One More Check Please…

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

Shelby County Board member Teresa Boehm was the subject of a quo-warranto filing due to accepting a position on the Rose Township cemetery board, which we covered in this article.

During the last county board meeting a public comment was made wrongly claiming Boehm was brought up on charges for sitting on the cemetery board. That portion of the public comment can be viewed at this link.

While we appreciate people expressing their opinions on matters, we must note his opinion does nothing but spread misinformation when the opinion is totally false.  Boehm was never brought up on any charges yet numerous local citizens, including one who sat next to me at the meeting, insist it is true.  Such ignorance is a key contributor to the divide being created in Shelby County.

As we pointed out in this article, “The Judge advised that if the State’s Attorney wishes to bring criminal charges against her that is up to him.  We point this out because shortly after the hearing we saw a false posting on social media claiming that the judge dropped the charges against Boehm.  Considering this matter was a civil matter and not a criminal matter before the court, Boehm was never charged with anything, and the judge even indicated as much with his comments.  Once again local social media propaganda lies to the public in what appears to be an ongoing push of a false narrative.”

An interesting timeline and chain of events appears to indicate a select group in Rose Township has no regard for the law.

• July 31, 2023, Quo-Warranto action filed
• On August 8, 2023, Teresa Boehm resigned from the Rose Township Cemetary Board
• August 10, 2023, Boehm filed a motion to dismiss the quo warranto case based on her resignation on 8/8/23
• September 12, 2023, the case was resolved based on her resignation according to the Judge.

We were hoping to see that when this matter was resolved by the courts Boehm would have done the right thing and paid back the money she received sitting on a board not authorized by law.  That hope is why we sent a FOIA for a copy of all payments Boehm made to the township in the last 6 months. To our surprise, I received a very unexpected response.

“the only additional check is one Teresa cashed on August 7th.  You have copies of all of the other checks in a previous Foia request.  May I send you the  August check only or do you want additional copies of the others you already have?”

“Joe Woodall”

I responded with, “I asked for checks she wrote to the Township.”  The response from the Township indicates no documents.

Anticipating that she would not have cashed a check she received the day before resigning, I requested a copy of the check and any bank records that would indicate the check was actually cashed. I never dreamed that she would have cashed a check received the day before her resignation as well as after knowing the legal matter before her clearly spelled out she could not serve on the cemetery board while also being a county board member.

Turns out, that subsequent request for records produced the August 7, 2023 compensation payment to Boehm which she cashed on August 8, 2023, at 9:57 AM.

Looking at the above timeline, Boehm knew she faced a legal issue for sitting on a board not permitted by law and it would appear agreed there was a problem because she resigned on August 8th, but not before accepting one more payment from the Township the day before she resigned and cashing it on the very day she resigned.

So much for having faith in people doing the right thing and returning funds that should have never been paid in the first place.

Considering the Township also knew of the issue at hand with Boehm sitting on the board in violation of the law it is troubling that they chose to write yet another check to Boehm on August 7, 2023.

If anyone wonders why people are rapidly losing faith in their government and government officials, look no further than Rose Township and Shelby County Board member Teresa Boehm who put her pocketbook before the taxpayers.