Hancock Co. (ECWd) –
West Point, Illinois, is a small municipality located in Hancock County, with a population of around 140 people.
After residents and one trustee started questioning the financials, sale of village property, and budget and appropriations ordinance in the village, the President, Clerk, Attorney, and five of the six trustees resigned from office, leaving one trustee as the only remaining elected official of the village.
The lone trustee has scheduled a special meeting for tonight, October 22, 2024, to appoint a new Village President, who will then start the process of appointing a Clerk, and (up to) five trustees.
Assuming the resignations are valid (See 65 ILCS 5/3.1-10-50), the process for appointments to vacancies in elective office is spelled out in the Illinois Municipal Code:
- presuming the resignations are valid, the “majority vote of the trustees presently holding office” (Sec 65 ILCS 5/3.1-10-50(f)(1) – one trustee in this case – appoints an acting village president
- then, the acting village president appoints a trustee, with the advice and consent of the board (if there is any)
- then the president would appoint another trustee with the advice and consent of the board (the one trustee he just appointed), and the process would repeat until all trustee vacancies are filled
- the president would then appoint a clerk, with advice and consent of the board
Sec 3.1-10-55 may also apply:
65 ILCS 5/3.1-10-55 Quorum to fill vacancies If there is a vacancy in an elective office and, for any reason, there is not a quorum in office of the corporate authorities, appointments to fill vacancies may be made or confirmed by a majority of the corporate authorities holding office at the time the appointment is made or confirmed. This section of the municipal code provides what happens when there is not a quorum in the office of the corporate authorities. This section addresses the question is it a quorum of those sitting members or the size of the body defined in the statute. A quorum is based on the size of the board defined in the statute. The municipal code provides for what happens if there are no members on the board.
See Agenda:
6 Comments
Andy
Posted at 12:00h, 24 OctoberThat lone trustees wife was probably stirring up crap and might be the reason for everyone else leaving. She’s done it many times before.
Kathiann
Posted at 14:28h, 22 OctoberThe rats always leave the ship when the questions start coming! It might be time to clean house.
Mark
Posted at 14:18h, 22 OctoberIt’s a pretty bad day for local government like a Village when it basically has NO elected officials to run it. Can you imagine the lone trustee’s nightmare?? I’d be thinking it was time to turn in my resignation at that point. Not that I WOULD, knowing my duty to the town and the electorate….but I’d be saying, as said in the movie “Airplane!”, “I picked the wrong week to quit drinking!”.
Jerry Smith Sr
Posted at 14:13h, 22 OctoberWell looks kinda fishey don’t it. Me being a resident there had a suspicion there has been something going on for quite sometime
Jack Tarleotn
Posted at 09:56h, 22 OctoberMaybe you ought to check in with the lone trustee and make sure he knows the order to transact that business. Sounds like he’s trying to do the right thing. It would be a shame to mess things up further by not doing it in the right order.
Dave
Posted at 09:14h, 22 OctoberI love it!