Jasper Co. (ECWd) –
Good governance is a learning process in which few are truly willing to take the time to learn. After our first article on Yale, at this link, the appointed officials began their schooling.
I attended the meeting in order to provide numerous key statutes to them and received a welcomed surprise that they had already taken care of several matters after receiving our Freedom of Information Act request.
It became clear that many years of past board members doing things wrong was the key reason things were in such disarray. The mowing being done by the Village President has stopped, not because it’s that time of year but because he recognized it was improper. The Village is going to pursue getting either quotes or bids for that service moving forward.
They put a stop to the private use of the village tractor, something we never even knew they were doing. Use of Public Property for private purposes violates the state constitution and is considered a felony in Illinois. We commend them for taking proactive steps to stop the practice.
It turns out no one on the board had ever been elected but rather appointed when vacancies came up. The upcoming election process is a matter they were working on and hopefully, their attorney will be able to help them get out of the mess that was created in the past as they believed every seat was up for election this spring which is not accurate.
During my public comment, I indicated that it was Townships that utilize the caucus process for getting people on the ballot, not villages. After doing some research after the meeting in order to get them more information I sent them the following email.
The link below is the State Board of Elections 2025 Elections Handbook.
I stand corrected as it appears there is a process for a municipal caucus in villages under 5000 in population. In fourteen years of local government work I have never seen a small village utilize that process. See page 12 of 73 in the PDF file at the link below. There is a process to change the method of your election and I am assuming those communities that circulate petitions for a primary election followed those steps.
Page 9 outlines the Municipal Caucus process. Considering the complications of vacancy appointments and the fact those were not placed on an agenda and voted on, the process of fixing this is going to take some serious work in short order. As your attorney referenced, everyone should not be on the ballot at the same time. We urge you have your attorney provide you a legal path through this process.
Thanks for stepping up and fixing the things that need to be fixed.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to shoot them our way. We will do our best to get you the answers needed.
While they still have several matters to get corrected it appears they are ready, willing, and able to take the steps needed to put the village on a path to good governance.
If more public bodies were as receptive as these people were we might not have near the problems in the State that we have.
We thank them for the transparency and hope others can learn from this positive interaction.
We encourage anyone who has concerns with how their local government is operating to step up and get on the ballot to be a part of the solution.
Video of the meeting can be viewed below.
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