Shelby County June 3, 2020, Entire Closed Session Recording Released – What Goes On Behind Closed Doors Should Concern Taxpayers

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

During the last Shelby County Board meeting, the board voted to release the entire closed session records for the June 3rd and 10th, 2020 closed sessions.

It is evident that a few board members are totally clueless as to how the county government is to operate. Of interest are the admissions that confirm what we have said all along, the county violated the law in the hiring of the private attorney.  Such admissions are bound to be problematic during upcoming court cases on this matter.

Chairman Bruce Cannon – “What we’ve done was not right, we can’t deny that”

Chairman Bruce Cannon – Claims union contracts were written 30 years ago by the Attorney Generals Office.  Such a statement flies in the face of logic as no local government union contract lasts 30 years and nevermind the fact there is no statutory authority for the Attorney General to draft contracts for County Government.  We have not found any record that supports such a claim.   It’s clear the issue of contracts is over their head and rather than deal with it properly they defaulted to do nothing until 2014-2015 budget year in which they hired an attorney in violation of the law to do the job that should have been handled by the State’s Attorney.

Unknown Board member– “We had a legal opinion to do that” (hire an attorney)

State’s Attorney Gina Vonderheide – “I didn’t render any legal opinion“.

State’s Attorney Gina Vonderheide – Claims private lawyer’s services were labor-related, which is not true as there are numerous billings for matters that had nothing to do with labor as confirmed by Board member Gergeni.

The most interesting part of the questions and arguments is they fail to ever get actual answers to questions that are rather simple. It’s evident that a few members “think“, they know the answers however there is no law that supports the wild statements by Barbara Bennett and Chairman Cannon that the treasure has no authority to withhold the payment to the attorney.

Other discussions included disclosure of department heads providing comp time in violation of the union contract, FOP union grievance issues, and other FOP issues regarding pay.

You can download and listen to the audio at this link.