Wesley Township – Misinformation Is Alive and Well

Will Co. (ECWd)

Once again, the Wesley Township Supervisor provides misinformation to the board and the public regarding their long-standing violation of the Township Code related to their excessive accumulation of funds.

Rather than actually reading the law during the discussion, Supervisor Medlin chose to make numerous implications and claims that the law had no provision to General Assistance funds.  He even went as far as to imply we provided him with false information on the matter several years ago.

Township Government for dummies:

(60 ILCS 1/85-65)
    Sec. 85-65. Accumulation of funds. Township funds, including, but not limited to, general assistance funds and excluding the township’s capital fund, shall not exceed an amount equal to or greater than 2.5 times the annual average expenditure of the previous 3 fiscal years.
(Source: P.A. 102-231, eff. 7-30-21.)

Anyone who actually reads the law should be able to comprehend that it applies to Township funds, including general assistance funds and that it “excludes” the township capital fund.

I personally informed him years ago who to speak with regarding the return of excess funds, which Shelbyville Township returned over $700,000.00 to the taxpayers.  I shared that so he could find out the process they used to follow the law.

Medlin claimed to have communicated with the legislator who sponsored the bill which became law and claimed this bill had no provision for GA funds.  Anyone reading the law can see that is not true.  When I spoke with the legislator about this issue the response was “people hear what they want to hear.” We have said for years, if you don’t ask the right questions, on purpose, you get the answer you want even though that answer is completely false.

The law limits the accumulation of funds in Townships with the exclusion of one fund, the Capital Fund.

I told Medlin there were a couple of ways to return those funds.  Offsetting future taxation through a rebate or direct payments back to the taxpayers.  Shelbyville Township chose direct payments.  While the process of returning those funds is not spelled out in the statute, such authority comes from the second prong of Dillon’s Rule “powers necessarily and fairly implied from the grant of power.”  If the law limits the amount of funds a Township can have on hand, then they necessarily and fairly implied have the power to take steps to make sure they are not holding more funds than allowed by law.  

Rather than comply with the law, Medlin has taken the position that it would cost too much and be a lot of work for the assessor.  How special that he dumps it on another office holder rather than accept the fact he is the CEO and Treasurer of the township and it is his obligation to follow the law for which he took an oath to do.

We searched the township code and could not find any provision making reference to ignoring the law because following it would be a lot of work or might cost money.

This is the same township that has bound the township taxpayers to thousands of dollars in legal bills numerous times for bogus court filings that either failed or were withdrawn.

Facts matter Supervisor Medlin.