SALINE CO. – Elections generally tend to bring out the best and worst in people and prompt folks to raise questions not ordinarily on the minds of the voters until it comes time to cast a ballot.
However, a perpetual problem that’s plagued the state of Illinois for years has come to the fore in this General Election as it pertains to Saline County, and that’s joined with ongoing road maintenance issues that have been increasing in intensity for the past several years.
Residents of the district where the battle for road commissioner is between incumbent Bob Holmes (who is also Saline County’s Republican Party chairman) and challenger Danny Gibbs have been complaining about Holmes’ manner of tending to the roads for quite some time.
But further, Holmes’ presence on the ballot this season has come under question as it regards expenditures at the county level toward an egregious retirement package the county was talked into in the late 1990s…and which put the county into what’s been called “permanent debt” in order to fund pensions.
The issue arose three years ago with the county board and county officials, many of whom were identified as having been allowed to participate in the Elected County Officials (ECO) program, a pension plan set in place in the 90s that, all these years later, has come to be revealed as a huge part of Illinois’ debt problem.
Effectively, when ECO was signed onto, it put the county in debt for the future 25 years or so, as Disclosure reported in early 2014 when county offices were sought by people who were not covered by ECO, specifically, Rod Wallace, who was running in 2014 for a seat on the board (and who had a relative, Sarah Wallace, running against Danny Ragan as county assessor). It was, as a contractual situation with a pension provider, an “unfunded mandate” that had county board members – who were technically ineligible for pension plans, as they didn’t work enough hours on an annual basis – collecting pensions…which the county taxpayers paid into, and which required an ever-increasing amount of property taxes in order to fund it.
Holmes, as a city of Harrisburg employee (flood control coordinator), was eligible for Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF). As a participant in ECO in 1997 (and which ran until 2004, when the county got out of the mess ECO created), Holmes was able to roll his IMRF payments into ECO.
Now, since he’s still a beneficiary of the pension plans, Holmes needs to continue in his position as road commissioner for Harrisburg Township following this election in order to fulfill the number of years on the retirement plan so he can retire with full benefits…and that’s infuriating not only residents of Harrisburg Township, but also taxpayers countywide, since it’s their property tax bills that are increasing in order to fund these retirements through the next four or five years, depending on when people enrolled: In either October or November 1997.
What’s particularly concerning to those who are paying increased taxes is that many at the time voted themselves an “increase” in pay or benefits (the ECO being the latter) while they were in the office from which they were receiving the benefits, italicized because that’s actually against the law in the state of Illinois…but it was effected anyway, and 20 years later, those are still continuing, unaddressed by subsequent boards (and, technically…still illegal).
Whether that’s the mess that any future county boards are willing to unravel and tackle – and it’d be a massive legal suit on both sides, the county versus the recipients versus whomever was responsible for overlooking the faux pas at the time in 1997 – is unknown at this point.
But the bottom line is this: If Holmes is re-elected to the position of road commissioner, he stands to gain in that messed-up situation, and the county taxpayers stand to lose…for years and years and years to come.
It’s not like Holmes isn’t aware of this increase in taxes: In 2011, he asked for an analysis of his own property taxes, hiring attorney Sam Beggs to help him on an Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board.
The analysis, as official documents show, was that the county had assessed his property correctly and that he owed what he owed…no matter how unhappy he was with it.
How many others have had the same issues, however, is unknown at this time (but Disclosure is looking into it).
Holmes, who’s held the position of road commissioner in Harrisburg Township since 2013 when he beat former Harrisburg police chief Bob Smith (who was holding the position of chief illegally, as he didn’t live within city limits), will stand to benefit from holding the office another four years because that will give him enough years in as a public servant to continue his publicly-paid pensions.
A close examination of Holmes’ doings shows something a little more spurious than that, even.
As it turns out, others on the ballot appear to have been place there in order for them to benefit from Holmes’ influence as both party chair and road commissioner: On the ballot is Gailene Harrelson as Harrisburg Township trustee. Harrelson is in a relationship with Holmes currently and has been for a while. If she’s elected, that puts her on the board that makes financial and operational decisions for the road district over which Holmes is commissioner.
And those in the township have been complaining about the way things are done to begin with.
Over recent months, there have been complaints about a growing rockpile that Holmes has either placed or allowed to be placed at a location as pictured on page 12 at Feazel Road.
Holmes has told those in the neighborhood that the pile (which is actually busted-up concrete and other debris besides rocks) is being used to curtail erosion at the intersection with Harmon Road and it’s his duty to keep the road from washing out.
However, the pile could prove to be fatal if a driver not familiar with the area (or worse, a new driver such as a newly-licensed teen who’s unfamiliar with road conditions) doesn’t quite gauge the turn and runs head-on into the mess.
Worse, the complaints (and photos) have come in about a steel H-beam Holmes has driven into the ground in front of a particular stop sign positioned at Rice Road where it intersects with Blue Hole Road.
The complaint is that while Holmes apparently thought this would be a great way to keep the stop sign at the intersection from falling over were it to be struck by a vehicle, the H-beam, being steel, would completely tear up any vehicle striking it…whereas the stop sign pole is designed to break away if a vehicle strikes it, preventing any serious damage to a vehicle as well as any serious injury to anyone inside the vehicle.
Then there are the “decorated” road signs in the township (as shown on the front page and page 12)…which have yet to be either cleaned or replaced, a responsibility of the road commissioner.
To top it off, since Holmes’ political signs have gone up, someone just up and left a bucket of dead catfish carcasses at the intersection where the H-beam is in the ground; during the investigation into this article, Disclosure noted a distinct odor in the previously-pleasant weather of early March at that intersection. Why this was placed there was completely unknown; various theories from those in the neighborhood had every explanation from “a political commentary” to “they prolly had nowhere else to put em!” were offered.
Holmes was unavailable for comment, as he was reportedly in Texas “hunting hogs” with Chris Penrod.
Gibbs, when asked, advised that if he were elected to the position, the pension issue wouldn’t be an issue.
“It would take ten years for me to create a pension,” Gibbs stated, noting he hadn’t had enough consistent time under the contracts for the pension plans for him to be able to collect.
Gibbs, on the county board, had previously proposed eliminating the county officeholders who are contracted with ECO so the cost to the taxpayers would be reduced. He said he still holds that position.
“I know it’ll cost me votes to say that,” Gibbs said in a brief statement for this article. “But I’m more interested in saving taxpayers the money than I am anything else.”
