Investigation · Village of Bradley

The Purchasing Cards

By The Bourbs

Thirteen months of the Village of Bradley's credit-card statements and the receipts filed with them, June 2025 through June 2026: every charge, what was documented, and what wasn't. Built from the 924 pages the Village released in response to our records request. Citations like "[Aug-2025 p.43]" mean page 43 of the August 2025 statement packet.

Published Oct. 13, 2026924 pages read13 statements, no gaps

How to read this. Every figure was read from a page image, and every month's charges were added up and matched to the bank's own totals. A "no receipt" claim means none is in this production; the request covered card statements and the receipts filed with them, not purchase orders, contracts or board minutes. Handwriting is described as what it "appears to read." Nothing here says anyone broke the law; several items may have ordinary explanations.

Disclosure. The Bourbs filed the request that produced these records. Software, including AI tools, helped read and cross-check the pages; every figure was checked against the page images. Private individuals' names, addresses, card numbers and account numbers are left out.

What they saidWe have not yet asked the Village or the people named here to comment. We are sending them the questions on this page, and any response will be added here with the date.

The short version

Village cardholders charged $346,219.64 in 13 months. The account is on automatic payment, so each bill is paid on its due date whether or not receipts have come in.
In June 2025, 15 charges of $100 or more, totaling $14,151.87, had no receipt in the packet: 45% of that month's spending. Romo's card alone carried $242,114.95, 70% of everything charged. An accounts-payable clerk then chased missing receipts month after month, often from Finance Director Rob Romo, who wrote back "I can't find the receipt" and "Invoices could not be located."
$20,383.86 of chuck roasts, turkeys and hams (1,037 items) went on the police chief's card. Each is backed by a till tape and a budget code; no event, date or recipient appears in the production.
The Village card paid $5,000 twice on the same day for a ribbon-cutting at the sports park restaurant. The refund went back on the charge that had an invoice; the $5,000 that stayed has no receipt. Grill equipment bought on the card was shipped to the restaurant owner, not the Village.
The Mayor flew first class to Dallas with the Village Administrator, and the hotel folio lists him as an additional guest in the Administrator's one room. A note on the booking appears to read "Mattel/Meeting." The production contains no payment for the Mayor's ticket.

$346,219.64

Charged, Jun 2025 to Jun 2026

13 statement summaries

$14,151.87

June 2025 charges of $100+ with no receipt in the packet

Jun-2025 pp.2–3

$20,383.86

Beef, turkey and ham on the police chief's card

Oct-2025, Nov-2025, Mar-2026

$35,575.43

Golf cart, utility cart and trailer bought by card

Jul-2025, Aug-2025, May-2026

All 721 lines on 13 statements · ties to the bank's totals

Every charge

Every line on every statement, transcribed from the page images and checked so each month, and each cardholder within it, adds up to the bank's own printed totals. "Receipt" shows whether a receipt, invoice or order confirmation for that charge is in the packet; "partial" means something is there but it doesn't fully support the charge (a payment stub, an order with no items, a total that doesn't match). Categories are ours. Download the full table (CSV).

By cardholder

Purchases only (credits excluded). Other staff order on cardholders' cards, so a name here is whose card was used, not necessarily who bought it.

By category

Purchases only. Categories are our classification of each charge from the receipt or merchant.

By month

Receipt in packetPartialNo receipt

Search Month Cardholder Category Receipt Min $

Date	Card	Merchant	Category	Amount	Receipt	Note

Fifth Third corporate card account · limit $150,000 · billed c/o Robert Romo

The numbers

Monthly purchases

Statement closing	Purchases & other charges

Each figure is from page 1 of that month's statement. The 13 months add to $346,219.64.

Charges of $100+ with no receipt in the packet

Month	Charges	Amount	% of month

Charges under $100 aren't counted. A charge counts as documented if any receipt, invoice or order confirmation for it is in the packet.

Cardholders

Cardholder	Role	Limit	Charged	Note

Others order on cardholders' cards: Village Administrator Craig Anderson's Amazon orders run on Romo's card, and police, finance and clerk staff appear on receipts. Romo himself called them "my shared credit card statements" in a July 22, 2026 email to us.

The statements say: "You are enrolled in automatic payments. Your payment will be automatically debited on the payment due date." Receipts are collected afterward; the chase doesn't hold up payment.

Each one cites the page

What the records show

One clerk chasing receipts, and a finance director who couldn't find them

The packets carry a year of emails from the Village's accounts-payable clerk asking cardholders for missing receipts and budget codes:

"I NEED THESE ASAP SO I CAN PROCESS THIS WEEK!" (Sept. 22, 2025) Aug-2025 p.23
"STILL NEEDING THESES ASAP PLEASE!" (Dec. 11, 2025) Sep-2025 p.20
"ROB!!! I REALLY REALLY NEED THESE OR A LETTER WITH GL #'S AND WHY SO I CAN PROCESS THIS IT IS FROM APRIL AND IT IS JUNE 22ND TODAY!! DUDE PLEASE" (June 22, 2026) Apr-2026 p.16

Romo's replies include: "The only missing ones are Amazon and I can't access the account. We are going to have to wait until Anderosn [sic] comes back…" (Dec. 11, 2025, about September receipts, 72 days after that statement closed); "Invoices could not be located please code as indicated above." (April 29, 2026); and "I can't find the receipt [sad-face emoji] Please code to 10-01-00-5460," which also explains the purchase as a computer bag, mouse and keyboard for the scoreboards (June 24, 2026).

Romo's June 2026 charges came with a handwritten "Admin Missing" list of nine items totaling $22,332.88, 94.7% of his $23,572.18 in June purchases. All nine were later struck through; two small USPS charges ($12.16 and $3.00) never got a receipt.

Sep-2025 p.20Mar-2026 p.16Apr-2026 pp.15–16Jun-2026 pp.2, 11

$20,383.86 of meat on the police chief's card

Date	Item	Qty	Amount
Oct 3, 2025	Certified Angus Beef chuck roasts @ $26.68	370	$9,871.60
Nov 14, 2025	Turkeys (317 @ $15.78 + 50 @ $5.95)	367	$5,299.76
Mar 24, 2026	Hams, annotated "Food – Mission"	300	$5,212.50
	Total	1,037	$20,383.86

All three are on Police Chief Donald Barber's card at Meijer #301, coded 10-40-00-7777 and tax-exempt. Each is a till tape with a budget code; the turkeys also say "Food." The production names no event, date, venue or recipient for any of them. The roast transaction was suspended and resumed three times at the register. A Meijer mPerks loyalty account was attached to the turkey purchase; the receipt doesn't show whose.

Account 10-40-00-7777 is titled "MUNICIPAL OPERATIONS/REBATE" and is a catch-all, not a food line.

Oct-2025 pp.45–47Nov-2025 pp.68–70Mar-2026 pp.61–63

Our questionWhat were these for, who received them, and who approved each purchase?

Gift cards and a December shopping trip, with no recipient lists

On Dec. 9, 2025, eight carts went through two adjacent Meijer lanes between 10:32 and 11:26 a.m.: children's clothing, coats, boots, toys, bedding, books and toiletries, $11,405.54 in all, on Jeff Meeker's card. The card was charged $9,905.54; the other $1,500 was paid with three $500 Meijer gift/return cards that don't appear as purchases on any statement in this production. Each receipt is coded 10-45-00-8902, a police department account.

Across the 13 months the cards bought 44 gift cards: $3,025 in face value plus $90.35 in activation fees, $3,115.35 in all. They include ten $120 cards marked "Rebate Program Cards," a $500 Visa gift card on the police chief's card, and general-purpose cards from ONE4ALL and others. The production contains no recipient list, sign-out sheet or acknowledgment for any of them.

Dec-2025 pp.2–3, 38–53Aug-2025 pp.55, 84Sep-2025 p.36Oct-2025 p.23Nov-2025 p.12Dec-2025 pp.17, 28, 33, 51Jan-2026 p.35

Our questionWhere did the three $500 Meijer cards come from, and who received the gift cards and the December merchandise?

The sports park restaurant: a $5,000 charge with no receipt, and equipment shipped to the owner

On Aug. 14, 2025, Romo's card was charged $5,000 twice: once by "IN*BARNYARDIA LLC," backed by a "Ribbon Cutting Invoice" coded "315 Ribbon cutting (Food)," and once by "TST*BRADLEY CENTER - C," with no document of any kind. Barnyardia LLC operates the restaurant at the Village's 315 Sports Park under the assumed name Plate'D Social; "BRADLEY CENTER" is the restaurant's card-terminal name in the Village's own December packet.

On Sept. 26, Romo told the clerk: "We have a $5,000.00 double charge. Please code it to 10-01-00-6613 and we will see a credit next month." The credit, posted Sept. 15, came back on the Barnyardia charge, the one with the invoice. The $5,000 the Village kept is the one with no receipt. It may well be the same invoice paid twice; the production doesn't show it.

Other card purchases went to the restaurant's owner, Thomas Vasilakis:

A Platinum Package grill (upgraded from 24" to 36"), sidebar and pan holders, $1,282.44 plus a $202.95 change order, shipped to Vasilakis at a Bourbonnais address. Aug-2025 pp.35–39
A WebstaurantStore order including a Vollrath countertop warmer, $383.01, shipped to "Tommy Vasilakis / Barnyardia" at the same address. Aug-2025 pp.40–41
Four Sonos speaker wall hooks, $125.57, bought on a Sonos.com account in Vasilakis's name and sent to 315 Champions Way, the sports park. Four Sonos Move 2 speakers ($1,396.00) were bought in store on Romo's card a week earlier. Sep-2025 p.4Aug-2025 p.29

The Village Board approved a lease with Barnyardia in May 2025 (O-05-25-02) and repealed it in August (O-08-25-05), which says the lease "has not been executed by either party." In November 2024 the Board approved $812,288.33 of restaurant equipment from Zepole Supply Co for the sports complex and waived competitive bidding (R-11-24-01). The BEDC Ledger shows what happened to the restaurant deal after the repeal.

Aug-2025 pp.2, 18, 23Sep-2025 p.2Dec-2025 pp.11, 16R-11-24-01

Our questionWhat was the second $5,000 for? Where are the grill, warmer and speakers now, and are they Village property?

Dallas: the Mayor in first class and in the Administrator's room

Village Administrator Craig Anderson and Mayor Michael Watson flew to Dallas–Fort Worth on Feb. 17–20, 2026. Watson's itinerary shows First class on both flights; Anderson's shows no cabin. The Homewood Suites Grand Prairie folio lists Anderson as the guest, "ADDN GUESTS: Michael Watson," "Guests 2/0," in one room; the booking two weeks earlier said "1 Adult."

The only statement of purpose is handwritten: notes appear to read "Dallas Mattel/Meeting" and "Mayor to Mattel/Meeting." (The Village signed Mattel to its waterpark project in December 2025.) The only airline charge on the statements is $569.81, under Anderson's ticket number; a handwritten note on the reimbursement file's copy of his confirmation reads "Reimb Rob Romo $569.81." No payment for the Mayor's ticket appears on any statement in this production. A $192.00 rental annotated "Rental Watson" was booked the same evening as the flights and hotel, and a $525.81 prepaid Hilton charge is matched in handwriting to the same hotel booking.

Feb-2026 pp.2, 9, 16–18, 28AA reimbursement file pp.1–4

Our questionWho paid for the Mayor's first-class ticket, what was the Mattel meeting, and did the Board approve this travel by roll call, as state law requires for a board member's travel?

Orlando: three rooms and a reimbursement backed by a shopping cart

For Nov. 17–19, 2025, Romo's card booked three Hilton rooms through Priceline for two nights at $182.80 a room-night ($1,294.68 with taxes and fees). The only printed traveler is Romo; handwritten notes appear to read "Romo / Watson / Todd / IAAPA," the theme-park industry expo held in Orlando that week. A scooter rental is annotated "wheel chair rental Mayor – Orlando."

Romo was reimbursed $641.96 for his United flight. The only support is a screenshot of a united.com cart taken before checkout: the pages are at the "choose travelers" step, a "Continue" button is visible and a required field is blank. No receipt shows what was paid or by whom. A $215.00 "Premium Charge Rebooking Fare Difference" on the same flight was bought at 6:36 a.m. the morning of departure.

Nov-2025 pp.2, 15–19, 24, 30–31United reimbursement file pp.1–9

Our questionWho stayed in the three rooms, who authorized the trip, and where is the receipt for the $641.96 flight?

Other travel and lodging

Washington, D.C., June 29–July 2, 2025 (Romo, GFOA conference): documented. Marriott Marquis, $1,874.93 for three nights with no incidentals; $2,265.75 with meals and rides. No registration or airfare appears on the June or July statements. Jul-2025 pp.5–16
Holiday Inn Express Bourbonnais, $2,818.29 (June 2025): no folio or guest names; the descriptor is dated June 5, the opening day of the 2025 315 Music Fest. Jun-2025 pp.3, 5
Comfort Inn, June 5–8, 2025, $439.56: rooms for two people the production doesn't identify. Jun-2025 pp.36–39
Residence Inn Bloomington, Oct. 5–10, 2025, $1,310.40: five nights at a $234 rate for a Village staff member, on Romo's card and stamped "APPROVED"; the folio lists the guest's home address rather than the Village's. Oct-2025 p.14
GFOA Chicago, June 2026: registration of $1,530 was charged in January 2026, $1,020 for Assistant Finance Director Christopher Chamblee and $510 for Romo. Jan-2026 p.19

$35,575.43 of vehicles on a credit card

Date	What	Amount
Jul 15, 2025	Denago EV Rover XXL six-seat golf cart, on a layaway/pre-order form with the print, signature and date lines blank and "Paid: $0.00." The $14,532.46 balance includes $998.25, equal to 8.25% sales tax on the cart and doc fee, though the Village is tax-exempt; the card was charged that balance plus 3%. Jul-2025 p.20	$14,968.43
Aug 26, 2025	2020 Cushman Hauler utility cart. Invoice dated May 28, 2025; serial number and both signature lines blank. Aug-2025 p.43	$8,000.00
May 12, 2026	Used 2024 Diamond C tilt trailer, signed by the purchaser; the "Approved" line is blank. Includes $620 for title and plates and a $293 card/delivery fee. May-2026 p.20	$12,607.00

Purchase orders, board approvals and titles weren't covered by our request, so their absence here is a question, not a finding. Separately, a police lieutenant wrote that an $11,305.98 B&H charge was "UNK what this was for." It was a DJI Mavic 3 Thermal drone ordered by the police chief in May 2025; the order confirmation was three pages later in the same packet.

Jul-2025 pp.70, 73–74

The Village card paid an invoice billed to the BEDC

Midwest Integrated Solutions invoice 25-0533 (July 1, 2025), $22,432.00 for mall security cameras, is billed to the "Bradley Economic Development Corporation" at the Village Hall address and shipped to Northfield Square Mall. Its "P.O. Number" field reads "Signed Quote." Hardware and shipping are billed at quantity 0.5, implying the cost was split with someone; no second invoice is in the production. The same card later paid the BEDC's state liquor license and a $25 late fee. The BEDC Ledger has the rest of the camera story.

Jul-2025 pp.2, 17

Subscriptions on a municipal card

Pathfinder Marketing, $2,122.00 every month for "Village of Bradley – 315 Sports Complex" advertising. Payment #20 posted in June 2026, so about $42,440 had been paid since late 2024. No contract is in the production. May-2026 p.32Jun-2026 p.21
Spotify Premium Family, ten straight months (June 2025–March 2026).
VEED video software, $348.00 a year, no receipt; the clerk chased it under the wrong vendor name. Apr-2026 pp.2, 16
My Best Buy Total, $179.99 a year, no receipt. The clerk's note: "GONNA SAY THIS IS A YEARLY THING FOR SOMETHING." Mar-2026 pp.2, 16
Vecticon, an AI image-editing service, $35 a month, invoiced to a private individual's personal email address with "robert romo" beneath it. Jun-2025 p.33Jul-2025 p.19

Meals and alcohol

Plate'D Social, Dec. 2, 2025: a check for eight, including four filet mignon at $44, $415 plus a $100 tip (24.1%), signature line blank, annotated in handwriting that appears to read "Mattel/Meeting." A second meal there the same day brought the total to $693.80. Dec-2025 pp.11, 16
Oliver's Bar & Grill, March 17, 2026: receipt $225.27 with an 18% gratuity already included; the card was charged $275.27. Mar-2026 pp.2, 38
Family House, Sept. 25, 2025: $147.79, annotated "Lunch with Buc-ee's Developer." The developer isn't named. Sep-2025 p.28
Alcohol, June 4–6, 2025: $466.84 of liquor and beer on Romo's card at Walmart, Liquor Zone and Target, during the 315 Music Fest; the Liquor Zone receipt is marked "315." Jun-2025 pp.13, 15, 30

Reimbursements: $8,006.42 paid outside the card

Four Costco candy receipts (Halloween, Trunk-or-Treat and the Christmas parade, $4,613.38 in all) were reimbursed. Romo requested the two Christmas parade reimbursements by email; the other two, on the same Costco membership, have no cover email. None carries an approval signature or expense form. A $2,751.08 USPS charge on a Visa debit card is annotated "Reimb Rob Romo" and coded to the sewer fund; USPS had told the Village its account balance "needs to be paid in full immediately." With the $641.96 United reimbursement (Finding 06), the four files total $8,006.42. To the Village's credit, the Dec. 15 candy receipt split out about $243 of personal groceries and claimed only the Village's share.

Reimbursement files

Police purchases worth a second look

A $2,745.90 order from KINNLS, a Hong Kong online store, on Romo's card, shipped to Craig Anderson at Village Hall, with a contact address at a Gmail account of unknown ownership. The order summary is collapsed in the printout, so the goods are never described. Jul-2025 pp.2, 37–38
Five NIJ IIIA ballistic helmets, $559.96, from an online store billing through Payoneer as "PYN*TACHELMET ONLINE HK," ordered by Deputy Chief Adrian Provost. No certification, lot or serial numbers are in the packet. Mar-2026 pp.65–69

How the Village released these records

The October 2025 packet includes a training-registration form with a police card's full number, expiry date and security code. Other pages print cards' expiry dates, and a June 2026 page reproduces a skip-trace search log naming private citizens with their ages and addresses. No response letter, exemption log or index came with the production. We are not republishing any of those details.

Oct-2025 (one page)Jun-2026 p.49

What the clerk's checking caught, and what it didn't

A $540.57 Meijer charge posted twice on Dec. 16, 2025. Fifth Third opened a dispute on Jan. 20, 2026 and credited it on Jan. 26. Dec-2025 p.2Jan-2026 pp.2, 5
A second $144.00 Grammarly charge posted Jan. 18, 2026. Grammarly's billing history, printed by the Village on Feb. 9, shows only Nov. 29, 2024 and Nov. 29, 2025. No refund appears in the production. Jan-2026 pp.2, 26–29
The police card got no missing-receipt emails like the ones on the administration card. A pencil note on the June 2026 statement reads "Police missing" next to three charges; their receipts are later in the same packet. Jun-2026 pp.3, 48–54

The gift-card register: 44 cards, $3,115.35

Date	Card	What	Face value
Jul 31, 2025	Barber	$500 Visa gift card, annotated "Gift CARD f[or] [B/N]elson" (name partly obscured) Aug-2025 p.84	$500.00
Aug 5, 2025	Williams	10 × $120 cards, "Rebate Program Cards," coded 10-40-00-7777 Aug-2025 p.55	$1,200.00
Sep 9, 2025	Meeker	2 × $120 cards, coded 10-40-00-7777 Sep-2025 p.36	$240.00
Oct 21, 2025	Romo	Three cards ($15, $25, $40), annotated "Way-o-ween Trunk/Treat" Oct-2025 p.23	$80.00
Nov 7, 2025	Romo	3 × $25 AMC, "Halloween House Decorating Contest Prize Basket[s]" Nov-2025 p.12	$75.00
Dec 2025 – Jan 2026	various	25 cards, including ONE4ALL, Darden, Kohl's, Dick's, Texas Roadhouse and PlayStation Dec-2025 pp.17, 28, 33, 51Jan-2026 p.35	$930.00
		Activation fees (July–September)	$90.35
		Total, 44 cards	$3,115.35

The production contains no recipient log, sign-out sheet or acknowledgment for any of them.

Other large or unusual purchases

Bade Appliance & Electric, $7,629.80 (June 2025): no receipt in the packet; the largest undocumented charge in the 13 months. Jun-2025 p.3
WebstaurantStore, $7,851.00 (June 2026): two reach-in freezers and two refrigerators shipped to 315 Champions Way, the sports park. Documented. Jun-2026
Conserv FS, $12,102.50 (June 2026): an $11,750.00 "CUSTOMER PREPAYMENT FOR DELIVERY" plus a $352.50 line (exactly 3%). The only document is the vendor's statement, which still showed the $11,750 as an unapplied credit balance on June 30. No product is named. Jun-2026 p.15
Sonco Perimeter Security barricades: $5,277.20 and a −$484.00 credit in April 2026, then $4,795.20 in May for 40 metal barricades. Apr-2026 p.2May-2026 p.2
Peerless Enterprises fencing, $5,775.00 (Feb. 2026): payment confirmation only, no invoice or scope. Feb-2026 p.42
Nearly Natural artificial plants, $2,659.47 (Feb. 2026): order confirmation with no line items, annotated "Supply 315 / Sports Park." Amazon planters added $1,222.40 (later returned) and $1,181.22. Feb-2026 pp.33–34
ESRI ArcGIS licenses, $4,900.37 across two charges; shelving for the sports park, $3,173.38; field paint and a spray gun, $2,282.73. All documented.
CMC Neptune, $3,375.00 (March 2026): paid March 20 for a service term starting April 18. Mar-2026 pp.26–27
Facebook ads, June 2025: eleven charges totaling $3,093.10, matched by a handwritten tally on the statement; no Facebook invoices in the packet. Jun-2025 pp.2, 7
Swank Motion Pictures, $750.00: movie-in-the-park licensing, properly documented.

Every charge, with its receipt status, is in the table above.

Personal accounts on public purchases

Several Village purchases were made through personal accounts or with loyalty programs attached. The Orlando travel bookings were emailed to a personal Gmail address in Romo's name. A Meijer mPerks account was attached to the $5,299.76 turkey purchase, a Hilton Honors number appears on a September 2025 folio, and all four reimbursed Costco candy receipts carry the same Costco membership. The receipts don't show who holds the loyalty accounts or whether rewards were earned. A Vecticon software subscription was invoiced to a private individual's email address with "robert romo" beneath it. We aren't publishing any of the account numbers or addresses.

Nov-2025 pp.16, 18, 30, 68–70Sep-2025 foliosJul-2025 p.19Reimbursement files

The reimbursement files: $8,006.42 outside the card

File	Amount	Paid with
Costco candy: Halloween 9/29, Trunk-or-Treat 10/20, Christmas parade 12/04/25	$4,385.79	A Costco Visa
Costco candy, Christmas parade (submitted 12/15/25; receipt undated)	$227.59	A different card
USPS account negative balance, annotated "Reimb Rob Romo," coded to the sewer fund	$2,751.08	A Visa debit card, PIN verified
United flight, Orlando (see Finding 06)	$641.96	Not shown
Total	$8,006.42

None of the four candy reimbursements carries an approval signature or expense form, and two have no cover email. The Dec. 15 receipt was split correctly: 11 bags at $20.69 ($227.59) were claimed and about $243 of personal groceries on the same receipt were not. USPS had written that the Village's account balance "needs to be paid in full immediately."

50 ILCS 150

The state travel law

Most of what these records show is a control problem, which isn't by itself a violation of any particular law. One statute is different, because its requirements are specific and can be checked against records the Village either has or doesn't. The Local Government Travel Expense Control Act applies to non-home-rule units of local government; Bradley appears to be one (it levies a non-home-rule sales tax).

Section	What it requires
§10 Regulation	The board must adopt, by resolution or ordinance, rules for reimbursing travel, meal and lodging expenses, including the kinds of official business allowed, maximum amounts and a standard form. No travel, meal or lodging expense may be approved or paid unless those rules have been adopted.
§15 Approval	A roll-call vote at an open meeting is required for (a) any officer or employee expense over the adopted maximum, and (b) any travel, meal or lodging expense of a member of the governing board, including the Mayor, at any amount.
§20 Documentation	Before approval, the board must receive written documentation: an estimate or receipt, the person's name and title, and the date and nature of the official business. Those documents are public records under the Freedom of Information Act.
§25 Entertainment	No entertainment expense may be reimbursed for any board member, officer or employee.

Why it matters here: the Mayor's travel to Dallas and Orlando falls under §15, so either the minutes show a roll call or they don't. Bradley adopted a travel, meal and lodging policy in 2017 (Ordinance O-1-17-2); its text isn't posted online. In August the Village offered our request for the policy and the roll calls as 522 printed pages for $25. We haven't reviewed them yet and will update this section when we do.

The Act has no penalty provision and no private right of action; enforcement runs through the board, the auditor, a taxpayer suit or a prosecutor. This is not legal advice.

Being sent to the Village

Our questions

Each is phrased so it can become a records request. Where the records already answer part of it, we say so.

The restaurant and the $5,000

What agreement governs the restaurant's use of the sports-park building since the Board repealed its lease on Aug. 25, 2025?
What was the $5,000 "TST*BRADLEY CENTER - C" charge of Aug. 14, 2025 for? Was it the same ribbon-cutting invoice paid twice?
What was the ribbon-cutting: date, attendees, headcount, menu, agreement and quotes?
Where are the grill, sidebar, pan holders, countertop warmer and four Sonos speakers now, and are they tagged as Village assets?
What was the Dec. 2, 2025 dinner for eight at Plate'D Social annotated "Mattel/Meeting," and who attended?

Food and gift cards

Event, date, venue, purpose and recipients for the 370 chuck roasts (Oct. 3, 2025), 367 turkeys (Nov. 14, 2025) and 300 hams (Mar. 24, 2026).
Written approval for each of those purchases ($20,383.86 in all), and who gave it.
Whose Meijer mPerks account was attached to the turkey purchase, and what rewards it earned on Village purchases.
Where the three $500 Meijer gift/return cards used on Dec. 9, 2025 came from.
The recipient list for the Dec. 9, 2025 Meijer merchandise ($11,405.54), and for all 44 gift cards.

Travel

Who paid for Mayor Watson's first-class ticket to Dallas (Feb. 2026)?
Why is the $569.81 American Airlines charge, under the Administrator's ticket number, annotated "Reimb Rob Romo"? Was anything paid twice?
What was the Dallas trip's purpose ("Mattel/Meeting"), and where is the authorization and §15 roll call?
Why was the Mayor listed as an additional guest in the Administrator's one hotel room?
What was the $192.00 Cloud of Goods rental annotated "Rental Watson"?
Who stayed in the three Orlando rooms (Nov. 17–19, 2025), and was IAAPA the purpose?
Where is the receipt for the $641.96 United flight reimbursed to Romo, and who approved the $215.00 same-day "Premium Charge Rebooking Fare Difference"?
Who stayed in the Holiday Inn Express Bourbonnais rooms ($2,818.29, June 2025) and the two Comfort Inn rooms (June 5–8, 2025)?
What was the Bloomington conference (Oct. 5–10, 2025, $1,310.40)?
Where are the GFOA registration and airfare for the June 2025 Washington trip?

Vehicles, equipment and contracts

Purchase orders, board approvals, competing quotes and titles for the golf cart ($14,968.43), utility cart ($8,000.00) and trailer ($12,607.00).
Why the golf-cart charge includes $998.25 of sales tax and a 3% card surcharge.
The Village's drone program records: FAA certificates, policy, flight logs and the asset record for the DJI Mavic 3 Thermal.
Why a Village card paid Midwest Integrated Solutions invoice 25-0533 ($22,432), billed to the BEDC; the "Signed Quote" it names; and who paid the other half.
The contract behind Pathfinder Marketing's $2,122 monthly charges, every invoice, and any bid or board approval.
What Conserv FS's $11,750 prepayment bought, and whether delivery was taken.
Invoices and scope for Peerless fencing ($5,775.00), Nearly Natural ($2,659.47) and Bade Appliance ($7,629.80).

Subscriptions and accounts

Who uses the Spotify Family plan, the Walmart+ and My Best Buy Total memberships, and the VEED subscription?
Why is the Vecticon subscription invoiced to a private individual's email address?
Was the January 2026 Grammarly charge a duplicate, and was it refunded?
What was the $2,745.90 KINNLS order, and who uses the Gmail account on it?
Certification and serial numbers for the five ballistic helmets bought online.

Policy and the release itself

The purchasing-card policy and cardholder agreements, the receipt deadline, and what happens when a receipt is never produced.
What authorized raising Romo's card limit from $50,000 to $70,000 for July 2025?
The 24 months of statements before June 2025, and records for the Visa debit card used to pay the USPS balance.
Why the Village released a live card number, expiry date and security code, and whether that card was canceled.
Approval records for the four Costco candy reimbursements and the USPS reimbursement.

Scope

What this review did not examine

Anything before the June 30, 2025 statement. Several threads start earlier: Pathfinder's billing began in late 2024, and the mall purchase and the BEDC's founding came in early 2025.
Purchase orders, board minutes, bids, contracts, titles and policies, which our request didn't cover. Their absence here isn't treated as a finding.
The Village's bank accounts and check register, a separate and larger payment channel. The Village's December 2025 check disbursements, for example, list about $50,900 at ALDI, Meijer and Prairie Farms on the same "MUNICIPAL OPERATIONS/REBATE" account as the meat purchases.
Payroll and personnel records.

Method

Sources

Village of Bradley response to our credit-card and reimbursement request: 13 monthly Fifth Third statement packets (statement closings June 30, 2025 to June 30, 2026) and seven reimbursement files, 924 pages, released July 28, 2026.
Village of Bradley Ordinances O-05-25-02 and O-08-25-05, and Resolution R-11-24-01.
Village of Bradley emails responding to our records requests, July–August 2026.
Illinois Secretary of State business records (Barnyardia LLC, assumed name Plate'D Social).
The Daily Journal, "Mattel signs onto Bradley waterpark," Dec. 9, 2025, and its 2025 315 Music Fest lineup coverage (June 5–8, 2025).
50 ILCS 150 (Local Government Travel Expense Control Act).

Change log

Corrections and updates

Oct. 14, 2026: Added a table of every charge on the 13 statements (721 lines, each month tied to the bank's totals) and restored the full findings, gift-card register, reimbursement table and question register. With every line transcribed, the June 2025 no-receipt figure is now 15 charges and $14,151.87: one Pathfinder receipt filed in the July packet belongs to the June charge. Moved to the Bradley Money Monitor address.
Oct. 13, 2026: First published. Before publication every figure and quote was re-checked against the page images. That check changed several conclusions from our internal review: notes in the packets tie the Orlando trip to the IAAPA expo and the Dallas trip and a December dinner to a "Mattel/Meeting"; the $998.25 on the golf-cart form is sales tax; the GFOA registration was found on the January statement; Spotify ran ten months, not thirteen.

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