Doug Corbett and the two step shuffle -Lets Dance!

IROQUOIS CO. (ECWd) –

Oh, Mr. Corbett, the web you weave! 

The very response you get on day one from any agency is an indicator of the operation.  In Mr. Corbett’s case, all indications are he is a control freak who might now be doing a two step shuffle because the cat is out of the bag.

Let’s Dance Doug!

Specifically, more violations of state statutes than can be imagined, and with his own admission on tape let’s just say he probably isn’t sleeping very well lately.

I covered a key statute that should have him scrambling pretty good about now in this article.  Scrambling because when it comes to Grant money, those in control of it don’t take to kindly to it being abused, nor do the taxpayers who are the source of that money.  There is nothing worse than a public employee wasting our tax dollars, but even worse, wasting it in direct violation of the law!

By all indications abuse of office appears to be second nature with Mr. Corbett. With this weeks discovery he might want to think about a quick resignation because by all indications he has stepped off into it again.

Mr. Corbett appears to have violated yet another pretty important statute as it relates to his expenditures of our tax dollars to purchase Solar Panels from the company his employee and her husband own.

When it comes to Grant money, we are all paying for it and clearly, yet again, Mr. Corbett doesn’t seem to know his obligations to the people, nor the law.

Recklessly fails to perform any mandatory
duty as required by law!

I will leave it up to the readers to determine if they think what is outlined below would constitute a reckless failure to perform any mandatory duty as required by law.

(50 ILCS 515/) Local Government Energy Conservation Act.

"Energy conservation measure" means any improvement, repair, alteration, or betterment of any building or facility owned or operated by a unit of local government or any equipment, fixture, or furnishing to be added to or used in any such building or facility, subject to all applicable building codes, that is designed to reduce energy consumption or operating costs, and may include, without limitation, one or more of the following: Specifically item number 7, which may include Energy conservation measures that provide long-term operating cost reductions.  For those that haven't quite caught on yet, that would mean Solar Panels. 


Let’s take a look at some KEY requirements that Mr. Corbett should have ensured were done as it relates to the Solar Panel project, spear headed by what appears to be Julie Clark, an employee and co-owner of the company who sold the solar panel project to the FIPHD.

I picked out some very key things that should have taken place and just as I suspected, they did not, which means yet again the FIPHD under the great leadership of Mr. Corbett has yet again failed to comply with state law.  Below is a list of 8 items I requested in this FOIA, of which they could not provide a single document.

1. Copy of the sufficient bond provided to the FIPHD by either Day & Night Solar or CMS Renewables for its faithful performance of supplying and installing the solar panel system for the FIPHD
2. Copy of proof of 40 hours of course instruction dealing with energy conservation measures for the installers of the Solar Panel project for the FIPHD
3. Name of the organization that performed the detailed analysis of whether either the energy consumed or the operating costs, or both, will be reduced for the FIPHD as it relates to the Solar panel project
4. Copy of notice provided to each bidder of the solar project informing them of the time and place of the bid opening.
5. Copy of the public notice of the meeting at which it proposed to award a contract for the Solar Panel Project
6. Copy of the written guarantee that either the energy or operational cost savings, or both, will meet or exceed within 20 years the costs of the energy conservation measures, which in this case is the purchase and installation of Solar Panels
7. Copy of all documented operational and energy cost savings specified in the guaranteed energy savings contract (solar panel purchase)
8. Copy of all payments for that savings referenced in item #7 which were applied to the annual payment of the debt incurred for the project

Lets look at each of those items for some more detail as to why its important as it relates to the protection of the taxpayer money in the hands of Mr. Corbett!

1. Mr. Corbett allowed a project to go forward with no Bond provided to the FIPHD by the installer.  Lucky for him a problem did not arise, however, even though nothing happened to need to act on such a bond, the fact is most would agree he recklessly put the county health department at risk by failing to have a bond! A clear failure to comply with the statute that directly ties to Solar Panel purchases.
2. Item number 2 is laughable as it’s pretty clear the bid notice stated it required a certified installer, and not only were the documents provided as proof of compliance not a valid certification for installation, Mr. Corbett failed to ensure the installers met the 40hr training requirement outlined in the statute.   The reason the certificate provided doesn’t meet the bid requirement is because it’s only an entry level certification and not an installers certification.  A clear failure to comply with the statute that directly ties to Solar Panel Purchases.
3. Was the project worthy of moving forward, and if so, Says Who?  The state REQUIRES an evaluation!   The evaluation shall analyze the estimates of all costs of installations, modifications, or remodeling, including, without limitation, costs of a pre-installation energy audit or analysis, design, engineering, installation, maintenance, repairs, debt service, conversions to a different energy or fuel source, or post-installation project monitoring, data collection, and reporting.  The evaluation shall include a detailed analysis of whether either the energy consumed or the operating costs, or both, will be reduced.  If technical assistance is not available by a licensed architect or registered professional engineer on the unit of local government’s staff, then the evaluation of the proposal shall be done by a registered professional engineer or architect who is retained by the unit of local government.  According to the FOIA request, this did not happen. Yet another clear failure to comply with the statute that directly ties to Solar Panel Purchases.
4. Failure to provide proper notice of bid opening meeting which the public has a right to know about!  A clear violation of this statute as well as the Open Meetings Act.
5. No notice of contract award meeting, which leads us to believe the evidence that points to this being done basically in secret! Not only a violation of this statute but a violation of the Open meetings Act.
6. No written guarantee as it relates to the Energy or operational savings.  One would think even the dumbest of Administrators would get this in writing before putting their organization in debt but that is not the case with Mr. Corbett.  Yet another violation of the statute!
7. With no energy savings contract they cant comply with item #7.
8. It’s clear, with no contract and no record of savings, based on the response to the FOIA they have not applied any savings to the debt as outlined in the statute!

What everyone needs to understand in this brief attempt to prove Mr. Corbett has no clue what he is doing, please note that I only pointed out 8 things that jumped out at me in the statute.  Rest assured there are more items which Mr. Corbett failed to ensure were followed.

I know he is in a mad scramble to cover up the inappropriate grant expenditures, and rest assured those actions will come out as well, but let’s stay on topic with what we have exposed for now.

At least eight key factors that should have been complied with were not.  Clear violations of the statute have taken place and yet we have Mr. Corbett telling his staff nothing is wrong.  Mr. Corbett, you must live in total denial to think all the things we have covered imply nothing is wrong.

In my opinion, what is wrong is the fact this person has violated more statutes that can be imagined and he thinks everything is OK.  Now I ask that the readers determine if what is outlined would constitute a reckless failure to perform any mandatory duty as required by law?

I think everyone with any common sense would realize Mr. Corbett has clearly failed at his job, and most would probably agree he recklessly failed to perform multiple mandatory duties as required by law.

Why is that important? 

 (720 ILCS 5/33-3) (from Ch. 38, par. 33-3)  (Official Misconduct.)

A public officer or employee or special government agent commits misconduct when, in his official capacity or capacity as a special government agent, he commits any of the following acts:

        (a) Intentionally or recklessly fails to perform any mandatory duty as required by law;………….

A public officer or employee or special government agent convicted of violating any provision of this Section forfeits his office or employment or position as a special government agent. In addition, he commits a Class 3 felony.

If his actions don’t constitute a reckless failure to perform, I don’t know what does. 

Mr. Corbett may think he can intimidate an office full of women, but let it be known under no circumstance will he get away with intimidation attempts with us.  There are good people in those offices  and we will continue to fight for their rights as well as the rights of the taxpayers who clearly have been taken advantage of as it relates to illegal expenditures.

The laundry list of things to look at is growing faster than we can process it but rest assured, Iroquois County, we will not stop exposing the clear misuse of your tax dollars.

For those that didn’t see my presentation at the Iroquois county board last month, just know this:

Right is right, wrong is wrong!  The truth has no Agenda!

A sequential history of articles is below so if your just joining in on this issue, feel free to catch up with more facts than you can probably stomach.

•  What did we find?
• Under Fire
• How its Supposed to Work
• Illegal Meeting
• Health Department or Banking Institution?
• Correction
• Comment from Iroquois Count
• Demand Letter, Not so Fast!
• FIPHD Facing Law Suit
• Law Suit # 2
• Julie Clark Missing Economic Interest Statement
• Cease and Desist
• Private Corporation operating with Public Funds
• Solar Panel Scandal
• Its always the Other Guy………..NOT!
• Which Red Flag did you Miss?