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 A plea deal may allow one of Illinois’ highest-paid and Lake
Forest’s longest-serving local officeholder to avoid becoming a felon, serving
jail time or possibly even having a record.
On Feb. 25, former Lake Forest City Manager Robert Kiely pleaded guilty to one
count of attempted official misconduct following an investigation into
unauthorized payments Kiely made to a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm. That
guilty plea came as part of a plea bargain that reduces the charge to a
misdemeanor and will allow the court to eventually choose whether to dismiss the
charge altogether, according to the Lake Forester.
The court has six months to determine whether Kiely qualifies for an alternative
prosecution program, which would relieve the former city administrator of the
charge and the possibility of jail time. The agreement will also require Kiely
to perform 15 hours of community service, donate $1,000 to charity and submit a
written apology.
In October, a Lake County grand jury originally charged Kiely with one Class 3
felony count of attempted official misconduct, which could have come with a jail
sentence of up to one year and a $2,500 fine.
The indictment came more than a year after the Lake Forest City Council
appointed a special counsel to investigate nearly $200,000 in obscured fund
transfers Kiely made through the city attorney and to the D.C.-based lobbying
firm between 2016 and 2017.
In March 2018, special counsel Leigh Jeter issued a report finding Kiely in
violation of three city codes for inappropriately laundering public funds
through the city attorney’s private law firm in a bid to pay lobbyists to secure
funding for a proposed Amtrak stop. Many residents opposed the proposal.
Despite little public support, Kiely and other city administrators had been
pushing for the construction of a new Amtrak stop and accompanying pedestrian
underpass since 2012. An Illinois Policy Institute analysis in 2018 found that
cost estimates had ballooned by more than 400%. In 2012, the city estimated that
construction costs would range between “a low of $1.8 million to a high of $2.5
million.” But by 2016, an independent assessment pegged the cost at over $13
million.
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Jeter’s report noted Kiely’s decision to route the
funds first through former Lake Forest City Attorney Victor
Filippini’s private law practice and then to the lobbying firm was
highly unusual. The process allowed the payments to go undetected by
city aldermen, who are supposed to authorize such fund transfers.
The report suggested that Filippini should have counseled Kiely to
inform council members of the transactions once payments exceeded
$20,000, the threshold at which further payments must be approved by
council members.
In March 2018, Jeter recommended the city take “appropriate action”
against Kiely and Filippini. The city attorney resigned the
following month after the Lake Forest City Council unanimously
passed a resolution declaring its opposition to construction of the
Amtrak train stop.
The indictment accused Kiely of abusing his office by engaging in
behavior “he knew was forbidden by law to perform.”
Kiely announced his retirement three months later.
Kiely was Lake Forest’s top administrator for nearly 30 years – from
November 1990 to January 2019, the role’s longest tenure in city
history. He was the second-highest paid city manager in the state
and out-earned all 50 U.S. governors. In fiscal year 2018, he earned
nearly $250,000 in total compensation, including salary, benefits
and other allowances.
The court must decide whether Kiely meets the requirements for an
alternative prosecution program. He had maintained that the
indictment against him had no merit.
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