SALINE CO.—One of the hotly-contested offices in Saline County this election is one that was the hot ticket in 2010: That of County Clerk.
County Board member Bruce Tolley is running for that office, and during an interview with Disclosure, Tolley outlined his realistic and obtainable expectations for the office, based on a working knowledge of Saline County, should he be elected.
Tolley has acquired a solid working knowledge of the functions and operations of all offices in the Saline County Courthouse thanks to years of experiences in his professional life that have brought him to said offices.
Tolley was a Land Title officer at Sloan and Tolley Abstracters, Inc., in Harrisburg for over 16 years. During this time, Tolley was drawn to the Saline County Courthouse on a daily basis, going from office to office, pulling legal documents and studying all records on any given parcel of land, ensuring that there were no liens, pending legal proceedings, or other problems with a given parcel of land. Tolley would then prepare title work for land after it had been cleared for a clean purchase or transfer.
Serving on the board
As Tolley’s professional life continued, he ran and was elected to the Saline County Board, where he has now served three full terms in the official capacity of a County Board member. Tolley has served on several of the committees that oversee the functions of day-to-day life in Saline County, and has actively worked to find effective and innovative approaches to solving hurdles that the county has had to overcome in his time in office.
“I’m not afraid to think creatively,” Tolley told Disclosure.
In order to accomplish what has been done in his time in office, Tolley has found himself still spending his days in the Saline County Courthouse. Tolley stated, “I’m the only Board Member that is there every day of the world.” This fact has been seen and acknowledged by other board members, as well as the current County Board Chair, Carey Harbison, during county board meetings attended by Disclosure Staff.
Familiar with the job and offices
During his time working as a Land Title officer and a board member, Tolley has acquired a full knowledge of the innerworkings of all offices within Saline County’s Courthouse, and has plans to implement that knowledge in a way that will best serve the county.
“I have the proven ability to work with all areas (of Saline County) and will work with the other offices as a team to do what’s best for the county,” he said.
Within this plan, Tolley’s first order of business, should he be elected, will be to get the Saline County Circuit Clerk’s Office in a more stabile working condition. Of recent years, the office has been faced with challenges in the current filing system, which has caused both the Circuit Clerk’s office, as well as the Saline County Board, to be faced with hard-to-find or misplaced documents.
This may partially be due to the age of the documentation system, Tolley explained, stating that the Circuit Clerk’s Office documentation system is based in Windows XP, which is seriously outdated. Tolley stated that, in fact, the system is so severely outdated that even the distributor is pushing for an upgrade. Tolley plans to update the system, and establish a stable, sustainable, and accessible system of documentation and filing, with plans to run the office in a more efficient manner, in hopes that it will help not only the staff of the Clerk’s office, but the County as a whole.
“I consider myself a steady, even hand, and that has been missing from the whole operation,” Tolley said.
The public’s records
In addition to the plans for a more stable and sustainable system of filing, Tolley is looking towards the future of public record keeping.
Tolley discussed the fact that more counties are switching to having an online, digital version of all public records. Tolley anticipates that in the future, online public documents will become the expected standard, and said he would not be surprised to even see legislation passed that requires that public record be digitally accessible.
When discussing accessibility of public records, Tolley stated that “public records are public records,” and said he would make sure that said public records would be accessible to the public.
Of course, Tolley did highlight that all hard copy documents would remain in the Circuit Clerk’s Office, and would be kept available to the public from that location.
Constant presence
Over the past 20 years, Tolley has spent every working day going from one Saline County office to another, and he plans to stay as present as he always has in Saline County.
“I’m not afraid to spend long hours in the office to do what has to be done,” Tolley stated. “We cannot have an absentee official in that office.” That being said, Tolley stated that he will be ever-present in the Circuit Clerk’s Office, working diligently to turn the office into an efficient workplace and county office.
These facts about Tolley have not gone unnoticed. In fact, Tolley has received the official recommendation and support of the Laborers Local Union 773, which is the union under which many of the Saline County Courthouse employees belong.
The burning IMRF question
One burning question on the minds of many Saline County residents was asked of Tolley during the interview: what will you do with the current situation with the IMRF Pension Plan if you are elected, which would leave the current administration’s problems on your plate?
Tolley explained that, unfortunately, the situation with the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) Pension Plan has become quite the catastrophe.
“The unfortunate reality of the situation is that, since the issue has come to light, and has been on the County Board’s plate of things to address, it has cost much more than the simple investment cost that the county had previously been faced with,” Tolley said. “With all of the work that has been placed into the matter, the cost has now grown as man-hours have gone into what has, as of yet, gone nowhere in dealing with the under funded state pension plan.”
That being said, Tolley will be faced with dealing with what is now only half-done.
Tolley’s plans, as he told Disclosure, are to “sit down and start over.” Tolley stated that he plans to “stop everything and take a look at it myself, and make a determination myself,” on how the county should proceed in dealing with what has now become a fiscal burden to the county.
In the event that Tolley is elected as the Saline County Circuit Clerk, he will become the new IMRF representative for the county, that representative to deal directly with IMRF representatives of the State of Illinois. Tolley’s expressed that he will handle the situation in whatever way it needs to be handled, but also to protect the past employees of the county, who have done no wrong but might still fall through the cracks.
Working to ensure none are harmed
Tolley addressed the fact that the Saline County Board voted many years ago to allow the IMRF Retirement Fund to be available to the Saline County Board. For the most part, Saline County officials who have opted to be a part of the IMRF plan have done so legally, and are not responsible for the burdens that are presented by the underfunded state pension plan.
Tolley, who is not a participant in the plan, said he will do his part to make sure that the issue is resolved in an efficient and cost-effective manner, and will protect past county employees, who are now receiving the pension they worked to earn, and who otherwise might fall victim if the county were to abolish the plan’s benefit completely.
Tolley plans to ensure that no county employee or resident will see themselves or their hard-earned dollars fall prey to the cracks in the county’s current issues. As such, all of Tolley’s efforts have produced the slogan “Elect Bruce Tolley, he’s the one we need.”