Edgar County Watchdogs recently revealed in Illinois Leaks that former Champaign Mental Health Department Director Peter Tracy spent $100,000 on movies for Ebertfest at the University of Illinois.
Tracy is currently running for the Champaign County Board.
After investigating the expenditures, the watchdog group revealed that the payments for the movies were listed as "public relations."
Illinois Leaks pointed out that the Mental Health Department's mission statement is focused on promoting a local system of services for prevention and treatment, not on public relation efforts by the director and staff.
The annual report did list the expenditure under Community Engagement & Advocacy on page 27: "Objective #1 : Continue support for and involvement in the Champaign County Alliance for the Promotion of Acceptance, Inclusion and Respect signature event at Roger Ebert’s Film Festival and other community education events including disability Resource Expo: Reaching Out for Answers and the National Children’ s Mental Health Awareness Week."
With Illinois' continuing budget issues that have adversely affected the developmentally disabled and mental health programs in the state, Illinois Leaks questioned spending $100,000 on movies, no matter how worthy the cause. The funds could have been spent on services to assist those suffering from mental, emotional, developmental or substance abuse disorders, the group contended.
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