Lake County Gazette

Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) noted his commitment to preventing wasteful spending in response to an IllinoisHompage.net article on a questionable warehouse lease for which he fought to block payments.

"I'm proud to be a whistleblower about a political insider deal using $2.4 million of [Illinois] taxpayers money to lease a warehouse from the family of a convicted criminal," McSweeney wrote in a Facebook post. "I helped halt payments on the lease. Do you agree that we need to cut wasteful spending and drain the swamp in Springfield?"

The lease is between the state of Illinois and Climate Controlled Holdings, a company that registered as a new business two days before the contract’s bid deadline. The company purchased a former Barney’s Furniture warehouse for $575,000 and quickly received the state lease to store paper records.

The lease has been called into question because one of three owners of the company, Raffi Vartanian, is the son-in-law of Bill Cellini, a prominent political donor and fundraiser who was convicted on federal corruption charges. Frank Vala, chairman of the Procurement Policy Board, abstained from holding a vote or reviewing the lease, which led to its automatic approval.