LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The former city manager of Lake Forest has been indicted on felony charges stemming from unauthorized payments for a lobbying effort to bring an Amtrak stop to the North Shore Chicago suburb.
Bob Keily, who retired in 2018 after three decades in public positions, was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 23, Illinois Policy reports. He allegedly made illegal payments totaling nearly $200,000 to a Washington-based lobbying firm between January 2016 and 2017.
The charge came after the Lake Forest City Council appointed a special counsel to investigate Keily’s fund transfers. In March 2018, that counsel found he had violated city codes by laundering public funds through the city attorney’s private law firm for the lobbying effort.
At the time of his retirement, Keily was the second-highest-paid city manager of the state and out-earned all 50 U.S. governors, earning nearly $250,000 in total compensation.
The lobbying effort had sought to add an Amtrak stop and accompanying pedestrian underpass in Lake Forest, an effort originally estimated in 2012 to cost between $1.8 million and $2.5 million. That estimate had soared to $13 million by 2016.
