Poshard sees bright future for once troubled Rend Lake

The former congressman ends his task of getting the conservancy district's board back on track.

The Associated Press

WHITTINGTON, Ill. -- As he walked into the Rend Lake Conservancy District last summer to take over as interim manager, former congressman Glenn Poshard knew that the agency under both state and federal investigation had to be in bad shape.

"But I didn't know it was in that bad a shape," he told the Southern Illinoisan newspaper in Carbondale.

As he prepares to step down at the end of the week, Poshard said he thinks the district's board is up to the task of turning things around and the financially troubled agency is close to meeting the goals set when he took over in July.

"They clearly understand the management plan, the financial plan, and they stood firm in making the cuts that needed to be made," Poshard said of the board. "They also have a hugely competent management team in place to carry these plans out."

In November, the board named engineer and Colorado utilities manager Keith Thomason as its new general manager. He takes over a district that oversees the water supply for 160,000 people in 60 surrounding communities in Southern Illinois and is supported by water fees and revenue generated by the 19,000-acre lake and resort.

Like Poshard, Thomason comes to a district that has been under intense scrutiny, the focus of investigations by a variety of agencies, including the FBI, U.S. attorney's office and the Internal Revenue Service.

Audit investigation

An audit by the Illinois auditor general was ordered after former general manager Kevin Davis was fired in 2003 for allegedly mishandling nearly $500,000 in district money. Davis, who contends he did nothing wrong, has not been charged and the board voted to pay him a $250,000 settlement to avoid the costs of a lengthy legal battle.

In September, the audit blasted the district for "significant deficiencies in virtually all aspects of its management."

Among the findings, the audit found that the district took money that could have been used to upgrade aging water-treatment equipment and used it to subsidize recreational facilities that were losing money. The audit also found that the district lacked a business plan or budget, despite taking in $12 million in revenue last year.

As scathing as the audit was, Poshard, who lost the governor's race to George Ryan in 1998, said the district needed to hear what was in it.

"The report was a terrific starting point in terms of developing a management plan by pointing out a lot of weaknesses with the district, particularly weaknesses associated with the financial end and the accounting structure of the district," he said.

Further, he said, the audit forced the district to make the difficult decisions necessary to turn around the recreational facilities.

"We laid off more than 30 people and that was very difficult," he said. "The auditor's report ... spelled out what we had to do and there was no way around that. We had to make those facilities self supporting and we devised a plan to do that."

Poshard said the district could have a bright future.

"The potential is so unbelievable there," he said. "If this thing is managed properly, watch how it takes off over the next few years."