Nick Blumberg: Hey there, it’s reporter Nick Blumberg. Earlier this year, Aurora Mayor John Laesch made an eye-catching presentation to the City Council about the city-affiliated nonprofit On Light Aurora, which provides fiber optic internet service to local community institutions and businesses. Laesch outlined a pattern of heavy spending – including charges at strip clubs, ATMs, and extensive travel in the U.S. and abroad. And there was another issue, officials told WTTW News – Aurora’s former mayor had signed off on a city-guaranteed line of credit for On Light without getting approval from aldermen. By digging into a trove of documents, including a detailed analysis of bank statements, emails, contracts, and other documents, we were able to shine a light on the organization’s questionable financial controls – and what it could mean for taxpayers. Here’s what we found:
OnLight Aurora, according to an analysis by local officials and documents reviewed by WTTW News, is nearly $1 million in the red, operating at a $27,000 monthly deficit with some $20,000 in monthly debt service payments. Then-Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin signed a letter saying that the city would guarantee a $450,000 credit line increase for OnLight. There is no record of Aurora’s aldermen approving that increase to the credit limit. In addition to the nearly $1 million in debt and regular monthly losses, officials also said they have uncovered a pattern of highly questionable spending on a card tied to OnLight — expenses, those officials say, that were almost exclusively racked up by Irvin’s ally Michael Pegue, who served both as chairman and CEO of OnLight. These include more than $50,000 in ATM withdrawals and nearly $70,000 on entertainment and meals, including more than $7,000 at strip clubs in the Chicago area, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Miami and Pompano Beach, Florida. The charges total some $337,000 between 2018 and 2025, despite the fact that OnLight actually lost clients during that time. The majority of charges were described on expense reports in broad terms like marketing expenses or meetings — when expense reports were filed at all, leaders say.
Asked about fallout from potentially improper spending, Laesch said: “We’ve shared documents with law enforcement entities — I’ll just leave it at that.”
