UDPATED
Shelby Co. (ECWd) –
We were tipped off this week about a Cease & Desist letter sent to the Shelbyville Township Supervisor and the Township attorney. I did confirm with the Township attorney that the letter was authentic and she informed us the issue of donations is dead as the board decided to stop the donations.
I asked the following question: “I understand the Supervisor said there would be no more donations but when did the board make this decision?”
The response from their attorney: “It has just not been requested to be on the agenda. I Suppose it could be in the future”
After receiving clarification as to when this decision was made, the attorney’s comments on the board decision was tied to the Supervisor, speaking for the board when he stated there will be no more donations. Thus there was not actually a board decision that took place behind closed doors but rather an announcement by the Supervisor that there would no further donations.
We also confirmed the Cease and Desist letter was provided to the attorney prior to the meeting this week, however, the letter was not mentioned or discussed during any portion of the meeting. The Supervisor did say that they have stopped the donations during my public comment portion of the meeting. As you will see in the video, we point out that provided statutory obligations are met, some donations are legal.
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We also provided a four-page legal opinion to the Township Attorney which we obtained just after the Township’s last meeting. We sought the opinion so that we would have an opinion, regardless of what that opinion was, in writing. I think this written legal opinion and the Cease and Desist letter makes it clear, just as we pointed out in this article, certain statutory criteria must be met when giving away tax dollars.
We can only assume that since the board decided to no longer donate taxpayer money to whomever they want, these letters drove the message home that what they were doing was not consistent with the law.
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Written Legal Opinoin on Donations
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