Dewitt County Marina Sale – $1.62 Million rather than $2.5 Million?

DeWitt Co. (ECWd) –

DeWitt County signed this contract for the sale of the county-owned marina with Clinton Marina and Campground for the purchase of the marina for $1,620,000.00.   Strangely, all request for a copy of their bid for the purchase was not provided and as can be seen from the numbers below, were well below the high bid of $2.5 Million.  Why was $880,000.00 of potential income ignored?  To date, we have been unable to get any answers.

We know that there was an investigation being conducted by the State Police and the Attorney General’s office was involved in some capacity regarding the marina operations. Still, to date, no information has been released.

We understand the prior marina operator had their lease terminated by the county and it’s been alleged there was massive malfeasance.  The audit, according to the DeWitt County Answers to RFP questions indicates the audit is incomplete.  Anyone reading the questions asked and the county’s response should be able to grasp there were major problems with the county-owned property and its leasing to a private entity.  Lack of oversight would be an understatement.

While many answers jumped out to us when we read them, one in particular was shocking.

Question: “Will there be an Interview/negotiation process?” (spelling errors in original document corrected)

Answer: Yes

The whole concept of sealed bids is to receive the highest responsible bidder.  The determination of “responsible bidder” is normally established by a prepared score sheet on key points the unit of government is taking into consideration.  There should not be any “interview/negotiation” process.

We note that the final vote to approve the contract was done during a special meeting that did not comply with the county code requirements as it was never published in the newspaper. When we asked about the failure to publish it became clear to us, some laws simply do not matter.

Response from the State’s Attorney regarding the special meeting publication requirements with our emphasis added:

“The DeWitt County Board voted to accept a proposal for the sale of the DeWitt County marina at its regularly scheduled meeting on March 21, 2024. The agenda and minutes from that meeting are publicly available at dewittcountyil.gov.  Subsequent to acceptance of the proposal, the attorneys for the buyer and seller prepared a contract for sale of the property. A motion to approve that contract was placed on the regularly scheduled board meeting on May 23, 2024. At said meeting, a motion was made to table the motion approving the language of the contract for sale and seconded. Chairman Matthews asked to table the motion until May 30, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. While in open session, Chairman Matthews directed the county clerk to circulate a call note (in writing) stating the date, time and place of the special meeting. That call note was circulated to all the board members present at the May 23, 2024 meeting and signed by each board member. The board approved the vote to table the motion until the special meeting on March 30, 2024. Thereafter, the county clerk caused the agenda for the special meeting to be posted as required by law. As you accurately point out, the language of the statute you have attached requires notice “to be published in some newspaper printed in the county, if any there be.” The language chosen by the legislature recognizes that every county may not have a newspaper that would allow publication in each county. It seems reasonable that the intent of the statute is for a county board to be as transparent as possible and to provide the best practical notice to members of the public. In DeWitt County, there is one newspaper in the county. That newspaper is the Clinton Journal. The Clinton Journal is printed once a week and comes out each Friday. The May 23, 2024 board meeting was on a Thursday. At the time the special meeting was called, the deadline had already passed to have notice printed in the May 24, 2024 edition of the Clinton Journal. Likewise, as the special meeting was set for Thursday, May 30, 2024, it was impossible to publish notice in the Clinton Journal as the next publication was on May 31, 2024. I would also note that at the May 23, 2024 board meeting when the special meeting was announced and set, reporters from the Clinton Journal, as well as Miller Media Group which maintains the county’s local radio station, were both in attendance.  I believe the County Board met its obligations for notice under the statute as well as giving actual notice of the special meeting to the Clinton Journal and Miller Media Group.”  Dan Markwell –  DeWitt County State’s Attorney

Anyone reading the statute can see the legislative intent is clear, special meetings require publication in the newspaper if there is one in the county, which the State’s Attorney confirmed there is one.  He confirmed that we accurately pointed out that the notice requires publication in the paper, admitted it was not, and then stated he believes the County Board met its obligations for notice under the statute.  How does any of that make sense? We note the State’s Attorney was present and participated in discussions during what we consider an illegal meeting as there was no publication in the newspaper as required.  This is yet another example of why a State’s Attorney should not be attending county board meetings.  He is now conflicted on the matter as he was a witness to the violation.

From the statute, our emphasis added: “The clerk shall also cause notice of such meeting to be published in some newspaper printed in the county if any there be.”

We believe it is reasonable for the county officials to follow the actual law as written. While we agree having numerous media entities writing about the upcoming meeting helps get the word out, we don’t find those options in the statute as a justification for not publishing in the newspaper, as required.

Below are the bids we received, which did not include a bid from the entity that was awarded the sale.

M&S Holdings – $1,600,000.00

G&H Marine – $1,700,000.00

JSJH Holdings – $2,500,000.00

LAC Inc – $1,000,000.00

Lilly Capital – $1,800,000.00

Sullivan Marina & Campground – $1,620,000.00 (agreed with assessed value but not stated as offering price)

Illinois Department of Natural Resources – $1,500,000.00