Bernard Schoenburg: Weird small-town politics dredged up

MARY BETH BELLM's phone buzzed while she was talking to me just after Monday night's city council meeting in Carlinville, where she has been city public works director since 2002.

"That was a friend of mine," said Bellm, who was kind enough to keep talking to me. "She wants to know if I'm fired or not."

Well, she wasn't. But Bellm is in the middle of a very odd local storm that, at its base, involves the need to dredge the city's water source, Carlinville Lake 1. A city application for funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn't come through, though some alternative funding from the Environmental Protection Agency has.

Bellm strongly denies allegations that she mishandled the funding request, and she is supported by aldermen I spoke with.

But emails that went public about the situation suggest that ADRIAN MADUNIC, the $65,000-a-year downstate director for U.S. Rep. BOBBY SCHILLING, R-Colona, and BETH TOON, Carlinville's economic development coordinator and zoning administrator, were trying to get Bellm fired.

Madunic denies that. But at minimum, the emails raise questions about why a congressional office is getting so involved in a local personnel issue.

The situation has also strained friendships in the community of about 6,000, where Democrats hold most of the city council seats, but a local restaurant, The Glades, is home to meetings of the conservative 9/12 group.

Madunic wrote a letter dated April 13 to Carlinville Mayor ROBERT SCHWAB, urging the city to reapply for the funding. In the letter, Madunic wrote that an "incomplete application checklist" from Bellm caused the city to "lose time, money, and possibly a remedy" for its water troubles.

Not so, says Bellm. She said she worked closely with the council's public works committee on the applications and also had help from an engineering firm. It quickly became clear, she said, that, even with stimulus money, the Agriculture Department considered lake dredging projects to be a very low priority.

JOE DIRESO, the public works committee chairman and the only Republican on the 11-member council except the mayor, says Bellm's version is accurate.

"I have not seen any evidence that Mary Beth is at fault," Direso said.

"She's fully capable of doing the job," agreed Ald. MARK STAERK, who requested the emails.

Based on what they wrote in the emails, Toon and Madunic apparently didn't expect them to be made public.

"If you put your heads together you can out-fox the idiot impeding the fortunes of the citizens of Carlinville," Madunic wrote to Toon on April 6. "Remember she wants you to give up!"

Madunic claims he doesn't remember who he was referring to when he made the "idiot" comment.

On April 8, Toon wrote to Madunic that she had had a "strategy" discussion with the mayor, where Toon advocated bringing the issue to the council floor "without a chance for her to dream up excuses."

But Schwab wanted to think about it more, Toon wrote. "(D)on't ever tell him (Schwab) that I said this, but he told me that he KNEW that he NEEDED to grow a backbone," Toon wrote.

Madunic wrote back April 9 that he'd be ready to appear before the board.

"The Congressman has my backing on being the 'bad-guy' on this," Madunic wrote.

Bring into this SHERRY BRIANZA, owner of The Glades, who Bellm said had been a family friend.

In an April 8 email to Toon, Brianza wrote that "when you pay an employee a high wage you should expect high achievements!! The … taxpayers should be furious."

Bellm said Brianza also spoke at a council meeting attended by some 9/12 people.

An April 9 email from Madunic to state Sen. SAM McCANN, R-Carlinville, Brianza and Toon mentioned the letter Madunic eventually wrote to Mayor Schwab. In that email, Madunic wrote, "Bobby told me 'go gettum, Adrian.'"

Madunic said that meant only that Schilling wanted the lake situation resolved.

Brianza said her involvement was solely about the need for Carlinville to have adequate water.

"I don't think this is an R or a D issue," Brianza said.

McCANN was copied in on some of the emails. However, McCann legislative aide CINDY MILLER said, "They were just keeping us informed. We had no input."

Bellm, 41, is a lifelong resident of Carlinville. She says the $51,000 she makes annually is much less than she could get elsewhere, but thinks it's worth it so she and husband BRAD, a contractor, can be close to home, where they are raising two young daughters.

She says she thinks the apparent campaign against her is "a political thing" because she votes in Democratic primaries.

I'm no engineer, but Bellm sounded like she knew what she was talking about at Monday's meeting, when she dealt with such issues as the purchase of a new pump and track options for high-speed rail.

Bellm received a three-day suspension over the handling of a public hearing on the issue, which took place while she was on vacation. That discipline was imposed by the mayor, though Bellm said the council "agreed I should not be disciplined."

"There's a lot of false information going on about me right now," Bellm said. "People are coming up to me at social functions, at Walmart, at the grocery store, at church, and telling me that they're very sorry this is happening."

Madunic, who said he has known Schilling since their high school days at Rock Island Alleman, said any personnel decisions are up to the city, and his office was just trying to help with the lake.

With exposure of the emails, he said, "I learned that you must be very careful with any correspondence … and you have to be judicious in language and in what may be a perceived intent."

Madunic added he's generally voted in Democratic primaries and considers himself "more of an independent."

What a weird situation.

Bernard Schoenburg is political columnist for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.