ECWd –
We have confirmation that Jimmy Wells, Edgar County Airport Manager, has in fact removed his personal airplane from the main hanger.
Concerns raised at the last county board meeting exposed that Mr. Wells had quite the sweet little deal going on, all on the backs of the taxpayers, as if this type of action surprises anyone in this county.
Mr. Wells was utilizing county property as his own personal hanger and not paying any rent for that space. Hardly an ethical thing to do considering such an action is not allowed within the scope of the law. I also am curious about the issue with reduced rent for Mr. Wells on the hanger he is using.
Other questionable acts by Mr. Wells are under investigation and as secondary confirmation of our initial findings are confirmed with more paperwork we will bring that news to you.
Who is to blame? Are we past the point of pointing the finger at the person who commits the act? Is it time to point it at the very people in charge of those people? In this case that would be none other than the newly elected County Board member Chris Patrick who is the Chairman of the Airport Board and knew the manager was using public property for personal storage.
Note that I did not call Mr. Patrick “County Chairman”, as it has been confirmed that the last meeting was in fact not a legal meeting, and they have to redo all action taken at the last meeting.
That being the case, will there be even a single person willing to stand up and appoint someone other than a person involved in numerous scandals in this county? From private drives on the backs of the taxpayer, to allowing his airport manager to have free hanger space, it is clear Chris Patrick is not in any fashion the leadership this county needs; just as I pointed out during the November County Board Meeting.
Other than Karl Farhnam, every other board member would be a better selection than Chris Patrick, but the ego’s of the ring leaders won’t allow a common sense selection.
All that aside, citizen involvement has again put a stop to the trampling of our rights and abuse of our tax dollars by our elected and appointed officials. Yet another example of how you CAN make a difference!
Many speak of the entitlement “class” and the burden they place on our society, and when you hear those references most think they are talking about the less fortunate people who are barely making any money at all, if any.
It has become very clear though that we also have another entitlement “class” and it is the Political Class. The ones who run for office for what appears to be no other reason than to expand their own agendas and self serving.
Considering they have yet to be in office for more than two weeks it is going to be interesting to see how they deal with all this self serving adventures of the very people in charge of things.
As was evident at the last county board meeting, the people have had enough and are finally taking a stand and demanding accountability. After speaking with dozens of people, it has become a consensus that Mr. Wells and Mr. Patrick have no place in public office of any kind as it is clear they do not care about the people’s money. Actions speak louder than words!
The Plane has left the building!
Will Jimmy Wells be the next to leave?
8 Comments
Robert O. Bogue
Posted at 17:01h, 11 DecemberLate yesterday when the missing video segment was discovered, I contacted
August Griffin at his home and asked if he was aware of it. He was clearly
surprised and agreed to work on the issue the first thing this morning. We
visited today and I’m completely convinced this was a technical glitch that
had gone un-noticed; and that it will be repaired asap if it has not been
done already. I believe video taping public meetings is critical to improving
government here in Edgar County and applaud Auggie’s efforts in both in the
video recording and in correcting the technical glitch that brought about
this situation. Thanks, Auggie!
Jayne Brown
Posted at 23:10h, 10 DecemberI was proud to be at the Dec. 3rd Edgar County Board Meeting in support of
Rusty Bogue and RSB Aviation. Editing a video and calling it an official
meeting video is dishonest.
jmkraft
Posted at 16:23h, 11 DecemberThis is the answer I received and have no reason to doubt it since it is a new
camera and this is their first try at uploading video to youtube.
.
OK – the camera records to a hard drive, when a file gets to a certain size it
automatically starts a new file. The complete board meeting video ended up being
3 files – only 2 got uploaded – the county is uploading all of it soon…
Robert O. Bogue
Posted at 20:58h, 10 DecemberMany thanks to those of you that attended the December 3 Edgar County Board
meeting in support of Rusty. You will have an accurate recollection of the e
vents.
FOR THOSE THAT WERE UNABLE TO ATTEND….THE OFFICIAL COUNTY BOARD MEETING WEB
SITE AND VIDEO…HAS BEEN EDITED. IF YOU’RE INTEREESTED IN THE UNEDITED VERSION,
VIEW THE VIDEO SHOWN ON THIS WEB PAGE. AL SCHNEIDER, JAYNE BROWN, MYSELF AND
PERHAPS OTHERS HAVE BEEN EDITED….OUT. ALL OF US SUPPORTERS OF RSB AND ALL OF
US IN DIRECT CONFLICT WITH THE BOARD PRESIDENT CHRIS PATRICK AND HIS STOOGE
JIMMY WELLS.
Al Schneider
Posted at 06:49h, 10 DecemberI guess I need to explain my preceding remarks a bit. A person that had read
only this news release asked me why I was so upset about Jimmie Wells parking
his airplane in a hangar and paying no rent. Jimmie Wells took a complaint
from an airport employee about Ann Bogue breastfeeding her baby in the airport
office to the airport board. My problem is the actions or lack of actions of
the airport and county boards following this complaint. All this is explained
in detail in other news releases on this web page.
jmkraft
Posted at 19:22h, 09 DecemberWe have received several questions as to what made the meeting on
Dec 3rd an illegal meeting.
.
Here is the answer:
.
55 ILCS 5/2-1002 (Counties Code) states that special meetings will be
held only when requested, in writing, by at least one-third of the
board. The notice of said special meeting shall be published in some
newspaper printed in the county.
–Neither one of those things happened.
.
.
5 ILCS 120/2.04 (Open Meetings Act) states the notice requirements of
the Act are in addition to, and not a substitution of, any other notice
required by law.
— The special meetings requirement in the counties code must also
be followed.
jmkraft
Posted at 07:01h, 10 DecemberSomeone metioned I didn’t include the whole paragraph in the counties
code, they are correct. That is why I included the statute number and
paragraph number – to encourage those reading this to actually go and
read the statute.
The remaining parts of the paragraph do not apply to this situation:
*our county board chairman is not elected by the voters-
*county clerk did not receive a written request signed by 2/3 of the
board –
*and there was no vacancy in the county clerk’s office.
Al Schneider
Posted at 23:02h, 08 DecemberI am completely thunderstruck!!! I have been totally dismayed
at the way our country is being completely destroyed — and then
to find out about all this business in our own county—I am sick!
I fought with my life for our country and our county in Korea 1952
and thousands have fought and died since then and still are to this
day fighting and dying for ALL of us!!!! And then have idiots
(my at one time friends and neighbors) behave like this is unbelievable.
Is this for money in their pockets?????? or do they just hate our
country, county and all of us???? I have been on several boards
over the years– Kansas school board 18 yrs. pres. for 15 yrs, Farm
bureau board several yrs and several others—— We always seemed
to know how to hold a legal meeting and all the problems we had were
not easy to deal with but we did it with no intention of breaking any
laws. I plan to be at the Wed meeting—- Chris Patrick should not
even be on the county board let alone nominated by Heltsley and elected
unanimously to president. I sincerely hope that the board will be
intelligent enough to have thought this over and at this hopefully
legal meeting, make some changes. Folks, I have to be VERY upset to
think something like this, let alone post it.