Clark Co., IL. (ECWd) –
The Marshall Advocate has misquoted me again, which is nothing new and not surprising, but worth pointing out.
During the October 15, 2015 Clark County Park District Board of Commissioners meeting, there was a section devoted to public comment as required by law.
Warren LeFever spoke first, and when he initially tried asking a question of the Board as part of his exercising his statutory right to speak, Chairman Joe Ewing, the one who cheated and used forged petitions to be place on the ballot and still laughs at all the suckers who voted for him Clark County voters because he has not been held accountable…yet…, thought violating the public trust in elections wasn’t good enough, so he kicked it up a notch. This time, he decided to try and violate LeFever’s statutory and civil rights to address the Board. Eewing was quickly reminded that questions were also part of speech.
Another person spoke, then I spoke, informing the Board that the statute (Park District Code) did not allow the park district to pay for membership in the Chamber of Commerce.
The Marshall Advocate, being the type of paper they are, misquoted me and made it sound like I said they couldn’t be members because they were a government entity. That is not what I told the board.
You can watch the meeting video and hear it for yourself at the 5:38 mark:
What I actually said:
One Response
The problem is that the reporter Debbie Sowers simply synthesized what John Kraft said rather than quote him correctly. As a matter of fact, she also misquoted me in the same article totally. I’ve been misquoted so many times in the Marshall Advocate that I’ve gotten jaded. I used to not say too much about the mistakes so I could get letters to the editor published. This is not a new problem for Debbie or other reporters. I’ve known her for at least 10 years and she’ll will do that. The problem with misquotes has always been a problem with the Marshall Advocate (which is EXACTLY why I began to record public meetings) with the exception of stuff written by Kathy Kuhn (I think she only does Marshall School Board). She has the fewest of anyone including Gary Strohm. Back when I was on better terms with the newspaper, I often loaned or let them listen to my meetings recordings so they could do newspaper stories about the meetings and get their quotes straight (including Mr. Strohm). My interest, as always, is informing the public properly about issues.
For those who happen to listen to the recording, I went to the board meeting seeking information trying to get information to help me and I would share it with other aldermen. To this day, I haven’t gotten zip. Some information I have gotten recently has made me think that breaking up the Park District isn’t such a good idea. I’m not the only elected official rethinking. So, I’m trying to get more information pro and con and see where things stand. I do quite a bit of my own research because I want to make the best decision. There’s a lot of elected bobbleheads that don’t.
While I’m not a lawyer and can’t advise, I do think a little explanation of what John was saying isn’t a bad thing (John may have a different opinion). When John says, (meaning the Park board) “the statute does not give you the authority”, he , I believe, is referring to what is known as Dillon’s rule. As it was explained to me about a City of Marshall problem: Where in the statute does it give them the authority to do it (whatever was done)? If the law is silent they can not do it and that is Dillon’s rule which goes back to 1868. The Illinois Municipal League has quite a bit written on this in their handbooks.