County board to seek answers from attorney general
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">HARRISBURG – Saline County Board members voted Thursday to seek the Illinois Attorney General's opinions regarding control of a county fund and whether to pay legal bills incurred by the county clerk.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The fund, known as the "automation fund," was created in the early 1980s to help pay for improved technology that would improve the maintenance of records in county clerks' offices. During the past two years, some county board members have attempted to take control of those funds from Saline County Clerk Kim Buchanan's control.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Buchanan has maintained that the standing Attorney General opinion keeps control of those funds within the office of each county clerk.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Buchanan also incurred legal fees when she says the State's Attorney's office would not give her legal advice concerning the matter when the board tried to wrest control of the account from her office. Because she could not get legal representation from the state's attorney's office, she sought representation elsewhere. The bills for that legal advice have gone unpaid.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">County board member Chris Penrod expressed frustration Thursday, saying the matter had gone unresolved long enough.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Board member Mike McKinnies expressed his own frustration, in that board members seemed eager to obtain those opinions when they rejected an identical motion from him several months ago.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"Six to eight months ago, who's sitting on this board that made a motion to do the same thing? Me. And it was voted down," McKinnies said.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Board member Joe Jackson, the lone "no" vote on Penrod's motion, said he felt the action was unnecessary.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"It's redundant to ask the Attorney General," he said. "There have been appellate court decisions that overturned that decision."
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Board members also had another heated discussion regarding closed session minutes. In a special board meeting on March 15, some board members said the county was at risk because Buchanan had not provided detailed enough executive minutes on some occasions. Buchanan has maintained that recordings of the closed sessions exist, that she has made copies of those conversations for minutes to the best of her ability and that whether the board chooses to release those minutes is beyond her authority.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The board did vote to approve closed session minutes from Jan. 10 and March 15.