Oakbrook Terrace mayor resigns amid federal probe involving red-light cameras

According to the Chicago Tribune, Mayor Tony Ragucci submitted his resignation Friday after the paper reported he sent $30,000 from his campaign fund to a lawyer who represented him in the probe.

 
By Sun-Times staff Jan 20, 2020, 10:29pm CST

Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci resigned Friday amid a federal corruption probe, according to the Chicago Tribune. Oakbrook Terrace website

Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci resigned Friday amid a federal corruption probe involving a red-light camera company, reports say.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Ragucci submitted his resignation Friday after the paper reported he sent $30,000 from his campaign fund to a lawyer who represented him in the probe.

Ragucci, along with several elected officials and politically connected contractors, is involved in a federal investigation surrounding SafeSpeed LLC, which operates red-light cameras in Oakbrook Terrace and dozens of other Chicago suburbs, the Tribune reported.

In a press release from the city of Oakbrook Terrace obtained by the Tribune, the suburb announced it received Ragucci’s resignation, effective 11:59 p.m. Jan. 17, bringing the mayor’s third term to a sudden end.

Federal agents had seized a whopping $60,000 in cash from Ragucci’s west suburban home late last year, according to documents obtained by the Sun-Times.

Ragucci’s resignation comes amid a broader investigation into SafeSpeed that came to light in September when the FBI seized $9,720 in cash from then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval’s Chicago home and more than $51,000 in cash from a safe found inside Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski’s home, the Sun-Times reported.

Federal agents are looking into whether SafeSpeed representatives have landed deals through payoffs. The company was the subject of a 2017 Chicago Tribune story about the controversial push to install SafeSpeed cameras in the town, and the questionable efforts of then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval to go to bat for the firm.

“That was all done legit,” Ragucci previously told the Sun-Times of the SafeSpeed contract. “We did everything legit and clean here.”

Ragucci also told a reporter in November that neither he nor his local government had any contact with federal authorities.

The CEO of SafeSpeed has denied paying anyone off in an interview with the Sun-Times last year.

Representatives from Oakbrook Terrace could not immediately be reached for comment.