Mayor Uses Town Credit Card To Pay For Strippers During Bachelor Party

[matcom]

<snip>

CHICAGO -- South suburban New Lenox officials said Tuesday they want an audit after the mayor used his village credit card at a strip club.

Mayor Mike Smith admitted to picking up the tab at a Chicago strip club on the village card on March 10. Smith charged $1,400 at VIP's nightclub, where he was attending a bachelor party. Smith said of the approximately dozen revelers, he was the only one with the money. While he didn't have his personal credit card, he did have his village card.

"It was just very poor judgment to put it on that card," Smith said.

Smith said he has reimbursed the village, NBC5's Natalie Martinez reported.

"Naturally, when you're out at a bachelor party having a good time, you're going to find that … everyone has had a few drinks, and with drinks, sometimes discretion goes out the window," Smith said. "I'm no different than anybody else, I'm human. Nobody was stepping up to the table to pay the bill."

Nancy Dye, a trustee on the village board's finance committee, said the loose policy on mayors using the cards and reimbursing the village, which had been tolerated until now, should no longer be tolerated. Smith had also racked up $1,600 at various Chicago restaurants last month, Martinez reported.

http://www.nbc5.com/news/9149530/detail.html?treets=chi&tid=2653643141813&tml=chi_8pm&tmi=chi_8pm_1_08000205022006&ts=H

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. I'm sure risking "VIP's" showing up on his personal credit

card where 'the wife' might see it had nothing to do with his decision...