yet.”
Jones refused to answer my questions when we spoke at City Hall before a council meeting Monday night. In a statement Tuesday, he praised Mayfield and said she was highly qualified to work as a $60,000 a year consultant providing advice about the city’s inspectional services division.
“Calumet City has 1,800 vacant and foreclosed homes,” according to Jones. “It is unfortunate Calumet City Clerk Nyota Figgs was filing liens on resident’s [sic] homes without releasing the title to these impacted properties.”
Mayfield attended a council meeting June 14 along with Stan Urban, a relationship manager for Property Registration Champions, a company based in Melbourne, Florida that does business as ProChamps. After a presentation by Urban, the council voted unanimously to contract with ProChamps to register foreclosed properties in the city.
ProChamps says it works with municipalities to pass ordinances requiring registration of vacant properties to address exterior maintenance and other concerns. ProChamps says it then researches ownership and helps banks and other property owners of record avoid costly legal fees and penalties by registering vacant properties.
I have requests pending through the Freedom of Information Act for copies of the city’s agreements with ProChamps and with Mayfield’s consulting enterprise, JMZ LLC.
In Tuesday’s statement, Jones hailed Mayfield for introducing ProChamps to the city.
“She immediately worked to bring in the ProChamps organization to stabilize our housing market,” according to Jones. “ProChamps also has brought in much-needed revenue to assist with the mayor’s housing plan.”
To date, ProChamps has registered 228 properties in Calumet City and generated $45,600 in revenue for the city, according to Calumet City spokesman Sean Howard.
Urban is a former village administrator for Dolton. He told me ProChamps has contracted with about 50 Illinois municipalities, including Aurora, Dolton, Flossmoor, Harvey and Phoenix.
ProChamps said in publicity materials that it serves more than 250 municipalities nationwide by creating registries of noncompliant properties.
“ProChamps staff researches/tracks properties, contacts banks and gets them to register,” according to an online post by the Illinois City/County Management Association that listed Urban as a contact. “Community receives their share of registration fees and information on responsible parties.”
On Aug. 16, a New Jersey judge ruled ProChamps lacks authority as a private company to collect and manage public funds, according to the New Jersey Law Journal. The judge also found the company wrongly misrepresented unpaid fees as liens on property.
A property management company sued ProChamps in 2019, challenging the company’s efforts to impose registration fees of up to $2,000 per property.
“The court has great concerns that this ultra-broad definition of vacant and abandoned homes, which is triggered upon a mere default, is targeting financially vulnerable homeowners, is driven toward increasing municipal revenue, and is not reasonably addressing issues related to vacant and abandoned properties,” Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez ruled, the Law Bulletin reported.
Three municipalities and a county development agency collected $2.6 million in registration fees over the past four years, the Press of Atlantic City reported.
“The ruling clouds the future of contracts between local governments and ProChamps of Melbourne, Florida, which compiles records of foreclosed homes and imposes hefty registration fees on their owners,” according to the Law Bulletin.
Steve Arpaia, an attorney for ProChamps, provided a statement Tuesday in response to a request for comment.
“ProChamps is confident the trial court was incorrect,” Arpaia said. “We are pursuing an appeal. We can’t comment any more on the ongoing litigation except to say we believe we will prevail on appeal.”
Howard provided a statement Tuesday in response to my request for Calumet City’s reaction to the ruling in New Jersey.
“The New Jersey matter is clearly isolated,” according to Howard. “Calumet City is a home rule community and our ordinance is valid and enforceable.”
The city’s Inspectional Services Department verifies whether Calumet City properties in foreclosure are vacant, he said.
“ProChamps’ authority is limited here in Calumet City versus other jurisdictions in which they operate,” he said.
The New Jersey ruling should be a reminder for local elected officials to conduct due diligence when considering contracts with outside vendors.
Mayfield’s consulting gig for Calumet City seems like a cozy arrangement among lawmaker pals. Taxpayers deserve more specifics on what Mayfield is doing to earn her $5,000 monthly fee.
Figgs and Jones are giving Calumet City plenty of negative attention with their feud. The two elected officials would be wise to settle their differences and get on with the business of serving residents and business owners in town.
Ted Slowik is a columnist with the Daily Southtown.
