PARIS, IL. (ECWd) –
Updated January 12, 2015 @ 7:43 a.m. to correct a quote…
Well, another exciting meeting behind us!
This Edgar County Airport Advisory Committee Meeting was held to discuss airport issues.
Some of those were:
County Board Member Lorenzen stated that there are changes coming to the Airport Board, whether it be dissolving it completely, making it larger, or simply writing its mission and procedures. This comes after Farnham decided he didn’t like how the recommended appointment to the advisory board was made, and that the County Board members of the airport committee were under no obligation to forward the name for the appointment the advisory board approved to forward…you know, change the rules when you don’t like them.
Members of the public discussed how things “used to be done” and how they wished for “the old days” to come back again where “they all got along” and “everything went just fine” ….until… “those guys” started asking questions and demanding they follow the law. Of course no mention of the lying, bullying, more lying, and hiding of public financial records, or have to sue them in court to find out which statute they were operating the airport under. No. Nothing about that…
It’s all this following of statutes bit that they shouldn’t have to do, and, of course, those negative people that insist they follow the law.
Additionally, at the last meeting, I insisted they find out if they had to bid out the fuel purchases. But it appears they will attempt to ignore that part of the law too, forcing my hand on another lawsuit to demand compliance.
I will repeat this once again:
They know the law requires bidding the fuel purchases out, but are going to ignore it thinking the law will go away and no one will notice.
That is what they were all wishing to get back to, and Chris Patrick even said they needed to “get rid of those problems” (speaking of Bogue and I) – I don’t know if that was meant as a threat or simply a figure of speech.
“The Airport Manager’s Handbook”
Here we are visiting this again. The last airport meeting, Chris Patrick referenced the handbook, or policy manual, as a way to get rid of some of the leaseholders of the t-hangars. In tonight’s meeting, him and Jimmy Wells accused me of lying, and stated the manual was approved.
He thinks the handbook was approved when he was on the county board… LOL !
Here is the history of this “handbook” that C. Patrick was attempting to ram thru to extract payback on a certain leaseholder in 2013:
June 19, 2013
Airport Manager’s Handbook
Another document has surfaced, and they are calling it the “Edgar County Airport Policy Manual”, which, according to Jimmy Wells, is simply the IDOT Airport Manager’s Handbook with a few minor name changes made to it.
Since we know that the airport ADVISORY board has no power except to recommend items to the county board, this “Handbook” or “Policy Manual” has never been adopted for use. The IDOT version was mentioned in their meeting minutes almost a year ago, but it was never brought to the county board for adoption.
Why is this such a big issue? Because it changes the powers and duties of the airport manager, basically changing his employment conditions.
During a recent (June 24, 2013) County Board meeting he claimed the airport adopted the IDOT airport policy manual however when called out on that it apparently became clear that the policy manual he referenced was NEVER presented to the County Board to approve. In fact, all indications are that is the last thing Patrick wanted to happen.
Fast forward a few weeks and now we have yet another Patrick created urgency to pass a “new” policy manual for the airport that he is claiming is all taken directly out of the IDOT manual, verbatim!
Napoleon now claims this new policy manual is going to be on the agenda for the next county board meeting because we can’t kick the can down the road any longer.
See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXIsMiQeHzs
Farnham is talking about the manual and how it is not approved yet…
At 6:34 Voigt talks about a page or two missing from the manual he was handed
At 10:25 Chris Patrick talks about putting it (the manual) on the agenda for the next board meeting
This is around a month after C. Patrick resigned. – At the 20:00 minute mark, Farnham calls for an airport meeting to discuss things that include “policies”, meaning the manual…
The handbook, or manual, was never approved after this date either, but just to make sure, I will “abuse the FOIA process” again and submit a request for public records to the county clerk for a copy of any meeting minutes where this handbook was approved.
I know it was never approved, but I wish to get official verification and publish what I receive.
Please consider a donation.
[wp_eStore_donate id=1]
No Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.