SALINE CO.—The litigation between Disclosure staffer Angela Howser and a Saline County township has been settled in Saline County court.
In July, Howser took steps to stop forward movement of Cottage Township’s vacating of a portion of Rocky Branch Road in order for Peabody Coal to access mining in the Rocky Branch area, solely because the township acted without an agenda at the meeting where an appointment was made.
At the meeting, held in early June 2014, Mike Karns was appointed to fill the township road supervisor position upon the resignation of Tim Tuttle.
However, because the meeting was held without an agenda—as entirely too many had been before—said appointment was invalid on the face of it, because all public bodies must by law (Illinois Open Meetings Act 5 ILCS 120) provide and post an agenda 48 hours in advance of a regularly-scheduled meeting.
There was no agenda posted—a fact which was never disputed in court—and Howser’s argument, litigated pro se (without an attorney) was that since there wasn’t an agenda, the meeting itself could and should be declared invalid by a judge and a do-over should commence if things were going to proceed with the vacating of the road.
Across several court hearings, during which time Peabody Coal hired the services of Craig and Craig law firm in Mt. Vernon, Illinois (represented by Julie Webb, who was able to get a petition to intervene approved, since Peabody had ‘interest’ in the proceedings), and Cottage Township hired local attorney C. Mart Watson, many filings were made, some in an attempt to detract from the bottom-line fact that the meeting was an agendaless one and on the face of it couldn’t stand.
The fact that the one meeting being declared null and void would have a snowball effect on Peabody’s progress was not lost on the parties; so out of court, Howser and the township settled on a ratification of the decision to appoint Karns, and, along with a promise to produce agendas henceforth and to compensate Howser’s court fees, a settlement was reached that only delayed Peabody’s progress from the date of initial filing (July 17) to the date of settlement (Sept. 26).
The parties appeared in open court, with Howser filing a motion to dismiss suit, and Watson presenting a check to Howser for just under $200 for court fees, certified letters and subpoenas.