Sheriff's departments may be violating law by not preparing reports

<p align="justify">The sheriff's departments across the state may not be following the law.

<p align="justify">During a hearing of the Sheriff's Merit Commission on Thursday, attorney Brian Addy requested efficiency reports on Tazewell County deputies to compare them to his client Jeff Bass, who has been suspended from the department for allegedly neglecting his duties.

<p align="justify">Addy cited a state statute that requires sheriff's departments using the merit commission system, of which Tazewell County is one, to submit efficiency reports on deputies to the commission yearly.

<p align="justify">Sheriff Bob Huston and his attorney, Thomas McGuire, said the reports haven't been generated because they did not know about the law.

<p align="justify">"This is the first time we've heard of it, today," Huston said after the hearing.

<p align="justify">McGuire is the attorney for the Illinois Sheriff's Association and said that of the 102 counties in Illinois, 42 are using the merit commission system. He said he doesn't know of any sheriff's department in the state that is doing the reports.

<p align="justify">"There may be no other sheriff's department in the state of Illinois that's aware of that," Huston said of the law.

<p align="justify">There are no immediate plans to implement the efficiency reports in Tazewell County for several reasons, Huston said. Among them, the department is under a collective bargaining agreement with a union and doing the reports would require renegotiating with the union because it would create a change in working conditions, McGuire said.

<p align="justify">The reports, McGuire added, would be irrelevant because the commission can't dictate to the sheriff who should be promoted.

<p align="justify">"My view of the statute is that it intrudes into the proper domain of the sheriff," McGuire said.

<p align="justify">Huston said there are also chief deputies who report to him on how deputies are performing, so for him to complete reports on employees he doesn't directly supervise would be inaccurate.

<p align="justify">"It would be very difficult for me to evaluate people I don't directly supervise," he said.

<p align="justify">Dan O'Day, also an attorney for Bass, said the law speaks for itself.

<p align="justify">"The law says you're supposed to have them," O'Day said. "If it is a statewide problem, it would be horrible."

<p align="justify">Kevin Sampier can be reached at (309) 346-5300 or ksampier@pjstar.com.