Mahomet Township Road District – Bidding Obligations Ignored Leads To Attestation Of The Law – Oath of Office Meaningless

Champaign Co. (ECWd) -,

The Mahomet Township Road District Highway Commissioner Chris Doenitz appears to have been put on notice by the Attorney General Public Integrity Bureau (AG PIB) after numerous alleged bidding violations took place.

A request for all bid publications between May 1, 2019, through November 14, 2024 (request #5), to the Road District resulted in the following response:

“Finally,  the Road District does not have documentation for your request #5)

Considering the law is crystal clear regarding bidding obligations, local citizens engaged the AG PIB for prosecution for what appears to be a blatant disregard for the law by the Road District.

With $30,000.00 being the threshold for bidding, records from the Road District indicate numerous contracts and purchases that far exceed that figure yet the Road District has no records to show they were put out for bid. Within the linked records are some purchases that may not require bidding by the Road District if those items were included on the state bid list, which bidding was complied with by the state.  For example, the vehicle purchased from Bod Ridings for over $61,000.00 may have been one on the state bid list.  If it is not, then bidding would be an obligation of the Road District. Other possible exemptions would be purchases through entities that handle all kinds of bidding in advance, much like the state bid list.  Those entities typically require the public body to buy a membership or pay a fee to utilize their purchasing power.

It turns out the AG Public Integrity Bureau chose to not pursue prosecutions but rather put in place a stopgap to future get-out-of-jail excuses.  The most common excuse we hear when public officials are caught breaking the law is, “We didn’t know”.

In some cases that is true, however considering the years this subject has come up in Mahomet Township and Mahomet Roadistrict, “we didn’t know” is like a bucket full of holes, it doesn’t hold water.

Reading the emails between the AG PIB and the Township Attorney, it appears there will be no more future acceptance of excuses from that Road District.  Signed “Mandatory Training Attestation” documents along with a PowerPoint training record were sent to the AG PIB.

By all indications, moving forward this Road District can no longer say they did not know what the law was on bidding obligations.

It appears that our laws and Oaths of Office no longer have any teeth.  If true, every public official holding office should be made to sign similar attestations regarding their obligations under the law so that when they violate it they can be held accountable.

What a novel idea, every person running for office should be asked to sign similar attestations so if they get elected they can then also be held accountable when they break the law. Refusal to sign such a document should send a message to the voters that they may want to reconsider voting for a person who refuses to attest to future compliance with the law.

We understand Doenitz is not running for Highway Commissioner – Good Riddance.