Edgar Co. Board Meetings – Hot Topic: Elected Official Health Insurance –

Edgar Co., IL. (ECWd) –
Published November 12, 2015 –
If you relied on local media to report the happenings in respect to county business, you would have missed a very important issue this month – health insurance for county elected officials.
Previously we have reported on board member Karl Farnham participating in the county employee health insurance program, in violation of every law covering the subject and more…, we reported on board members Mike Heltsley, Alan Zuber and Mark Isaf (State’s Attorney) taking payments for ‘opting out’ of the program, another violation of established law – We even reported on the board’s attempt at justifying their receipt of health insurance payments with the passage of a resolution purporting to adopting previous resolutions that do not exist, and how the board acted on this issue of self-serving, but fails to act on other issues.
What has been unreported, until now, is my filing a “Notice of Intended Application for Quo Warranto” (below) with the State’s Attorney, who should recuse himself since he is conflicted in this, and also filing with the Illinois Attorney General’s office, asking them to intervene and prosecute this receipt of compensation in excess of the Resolutions setting their compensation. I also asked that the AG file suit for recovery of all funds paid in excess of the salary setting resolutions.
This notice is a requirement prior to filing in Circuit Court. The Attorney General and State’s Attorney must be served with this notice, and be given the opportunity to either act, or decline to act, prior to a citizen filing the Application in Circuit Court.
So, after this Notice was sent, we have verbally been informed that no payments went to Isaf, Voigt, Bruner, Zuber, Heltsley, Patrick, or Griffin, who have all decided to declined to continue receiving “opt-out” payments and Medicare Reimbursement payments. This saved the county taxpayers around $5,740.00 just in this month alone. Thank you!
During the November 10th Edgar County Board Meeting, Karl Farnham refused to answer the question asked if he was still getting insurance paid thru the county.
The lone hold-outs (we understand these are still being paid) are Karl Farnham (County Board Member), Jeff Wood (County Sheriff), and Don Wiseman (County Treasurer), who are each receiving around $456.00 per month in excess of the compensation set by resolution. This equates to over $16,400.00 in the next year ($1,368.00/month). These are the three receiving the actual health insurance where Edgar County taxpayers foot part of the insurance bill each month.
It has been close to a month since the “Notice” was sent out, and they have 60 days to reply to me as to whether or not the SA or the AG will take action. If they decline, I will take the action in Circuit Court…just as I wrote on August 15, 2015 (here).
Study session from Monday, November 9, 2015:

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Edgar County Board Meeting from November 10, 2015:

Notice of Intended Application for Quo Warranto filed October 15, 2015:
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