Atlanta Public Library District set to enter into an Illegal Lease to Bill Thomas –

ATLANTA, IL. (ECWd) –

Some people never learn. We will place the entire Atlanta Public Library District Board of Trustees in this category for now.

The Board of Trustees of the Atlanta Library District has on its agenda for December 14th, a Lease Agreement to lease parts of “Union Hall” – a building owned by the Library District – to one of the district trustees, Bill Thomas.

According to Section 3 of the Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act. “No person holding any office…may be in any manner financially interested in…any contract…of which such officer “may” be called upon to act or vote.” There is a whole list of exceptions to that rule, but none of them apply to Mr. Thomas in this or any other situation he is in.

Section 3 continues: “Nor may any such officer take or receive, or offer to take or receive, any money or any other thing of value, or offer to take or receive, either directly or indirectly, any money or other thing of value as a gift or bribe or means of influencing his vote or action in his official character.” This means that Bill Thomas may NOT use this lease agreement as a means of influencing whether or not he will vote or abstain from voting on this matter. The same argument can be made if he simply doesn’t show up to the meeting.

The lease will be backdated a month, will be $400 for the upstairs office space, the first-floor reception desk, surrounding area, and all of the common areas of those two buildings. He will have to pay no utilities.

Other people have shown interest in leasing the office space and were ignored by the Board.

Violations of the Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act are Class 4 felonies and removal from office when convicted.

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