Atlanta Public Library Board candidacies questioned

 

[January 03, 2019] 

On Wednesday morning in the second floor Circuit Courtroom, Logan County Assistant States Attorney Brad Hauge held an unusual hearing, maybe even a first of a kind. It was labeled an "Electoral Board Meeting."

Present at the table with Hauge were Circuit Court Clerk Mary Kelley, and new County Clerk and Recorder Theresa Moore replacing Sally Turner who recently retired. The audience in the courtroom was a group of interested and concerned Atlanta citizens.

The hearing regarded the candidacies of six Atlanteans who are running for the Atlanta Public Library Board in the upcoming election. A seventh candidate, George Menken, brought a complaint to States Attorney Jonathan Wright 48 hours earlier that the candidacies of these six should be disqualified. Menken's charge was that they had not followed proper procedure and not filed the appropriate documents with the Logan County Clerk's Office during the required time period, between December 17th and 27th, 2018.

Hauge, Kelley and Moore called the six candidates to be questioned, one at a time. One of the candidates had already withdrawn her candidacy. Another candidate, Robert Letterle, was out of state and unavailable for this hearing.

The first candidate called, James Welcher, was asked if he had filed his list of petition signers to qualify him for election. He testified that he had not. Welcher was also asked if he had filed with the County Clerk in the required December time period the required, "Statement of Economic Interests," required by the Illinois Constitution for anyone seeking public office. Welcher replied that he had not filed it with the clerk, but instead had turned it in at the Atlanta Public Library as per the instructions he had been given by the Atlanta Library librarian.

The other three candidates were called up one at a time, asked the same question about filing their economic interest statement with the County Clerk, and they also replied that they had not, but had turned them in at the Atlanta Library.

Board President Randy Brooks, one of the four candidates being questioned, asked if he could read a prepared statement. With Hauge's permission, Brooks read a statement that detailed that the candidates were following the same procedures of filing that they had always followed, and that it had never been necessary to file a "Statement of Economic Interests" with the County Clerk before. Since they were following the same procedures as they always had, Brooks said that they did not feel it should at this time prevent any of them from seeking elected office. Brooks said that the "Statement of Economic Interests" were on file at the Atlanta Public Library and were available to both public and FOIA requests.

Brooks went on to cite three cases where these statements of economic interest were filed at the wrong places but yet the candidacies were allowed in order to get the charges dismissed.

Hauge replied that he was familiar with one of the cited cases, and that the case did not apply because the proper documents were filed with a county clerk, just in the wrong county. In the case of the Atlanta Public Library Board candidates, none of the six candidates questioned filed the constitutionally required documents with any county clerk.

After a hearing with each of the candidates present, a motion was made at the county table, seconded, and approved to call the four candidates, as well as the missing Robert Letterle, to a final hearing on the legitimacy of their candidacies on January 9th in the first floor courtroom at 11 a.m.

The meeting was then adjourned.

[Jim Youngquist]