Shelby County Board Members and Treasurer seeking Criminal Investigation of County Highway Engineer Alan Spesard

Shelby Co.  (ECWd) –

Four Shelby County Board members and the County Treasurer have requested the State’s Attorney to recuse herself and request a special prosecutor for the purpose of establishing a criminal investigation and prosecution of County Highway Engineer Alan Spesard.

The letter specifically alleges violations of law to include Official Misconduct,  Article VIII Section 1(a) of the State Constitution, and the Illinois Government Ethics Act.

Prior articles found at this link begin to expose what Spesard has been doing in his position as County Engineer.

Of interest to the actions of Spesard was an allegation that came out during the last Shelbyville City Council meeting.  According to a local citizen, he had raised the concerns of Spesard doing city business on county time about a year ago, and was told Spesard worked on his own time. As we now know, that was not true as he was clearly doing city business on county time.

Another interesting document is Spesard’s letter and memorandum to the City when he took the job as City Engineer. During the last city meeting, I raised the question as to how many of the board had even read the agreement they had with Spesard. Not a single person could confirm they had read the agreement.

“It is understood that major engineering projects will be performed by outside consultants (see attachment for engineering projects that are being prepared for the city by outside consultants).”

We can only assume that Spesard considers his company, Shelby Engineering LLC, to be an “outside consultant” since he has performed so many of the major projects for the city.  Reading his memorandum leads people to believe he would not be involved in those projects.

Currently, Shelby County is plagued with malfeasance pointing to numerous alleged criminal violations of law.  The Sheriff payroll issue is being investigated by the Illinois State Police, and while we do not believe the State’s Attorney ever looked into it as she claimed she would, the missing guns sold by the Sheriff and deposits not matching up is another alleged criminal investigation.  Spesard would be the third major problem for the county with yet another on its way dealing with alleged insurance fraud.

At some point, Chairman Cannon needs to accept the fact he is in way over his head and has no clue how to manage county government as all of these issues have taken place right under his nose.

A copy of the signed request for an Appellate Prosecutor for a criminal investigation can be downloaded at this link or viewed below.