Shelby Co. (ECWd) –
Shelby County State’s Attorney Gina Vonderheide had requested a legal opinion from the Illinois Attorney General on three questions regarding the County Board’s illegal hiring of a private attorney, (article here). We do not believe such an opinion needs to be provided in light of the fact there are already 69 pages of legal analysis on the matter which was provided to her and the board months ago.
The Attorney General responded to the request, and while the request was made prior to any litigation on the subject matter, their delay in responding now provides a trigger for not responding since there is litigation on the matter pending in the courts.
Of interest, we understand the County Board has not been notified that the Attorney General had responded June 18, 2020 to the State’s Attorney’s questions. Not one person on the County Board said a word about the AG’s letter during the July 8, 2020 meeting and the State’s Attorney was not present. We can only wonder why their legal counsel has not shared that with them considering it was received three weeks prior to the meeting.
The Attorney General’s Office has a standing policy to not issue opinions on matters being litigated before the courts.
We are providing the records obtained from the Attorney General as they have the proper redactions of the signature.
A copy of their denial letter can be downloaded at this link or viewed below.
AG Opinion Denial 2-3
1 Comment
PK
Posted at 08:59h, 25 JulyIt is my understanding that the Clerk provided board members and Ms. Vonderheide a copy of the 69 pages documenting, among other facts, previous AG opinions. Ms. Vonderheide’s request to the AG on March 18th does not disclose her receipt of this information nor her knowledge of the prior AG opinions contained therein.
Ms. Vonderheide’s lack for disclosing her knowledge of prior opinions with her witten request could have the effect of causing the office of the AG to redo work previously done. Therefore, her written request for an opinion without disclosing information provided by the clerk represents an official waste of many others time…in either or both cases now, 3 months minimum and probably much more.
Indeed, finding 1/2 worm in your apple is worse than finding 1/1 whole.