July regular monthly meeting

[July 17, 2025]  On Tuesday, July 15th, the Logan County Board met for their regular monthly meeting. This meeting was held in the second floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse starting just after 6:00 p.m. Ten of the twelve members of the board were present. This included Chairman James Glenn, Vice Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan, Kathy Schmidt, Michael DeRoss, Joseph Kuhlman, Kevin Knauer, Bob Sanders, Keenan Leesman, and Hannah Fitzpatrick. Absent were Gil Turner and Jim Wessbecher.

The meeting began with a prayer given by Schmidt. Glenn stated that Turner usually brings a pastor to give the invocation, but seeing as he was not present, Glenn asked Schmidt to lead everyone in prayer. The invocation was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

After the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance, and after roll call was taken, guests were introduced. Glenn then moved the board on to approving the consent agenda. No items on it were changed, and it was voted on as is. In addition to regular monthly expenses, the consent agenda also included a request by the Young Conservatives of Logan County to place flags in the courthouse lawn for the Fourth of July. This request came in after last month’s regular meeting, and so even though the group was allowed to place the flags, the board still had to vote to approve the request. The consent agenda was passed unanimously.

Glenn then opened the floor for public comments. There was only one public comment, which was made by Lesley Wilson. Wilson had several questions for Nelson and Schmidt. Wilson’s first comment/question was “I think we can both agree that you have had personal issues with the current Facilities Manager, Chris Wilson, dating back to 2015. Would you agree that those personal issues have influenced your decision as a board member over the last three years to try to eliminate the Facilities Manager position or Chris Wilson as the Facilities Manager numerous times, and isn't that a conflict of interest, and doesn’t that go against the board policies and procedures preamble?” Nelson answered “No… there is no personal issue.”

Wilson’s next question was “it is my understanding that, typically, committee chairmen are enrolled for two years. Based on review of previous meeting minutes, it appears you became the Building and Grounds committee chairman for just over five and a half months from January to mid-May 2025. I’ve heard that the reason you are no longer Building and Grounds committee chairman is due to an Open Meeting Act violation. Is that true, and if so can you please explain what the Open Meetings Act violation was?” Nelson declined to answer this question. Rick Skelton, who was present for the meeting as well, stated “you should answer it,” to Nelson.

Wilson’s next question was “is one of the reasons you became the Building and Grounds committee chairman to try to eliminate the Facilities Manager position after failing to do so through other committees?” Nelson also declined to answer this question.

Wilson continued, next asking “have you ever asked an elected official or previous board member to request FOIA requests on your behalf, and if so, who?” Nelson declined to answer this question.

Wilson then turned her questions toward Schmidt. Her question was “through a FOIA request, I was able to obtain an email chain regarding an alleged incident that may have occurred between you and the Facilities Manager on June 23rd, 2025. You forwarded the email to Brad Hauge, the State’s Attorney, stating the following, ‘this is what I sent to the chair and those who are involved in order to document.’ This email includes Lance Conahan, JR Glenn, and Dale Nelson on it. Can you please explain what you meant by ‘those that were involved.’?” Schmidt declined to answer this question. Wilson then continued, asking “were those the same individuals involved requesting the Facilities Manager emails be reviewed to try to find a reason to terminate him?” Schmidt again declined to answer this question. This concluded Wilson’s questions.

With no additional public comments, Glenn moved the board on to action items for each committee starting with Building and Grounds. Chairman Conahan had one item on the agenda, that being a motion to approve a couple of tourism assets, but stated that he was going to make a motion to table the item. Conahan stated that his motion to table it would be until there was a document between the Logan County Tourism Bureau (LCTB) and the county.

With LCTB being the topic of discussion, Glenn stated that he had sat down with Lincoln mayor Tracy Welch the previous Friday to talk. This is something Glenn stated he was going to do after it came up at the Workshop meeting that Lincoln was not going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the county. To read more on that discussion, see LDN’s article from last week's Workshop meeting here. Glenn continued, stating that he explained to Welch that the MoU was more for understanding exactly how the city and county were going to work together to fund the LCTB. Things such as “who would be in charge, how the board would rotate, and all that.” Welch took the funding off the agenda for the city council meeting until he and Glenn could sit down and work the finer details of a MoU out.

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Next, Glenn moved on to the Finance committee, which is chaired by Schmidt. Schmidt started by sharing that the Finance committee is going to be meeting with three department heads on July 30th at 6:00 p.m. in the Blue Room at the Logan County Safety Complex. The reason for this meeting is to discuss what these department heads and their departments are going to need going into the next fiscal year as the board works on the budget.

Schmidt then made two motions that were voted on. The first was a motion for a credit card for new Administrative Assistant Madelyn Hinton with a limit of $5,000. This card would be used for only county items when needed, such as bills from the airport or animal control. The second item was a tax sale for Susan Utterbach. Both of these items were approved unanimously.

The next item on Finance’s agenda was the insurance renewal through the Counties of Illinois Risk Management Agency (CIRMA). Schmidt shared that the county needed to choose their plan this week and provided the board members with paperwork regarding two different plans. In summary, the one plan was a bit more expensive but came with no deductible, surplus coverage, and cyber liability. The other plan had similar coverage with a $5,000 deductible and no surplus coverage. The board took a ten minute recess to read over the information. Once the recess was over, a motion was made to keep their current plan, the first of the two listed plans, at the cost of $7,012. The board voted unanimously to approve this motion.

There was one more item on the agenda for Finance, that being to hire a new part-time Administrative Assistant. The reason for this, also discussed in last week’s Workshop meeting, was to assist Hinton in the many FOIA requests that have been coming forth. The board made and approved an amendment to this motion, stating that they were going to use the guidelines of a similar short-term hire they made for the Zoning office as a draft when determining the details of this new hire’s hourly rate and term of service. Both the motion and the full motion were passed unanimously.

The next committee was Transportation. Seeing as how committee chairman Wessbecher was not present, DeRoss filled in, bringing forth a single motion. This motion was to award a construction contract to Stark Excavating to build two new box culverts within Eminence Township. The cost of this project would be $569,851. The motion was also approved unanimously.

Zoning was the next committee, with DeRoss as its chairman. DeRoss had two motions to bring forth for permit requests, both for solar farms that are going to be constructed by Apex Clean Energy. The first motion was for the location just northwest of Lincoln on the west side of I-55. This motion was passed unanimously. The second motion was for the farm outside of Mt. Pulaski. This farm, which was very contentious when it was voted on for approval last month, was the only item of the night that did not get a unanimous vote. It was passed, however, with a vote of 8-2, with Fitzpatrick and Conahan being the only two no votes.

Zoning and Economic Development officer Al Green then stated that the new appointed member of the Planning Commission, Sal Pollice, was present to introduce himself. Pollice spoke for a moment, stating he and his family have lived in the county for fifteen years and that he is looking to help in any way that he can. It was also shared that Pollice was reinstated as the State Director for the FSA office. The board will vote on Pollice’s appointment next month.

Green also spoke for a few moments on changing the way the county charges permit fees for clean energy projects. Currently, they charge by the amount of land. Green shared that it may be more financially beneficial to the county to charge by the energy output instead. This, according to Green, may net the county about $100,000 more in permit fees per year.

The board then unanimously voted to go into executive session for Executive and Personnel. The agenda stated the reason was to “review executive session meeting minutes and audio,” something Glenn stated to the audience.

Once the executive session was over, Glenn gave his Chair’s Report, but there was not much new. He reiterated that he will be having a conversation with Welch soon. He also shared that the bank building that the city acquired is going to become a Route 66 museum. Glenn also shared that the city has acquired a large Route 66 collection from someone in Chicago. According to Glenn, this collection was donated.

After this, a motion was made to adjourn.

[Matt Boutcher]

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