by Ulysses Arn
- Frank Mautino
The examination of Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino's campaign expenditures from his time as a state Representative and top Lieutenant to Speaker of the House Michael Madigan is showing that Mautino liked to use his campaign funds to eat out very regularly at a handful of restaurants in his home town of Spring Valley.
State election records reviewed by USofArn.com find that Mautino spent over 545 visits $32,692.69 on meals at predominately four Spring Valley establishments; Alfano's, Angelo's, Gold Mine restaurant, and Valley Bar & Grill from 2011 tell the end of 2015.
Mautino became the states Auditor General on January 1st after having been appointed to the position by Madigan and approved by the Democrat controlled legislature.
Further analysis by the Edgar County Watchdog's of Mautino's eating at Alfano's and Angelo's shows that from June of 2005 Mautino spent $9,407.20 at Angelo's and another $22,670.83 at Alfano's. Another $5,073.80 was spent by Mautino at a Springfield restaurant over the course of 6 visits.
Nearly everyone of those 500 plus meals taken on his campaigns dime were for $25-50 each, clearly he was eating with someone else each time, and apparently not eating at home or cooking his own meals that often.
Mautino has already come under fire in the last few days as it has been revealed that he spent more than a quarter million dollars in "campaign vehicle" repairs and gas at one Spring Valley shop, plus thousands of additional dollars to other mechanics and shops for repairs at the exact same times.
Additionally some questionable arrangement appears to be going on between Mautino and the Spring Valley City Bank. Over the years Mautino has made $273,927.77 in expense payments to the bank, the same bank that held Mautino's campaign debts, and provided $35,025 in campaign contributions. Mautino's financial reports show that he paid at least $94,000 to the bank in loan interest and principle payments on loans totaling $26,000. According to available records it appears that Mautino went 10 years without making payments on some of these loans.
Whatsmore several of the expenditure reports show Mautino paying thousands of dollars at a time for bank employees to work as volunteers, phone bankers, and poll watchers for his campaign. The Spring Valley City Bank also paid hundreds of dollars at a time for Mautino to attend functions in Chicago, including paying hundreds of dollars for his parking and his other travel expenses.
The list of questions Frank Mautino has to answer for is ever growing.
For example, Why was he using his campaign funds to pay for car insurance on his "campaign vehicle" with multiple insurance companies?
The public demands answers, that so far Mautino is not forthcoming with.
