Coles County Board Members Receiving Compensation Never Authorized –

Coles Co. (ECWd) –

Clear back in December of 2022, we posted this article outlining that the Coles County Board would be serving without compensation.

As months passed, turns out the board ignored the failed compensation-setting resolution and continued receiving compensation.  After raising the issue, what did those great public officials do?  They created false minutes in May of 2023 in a pathetic attempt to rewrite history.

We filed a request for review with the Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor and we finally have their response.

“Although the Board’s response to this office stated that the Board salaries were approved at the May 10, 2022, meeting, there is no indication in the meeting minutes or video recordings that on May 10, 2022, the Board discussed or voted on any other motion concerning Board member salaries.”

“The Board characterizes the vote as limited to only whether to keep the last sentence concerning optional health insurance, but the resolution that passed out of the Finance Committee was not so limited; it was a complete resolution. The full resolution was then subject to a vote.“

As noted in the letter from the PAC and the actual video of the meeting, the full resolution was voted on and it failed, just as we asserted the day this all took place.

“Contrary to the Board’s argument to this office, the Board’s vote immediately prior to its discussion of the sentence in the resolution concerning optional health insurance did not address the resolution setting forth the salaries of Board members. That prior vote (described during the meeting as Item 6) concerned the salaries of other elected officials, and the copy of the ordinance included at pages 5416-5418 of the minutes packet reflects that it does not address salaries for Board members.”

“There is therefore no evidence to support a conclusion that a version of the Board member salary resolution that did not contain the last sentence was approved on May 10, 2022, either before or after the motion pertaining to the version that contained the sentence about health insurance.”

We believe any person in Coles County now has standing to bring a civil action against the county to recover the compensation that has been paid to board members since the last term began, in December of 2022. This belief is based on the fact the law requires compensation to be set 180 days before their term begins and when that requirement is not complied with, they have no authority to get paid.  We challenge the board members to return all received compensation for the effective time frame, which would be doing the right thing.  Doing so would negate the need for civil action to force them to follow the law.

The AG PAC did make a notation in footnote 10 on the limited powers they have in this matter, which are only those dealing with OMA.

“10 The relevant agenda item for the December 13, 2022, meeting adequately identifies the general subject matter of the action taken by the Board to amend the minutes of the May 10, 2022, meeting as required by section 2.02(c) of OMA (5 ILCS 120/2.02(c) (West 2022)). OMA requires public bodies to take final action openly, but it generally does not require public bodies to take final actions, except on certain matters such as approving minutes and conducting semi-annual reviews of minutes. See 5 ILCS 120/2.06(a)(3), (d) (West 2022). Whether the Board has improperly received salary compensation if it failed to approve any version of the resolution authorizing salary compensation for Board members at the May 10, 2022, or December 13, 2022, meetings does not raise an issue concerning compliance with OMA that is subject to review by the Public Access Counselor. See 15 ILCS 205/7 (West 2022) (limiting the Public Access Counselor’s authority to review compliance with OMA and the Freedom of Information Act (5 ILCS 140/1 et seq. (West 2022)).”

As if receiving unauthorized compensation is not disturbing enough, the attempt to rewrite history by changing official meeting minutes to say something that never happened borders on official misconduct in our opinion.  Especially considering numerous members of the public raised the flag on this illegal action during the meeting when it happened.

“To remedy this violation, this office recommends that the Board vote to amend the May 10, 2022, minutes to reflect the motion that the Board voted on and which failed, which was to approve the version of the resolution that passed out of the Finance Committee, and which included language on optional health insurance.”

As outlined by the AG PAC, the Board Chairman, Darrel Cox, claimed the action of amending the minutes was being done on the advice of the Coles County State’s Attorney Jesse Danley who was present during that meeting when Cox made that claim.  Danley did not deny he gave that advice.

The taxpayers are owed $57,600.00 a year for the board member compensation paid and $1,200.00 a year for the County Chairman’s additional compensation paid.

Any bets on them doing the right thing?