Legal minds not good enough for County Board

The Iroquois County Board Tuesday sent an earlier-agreed-on contract for dispatch services back to committee for further review. A two-year contract agreed on just last Thursday by the Finance committee apparently wasn't good enough to satisfy a group of board members who've delayed progress on the matter for several months.

Finance committee Chairman Keven Hansen, despite being part of a meeting last Thursday when the agreement was reached, said Tuesday more time is needed to look at the contract before signing off.

Several board members questioned whether Hansen consulted with former Board Chairman Rod Copas in a telephone call outside the Tuesday meeting room. The same past-Copas supporters all voted with Hansen to send the contract proposal back to committee.

Hansen couldn't explain what his concerns were about the contract, despite being asked repeatedly to talk about what his issues were...even though his committee OK'd the contract three business days earlier.

Three attornies, including Iroquois County State's Attorney Jim Devine, were OK with the pact last Thursday. The ETSB lawyer, John Kelly, and the County Board's union lawyer David Hibben were OK with the pact last week too.

Devine said some modifications made to the contract actually gives the county the authority to handle union negotiations, since the dispatchers are moving toward union support thru the FOP. The county also gets to oversee finances of the dispatch center.

94.1 WGFA