Watchdogs’ 2024 Year In Review –

Illinois (ECWd) –

As another year draws to a close, we are excited about what lies ahead.

We published more than 300 articles this year alone and have continued receiving an average of more than 1.5 million visitors each year for at least the past 5 years, with 113,000 more this year than last year.

None of this would have been possible without the help of our readers.

Please consider donating to the cause HERE – it will be put to good use in our mission of keeping local government accountable through the use of public records, public meetings, research, and media publications.

Some of the key issues we worked on in 2024 include, in no specific order:

• Grundy-Kendall County Regional Office of Education and the Professional Development Alliance:
  • After asking a few questions about the operations and expenses of the Professional Development Alliance (“PDA”) it was dissolved within approximately 60 days of our questions and FOA requests.
  • 2024: PDA website taken down.
  • Some of the issues which resulted in this were uncovered in late-2023, and included the PDA’s hosting of an offshore casino’s servers/email, $874,000 in gifts from contractor to PDA/ROE employees, PDA obtaining IMRF for its employees for work performed for a private corporation, improperly contracting a public body out to work for a private corporation, dissolution of the PDA, Christmas cash gifted out to employees, and more.
• Village of Dolton and Thornton Township:
  • Tiffany Henyard and Keith Freeman were topics of several or our articles
  • National media has taken an interest in Henyard’s actions
  • Freeman indicted for bankruptcy fraud after we (ECWd and residents) notified the United States Bankruptcy Trustee of suspected fraud
  • Federal Grand Jury investigations were started within two weeks of Freeman’s indictment
  • Trustees for the village and trustees for the township have succeeded in several court actions aimed at reeling in Henyard’s corrupt activities
• Oakland Fire Protection District Trustee Pleads Guilty:
  • In 2022 we published how the entire fire protection district board resigned after one FOIA request for financial records
  • In 2024, following the 2023 indictments, one trustee plead guilty and is awaiting sentencing, one trustee still fighting the charges
• ECWd successfully intervened in various court actions to uphold the right of the public to access records filed with the courts:
  • Shelby County: we intervened to unseal a bid on county farmland
  • White County: in a case related to our successful 2022 motion to intervene in a civil case between People’s National Bank and Grand Rivers Community Bank to keep certain court records from being filed under seal, an ex-bank chairman was fined $105,000
• Coles County:
  • Board members receiving compensation never authorized
  • Attorney General confirms Coles County Board did not pass a compensation resolution for county board members, and as a result the board was forced to amend its meeting minutes reflecting the compensation resolution failed
  • Assistant State’s Attorney and Public Defender in “proceedings shrouded in impropriety“
• Kane County’s masking of commercial drivers license (“CDL”) felony convictions:
  • unlawful masking of CDL conviction ended with death of Sheriff’s Deputy
  • Illinois Secretary of State asks United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to immediately audit Kane County court cases to determine the extent other dispositions have been masked and if masking if ongoing
• Edgar County:
  • Assistant State’s Attorney accused of theft
  • Assistant State’s Attorney admits to theft
  • Court orders Paris School District 95 to release Grand Jury Subpoena to Watchdogs
• Shelby County:
  • Board member indicted (page 10), resigned from her other position, and the case was later nolle pros’d
  • Dive Team – mass resignations, then returned to work
  • Newly elected board member’s conflict of interest as Dive Team Commander
  • FOIA lawsuits against the county (here – and one we haven’t written about yet)
  • County has the Dive Team forensic audit but has not discussed it in public yet . . . oh, and the Dive Team Commander is on the county audit committee in his capacity as county board member. Makes us wonder if the audit will ever be made public by the county board
  • More county farm issues with board members wanting to cash rent the farm (here)
• Village of Rochester:
  • the village settled a federal civil rights lawsuit against Mayor, and the Mayor refused to comply with the Open Meetings Act by informing the public what the board was about to vote on.

and many more.

This is extremely time-consuming, and we regret we could not get to every issue brough to our attention by our readers.

Looking forward to a great 2025!