Reader Finds County Board Member Carlos Acosta Clocked in at DCFS Job While at Committee Meetings

A Friend of McHenry County Blog did the research for and wrote the following article:

TIME & JUDGEMENT

We have all wanted or needed to be in two places at once at one time or another in our busy lives.

When life pulls us in two different directions we are faced with making a decision.

That decision is usually made based on many factors, what we feel is best, what is morally correct, which is more important to us and others. 

Carlos Acosta

We use our judgement to decide because we know we cannot be in two places at once.  It appears, however, that Carlos Acosta has this ability,

 After being forewarned that he is/was “expressly prohibited from engaging in political activities on state time”, it appears as if he neglected to take this warning seriously, or his own self interests clouded his judgement.

This documentation indicates he “double dipped” and shows he was on state time at DCFS, being paid by DCFS during the same time he was sitting in his seat for his elected position on the count board.

This is extremely unethical and possibly fraudulent in nature.  

Being paid by DCFS but not actually being there to perform his job duties. 

There appears to be a pattern and precedence set forth by Carlos Acosta. 

There needs to be further investigation into this matter, not only for these time cards and incidents presented here, but also during the campaigning season, when he had knocked on thousands of doors, held meet and greets with the public etc.  

If Carlos Acosta was overworked then his time at DCFS and the cases he was working on should reflect that he did not take time away from his DCFS resposibilities during normal business hours.

Discrepancies have been found in Mr. Acosta’s own accounting of his whereabouts on the following dates and times.

• February 28, 2019 his DCFS time sheet shows his entered start time at 12:00 pm. County Board Minutes and video show he was in attendance until 12:35 pm.

http://mchenrycountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=12&ID=4185&Inline=True

• March 14, 2019, his DCFS time sheet shows his  entered start time at 12:00 pm. County Board Minutes and video show he was in attendance until 12:25 pm. 
http://mchenrycountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=12&ID=4209&Inline=True

• April 11, 2019, his DCFS time sheet shows his entered start time at 12:00 pm. County Board Minutes and video show he was in attendance until 12:39 pm
http://mchenrycountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=12&ID=4270&Inline=True

One of Acosta’s time sheets.

Could there be instances of this same impropriety, where he was on the clock at DCFS but engaged in “political activities”?

Hopefully his lack of integrity combined with poor judgement didn’t affect the well-being of another child?

= = = = =

The dot points above and links to meetings were sent to Acosta for comment yesterday afternoon.

No reply has been received.

= = = = =

The following was received after the article was posted:

I just saw this now. It went into my spam folder. 

As you know, state employees work an 8.5 hr day (8:30 am to 5 pm), but only get paid for 7.5 hours.

There is a built-in unpaid lunch hour.

As I understand our contract, if an employee uses benefit time for less than half of the business day (less than 4.25 hrs), they can also utilize their unpaid lunch hour.

The contract only states that the lunch hour shall be utilized (I’m paraphrasing) at the middle of their shift.  

For example, an employee that takes 4 hrs. off in the afternoon (1 pm to 5 pm) could actually leave during their unpaid lunch from 12 – 1.

One of the quirks of our (old) timekeeping system is that the hours in a day must equal 8.5.

So the above example would be coded as working from 8:30 until 1 pm (4.5 hrs) and then on benefit time from 1 pm to 5 pm (4 hrs.).

On the days referenced, I was utilizing benefit time from 8:30 am until 12 pm.

I utilized my unpaid lunch hour from 12 pm to 1 pm and reported to work at 1 pm.

The timesheet correctly shows 8:30 am to 12 pm (3.5 hrs) benefit time and 12 pm to 5 pm (5 hrs) contracted time, which equals 8.5 hours.

Hope that clarifies this.

Carlos J. Acosta, LCSW, CISW
McHenry Co. Board District 5


Comments

Reader Finds County Board Member Carlos Acosta Clocked in at DCFS Job While at Committee Meetings — 48 Comments

  1. Carlos is one local face of the Democratic Party.

    Another face is the liar in chief who protects him.

    That said, be aware the Democratic controlled State has reduced funding for DCFS by 15 % since 2010!

    Add the reduction in funding to the apparent performance of Carlos and you get an idea of how inept the Democratic party is in managing anything!

    The problem in Illinois politics is corruption at the lowest and highest levels!

  2. Carlos Acosta has many questions to answer, regarding his Case Work and Union Work, for that new Contract they have, at DCFS, during his work hours there.

    Another question, were either of AJ’s parents, seeing Acosta at Blair Counseling & Mediation, as clients?

    Was AJ’s father at any time, an Attorney working on behalf of Acosta?

    Look at the Committees Acosta is on, besides being a County Board Member for District 5. Looks and Sounds like Acosta is filling up his Resume.

  3. Acosta is a rotten crook, liar, falsifier, fake, douche- — in short a typical Democrat operative!

    He is the face of everything wrong with our nation and the parasites we allow to suck our blood and wreck our land.

    Maybe this will help you understand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3QoX0fRmw

  4. It sounds like he’s perjuring documents about his work for a state agency, the same state agency that dropped the ball on a little boy who was later murdered by his parents.

    Where is Patrick Kenneally?

  5. When the states attorney has voiced concern regarding Acosta’s judgement and failures in previous dcfs cases, not to mention AJ’s case, should Acosta be holding a seat on the Law/government committee?

    Where are his timesheets?

  6. Who in McHenry County government can investigate?

    Who is our Bob Mueller?

  7. Acosta’s election, is the reason why I hand out Kale and Celery, to all your kids on Halloween.

  8. Patronage is alive and working in McHenry County. no one can convince me otherwise
    and as far as I’m concerned Carlos Ascota is proof positive.

  9. Andrew, AJ Freund was murdered in Crystal Lake and Carlos Acosta was the DCFS worker.

    Newsflash, the case made the National News!

    We the people care!

    The people on the County Board better start caring!

    All of Carlos Acosta work records should be reviewed and compared. “ALL OF THEM!”

  10. We might want to have FBI investigate.

    Falsifying records is a crime and if he did it once he did several times before.

  11. Kenneally sleeping on the job again.

    If it involves McHenry County municipality / government corruption he’s afraid he might not get invited to a party, golf, poker etc.

    He’s one and done as States Attorney and a janitor would do a better job.

  12. This is a total swing and miss by A Friend of McHenry County Blog.

    This is a big old Nothing Burger with cheese.

    The lynch mob going after Kenneally look especially dumb.

    Put the pitch folks away folks and let the adults handle the charging decisions.

  13. So Carlos meetings were 5 minutes from his place of work?

    Or is he going to say he would exit from the meetings and do a house visit from there?

    If so let’s see the documented time on the case notes

  14. Processed American cheese food!

    We all need friends and we all need to be called out and held accountable every now and again.

    I guess we’ll wait and see what the inspector general comes up with.

    Tick toc tick toc

  15. The State of IL AFSCME contract has very generous benefits.

    Here are some of the benefits.

    +++++++++

    So the work day is 8.5 hours, less 1 hour for lunch, is 7.5 hours per day.

    Thus the State of IL DCFS Child Protection Advance Specialist position is required to work 7.5 hours per day, 5 days per week.

    That equates to 37.5 hours per week, which is 93.75% of a typical 40 hour work week.

    With 2.5 hours off per week is the equivalent of:

    – 1 week off for every 16 weeks worked (2.5 hours per week x 16 weeks = 40 hours. So we could ballpark that perk at an additional 2 – 3 days off per year, as we will see there is a generous allotment for vacation, sick, and personal days.

    – 130 hours off per year (52 weeks x 2.5 hours per week).

    ++++++++

    Per a June 24, 2019 Chicago Tribune article has worked at DCFS 1990 – 2005 & 2010 – present, which is about 24 years.

    ++++++++++

    Vacation Days

    The 2012 – 2015 State of IL AFSCME master contract states, “From the completion of nineteen (19) years of continuous service until the completion of twenty-five (25) years of continuous service: twenty-two (22) work days per year.”

    So in addition to working 37.5 hours per week he receives 22 vacation days per year.

    https://www2.illinois.gov/cms/personnel/employeeresources/Pages/PersonnelLaborRelations.aspx

    ++++++++++

    Sick Days

    In addition he receives 1 sick day per month, which is 12 sick days per year.

    ++++++++++

    Personal Days

    From the aforementioned cba:

    “All employees shall be permitted three (3) personal days off each calendar year with pay.”

    22 vacation days + 12 sick days + 3 personal days = 37 days off per year, which is 7 weeks and 2 days.

    That’s the equivalent of working 44 weeks, 3 days per year.

    Then remember the equivalent of 1 day off for every 16 weeks worked to account for working 37.5 hours per week instead of 40 hours per week, which is conservatively an extra 2 days off per week.

    22 vacation days + 12 sick days + 3 personal days + 2 days since only working 37.5 hours per week = 39 days, which is 7 weeks 4 days off per year.

  16. Mark is this the latest Union Contract that Carlos Acosta worked on as a Union Member, for the Department of Children & Family Services? I would say this was very generous.

  17. I love it when people comment about the “7.5 hour workday” that some state employees have.

    What they don’t comment on is that pay rates are fixed and based on hours of work assigned to a position.

    For example, casework salary is annualized, and based on a 37.5 hour work week.

    If it was a 40 hour work week, the annualized salary would be adjusted upwards to reflect that.

    Many/most positions are not “hourly” pay rates.

    It’s your salary, divided by 12 months, divided by 2 pay periods in the month.

    Period.

    Oh, and if for some reason you get caught up in a pay dispute of some sort, that bi-monthly pay is broken down into daily rates based on the number of days in the pay period.

    Sometimes it’s 11 days in the pay period, sometimes it’s 12.

    It’s archaic.

    So stop!

  18. This is an embarrassment.

    Where is the states attorney?

    No criminal negligence charges and now this, theft of public funds???

  19. Carlos Acosta, listen to this. This post sparked the outrage of all pro-America, pro-life, pro-transparency, pro-accountability, family-values, God fearing, gun-clinging compassionate sunshine commenters. All the clarifications in the world are useless. Therefore, your political career is essentially finished. Say that again? Nobody reads this sewer sunshine blog? Irrelevant you mean?. Who knew? Go Carlos Acosta! Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…

  20. No Angel, when you say go, you mean to jail, right, my little dingle berry bolshevik speaking blog troll?

  21. And evidently you read and can’t stay away from this as you call it “sewer sunshine blog”

  22. When is everyone going to get it? There is no rule of law! It’s gone!

  23. What exactly do you believe Patrick Kenneally is able to do about any of this at this point?

  24. How shady. So he is saying that he took his lunch break before even going into work?

    How is this man responsible for the safety and well-being of children?

    And I highly doubt that there are only 3 days in question-there has to be many more.

  25. Isn’t what Carlos A. Did illegal?

    Unethical?

    Wrong?

    A sin?

  26. Angel, who’s paying you to make a complete idiot of yourself? Franks?

  27. WesternElectric- Most likely.

    Though, Lauren Underwood is probably egging him on too.

  28. The timesheet here reads hours worked in at 12:00-out at 5 , 5 hours recorded as on the job, would be 5 hours paid. Add in 3.5 vacation hours used time also paid.

    That is 8.5 hours paid time for 7.5 hours worked.

    4 hours worked/ and 3.5 hours vacation

  29. 2012 – 2015 is the most recent collective bargaining agreement (cba) between the State of Illinois & AFSCME that’s posted on the Central Management Services (CMS) website.

    CMS is the repository for cba’s covering state employees.

    The 2015 – 2023 contract has not yet been posted.

    That major negotiations for that agreement concluded in 2019, but they may still be finalizing the contract.

    It’s common for public sector cba’s in Illinois to be tinkered with, often for months, after the labor union has ratified the agreement and the employer / management has ok’d the agreement.

    ++++++++++

    A typical workweek in the private sector is 40 hours.

    Unless the public is told the public sector employee is working less than 40 hours, the assumption is the employee is working 40 hours.

    To compare apples to apples, some mechanism is required to compare a salary of 37.5 hour per week employee to the salary of a 40 hour per week employee.

    In most cases (outside of education) of a salaried employee working less than 40 hours per week in the public sector, the union and government employer negotiated that perk into the cba at some point.

    In other words, 37.5 hours was a negotiated benefit in most cases.

    Public sector union negotiators are keenly aware of overall compensation, the four major categories being:

    – current pay

    – current benefits (including employee healthcare)

    – pensions

    – retiree healthcare

  30. The 2018 pensionable income for Carlos Acosta, Child Protection Advance Specialist, at the State of Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) was $94,400 per Open the Books salary database.

    In Open the Books:

    State: click on Illinois > Salaries: State and Local Employee Salaries – All State and Local Employee Salaries > Year: 2018 > Area of Government: State > Employer Name: Children & Family Services > View Results.

    Be sure to register or the results will be lost after a few searches.

    http://www.openthebooks.com

  31. What is the bell schedule at McHenry County Board? Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meeeeeeoooooooowwwwwwwwwwww…

  32. From the timesheet in the blog post, Mr. Acosta’s supervisor is Andy Polovin.

    Per Open the Books salary database, Andrew Polovin, Public Service Administrator, Children and Family Services (employer), $127,400 pensionable income in 2018.

    The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is a state agency in the executive branch of the State of Illinois government.

    ++++++++++++

    The Illinois State Comptroller also has an employee salary database.

    illinoiscomptroller.gov/financial-data/state-expenditures/employee-salary-database

    +++++++++++

    Northwest Herald

    From the Editor: Public records provide important context

    September 1, 2019

    by Jon Styf

    “DCFS didn’t give us those communications, which include text messages on DCFS investigator Carlos Acosta’s phone, and now it claims it can’t get those messages because phones of Acosta and Andy Polovin have been impounded as part of a child death investigation by the DCFS Office of the Inspector General.”

    http://www.nwherald.com/2019/08/27/from-the-editor-public-records-provide-important-context/ab2k5gw

    +++++++++++++

    Northwest Herald

    Styf: Sometimes, 239 pages of documents lead to nowhere

    June 29, 2019

    The article includes a letter from Desiree Silva, Northern Region, Regional Administrator, DCFS; to Carlos Acosta; regarding his intention to run for the McHenry County Board.

    She attached to the letter:

    – Employee Handbook Section 3.8 (which includes 3.8.3 Prohibited Political Activity)

    – State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, 5 ILCS 430/1-1 et al

    nwherald.com/2019/06/28/styf-sometimes-239-pages-of-documents-lead-nowhere/ayu8gvx

  33. MEAL PERIODS: work schedules shall provide for the ***WORK DAY** to be broken at approximately mid point for an unpaid meal period.

    WORK DAY: a normal ***WORK DAY*** shall consist of 7.5 CONSECUTIVE hours.

  34. “Andrew Gasser on 09/17/2019 at 2:41 pm said:”

    At 2:41 on a Tuesday, aren’t you supposed to be doing township work and not commenting on local blog spots?

    Maybe you could have used that time to, I don’t know, seek bids for salt.

  35. sounds Like Anna Mae Miller charging gas mileage and time spent …….learning from the losers in Bob Millers nightmare on east main Cary Illinois

  36. Bob Miller was holding court at Around the Clock again (Wed., Sept 18, 2019 @ 9:30am.

    Is he dreaming about running for his township theft-job again?

  37. He was with 2 unidentified middle-aged men.

    They laughed a lot.

    Miller complained about something and the manager came out. –Couldn’t hear what the fuss was about.

  38. Where is it stated in the AFSCME cba or its appendixes on the CMS website, what Mr Acosta wrote at the end of the blog post?

    “As I understand our contract, if an employee uses benefit time for less than half of the business day (less than 4.25 hrs), they can also utilize their unpaid lunch hour.

    The contract only states that the lunch hour shall be utilized (I’m paraphrasing) at the middle of their shift.”

    illinois.gov > CMS > Personnel > Employee Resources > Labor Relations > Labor Contracts > AFSCME

    ++++++++++

    A few notes about the AFSCME contract that covers state employees, and collective bargaining in general at the state level.

    The state labels collective bargaining units as “Recognized Certification” (RC) units.

    The State AFSCME contract covers the following 8 RC units (other cba’s cover other RC units):

    RC-006 (RC-6) – Dept of Corrections employees

    RC-009 (RC-9) – Institutional employees; for example in the Depts of Human Services & Veteran Affairs

    RC-010 (RC-10) – Technical Advisors and Hearing Referees

    RC-014 (RC-14) – Clerical and paraprofessional services

    RC-028 (RC-28) – Direct services to the client and public

    RC-042 (RC-42) – Maintenance employees

    RC-062 (RC-62) – Professional employees

    RC-063 (RC-63) – Technical employees

    ++++++++

    Each RC covers many positions.

    For example, Mr. Acosta is a Child Protection Advanced Specialist (CPAS) in RC-062 (Professional Employees).

    Here are the positions covered by RC-062, per the ILGA JCAR administrative code negotiated rates of pay:

    ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/080/08000310ZZ9996AwR.html

    +++++++++++

    Central Management Services (CMS) has numbered the CPAS position as Title Code 07161.

    CMS groups Title Codes into Class Specifications to describe related positions.

    Here is the CMS Class Specification that includes the CPAS position:

    https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/work/Documents/pdfs_specs/07162.pdf

    +++++++++++

    In the summer of 2016, the Illinois Policy Institute published a report that describes the AFSCME contract.

    AFSCME vs. the private sector: A comprehensive review of the most absurd benefits in the AFSCME collective bargaining agreement

    by Mailee Smith, staff attorney

    Summer 2016

    illinoispolicy.org/reports/a-comprehensive-review-of-the-most-absurd-benefits-in-the-afscme-collective-bargaining-agreement

  39. Mark. Where is it stated is the question.

    Have you been able to find the section that would apply to Carlos and what it says regarding work day and meal periods?

    If so please share.

  40. Mark thank you so much for all your uncompensated efforts to post source-cited information about alleged malfeasance by public sector predators.

    Civil litigation by injured taxpayers may be the only self defense against this sort of alleged malfeasance.

    Would fellow taxpayers be willing to participate in crowd-funding such litigation if and when appropriate?

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