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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Antique County Furnishing Still Missing with No Audit Trail |
Current rating: 0 |
by Steven Sester
Email: sdsester (nospam) prairienet.org (unverified!)
Phone: 217/353-5173 |
27 Jul 2002
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Two cover stories in this one paper place covered the auction of antique furnishings but never addressed where the money went, what was sold, or for how much. Weird closed auction never had prices. Some solid hardword furnishings purchased as housewarming gifts by County Board member. |
Two cover stories on the historic courthouse auction of furnishings in a row and the News-Gazette is off the hook without one question yet of where the money went, what was actually sold, and for how much. Auction organizers will no doubt get their hands slapped but that shall be the end of this issue.
Yet, I think questions remain that are important. We are told there was no inventory list so obviously there is no audit trail. Yet organizers Busey and Inman claim to have separated “grain from shaff” but not to have kept a list? No appraisals? How did they know what treasures to keep for us and to be placed back into the restored courthouse without them?
Never in my life have I encountered an auction where there were no prices on things. Silent or in person. eBay should be filing suit against the County of Champaign for the very suggestion that it was used as a model in something this corrupt. One can accomplish a private auction, where the names of bidders are hidden but not without prices attached to items and an inventory list.
Frank should be ashamed of herself even if a solid hardwood table and chairs, 10 pieces in all came to only $376. She knows she was ripping somebody off. A bargain? You bet.
At times I have worked on the civil service side of things and my Dad spent a career. We had pieces of shaped marble in our house made from old US Mint buildings and so forth. I suppose he was probably party to what was going up for sale and we got some bargains but only at fair and quite public auctions that were all well publicized and advertised in advance!
The thought that a public employee, assumes first right of refusal to items of real antique value but owned by the public that pays their salary is beyond me. Sure if it is nostalgic they should have a shot at it, and I guess I do not mind them knowing of a coming, fair auction first. If it is silent, I do not mind them seeing the opening bid based on appraisals first. Thereafter, the should play fair.
What is most disturbing in all of this is that I happen to know high bid on one map/chart table would have been $2,000 if accepted. The paper on which it was offered was obviously ignored. Just starting with that number and adding the amounts paid for by those mentioned in the News-Gazette articles? How could this strangest of auctions have made only $3,711.
Since there is no inventory list, and since there were never any running silent auction prices, we shall never know the truth in this. Who got the stuff, what they paid for it, or where it all is at this moment shall know become another Champaign County mystery.
Don’t get me wrong in my passion for this issue. Mark Sheldon did a nice thing in scoring benches, stacking chairs and a desk for a noble cause and charity. If Sheriff Madigan needed a filing cabinet and paid $1 for it, he did the County a favor since they will not have to get rid of it in another place or manner. I am certainly not suggesting we take the pink table and chair Becky Duffield bought away from her.
It is the truly valuable antique stuff purchased as housewarming gifts and as, essentially, insider trades, that that irritate me. But come on, of Martha can do it why not someone here. It must be a good thing.
$376 divided by 10 pieces comes to $37.60 each? Other chairs went for $26 or so? Again, the public not notice to the auction in the first place, and with no prices for those who did manage to stumble on it? And obviously with bids ignored?
Noone knows about other nice tables and walnut bookcases with antique fused glass since there is no inventory list (convenient) and there were no prices on any auction items. If a high bid for just one item was $2,000 though, and it was never processed? And there were 499 other items according to Busey and Inman? It is very hard to believe the total value of this auction came only to $3,000-4,000! Diane Marlin’s suggestion to just bring everything back would be sensible but for the articles are all gone with, according to Busey, no real inventory list to start with. Noone involved in this make believe auction even remembers what was lost.
Someone’s warehouse is full of treasures. If I were a county employee even thinking this auction was to be honest and ethical, I would be livid. As a member of the taxpaying public, knowing of a bid placed ignored? |
