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News
County board member wants an apology : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisCounty board member wants an apology
| Accuses critic of 'piece-mealing' information, says recent charges were wrong
| by Matt Schury
| 8/23/2012
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Kendall County Board member Bob Davidson said he wants a written apology from Todd Milliron over what Davidson says are false statements Milliron made at an Aug. 7 County Board meeting.
Davidson said he would like Milliron to publish the apology in the newspaper.
Milliron is a frequent critic of the board who has run unsuccessfully for a board seat.
At the Aug. 7 meeting, Milliron accused Davidson and the county's Highway Department of not bidding out a county highway project and instead giving the project to his neighbor, Robert Pessina who owns Pessina Construction. Milliron said he obtained information that showed Pessina did not pay prevailing wages for curb work his company did on Orchard Road in Oswego.
It was later confirmed by the Illinois Department of Labor that Pessina did not pay prevailing wages. Pessina was fined, but the county was not found guilty of any wrongdoing, the IDOL said.
Milliron came to the board meeting with a letter from Corey Johnson who filed a complaint with the IDOL. He said the letter showed the county knew about the violation and hired Pessina anyway and was being fined by the IDOL. That letter was later revealed to have contained an error and the IDOL informed the county that Pessina had paid the fine. IDOL also stated in the letter that the county did not incur a penalty as Milliron said they did during the meeting Aug. 7
During the County Board meeting Tuesday, Davidson requested the apology.
"You made certain accusations at the last county board meeting and you're facts were not correct. You have made several accusations in the past knowing the facts and piece-mealing things together in a fashion that makes everybody question some other problems we have here," Davidson said.
He also told Milliron he felt it was wrong for him to make accusations of wrongdoing by the Kendall County Highway Department.
"I do expect with your last statements at the last meeting-you went after Mr. Fran Klaas (the county's highway engineer) and you went after myself. And you can have all the wood you want on me but Mr. Klaas-he's not a public figure and I expect an apology from you, in writing and in the paper for the accusations you made on him and his department," Davidson said.
Davidson also took Milliron to task for filing what he estimated were about 80 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the county this year.
Davidson said that Milliron was wasting taxpayer's money in having staff comply and fulfill the numerous requests.
Davidson said he received the number of FOIA requests Milliron filed from all the departments in the county except for the State's Attorney's office, which he added has processed numerous FOIA requests
"I don't know if it takes an hour or two hours to answer those requests," Davidson said. "I'm a taxpayer too and I hope that you realize you're costing the taxpayers money."
Wait to apologize at
'this moment in time'
When asked during a break in the meeting if he would apologize, Milliron responded that he was researching the matter and would wait to apologize "at this moment in time."
"I'm still researching that," Milliron said. "At the time the document that I presented was a valid and correct document and Mr. Pessina apparently looks like he may have paid that fine for the county or that fine got paid by him, there was still a 20 percent fine and we are still trying to figure out when it got to the DOL."
"I'm going to continue to help this County Board whether they want my help or not and you can print that," Milliron said.
He added that he thought the 80 FOIA requests mentioned by Davidson was high.
"I don't know if it's 80," Milliron said, adding that most of the information he files requests for are things that other governmental bodies post on their website.
"If that information was available I wouldn't have to FOIA for it," he said. "As far as costs, most of the people that respond to theses FOIAs are salaried employees so there is no per hour cost, it's part of their job responsibility."
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