Daily Archives: December 12, 2006

Board of Election Commissioners, Ray LaHood

Mitzelfelt firing draws LaHood’s ire

1 Comment

Rep. Ray LaHood wants Mary Harkrader and Camille Gibson booted off the Peoria City Election Commission for firing Executive Director Jeanette Mitzelfelt, the Journal Star reports. Whether or not they deserve to be ousted is a separate issue I’m not prepared to debate at this time. But I do think the situation is filled with irony.

One of the big reasons touted for why the city election commission is supposedly superior to the way the county clerk oversees elections is that the city election commission is bi-partisan and, thus, supposedly not as susceptible to political interference. But the charge now is that the commissioners acted on political motivations in firing Mitzelfelt. “The Peoria Board of Election Commissioners has never experienced a failure of the public’s trust,” the Election Commission’s website proudly states. Guess they’ll have to change that copy.

But getting back to LaHood. He’s quoted in the Journal Star as saying, “This is the most outrageous political move I’ve seen in a long, long time…. This is absolutely pure politics.” Well, Ray knows a little something about playing politics. Just a couple of months ago, he participated in retaliation against the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee’s deliberate leak of a classified document, then bragged about it to Fox News saying, “If the ranking member wants to play politics, there are some of us on the other side that can play politics, and I’m not afraid to do it.” Now he’s got his sites set on Harkrader and Gibson.

Is retaliation becoming a pattern for Ray?

City Council, City of Peoria, Elections

The Thetford Files: Fire Station 11

3 Comments

In the months leading up to the at-large City Council election, I’ll be occasionally pulling out some pertinent data on Gale Thetford and posting it under the headline “The Thetford Files.” George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” and if there’s one part of the past it would be a real shame to repeat, it’s the election of Gale Thetford to the City Council.

So, without any further ado, here’s a quote from the Nov. 22, 2003, City Council minutes:

Council Member Thetford repeated her motion not to hire 11 firefighters this year and not to close Fire Station #11, or any other station, not to fund with overtime, and challenge the Fire Department to decide whether a jump crew would be utilized or putting equipment out of service.

Recovering from a fire can be really difficult, however, we recommend you to look for fire damage repair services to pick up all the damages that this incident have left.

Council Member Ardis questioned Council Member Thetford regarding her motion. He said the recommendation was directly contrary to that of a 20-plus year professional firefighter and head of the City’s Fire Department.

[…]

Motion to not hire 11 firefighters this year, but not to close Fire Station #11, or any other station, not to fund with overtime, and challenge the Fire Department to decide whether a jump crew could be utilized or to put a piece of equipment out of service was approved by roll call vote.

Yeas: Gulley, Morris, Teplitz, Thetford, Turner, Mayor Ransburg – 6;
Nays: Ardis, Grayeb, Nichting, Sandberg, Spears – 5.

Just a reminder, of the six who voted for this motion, three were defeated in the very next election: Ransburg (replaced by Ardis), Teplitz (replaced by Van Auken), and Thetford (replaced by Manning). Of the five nays, all are still currently serving on the council.

Peoria Park District

Judge rules that Park District violated Open Meetings Act

18 Comments

Karrie Alms and Sara Partridge allege that the Peoria Park District violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) when they met in closed session on March 8 and 22 to discuss a land-sharing deal with Peoria School District 150. Judge John Barra ruled Monday that the Park District clearly violated the OMA on one of two counts.

The OMA “is designed to prohibit secret deliberations and action on matters which, due to their potential impact on the public, properly should be discussed in a public forum.” Thus, closed session meetings are only allowed under narrowly-defined exceptions. There are two exceptions regarding property that would allow the park board to go into closed session:

  • The purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body, including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired — 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(5)
  • The setting of a price for sale or lease of property owned by the public body — 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(6)

Alms and Partridge contend that the Park District was not purchasing, leasing, acquiring, or setting a price for the sale of publicly-owned property, and thus violated the OMA by going into closed session on March 8 and 22. The easiest way for a judge to determine if the OMA was violated is to listen to a recording of the proceedings of the closed session meeting. The OMA requires public bodies to make an audio or video recording of closed session meetings and keep those recordings for a minimum of 18 months.

However, Park Board secretary Joyce McLemore erased the recording of the March 8, 2006, closed session meeting after only six months. In lieu of that, the judge could only consider the minutes of that meeting and a sworn affidavit from the Park District that contends the Park Board did discuss purchase, sale, or lease of property in compliance with the section 2(c)(5) or (6) exceptions to the OMA.

Thus, Judge Barra ruled on Count 1 — whether the OMA was violated by discussing a land-sharing deal with District 150 in closed session — that the facts of the case are in dispute, and the parties would have to present further evidence to prove whether or not the OMA was violated. In other words, Alms and Partridge have a valid case and it can proceed to trial.

On Count 2 — whether the OMA was violated by Secretary McLemore’s erasure of the March 8 closed session tape — Judge Barra ruled that the facts in this instance were not in dispute, and that the Park District did indeed violate the OMA. The tape is erased and McLemore admitted to erasing it. A hearing will be held to determine the appropriate remedy for that violation.

All I can say is, thank goodness someone in this town is holding our elected officials accountable.

UPDATE: The Journal Star finally posted their report on their website.