MARION—Tension has been brewing behind the scenes for the Marion City Council, and the presence of media actually covering it has lent to some almost hostile city meetings as of late.
One of these took place on Monday, September 23.
It was on this night that a Marion businesswoman, Lily Abbott, took the floor, having placed herself on the agenda, in order to address concerns she has had with the city regarding a property issue as it pertains to Doug Bradley’s Marion Heights LLC development…and possible encroachment upon her property, which sits on the northeast side of the Interstate 57 interchange in Marion, and is apparently in the way of Bradley’s development as it stands right now.
But further to that, Abbott’s digging into the situation has uncovered an incredible number of questions about a massive amount of money that appears to have been, at the very least, placed in the wrong city accounts, and at worst, misappropriated.
As well, that particular meeting was the one in which city attorney Steve Green bit at a Disclosure correspondent, telling her that he “didn’t give her permission to take his photo” after the meeting was over.
As can be seen, that particular photo is gracing the cover of this issue, and has now played prominently on both Disclosure’s website, as well as that of the Edgar County Watchdogs upstate.
But all of it serves to point out one thing: There’s something very serious going on in the city of Marion, by way of finances, the Tax Increment Finance Districts, and in particular Marion Heights LLC, which seems to be into alleged land-grabs as of late…and possibly any other tactics they can attempt in order to get their TIF Districts set up the way they want.
Problems with strip pits
Abbott first started going to the media over the summer after she had been enduring years of problems at her property, a wooded area that had sat just south of some strip pits and had been in the family for a long time.
She began having problems with the land when Marion Heights LLC, a combine ownership 9oof CPA Doug Bradley’s and construction company owner Lynn Holmes’, began filling the strip pits. Marion Heights LLC owned the property of the strip pits, which had been created in the 1940s and were present in the 1960s when the interstate was placed through the state.
Aerial shots of the land showed that over time, and with the ongoing development that Bradley was attempting, the strip pits, first one on the west side of the interstate, then two on the east side, began being filled in.
What they were filled with, exactly, is unknown. The pits were deep, and filled with water, and as they were filled to run that water out over time, drained through the areas that, on the west of the interstate, are now developments leading south to Illinois 13 (which runs east-west).
On the east side, the strip pits to the north of Abbott’s wooded property drained through the wooded property.
Trees dying
The fills were so gradual that she didn’t notice the pit water draining across her wooded land…until she saw vegetation and trees dying in portions of the property.
Abbott followed the dead trees and vegetation on her property in a northeasterly direction until she came to the road that runs east-west across the north boundary of the woods…and noticed that the water was running from the filled strip pit.
She also stood on the public road and, if she stood on her vehicle, she could see an incredible amount of trash in the vicinity of the strip pit that looked like construction debris.
Abbott said that it appeared to be mostly busted up concrete, but that she could also see wiring, tubing of all sorts, and, basically, trash such as discarded drink containers, sandwich wrappers, plastic bags, and more—simply put, garbage.
It almost appeared as if the strip pit to the northeast of her property were being filled up with the type of construction trash that would be loaded up and trucked off construction sites, up to and including the tear-down of unwanted/condemned buildings so that new construction could go up.
Worse, what was in that garbage “fill” was toxic enough that it could kill off entire trees when flowing through a natural drainage course…so going into area watersheds, from which many obtain drinking water (via wells, which can incur such seepage) was water toxic enough to cause harm to living things.
Filed discrimination suit
Abbott began investigating what was going on around her property, including the development by Bradley and his construction buddy, Holmes.
What Abbott ultimately learned caused her to file a Title VI discrimination compliant with the Federal Highway administration, in which she and her sister, both of whom are Portugese, claimed that their property was being discriminated against in the development along the interstate, and that preferential treatment was being given to “white male land owners and developers,” namely, the Holland Group and Marion Heights LLC (The Holland Group, a development firm, walked away from the project earlier in 2013).
No decision has come of the complaint thus far.
But the acrimony between Abbott and Marion Heights LLC has grown exponentially, especially when it was reported to the Illinois EPA that there was questionable dump material being placed in the strip pits, which Abbott eventually viewed Holmes Construction doing—taking dump trucks of debris to the fill areas.
Nothing was done about the EPA complaints, which were made in 2012.
Tire fire
However, not long after the complaints were made, there was a tire fire on Abbott’s property.
And it so happened that Holmes was “driving by the area” when the tire fire was going, and he called it in to the EPA.
And lo and behold, Abbott was cited for “open dumping” of the disposed tires by the EPA, and was told to clean them up.
Abbott says she did not start the fire. But she believes she has a good idea of who did.
This only gave Abbott the impetus to dig even deeper. And what she has found since that time, with the use of Freedom of Information Act requests, appears to be a phenomenal abuse of the Tax Increment Financing going on in Marion.
TIF, as explained in the September-October 2013 issue of Disclosure, is a taxing procedure developed to aid in land and business developers’ creation of growth in blighted areas of a municipality, replacing low-tax property with higher-tax-valued property, which tax money, instead of being diverted to the schools, fire departments/emergency services, etc., is turned around and put into a city fund, out of which the developer can draw money and invest in more development.
But what Abbott, and subsequently realtor Ann Colburn (see related story, page 1) have discovered is that there appears to be abuses going on in Marion’s multiple TIF Districts…and they have been analyzing and dissecting the material they’ve been collecting ever since, in an effort to get the facts to the public, which effort mainstream media won’t cover because they don’t want to raise the ire of the public officials without whose support they wouldn’t be able to function…since businesses under Marion Heights, LLC, all eventually advertise.
Asked serious questions
It was just such irregularities that Abbott attended the Sept. 23 meeting over, asking for 15 minutes to make a presentation that ultimately infuriated Mayor Bob Butler and the city council, and almost got Abbott tossed out of the meeting.
Having been interrupted in similar presentations to the council in the past, Abbott asked to be uninterrupted; but Butler told her “Say what you have to say and be done with it.”
Abbott, asked to step to the microphone so that Butler, who, in his advanced age and poor health condition has a hearing problem, could make out what she was saying, began with a question for city treasurer Steve Hale: “Have you, or the city, ever deposited a check into the city account written to anyone other than the city?” which response was “absolutely not” but city attorney Steve Green—against what had been previously agreed-upon—interrupted Abbot, stating that she was not to address Hale at all.
So Abbott then referred to a blown-up shot of a check from October 7, 2008, written to Marion Heights LLC out of then-county treasurer Bruce Troutman’s “Real Estate Account” for $685,802.71. The back of the check shows that it was endorsed by the city—NOT by Marion Heights LLC—then deposited into the City of Marion’s “GF” account (general fund) followed by an account number (which will not be displayed here).
Years worth of such deposits
The memo line of the check read “second split,” indicating that somewhere, at some point in time, there must have been a “first split”…and the likelihood that it was in the neighborhood of that more-than-half-million-dollar amount is startling if Hale doesn’t remember it.
To aid everyone’s apparently failing memories, Abbott had with her over 30 checks of the same nature, and more than 20 tax bills. In all, these showed that since 2004 until the past two years (when Abbott had been digging into the city’s finances), all such checks were deposited into the city’s general fund…even though the rules that govern TIF dictate that tax monies collected on behalf of the TIF Districts must go into the TIF accounts, NOT the general fund…as millions in Marion had been going for years.
Further, Abbott had evidence of wire transfers both in and out of the accounts shown.
Stating in her presentation that she had learned “ninety-nine percent of the tax collected in the TIF district goes to Marion Heights, LLC, and it appears the city is getting a 25 percent kickback,” she asked “Is it tax evasion?”
At this point, Green stepped up and said Abbott was accusing them of “money laundering; and this is all on tape!”
Abbott merely looked at him and said “I have had enough of YOU.
“Questions,” she said, “that’s all I’m asking, for answers to my questions.”
Asked chief to remove her
At that point, Butler instructed Marion Police Chief John Eibeck to escort Abbott out of the meeting chambers.
Instead of this happening, she took her seat, getting only eight of her fifteen requested minutes.
But after the business meeting, Abbott then again asked the council if they had answers to her questions.
By now, Butler was absolutely livid, and brought up the “money laundering” accusations again, along with “racketeering” and more.
“You need to take your suspicions to the state’s attorney,” Butler told her. “We have followed the law and have been audited and have done nothing illegal!!”
What a former U.S. Attorney has to say about it
The steps Abbott would take next have been outlined by high-ranking law enforcement/court officials; in this case, former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
In 2008, during a presentation about corruption in government, Fitzgerald explained how to get the federal government involved in an investigation.
First, Fitzgerald said, find the corruption. Then give your local elected politicians the chance to do the right thing or the wrong thing.
Approach the governing body and provide them with the evidence, Fitzgerald advised. At that time they make a choice to do the right thing or the wrong thing by taking a vote to either call the federal prosecutor or they vote not to.
If they vote yes, Fitzgerald advised, they make the call; if they vote to not call, then the citizen calls the federal prosecutor to present the evidence to him or her.
At that time the federal prosecutor calls a grand jury, and calls in the politicians one at a time to question them under oath.
If one of them tells a lie even inadvertently, they have given false evidence and are subject to five years in federal penitentiary.
“And that is how they get people to talk,” Fitzgerald said, “and believe me, they do.”
City has more problems than just an ignorant attorney
Whether this will be the next step Abbott will take remains unknown.
However, one thing is certain: There’s a lot of tension on the city council.
Green snapped at Disclosure’s correspondent at the meeting when she took a photo of him (after having been told two weeks prior that she “needed to be careful who she took photos of during a public meeting; she could get in trouble” and subsequently getting chewed out by Disclosure staff), advising her that he “hadn’t given her permission to take his photo.”
If ignorance of the fact that a reporter doesn’t need “permission” to take a photo of a public official at a public proceeding is any indication of what’s going on in the city of Marion, the city is indeed in trouble.
But it appears that there is more, and bigger, trouble to be had than a pissy attorney not understanding the meaning of “public.”
And it further appears that Lily Abbott may have already found it all.
This series continues in upcoming editions of Disclosure.