County Board member Heltsley is a hopeless mess – Part 3 –

EDGAR CO. (ECWd) –

This is Part 3 of a series of articles on a letter written by Edgar County Board Member Mike Heltsley and published in the Prairie Press. Underneath the letter, there is an explanation of how to submit your own, and includes things like: “should demonstrate authority and knowledge of the topic and make information-backed arguments.” I wonder how this one “slipped” past them? It contains none of those qualities. For the previous articles on this letter search for “hopeless mess” or simply click here.

Now let’s have some more fun, shall we?

Heltsley talks about wanting answers, stating that the Sheriff will only go through Voigt or Bruner to talk to the board, and that he [Heltsley] did a little investigation himself. He talks about the “tremendous turnover” under this Sheriff, and wonders why so many left.

I can’t comment on this portion yet except to say that I am still waiting on a public records request for a copy of all resignations since November of 2010. When I receive those, we will all be able to see precisely why those employees left their employment. I won’t leave anyone hanging out there wondering why they left, nor will I insinuate why they left by leaving the reason out. When I get the records I will publish them. Mr. “Covert Investigator” (LOL) should have been able to provide a reason they left if it fit his agenda, but he didn’t, he left the insinuation out there. No problem, I’ll publish the reasons.

On to the next part of the letter:

Heltsley states: “Now comes Ed Motley and his brain trust, the Edgar County Watchdogs. Under his dream team’s brilliant “let’s bankrupt Edgar County strategy” anybody that wasn’t hired by them is encouraged to leave, quit, retire, separate, or just plain get out. Sheriff Motley wants his own crew, his own group of loyal followers.”

Heltsley tries to make you believe that we, the Edgar County Watchdogs, are somehow intertwined with the Sheriff or that he may be one of us. I can say that is completely false. While we would certainly enjoy having a few more watchdogs out there helping us out, it is still the same two people. I think both Kirk and I might have submitted to the Sheriff’s Department between 10 and 30 FOIA requests for public records over the past 4 years, but there was never a time where the Sheriff gave us any information that was not a response to a FOIA request. We do not asked him for any information that is not sent via a FOIA request. He is required by law to respond to those requests for records – the same as any other public official. The overwhelming majority of information we receive from the county has come from the 911, County Clerk, County Treasurer, and Airport.

As far as employees go, yes we have asked for and demanded resignations. We do that quite frequently, but only after we catch people lying about one thing or another. Mr. Jimmy Wells was a walking lie from day one (read these articles). Mr. Jerry Griffin falsified the very first document he presented to the county – his job application (here). If a public employee lies, everyone should demand termination of their employment. I still believe Burgin should go, not only for the guilty verdict in the Federal Civil Rights Case, but also for lying about paying the $100,000 to the county for the ambulance service (he never paid a penny). Hopper resigned, but should have left long ago for being part of the “resign with dignity” of the jailers that had sex with inmates under the Crippes regime, among other things.

Hire honest people, through an honest hiring program, and demand they stay honest, or fire them. Is that too much to ask? There have been plenty of people hired that we have said nothing about – because they didn’t lie to get or keep their jobs.

So for this claim, I will simply add it to the very long list of his other documented lies.

As for the “bankrupting Edgar County” claim: just this year, we have proven that the check for over $150,000 the board was going to send to RIDES Mass Transit was required by law to stay in the Edgar County general fund, and the past couple of years we have demanded that leaseholders of public property pay the property taxes they are required to pay. We demanded and received repayment from a private attorney, funds he received from 911 when he could not legally do work for them. We also stopped the illegal transfer of funds from other county departments into the county general fund under the guise of “rent” or “administration fees”. We quashed a bill in the Illinois Legislature designed to authorize those payments, by proving it would have violated the Illinois Constitution. The really good news from the past four years is that even with all of that, the County is still able to pay down the debts created by the previous regimes. I do not consider that “bankrupting the county”.

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Below is copied from an article I published on June 4, 2014 – just to refresh your memory…

Now, let’s rehash some of the lies from the past two years or so:

– We owe $300,000 – LIE – he just wished we owed that much and is trying to make sure we owe that much

– I retired from Department of Corrections – LIE – He was removed for reasons not publicly released yet, however, sources point to his actions leading to his termination were not much different than Burgin’s past actions.

– I am a “covert investigator” – LIE (there is no such thing)

– I feel harassed – LIE (he probably feels guilty instead)

– I took the Open Meetings Act Training – (NOT according to the Attorney General)

– I wrote tons of jail inspection reports, was in the same office – LIE (click here)

– I was intimately involved in that investigation – LIE (click here)

– Letter to the editor claiming he’s trying to save taxpayer’s money – LIE (click here)

– Claims Jimmy Wells had eviction authority – LIE (click here)

– Claims four people wanting to bid on the airport business lease – LIE (click here)

– Doesn’t want commercial operation at the airport – LIE (click here)

Additionally:

– Says he never reads anything before voting on it

– Tries to justify the concept of bid-rigging (click here)

– Claims it is nobody’s business how the airport operates (click here)

– Claims we have no right to know about illegal public bank accounts (click here)

– Wanted to show a local insurance company the quotes from others before deciding which one to approve (click here)

– Places an extra large, 4 foot by 8 foot, racist political sign in his front yard

– Colludes with Chris Patrick, Jimmy Wells, and Adonna Bennett on the airport lies

– Votes NO on Deputy pay raises as political stunt against the Sheriff (click here)

– Violated peoples rights while performing as an Edgar County Deputy with illegal traffic stops to satisfy his own curiosity – (click here – page 20 – line 21-23)

Mike Heltsley