Shelby County Board – Justice For All? – Update

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

Shelby County, Illinois, has become the poster child for disregarding our laws, all the way down to the most basic laws pertaining to their obligations.

A request for a copy of the Open Meetings Act training certificates for the board members resulted in only 12 of the 22 board members having completed the mandatory training.  The county had no records of the training certificates for the following County Board members. Compliance is outlined as a “shall” item, not a “may” item in the law. 

• Austin Prichard
• Tricia Miller
• James Mitchel
• Judy Wood
• Christy Wallford
• Larry Syfert
• Brent Wallace
• Gene Price

UPDATE: We were informed through a Facebook post that County Board member Chrissy Grant completed her OMA training in March of 2025 and implied that we accused her of non-compliance, which is not accurate.  The post was followed by the typical keyboard warriors making accusations that we lied or were not truthful in our reporting.  Once again, facts matter.  What we originally reported:  “The county had no records of the training certificates for the following County Board members”.  That is a true statement. 

I contacted the clerk and asked if the board members had been contacted for their certificates.

According to the County Clerk, “I “reminded them on 4/10/2026 that OMA training is required.    Chrissy is the only person that submitted anything so far.”

The original response to our request, the Clerk responded clearly: “OMA certificates attached for those who have filed.” (emphasis added).  That response was provided on March 18, 2026, which appears to be before Grant submitted her certificate.

Since it is clear the Clerk did not have it when the response to our FOIA was provided, we stand by our original statement, the County had no records for those that were named in the article.

The fact we named Tricial Miller in the reporting is because she was, in fact, a board member at the time of our request.  The reporting of 22 board members was incorrect because there was a 1  vacancy in relation to the time this FOIA was tied to.  With Miller’s resignation, there are now 2 vacant seats, which changes nothing in the context of the article’s point.

Some of the above-named people who have no record of completing their mandatory OMA training are the same who would yell and scream the loudest at county board meetings before they took office, implying those in office at the time were not following the law.

We understand there are a total of four ethics complaints filed against County Board Chairman Tad Mayhall for the alleged use of the county seal and self-created letterhead in his official capacity to endorse a candidate for office.  As we covered in articles here and here, there are mandatory items that fall on the County Chairman that, by all indications, are being ignored.  As of publication, there is still no ethics commission established as required by law, nor any meeting scheduled to address this matter, and the required notifications to those filing complaints have not been complied with properly as well.  At what point is such disregard considered Official Misconduct, which is when an official “intentionally or recklessly fails to perform any mandatory duty as required by law.”

The notification letter one person received was sent by the Assistant State’s Attorney, Gina Vonderhiede.  The letter indicated she was the Ethics Advisor to the county.  The only “Ethics Advisor” position a county government has is for an Ethics Commission, so we assume she was indicating she is the Ethics Advisor for the Ethics Commission.  That position is appointed by the County Chairman, so we asked the County Clerk for records to support any appointment of an Ethics Advisor to the Ethics Commission.

• • 1. A copy of the minutes that reflect that Gina Vonderheide was appointed by the County Board Chairman, with advice and consent of the County Board, to be the Ethics Commission Advisor.
    2. A copy of the agenda related to item number 1 in this request.

Response:

“This office has no records responsive to your request.”

If there are no records of an Ethics Advisor being appointed, why would the Assistant State’s Attorney indicate she is the Ethics Advisor to the County?

I guess if a person can receive the benefit of a homeowner-occupied property tax exemption in one county while serving in an elected office in another, board members who ignore the most basic of our local government OMA laws, and a Chairman that has clearly ignored his duty to establish an ethics commission, we must ask why have laws if they are just going to be ignored by those responsible for following them and enforcing them?

These county board members stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag at every County Board Meeting.  It is clear some of them have forgotten, assuming they knew at some point, what the last three words of that pledge are, “Justice For All”.

Where is the justice in Shelby County?