Shelby County Violated Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act In Leasing Of Farmland –

Shelbyville, Ill. (ECWd) –

After last month’s county board approval of a cash-rent lease (more on that later) of the Shelby County Farm to the alleged highest bidder, a private farmer, both the county and the farmer entered into and signed a lease for the property.

We asked for copies of all bids, the signed lease, and the sworn disclosure statement accompanying the signed lease.

We received copies of the bids and the signed lease, but there was no disclosure statement available.

The Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act mandates, among other things, that prior to any unit of government entering into any sale, purchase, or (use) lease of real estate, that individuals must sign a disclosure statement, under oath, attesting to the identification of all those standing to receive any benefits of said agreement (See para 5 in Illinois v. Grand).

Shelby County failed to comply with the Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act, Section 3.1, which states:

(50 ILCS 105/3.1) (from Ch. 102, par. 3.1)
Sec. 3.1. Before any contract relating to the ownership or use of real property is entered into by and between the State or any local governmental unit or any agency of either the identity of every owner and beneficiary having any interest, real or personal, in such property, and every member, shareholder, limited partner, or general partner entitled to receive more than 7 1/2% of the total distributable income of any limited liability company, corporation, or limited partnership having any interest, real or personal, in such property must be disclosed. The disclosure shall be in writing and shall be subscribed by a member, owner, authorized trustee, corporate official, general partner, or managing agent, or his or her authorized attorney, under oath. However, if the interest, stock, or shares in a limited liability company, corporation, or general partnership is publicly traded and there is no readily known individual having greater than a 7 1/2% interest, then a statement to that effect, subscribed to under oath by a member, officer of the corporation, general partner, or managing agent, or his or her authorized attorney, shall fulfill the disclosure statement requirement of this Section. As a condition of contracts entered into on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1995, the beneficiaries of a lease shall furnish the trustee of a trust subject to disclosure under this Section with a binding non-revocable letter of direction authorizing the trustee to provide the State with an up-to-date disclosure whenever requested by the State. The letter of direction shall be binding on beneficiaries’ heirs, successors, and assigns during the term of the contract. This Section shall be liberally construed to accomplish the purpose of requiring the identification of the actual parties benefiting from any transaction with a governmental unit or agency involving the procurement of the ownership or use of real property thereby.
For any entity that is wholly or partially owned by another entity, the names of the owners of the wholly or partially owning entity shall be disclosed under this Section, as well as the names of the owners of the wholly or partially owned entity.
(Source: P.A. 91-361, eff. 7-29-99.)

Providing false information in the sworn disclosure is discussed in Section 4.5, and penalties for noncompliance or violations of the Act are listed in Section 4.

This is a serious matter, and we asked for comments and clarification from Chairman Tad Mayhall on whether the board will attempt to rectify this shortcoming.

He responded with this:

“Thank you for the information.  I will be looked in to and any necessary action will be taken.“

Let’s hope this gets fixed.