By: Diane Benjamin
I love when attack dogs show how they think by leaving comments here. This one was last night while I was sound asleep at almost 11:00pm:
Yes totally ignore the total corruption coming out of the McLean County Clerk office. Missing money, A guy that worked for the Clerks office had porn on computer. Not a peep out of you.
But go on with more shopworn and tired attacks against public schools. You wouldn’t know what they’re teaching because 1. You don’t live in District 87 and 2. You do not have children in any public school.
That must have been written by a recent public school graduate with spelling and grammar problems. It’s also spreading lies.
There is no missing money in the Clerk’s office. Being short-staffed while forced to handle things like 40 days of early voting, plus processing mail-in ballots and confirmations—because the ruling party thinks people are too stupid to find time to vote—costs money and time. They also had to correct errors on property tax bills. Unlike media that jumps on stories, I don’t. I also don’t report what other media already covers.
I hope the Democrat County Board proceeds with “clawing back” money from the Clerk’s budget. Let them decide who to fire. Let them completely screw up the office and then try to blame Kathy Michael. Democrats will use whatever talking points they need to gain power.
Meanwhile, the comment writer completely ignored the two suspects at just one Unit 5 school. Should the Superintendent be accused of corruption? She’s the one in charge.
If you want to blame Kathy Michael for having an employee no one suspected of anything criminal, then blame everyone who employs suspected perverts. Two suspects at one school, around kids every day, is a lot more serious. They also aren’t Unit 5’s only two.
The comment writer gets even worse with comments on this story: https://blnnews.com/2026/03/19/district-87-to-students-being-american-doesnt-matter/
The story had nothing to do with what they are teaching; the story was about proposed changes to the BHS handbook. If the school board approves those changes, that will affect what is taught. Don’t parents have the right to know? Thanks for proving the 37.5% truancy rate didn’t bother you.
If you think I shouldn’t write about anything I’m not directly impacted by, then tell the other media the same thing. I write about things they bury. Evidently you want everything I write about buried.
Thanks for playing though.
Part of the reason the clerks office had so much unexpected overtime costs was because this elections official was arrested and was let go. The office then had trouble replacing him. So that’s where some of the “missing” money went to. These were the extremely unusual conditions the clerk mentioned to the board. I will note no one with the sheriff’s office or county IT dept caught this guy when he was using county Internet to break the law. It was an outside law enforcement agency that discovered it. So please explain how that is the Clerks fault?
None of the money is missing, the entire problem resolved around a lack of communication by the clerk to the board when these unexpected costs came up, so the board felt “surprised” to get a large overage request at the end of the year. Each county department had overages and had to submit the request for additional approval. The clerk just didn’t submit all the invoices for $150,000 non contracted expenses, which she is presenting to the board at the next finance meeting now.
$138,000 in overtime costs, largely due to this elections officials arrest.
$150,000 in election related non contract expenses.
$91,000 for new election software.
$51,000 for statutory required certified postage costs due to assessors mistake with tax bills.
Most of these overages were election related. Very odd the Democrats on the board were attacking the elected Republican clerk for making necessary decisions to have a safe, secure, and transparent election. Makes you wonder…
The timing is very odd as well: The Republican clerk and half of the board is up for election this November.
Why didn’t the Democrats “grill her” over her overages from last year, which were almost the same amount? Why didn’t they bring up her poor in the moment communication then? Oh, was it because it wasn’t an election year for her or the board? We see what you are playing at, Val, Sean, Corey, Eric.
Also, there were a few Republicans board members sitting there while The Republican elected clerk was being grilled by the Democrats. After the 5th democrat questioned the clerk and wasted everyone’s time by asking functionally the same questions as everyone else, it was obvious this was some lame politically motivated “bash the clerk” effort by the Democrats. That’s why it went on for 40 minutes.
Hey republicans: when obvious, over the top, intentional political nonsense like this is occuring to a fellow elected Republican, why don’t you speak up and defend the clerk? Thank her for doing such a great job, for making executive decisions in the moment on expenditures to help ensure the integrity of our elections. Yeah sure, the clerk needs to alert the board sooner when these larger expenditures come up: we all know that because the Democrats beat it like a dead horse by asking it 6 ways to Sunday. Have some party loyalty: Lord knows the Democrats did when they likely planned this ambush grill session.
Maybes that’s how they flipped the county board blue for the first time in history during the 2024 presidential election.