The Illinois State Board of Elections has thrown out the campaign finance violation complaint against former St. Rep. and current Auditor General Frank Mautino. The board members Tuesday found that Mautino’s campaign committee didn’t knowingly break the law when paying around $227,000 in reimbursements to campaign workers for vehicle maintenance. The workers should have been reimbursed for mileage instead. That went on over a 15-year period.
Streator resident David Cooke filed the complaint six years ago. His lawyer says the campaign committee broke the law and not knowing better shouldn’t be a valid excuse. Mautino’s lawyer says if the state law was clear, the complaint wouldn’t have lasted through six years with rulings for each side.
During the case, Mautino’s campaign committee was fined $5,000. But the committee has been dissolved. Earlier this year, the Illinois Supreme Court found the campaign committee’s payments were against the law. The court left it to the Illinois State Board of Elections to determine what to do about it.
Mautino was the Illinois House member representing much of LaSalle and Bureau counties for 24 years. He left the House at the end of 2015 to become the state’s Auditor General. A big part of the job is documenting how the state uses its money and other resources.