On the 1 year anniversary of the Edgar County Watchdogs, I would like to extend our gratitude for all of the citizens who provided tips to us and those who visit our website. Without you none of this could happen. We would also like to extend an invitation for everyone to attend their local public meetings, no matter which side of the isle you are sitting on. Public participation is the key to an open and honest government.
Some accomplishments:
Our busiest day on the website was June 15, 2012 with 2,559 page views
Our current all-time views to the Edgar County Watchdogs webpage are over 197,000 – that’s more than 17,700 views per month since we switched to a WordPress site! Not bad. I can remember celebrating our first day with 100 views.
Exposed the past sheriffs use of jailers for private roofing jobs
Exposed the past sheriff for violating Economic disclosure laws
Stopped the spending of 911 money on Christmas Gifts and Dinner parties
Stopped the spending of 911 money on Rent to the county
Laid the ground work COUNTY WIDE to establish PROPER posting of meetings
Over 2 dozen OMA and FOIA request wins from public bodies that thought they could ignore the public
Exposed the county board for using Highway levy money for things not permitted
Forced the ETSB to hold proper voting in their meetings instead of blind ballots
Exposed the private use of the public credit card by ETSB and it has now stopped!
Exposed County Board Chairman for taking out a county loan with no knowledge of ANY board members
Forced the first ever audit of ETSB
ETSB now has a budget, something they never had until we exposed the corruption
Exposed the ETSB for passing things without majority of the board approving
Exposed the ETSB questionable use of petty cash, they no longer have a petty cash fund
Exposed that the transfer station is NOT owned by Marlin “Scott” Ingrum and that neither Marlin “Scott” Ingrum or Ingrum Waste Disposal Inc. were not (and are still is not) paying property taxes on the Transfer Station property as required by law. This is just one of many examples of why YOUR property taxes are rising at historical rates
Exposed the Triple Bankruptcy filing of Kevin Garner who ran for State Rep
Exposed TORT funds being used illegally by School District
Exposed extravagant dinners by the school board
Let the public know about the civil law suit of which two of its deputies LOST!
Exposed the illegal gun running and sales, by 2 Former Sheriffs and Chief Deputy, to their deputies
Exposed the meth material found in the jail
Exposed and stopped the handover of the Edgar County Animal Control to the Edgar County Humane Association
Exposed the (alleged) embezzlement from the Edgar County Health Department by Kami Smith and her daughter in law
ETSB canceled their vehicle lease
ETSB canceled cell phone reimbursements
Exposed a local non-profit allegedly stealing dogs, they were investigated by the Il Dept of Ag and they received a written reprimand
Exposed the ETSBs illegal hiring of an attorney, who was then fired
Exposed a conflict of interest with a multi-township assessor also serving a deputy county assessor. Individual resigned as multi-township assessor
Exposed Roger Eddy – he resigned from the Illinois House of Representatives within 21 days of the start of our investigation. He is currently under investigation by the Illinois Election Commission for illegal campaigning, using public funds and facilities to campaign, and accepting campaign donations while in a public building
Exposed Roger Eddy – Illegal use of campaign contributions
Exposed Roger Eddy – Illegal acceptance of campaign contribution from the City of Paris
Exposed City of Paris for election interference – illegal campaign contribution to the People For Eddy Campaign using public (your) funds
Secured refund of illegal campaign contribution from People For Eddy to City of Paris
Exposed the illegal campaign contributions by Southern Illinois University to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce PAC. SIU verified our suspicions and obtained refunds from the IL Chamber PAC. SIU did what we have been asking the government bodies in this county to do, acknowledge the problem once presented with it, and fix the problem. Thanks again to SIU for taking ownership of the problem, without being asked, and for putting steps in place to ensure it does not happen again.
Exposed Dee Burgin, too much to list here
Helped bring the Disclosure Newspaper to Paris, Vermillion, and Kansas
Exposed a systemic problem in the reporting of exempt properties and the collection of property taxes
Exposed the illegal use of MFT funds by townships to chip and seal private driveways, convinced them to send invoices to property owners for payment
Informed the Public of State and Federal investigations into embezzlement at the East Central Illinois Mass Transit District
Exposed the Ambulance “sale” by the county and the fact it appears to actually be an “Ambulance Gift” – still working on this one
Exposed to the parents and grandparents of the Shiloh School District the person their school board had hired as superintendent
Currently exposing a series of articles on the Clark-Edgar Rural Water District
Exposed the City of Paris Batting Cages were “still in the care of the city” and they were brought back from where “they were in Indiana for a short period of time”
Gathered enough signatures to put a BINDING QUESTION on the ballot on whether the Clark-Edgar Rural Water District Trustees should be elected or remain appointed
Exposed the fact that 3 trustees on the East Central Illinois Mass Transit District Board are forbidden by law from holding a seat on the board
I know we forgot to list some, and there are many more we are working.
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