Calumet City aldermen lower limit of Mayor Thaddeus Jones’ credit card, citing excessive travel spending

Calumet City aldermen are raising concerns about Mayor Thaddeus Jones’ municipal credit card after receiving a statement that shows the mayor, who was reelected in April, spent more than $44,000 in one month.

The spending, much of which took place during the Congressional Black Caucus’ 54th annual legislative conference in Washington, led the City Council to lower Jones’ credit card limit from $50,000 to $5,000 and consider asking the mayor, who is also a state representative, to reimburse the city for an undetermined portion of the costs.

Second Ward Ald. Monet Wilson said she raised concerns about Jones’ spending after receiving a list of bills for approval Oct. 23, which included unauthorized charges to a Hooters restaurant in Lansing, steakhouses in Chicago and Washington and private tours of Washington.

“The spending reflected in this bill list reveals a pattern of wasteful, unauthorized and excessive use of public funds that cannot, in good conscience, be ignored,” Wilson wrote in an email sent to Jones and other aldermen Oct. 23, the day of the City Council meeting. “I had hoped that some of these line items would raise questions from members of this council — because raised eyebrows should lead to raised phone receivers. Instead, silence seems to have replaced oversight.”

In response, Jones wrote that her email was “full of lies and misinformation.”

“I expect you to vote ‘yes’ tonight as the funds were reimbursed and approved already,” Jones said.

The council voted unanimously to remove 25 separate charges from the approved bill list. Restaurant charges removed include $480 spent on two occasions at the Lansing Hooters, $510 spent at Chicago Cut Steakhouse, $120 spent at Chicago Pita, $1,100 spent at Rosemont restaurant Carmine’s, $310 spent at Washington restaurant Ocean Prime and $2,700 spent at STK, a Washington steakhouse.

Other spending removed from the bill list included payments totaling $1,900 to Amazon, four payments of $4,500 to KSM Logistics, $6,300 in payments made to three separate vendors via Paypal, four payments to Southwest Airlines totaling $980, two payments of $820 to Private D.C. Tours, $690 in Uber rides and $530 to Uber Eats, according to the Oct. 23 meeting minutes.

At a Nov. 4 special Finance Committee meeting, Jones said he gave a $25,000 check to the city treasurer to cover the charges removed from the previous bill list, according to meeting minutes.

Further inquiry into spending via the municipal credit card during the Sept. 22-29 Washington trip uncovered tens of thousands of dollars in transactions recorded, some of which were not included in the October bill list but are visible on Jones’ credit card statements.

The City Council considered canceling Jones’ credit card entirely during a Nov. 4 Finance Committee meeting. Alds. Wilson, DeAndre Tillman and DeJuan Gardner voted in favor of canceling the credit card, while Alds. Shalisa Harvey, Ramonde Williams, Melissa Phillips and Miacole Nelson voted against.

“It wouldn’t put the council at risk of having to comb through various potential items of expenditures that are questionable,” Gardner said.

All seven aldermen did vote to reduce Jones’ card limit from $50,000 to $5,000.

“I would hope that this policy is followed now that the amount has been reduced significantly,” Gardner said.

Phillips said she was unavailable for comment while Tillman, Harvey, Williams and Nelson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to the credit card statement that closed Oct. 2, more than $44,000 was spent via Jones’ municipal credit card in September. The city budgeted $5,000 for Jones to spend during the Washington conference, and the council approved $4,800 on Sept. 11 for his lodging at a Marriott Marquis hotel.

Wilson and Tillman were also approved to attend the conference and provided $3,500 each for travel expenses, meeting minutes show. According to the Sept. 11 meeting minutes, city employees Juel Stanley, Jericho Thomas and Scott Nnamah and Ald. Harvey were also approved, though the amount allocated for each official to spend was not specified.

Jones declined to be interviewed, but in a statement said “I stand firm in the decision to have staff as well as our elected officials travel to Washington D.C. to take part in all of the impactful workshops and seminars in which the Congressional Black Caucus offered to local governments, not-for-profits, and business leaders throughout the nation.”

During the trip, Jones said, he and others met with representatives for Illinois’s two U.S. senators and congressional leaders, and made a request for $20 million. He said one of the Hooters charges “was for employees from public works and city staff (both men and women) who were working overtime at a previous event. THEY CHOSE HOOTERS. I treated them to lunch.”

Jones is under federal investigation for tax issues involving his campaign funds, the Tribune has reported, with the mayor and state representative paying tens of thousands of dollars in the first quarter of this year to a law firm that specializes in criminal defense.

Among the records that emerged with a 2022 subpoena were previously undisclosed details of a 2017 hearing on a complaint filed by two Calumet City aldermen with the State Board of Elections that alleged Jones spent political funds for personal use.

The complaint cited a series of expenditures by Jones’ campaigns, including for outings to Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs games, and nearly $7,000 spent between 2014 and 2016 at Hooters. The complaint also claimed payments to the Jones Foundation, a charity Jones founded that is headed by his wife, were illegally reported.

Following a hearing, the elections board ruled there was insufficient evidence to support most of the allegations and Jones was not fined.

Former Calumet City Ald. James Patton, who filed the complaint along with Tillman, this year mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Jones for mayor, losing in the Democratic primary.

Jones also came under fire last year after charges from Hooters, a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, a hotel in New Orleans and a Cadillac lease appeared on his municipal credit card statements. Jones promised to repay the city for some of the $13,000 in scrutinized expenses, though some of the disputed charges were ultimately approved by the council.

ostevens@chicagotribune.com