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Villa Park finance director finds months of unpaid benefit invoices, board warned of budget shortfalls
Summary
New finance director told the Village Board that multiple months of employee benefit invoices were not paid under prior administration, leaving nearly $900,000 owed for health, vision and dental and additional overdue liabilities; staff said police-pension contribution was not budgeted and bank reconciliations lagged.
The Village of Villa Park's new finance director said the village was behind on recurring benefit and insurance payments when she took the job this summer, prompting emergency payments and questions from trustees about the town's budget and recordkeeping.
"It was a little over $900,000," the finance director, Susie (first name given in the meeting), told the board, describing three months of unpaid Blue Cross Blue Shield, VSP and dental invoices that she said staff immediately paid to avoid claim denials. She said additional unpaid liability-insurer (IRMA) invoices were larger and that IRMA had not received an annual report the village owed.
The finance director said she found invoices for health insurance that had not been paid for three months, and that staff made online emergency payments to avoid service interruption. She told the board that the unpaid employee-benefit invoices averaged about $325,000–$350,000 per month.
Trustees pressed for specifics. When asked for a total owed to IRMA, the finance director gave an amount she said she did not recall precisely on the spot: "I think it was $5,068,800—857 and 74¢," (as reported during the meeting). She also told the board the unpaid health, vision and dental balance equaled "just shy of a million dollars." She said staff were negotiating with IRMA to waive potential late fees for a required annual report.
The finance director detailed other gaps she found after starting about six to seven weeks earlier: bank reconciliations were current only through December 2024; the budget presented to the board differed from the budget filed with the county by roughly $200,000; and the interim finance director had not budgeted the police pension contribution required by actuarial calculations—an estimated $2.6 million to $2.8 million shortfall for pension funding identified in the discussion.
Trustees and staff said the unpaid invoices and miscoding appeared to be legacy issues from previous administration and finance staff. "These invoices were sent to previous administration and were ignored," the finance director said, adding that vendors told staff they had previously attempted calls and letters to prior officials.
Board members reacted strongly. Trustee O'Fano and others said concerns they had raised earlier about missing budgets and financial reporting were validated by the new findings. Trustees asked for more frequent financial reporting; the finance director said she plans to provide a full monthly financial report to the board's second meeting each month and is preparing an amended budget to reconcile the discrepancies.
The finance director said the village's auditors were already reviewing her reconciliations and that she had been meeting weekly with auditing staff. She recommended addressing miscoding and reconciling fund balances before concluding whether a forensic audit is needed. "If the auditors come in and think something's off, we'll discuss a forensic audit then," she said.
Board members asked for ongoing updates and said they expected recommendations on potential spending freezes and other corrective steps in coming weeks.
Ending: The finance director told trustees she would deliver a reconciled financial report and proposed amended budget at the board's next regular meeting so the board can make policy decisions about spending priorities and to clarify the village's cash position.
