URBANA – County government telephone records indicate that Champaign County Auditor Tony Fabri has been missing from his office for well over half the workdays in the last year, including two different periods when he apparently was gone for more than a month.

Between Aug. 20, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2008, only one phone call was answered at Fabri's personal phone exchange at the Brookens Building in Urbana. No outgoing calls were made from his office during that 41-day period.

Again, between Dec. 20, 2008, and Jan, 26, 2009, there is no record of any calls being made from or answered at Fabri's personal office phone.

Further, from August 2008 through last month – a period of six months – records indicate Fabri was in his office only 46 days: 14 in August, one in September, seven in October, seven in November, 10 in December, one in January and six in February.

For the entire 12-month period of March 1, 2008, through Feb. 28, 2009, based on the phone records, it appears that Fabri was in his office 75 of about 250 workdays.

For the one-year period, 185 calls were made from or answered at Fabri's office phone (46 in the last six months).

By comparison, the other seven elected county officials averaged 1,789 calls made from or answered at their office phones. After Fabri, the smallest number was Circuit Clerk Linda Frank's 1,373 calls. The most was Sheriff Dan Walsh's 3,643.

Because the county's elected officials do not punch a time clock or fill out time sheets, examining phone records is the only way to determine an elected official's attendance. The phone records were requested from the county under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Fabri, who also is chairman of the Champaign County Democratic Party, said the phone records are not an accurate way of accounting for the time he is on the job.

"Since I am also the party chairman, I have been very careful about using my desk phone," he said. "If there is any chance that a call will turn political, I will use my personal cell phone.

"I rarely use my desk phone. So to say that a day when I don't use my desk phone is a day that I'm not at work is just not accurate at all. That just shows that I don't use my desk phone very often."

While Fabri said he is careful not to make potentially political phone calls from his desk phone, the records show he made calls from his desk phone to county board member Claudia Gross, state Sen. Mike Frerichs and Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing, all Democrats.

Fabri said he had no way of determining how many days he had worked in the last year.

"I can tell you that I work a full-time job," he said. "I'm working as auditor every day. I'm not behind a desk all day. I'm in and out of the office a lot of the day."

Fabri said he took a two-week vacation in January, but that he worked the rest of the month.

"In January I took a vacation. There was a lot of work last year, not just the work as auditor but I had to work hard in my election race in the fall. So I took a vacation," he said.

Fabri defeated Republican Brad Jones in the race for county auditor last November, 51 percent to 49 percent.

The Democratic auditor's absences are noticeable and a topic of frequent conversation among county employees, said Champaign County Recorder Barb Frasca, a Republican, whose Brookens Center office is in the same wing as Fabri's.

"He's not fulfilling his duty," Frasca said. "It's not like he's incompetent. If he was incompetent, at least we could say he was trying."

County Treasurer Dan Welch, also a Republican, said that when he e-mails information to Fabri, he always sends a copy to Fabri's chief deputy auditor.

"I don't worry about it so much because whenever I do anything with that office I always e-mail it to him with a 'cc' to his chief deputy, Carol Wadleigh, or whoever is within the office. I assume it's going to get done. I don't worry about whether he's in there.

"If I really feel that I need to get something done, I would call Carol. That's my honest answer. I know that she's there. And she knows what she is doing and she's been there a long time. I know she can get the jobs done."

Wadleigh, according to county records, is paid $82,992. She is a certified public ac-countant. Fabri is not, but it's not required for the elected office.

Fabri received a raise on Dec. 1 and is paid $76,745 a year by the county government. He also gets a $6,500 stipend from the state of Illinois for a total salary this year of $83,245.

"It's a decent-paying position," deadpanned county board Chairman C. Pius Weibel, who said he also regularly hears complaints about Fabri being out of his office.

"How do you judge whether we're getting our money's worth?" said Weibel, a Champaign Democrat. "If he is absent a lot, there's nothing I can do about it anyway because he's an elected official. He sets his own hours.

"I can tell you that I'm in my office just about every working day, and my job is considered part time. But truthfully, I don't know when Tony shows up for work, and it doesn't matter anyway because there's nothing we can do about it."

The total budget for the auditor's office, which has 5.5 full-time-equivalent employees, including Fabri, is about $304,000 this year. In Illinois, the county auditor is responsible for maintaining an accounting system, and auditing claims against the county and paying them. In recent elections, auditor candidates have equated the position to that of a "watchdog" for taxpayers.

Fabri noted that his office recently received an award from the Government Finance Officers Association for Excellence in Finance Reports.

"Of course, credit goes to everyone," he said. "But I do put work into that report, although the lion's share is done by my chief deputy (Wadleigh). Part of her job description is to pull together the financials for the audit. But the part of the work that I do for the report is not insignificant. If I had dropped the ball on my end, we would not have gotten the award."

"In general terms," said Welch, the county treasurer, "I would say I would not have any respect for anyone who doesn't show up for work, especially in these times when you're lucky to have a job.

"This does add to the cynicism about government. When one person's not doing their job, (citizens) look at the rest of us, too. There are a lot of people who are cynical about government, and that just adds to it."

Fabri said he is aware that other county officials and employees have questioned his on-the-job attendance.

"If you work somewhere else in county government, how would you know if I'm in my office or not? Some people may think they know, but they are mistaken," he said. "I'm working as auditor every day. It's kind of hard to prove a negative."

Fabri said Frerichs, who preceded him as county auditor, warned there might be sniping about his attendance at work.

"He said that when you start hearing complaints to just walk around Brookens and say 'Hi' to everyone and make sure that they see you," Fabri recounted.

A quick audit

The News-Gazette obtained Champaign County phone records under the Freedom of Information Act. Here is a look at the number of phone calls made or answered at individual office desk phones by elected Champaign County officials between March 1, 2008, and Feb. 28, 2009:

— Sheriff Dan Walsh: 3,643

— Recorder Barb Frasca: 2,542

— Clerk Mark Shelden: 1,863

— Coroner Duane Northrup: 1,681

— Treasurer Dan Welch: 1,604

— State's Attorney Julia Rietz: 1,421

— Circuit Clerk Linda Frank: 1,373

— Auditor Tony Fabri: 185