DNR mining officials under investigation
An Illinois Department of Natural Resources employee and State Representative candidate is on leave from his job during an investigation into his acceptance of a contribution from a mining company.
Tony Mayville is supervisor of mine safety enforcement for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and chairman of the Washington County Democratic Central Committee. He is also running for state representative in the 115th district in Southern Illinois. His campaign disclosed it had accepted a contribution from coal billionaire Chris Cline. Mayville's campaign in January notified the State Board of Elections that $2,000 from Cline's Foresight Energy Services was inadvertently deposited into the campaign's bank account, according to the Associated Press. That contribution was intended for the local Democratic Party and the campaign said it repaid the party, according to the Associated Press.
Cline is a coal magnate who owns mines in Illinois, among other states and has a history of donating to public figures who have the power to approve or deny applications for his projects, according to a press release issued by environment groups Shawnee Hills and Hollers and Friends of Bell Smith Springs.
The Office of the Executive Inspector General is investing Mayville, according to a prepared statement from IDNR.
"The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has zero tolerance for misconduct. After learning that Mr. Mayville may have violated agency policy, an investigation was launched immediately. When Director Marc Miller became aware of the individual's actions, he initiated the disciplinary process (which is required for employees under the Personnel Code). Mr. Mayville is on unpaid leave of absence. Additionally the matter has been referred to the Office of the Executive Inspector General," the IDNR release states.
And, according to the Capital Fax blog, Michael Woods of Tuscola, the head of the Douglas County Democratic Party and acting director of IDNR Office of Mines and Minerals is under investigation for accepting campaign contributions from a company that he oversees as a state official with IDNR. Woods has been moved to another position in IDNR, according to Capitol Fax.
Friends of Bell Smith Springs and Shawnee Hills and Hollers have been suspicious of IDNR in the past. IDNR sat at the table with representatives of the oil and gas industry creating the regulatory bill on High Volume Horizontal Fracturing (HVHF) supposedly making Illinois the toughest state to frack in the nation.
"If we can't trust DNR not to be too close the industry they are supposed to regulate, then it call into question how effectively they will actually regulate fracking," said Will Reynolds, a writer and environmentalist who discovered the Mayville misappropriation of funds.
A recent investigation exposed a $2,000 check from Cline's Foresight Energy Services made out to county Democratic Committee was deposited in Mayville's campaign fund account in March, 2013, according to the environment groups' press release. It goes on to say the money was transferred by Mayville to the County Democratic Committee in January 2014. To date the committee has accepted an estimated $7,750 from Chris Cline's companies during the process of obtaining coal mining permits, the release states.
"I have spent nearly half my life as an environmental activist, but only in the past few years have I come to understand regulatory capture. Nobel Prize laureate George Stiglitz and others wrote about this phenomenon before I was born," Sam Stearns from Friends of Bell Smith Springs said in a prepared statement.
"Regulatory capture is defined as the process by which regulatory agencies eventually come to be dominated by the very industries hay are charged with regulating."
Woods is being investigated for taking $14,000 in 2012 and 2013 from Foresight Energy Services of St. Louis, with $5,000 going to Gov. Pat Quinn's re-election campaign, $1,200 to the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen's Association and $250 to Sen. Mike Frerichs, campaign, according to Capitol Fax.
Gov. Pat Quinn and state Sen. Mike Frerichs have redirected campaign donations to charities after determining they came from a Democratic county organization led by a state employee, Woods.
A Quinn spokeswoman says the campaign doesn't accept contributions from state employees.
The spokeswoman says Quinn promptly gave $2,000 to each of four charities after discovering the source of the money Wednesday.