Edgar Co., IL. (ECWd) –
In past articles I wrote about Board Member Karl Farnham collecting insurance payments in violation of law, Board Members Mike Heltsley and Alan Zuber collecting “opt-out” payments in violation of law, State’s Attorney Mark Isaf collecting the opt-out payments and previous insurance payments in violation of law, and also how the County Board passed a Resolution in October 2015 attempting to justify these payments by “adopting” past resolution(s) that never existed and that nobody can find. All of the above have violated their Oath of Office (among other laws), which states, in part, that they swear to uphold the Constitution of the State of Illinois. For that, they have failed.
This article is about how the Edgar County Sheriff has been participating in the county insurance program in violation of law.
While he was a Deputy, Jeff Wood was authorized to participate in the county health insurance program. When he became elected to the Office of Edgar County Sheriff, he was no longer authorized to participate in the county health insurance program as a matter of law. This was due to the Resolution setting the Sheriff’s compensation.
The Edgar County Board passed a Resolution on April 9, 2014 (at 13:56 in this video) by unanimous vote, setting the salary/compensation of the County Sheriff. His compensation was set at $55,838 (FY-2014) and increases each year thru FY-2018 to $62,338. this Resolution included nothing else. No health insurance, no life insurance, no free car allowance, no mileage, NOTHING!
Since the first of December 2014, Sheriff Wood has been participating in the county health insurance program (proof on pages 14, 15, and 16 of this document) by having the county pay $460 per month for their portion of the program. The unlawful act of receiving payments towards his insurance coverage, he has violated the Local Government Officer Compensation Act and Article VII Section 9 (b) of the Illinois Constitution, Section 4-6003 of the Counties Code, and numerous other laws.
He was overcompensated by at least $5,060.00 since he took office, thru October 2015, and he should reimburse the taxpayers for this overcompensation.
For further clarification, not only do the above mentioned laws apply, but case law supports this and was used in the past by Kirk Allen to stop paying their multi-township assessor. It was stopped because there was never any resolution adopted to set compensation as outlined in case law provided by the Township Officials of Illinois Association. (Case law provided by TOI)
Next up? Discussions on Medicare reimbursements to county elected officials…
![](https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/AWI-Bolongbrook-150x150.jpg)
5 Comments
ECWDogs
Posted at 14:21h, 31 OctoberEdgar County Sheriff Jeff Wood should arrest himself – https://t.co/f0RAZBuen6
ilnewswatch
Posted at 19:31h, 31 OctoberEdgar County Sheriff Jeff Wood should arrest himself – https://t.co/j4X6qTOBji
franklin
Posted at 08:56h, 01 NovemberMotley didnt have any of these things? free car allowance, no mileage, NOTHING!
jmkraft
Posted at 12:21h, 01 NovemberI haven’t looked at former elected official nor anything further back than Dec 2012. I guess I could do that, and start with Karl Farnham who could easily be shown to owe more than $50,000 for all the years he’s been collecting unauthorized health benefits.
But in the interest of…oh how has it been put in the past?…not filing “frivolous” FOIA requests (LOL), I placed a date of when the most recent compensation setting resolutions were passed. For county board members it was Nov 2011, for Sheriff it was early-mid 2014. I could go back further, but you would have to refrain from commenting on how much money we are “wasting”…and how county employees “have better things to do” than to find public records…
franklin
Posted at 15:51h, 01 NovemberI could go back further, but you would have to refrain from commenting on how much money we are “wasting”…and how county employees “have better things to do” than to find public records …… I dont recall ever saying that about you? But it is a nice thought