Kankakee Times

Two Iroquois County government entities that shouldn't exist in the first place have been illegally billing and collecting fees for dispatch services, the Edgar County Watchdogs (ECW) charged on their Illinois Leaks website recently.

In a post in 2014, the ECW argued against the existence of both the ETSB and ICOM, as statute allows for joint boards, not individual boards at the same time. Further, it said ICOM was set up as a policy committee, which does not grant it the authority to take action; if the committee is serving the ETSB in an advisory capacity, the ETSB should be voting on all decisions, not ICOM.

The ECW now is accusing the two boards of charging for dispatch services without ever being granted the power to do so.

In a response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the ECW was told the boards had such authority under Section 10 of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, and the amended Illinois Intergovernmental Cooperation Act.

The ECW argues that these rules do not apply because ICOM is not a government unit and no statute provides the authority to bill for dispatch services.

“The ETSB[…]may well have placed the county into a real financial mess and not just from those agencies terminating payments for these improper invoices,” the group posted on its website. “They may well face a false claims suit to recover all of the improper billing and collection of money without statutory authority.”