City officials in East St. Louis fear they could face lawsuits over alleged fraud in the demolition department.

"You read the papers, residents are coming here, and we're possibly facing a lot of lawsuits because of missing bricks and shakedowns. I'm afraid of demolition right now," Councilwoman Karen Cason said.

Mayor Carl Officer echoed those sentiments, saying he had credible evidence about fraud going on in the city's demolition program.

Cason and Officer did not elaborate and would not give names or details. They said an investigation into the allegations is under way.

The City Council was slated Tuesday to vote on awarding several demolition jobs, but Cason said she was skeptical of the demolition program "because we've had a lot of alleged hanky-panky as far as demolition is concerned."

No vote was taken.

"We've received some reports from property owners who've stated their buildings were torn down without their approval. We've received complaints from all over town from people who say the bricks on their structures were taken, but the debris and rubbish from the building is still laying around. These properties are on the city's demolition list. Somebody's getting paid twice," Cason said.

Officer said he has received information from "responsible public officials" about the alleged misconduct.

"I am not at liberty to discuss it any more than that. In a couple of weeks, hopefully, we can discuss it more. We're meeting with the auditor next week," he said.

The city's former demolition chief, George "Jack" Edwards was fired Dec. 29.

No reason was given.

On Monday, Edwards was indicted in federal court on one court of trying to extort $150,000 from an unnamed professional athlete. Edwards claimed the athlete got his daughter pregnant, and he threatened to expose the affair unless the athlete paid up.

Earlier this month, a house at 1830 St. Clair Ave. in East St. Louis was demolished by the city, even though the owner said he had put a lot of money into it recently to fix it up, and that he had received no notice that the structure would be torn down.

Owner Lewis Hill said he believes the house was knocked down for the bricks. It sits between two frame houses that are vacant and in bad shape, but still standing.

"They hauled 10 pallets of bricks away every other day. They must have carried about 30 to 40 pallets of bricks," said Hill's cousin, Kevin Monk, who lives nearby.

Hill said he did not receive a phone call or a letter informing him the city planned to demolish his house before McKinney Brothers Hauling knocked it down.

City Manager Robert Betts said if the city was in error, the right thing would be done to correct the problem.