EDGAR CO. (ECWd) –
Wow is all we can say…
The Edgar County Board held a regular meeting on June 12, 2013. During Public Session, I addressed the board and talked about the events that happened at the May board meeting and the FACT that Adonna Bennett and Jimmy Wells had lied to the Edgar County Airport Advisory Board.
Public Session:
DONATIONS:
Among other things, I talked about the FOIA to Jimmy Wells that sought any documents on donatations made by Adonna’s father, MECO, or any other person – his response was that there are no records of any donations. I them went one step further and drove out to the airport to see if their names were on either plaque that thanked all of the generous supporters of the airport – not listed on there either.
LIES ABOUT IDOT AND FAA:
I then talked about the fact that Adonna and Jimmy lied to the airport advisory board when Adonna stated, in the May meeting, that the FAA and IDOT Division of Aeronautics HAD to look at the lease and approve it, said it was mandatory, etc, etc… Instinctively KNOWING it was a lie the second it came out of her mouth, I submitted a FOIA request to IDOT and another FOIA to the FAA asking them that very specific question.
IDOT replied that they were not aware of any letter, rule, policy, statute, or law that requires them to look at or approve any lease.
FAA responded that the FAA does not review all leases and there is no requirement for a sponsor (Airport) to obtain FAA approval before entering into a new lease.
Both did reply that they would look at the lease IF ASKED and in that case they would only look to ensure it did not violate any grant assurances. That’s a far cry from MANDATORY!
QUALIFICATIONS:
I then continued with the perceived unique qualifications that Adonna has to be a member of the advisory board.
Kirk talked about a few things, and most importantly, talked about the vote that was about to happen regarding the East Central Illinois Mass Transit District. He also asked about the CD again and remarked that the Edgar County Jail Donations were tracked by the County Treasurer – then asked why the same was not done with the airport donations.
The first part of public session is below.
A Few Minutes Later
Public session was stopped because of an incident in the hallway of the courthouse in which I had to call an ambulance for, and Dee Burgin rendered aid, Kirk Allen assisted until the ambulance arrived.
Kirk Ejected From Meeting
When everything settled down, Kirk attempted to continue his public session comments since his 5 minute time limit was not expired yet, but Chairman Chris Patrick, wrongfully thinking Kirk was the reason for the “medical emergency”, told him he was through and asked Sheriff Motley to remove him from the room. This is a Federal Civil Rights Violation and one can pretty much bet that this action by Chris Patrick will see the inside of a federal courtroom.
Specifically, Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief. Mr. Patrick clearly needs a lesson on Constitutional Civil Rights!
Another interesting tidbit is that prior to the start of this meeting, all of the board members were served their summons for a lawsuit involving their past actions. Could this also have been a factor in his ejection from the room? Video below.
More articles forthcoming from this meeting.
Below are the documents refered to above from IDOT and the FAA.
[gview file=”https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IDOTresponseFOIAleaseApproval.pdf”]
[gview file=”https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/faaleasefoia.pdf”]
