Tip about former Bolingbrook police chief's spending leads to procedure changes, saving taxpayers thousands

Bolingbrook installed a new police chief in 2020, a first for the village. That was the same year the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the year protests were held over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

But within a couple years, as the pandemic eased and community-police tension subsided, Bolingbrook Police Chief Mike Rompa started using his village purchasing card – known as a p-card – in a different way than others with the same cards.

That caught the attention of an anonymous tipster who reached out to CBS News Chicago in late January 2026.

The tip read "Bolingbrook Police Chief, Mike Rompa, is misappropriating taxpayer money with his village credit card," and claimed "Rompa has been using his village credit card to make personal purchases at men's warehouse, Kohl's, and even Amazon for personal non-police related purchases. This is an abuse and misappropriation of taxpayer money. The village has done nothing with this information."

So, we started submitting public records requests for not only Rompa's p-card invoices from the time he became police chief, but also those of other department heads for the same time period. Only department heads have access to use village credit cards.

Bolingbrook Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta said she had not heard about any issues with Rompa's spending until our requests crossed her desk. 

"My wish would have been that we would have been alerted to this sooner," she said.

Village co-administrator Ken Teppel agreed.

"Not during the purchases no. After the fact, going through it with a fine-tooth comb, we did," he said. 

Through the dozens of documents we obtained, we learned that Rompa did in fact purchase dozens of clothing items he designated as "Uniform – Rompa" on invoices from Men's Wearhouse, Kohl's and Amazon.

The total spent at those retailers on just clothes came to about $6,000 over a two year period. Possibly more than that, since the most recent records we received were for late 2025. He bought the majority of the clothes between 2023 and 2025.

Receipts describe what he bought, including:

• 38 tops including polo shirts, dress shirts and sweaters
• 21 athletic or activewear pieces including sweatshirts and sweatpants or track pants
• Multiple suit jackets, sport coats and outwear jackets & coats
• $700 in alterations

"When you have a budget, as long as you stay within that budget, how you spend it is basically up to you or to him," said Alexander-Basta about the uniform allowance for administrators.

The Uniform Allowance for administrators is set in each year's budget. But the police department administrators' share is supposed to be split evenly between the chief and the deputy chief.

The records we obtained show Rompa's p-card use on his clothing was more than half of the FY 2023-2024 and FY 2024-2025 budgeted amounts of $3,000 each year. His share, or half, would have been $1,500. The first year Rompa spent $2,081 for clothing on his p-card. The next year he spent $2,838.

"We have to be very conservative in what we do and understand it's taxpayer dollars," said Alexander-Basta.

It's not just how much Rompa spent, but what he was buying.

"Our fault is that once he was made the police chief, that there was no longer a reason to continue the Men's Wearhouse under the uniform allowance. He had an actual dress uniform," said Teppel.

Teppel said Rompa received a full uniform set multiple times over his 30-year career with the Bolingbrook Police Department. But most of the questionable p-card clothing charges were for casual or dress suits, rather than traditional uniform attire.

A Downers Grove police uniform shop is the approved Bolingbrook vendor for replacement uniform items.

Village social media posts show him often wearing suits and ties to village galas and awards dinners.

No other department head bought personal clothing items with their p-cards during the same time period we checked.

The records we received also show questionable spending by Rompa on office supplies. For example, he purchased 10 bamboo chair mats at a cost of nearly $1,600 or about $160 each. Online there are a variety of chair mats selling for $20-$40 apiece.

"Everything was always topnotch with him. He had to have the best of everything," said Teppel.

Rompa also tried to buy a nearly $600 JBL PartyBox karaoke machine. That item was the rare request that got denied.

Teppel said after our inquiries, he spoke with Rompa.

"So, when we talked about the Men's Wearhouse specifically I went in there and said, 'Hey are you still going to Men's Wearhouse?' And, he said, 'Well, yeah.' I said, 'Now that you're police chief, no more.' I said, 'You have a uniform a couple of them, at least three. And, we're no longer gonna be supporting your business attire from Men's Wearhouse.' And, of course, there was a little pushback," Teppel said.

Over his tenure as police chief, internal documents CBS News Chicago obtained show Rompa pushed back on something else too: His unused, expired-per-village-policy vacation time.

He was given an exception and paid out $19,274 for 200 hours. Teppel said Rompa always had an excuse for why he couldn't use all of his vacation time. 

"I've got this thing going or I've got that going. He had people who were sick or people on vacation and he had to be here and do it or he's expected to be at this stuff," he said. 

Teppel said, in hindsight, that situation could have been handled better.

"Did he think that maybe he could talk around it, because in the past there were exceptions made? Probably," he said. 

CBS News Chicago could not find Rompa at Bolingbrook Town Center, because he retired in June, in the middle of our investigation.

We visited his home to try and reach him but he wasn't there. A neighbor got him on the phone for us, where he agreed we could use the recorded conversation.

"I'm not afraid to disclose any of this because of the fact that I didn't, you know, there's nothing out of context here," said Rompa.

He added that much of the clothing purchases on his p-card were made for other people. And there were many invoice items for others noted on his invoices, but they were identified using their names, noted as "Uniform - (name)" or "Uniform - Admins." 

We did not include any receipts from those purchases in the $6,000 total.

"I really did care about all of my employees and all of the village equally. And I try to do my best there. And to have this kind of shame brought against me is just. It's disheartening," Rompa said.

As for the expensive chair mats, he said he wanted to match the office furniture. 

His thoughts on the tipster?

"It's somebody that obviously just does not care for me. It's retaliation against me," Rompa said.

He said he does not remember Teppel telling him not to go to Men's Wearhouse any longer. When asked about the nearly $20,000 in cashed out vacation time, he said he worked tirelessly as chief and the village rewarded him.

And as for any of his p-card spending amounting to theft, "Absolutely false," he responded.

Bolingbrook's mayor agrees with that view. 

"Irresponsible yes. Illegal no," she said. 

David Greising who is president of the Better Government Association says while Rompa's actions may not rise to the level of illegality, they are certainly a violation of public trust because village leaders have a responsibility to taxpayers.

"I don't buy the argument that it doesn't really matter because the numbers aren't that big. It matters because of the conduct. It's a question of did you cross the line or did you not?" said Greising.

He also faults loopholes in village policies and procedures that allowed this questionable p-card spending to happen in the first place.

"First, you need effective policies that would limit one's ability to act inappropriately. Then you need oversight to make sure that they're not, in fact, doing that," said Greising.

Bolingbrook has made changes since discovering the activity on Rompa's p-card.

Every item must now be approved by at least two people before buying. A purchase manager now buys in bulk to get better rates from vendors. And luxury is no longer a priority

"We take much closer looks at that and no has been a word that's been coming out. Much more often," said Alexander-Basta.