Coles County Board Members To Receive Zero Compensation

Coles Co. (ECWd) –

The newly elected Coles County Board members will be serving without any compensation.

The current board is required to set the compensation of the elected officers as outlined in the Counties Code at this link.

During the May 2022 Coles County Board meeting, the board voted on this resolution for county board compensation which included a controversial health insurance benefit for these part-time elected officials.  The vote was 5:5, which means the resolution failed and was not adopted.  The minutes from that meeting confirm the 5:5 vote.  The video below is set for when the motions and discussion were held to include a verbal confirmation that the motion failed.

With no adopted resolution, there will be no compensation for the newly elected board members.

The current board is required to set the compensation at the time it reapportions the county, which is every ten years.  Looking at the resolution, including past resolutions, they were setting compensation for a ten-year time frame.

• 2002-2012 Compensation resolution for County Board members
• 2012-2022 Compensation Resolution for County Board members
• Failed 2022-2032 Compensation Resolution for County Board members

Considering they were seeking $4,800.00 a year for each of the twelve board members, the taxpayers are finally getting a break to the tune of $57,600.00 a year and $1,200.00 a year for the County Chairman. Who knows the cost of the health insurance benefit they could have received had the resolution passed?

This ten-year time frame outlined in the resolution, not including health insurance, equates to $588,000.00 which would be no longer needed from the taxpayers.

While it would be great to be able to say this was an intentional act to save the taxpayers, we know that was not the case based on the reaction and comments after we first exposed the failure of the resolution at the last county board meeting.

Any predictions as to how many county board members are going to resign over not getting paid?