The Illinois State Board of Elections recently ruled to hold a public hearing about the Fiscal Voices for Orland, which was accused of misrepresenting itself in robocalls during last year’s Orland Fire Protection District election.
Firefighter Keith Radke alleged in a Sept. 13 complaint that “a robocall was made the day before the election advocating the Fiscal Voices for Orland Candidates Chris Evoy and Blair Rhode. The robocall stated it was paid for by ‘Orland Firefighters.’ ”
Fiscal Voices representatives tried to get the complaint thrown out but it was denied during the state board’s meeting in Chicago on Feb. 22. A state board spokesman said that after a hearing officer is appointed by the general counsel, a hearing date will be set.
Radke’s lawyer, Keith Karlson, said he is “eager to have the board hear this matter.”
“It’s an important process that needs to find the truth,” he added.
The Fiscal Voices for Orland group is headed up by 17th District Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman of Orland Park. Gorman did not immediately return a message seeking comment but said in September she expected the case to be thrown out because “We have everything documented.”
Fiscal Voices chairman and treasurer Molly McAvoy Flynn said in her motion to dismiss that several aspects of the complaint are “erroneous” and “fatally flawed.”
The motion to dismiss contains receipts of $1,200 from the Edge Contract Services for the robocalls and transcripts of the robocalls, which say “paid for by Fiscal Voices of Orland” at the end.
If Rhode and Evoy are found guilty of filing false or incomplete information, they could be fined up to $5,000 and could be reported to the state attorney general and county prosecutors.
“The firefighters had their own robocall that said ‘we don’t support…whatever,’ ” Rhode said in September. “But Liz Gorman did a robocall saying she supported what Fiscal Voices are doing. They are saying we violated campaign finance laws. But these were our calls. It’s well documented.”
A robocall is a series of recorded calls generated by a computerized auto-dialer used by politicians, telemarketers and government agencies.
