By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – A private attorney investigating an ethics complaint against McLean County Clerk candidate and City of Bloomington employee Nikita Richards has found no evidence of wrongdoing, according to a statement released by the city.
Richards, a Democrat, is challenging two term Republican incumbent County Clerk Kathy Michael in the Nov. 6 election.
Three-weeks before election day, Washington, Illinois lawyer John Redlingshafer has reported Kevin Gerrard’s complaint against Richards was unfounded.
Gerrard accused Richards of numerous violations including shopping online and doing campaign work when she was supposed to be doing her job in the city’s Human Resources Department.
The city also conducted an internal investigation and found Richards did nothing wrong, but City Manager Tim Gleason asked for an outside review because it was a political matter.
The city paid Redlingshafer, from the Mescher Law Firm in Washington, 190 dollars an hour, according to city government attorney Jeff Jurgens.
Meantime, Michael faces her own ethics probe. A special prosecutor from the State’s Attorney’s Appellate Prosecutor’s office is investigating whether Michael performed political work on a county-owned laptop, then damaged the computer to hide the evidence.
Michael’s assistant told the McLean County Ethics Commission that the county clerk was using the laptop outside, and unintentionally left it on the deck when it rained.
It’s unlikely Michael’s case will be resolved before election day.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
