Belleville Township rejects plan to hire intern

The Belleville Township Board on Tuesday rejected a proposal to pay half the salary of an intern who would help research ways the city could take over the township, develop policy and assist with community development.

The township’s board and the city aldermen have agreed to dissolve the township as of May when the city will assume the township’s duties.

Township Board members Michael Hagberg, Joy Schreiber and Joe Swierczek voted to deny paying $5,500 for the intern while Trustee Joe Hubbard and Supervisor Dennis Korte voted “present.”

Before the vote, Jim Schneider, the city’s director of human resources, training and community development, told the township board the city would have paid for the other half of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville student’s internship salary. The proposal called for the student to work 20 hours a week for nine months for just over $11,000.

“The dissolution is for the intent of saving taxpayer dollars, so to create a new expense in doing this seems absurd to me,” Schreiber said before the vote.

City Clerk Dallas Cook, who also serves as the township’s clerk urged the board to reject the plan and criticized Mayor Mark Eckert’s handling of the matter.

Cook said he and his assistant clerk have put in “countless hours” of research into developing policy that was turned over to the mayor.

“To be completely frank, it’s a slap in the face, it’s an insult to me,” Cook said. “For the taxpayers to have to pay another $11,000 because I’m who I am and Mark Eckert is who he is is pretty damn sad. It’s pretty insulting to the people who have tried to work for the taxpayers. It hurts my feelings. It’s an insult.”

“Why didn’t the mayor call me?”

Eckert, in an interview after the meeting, criticized Cook.

“I think it’s sad,” Eckert said of Cook’s comments.

Eckert noted that Cook was named as a staff support to the Township Transition Task Force. “I gave him every opportunity to be a part of this,” Eckert added.

“I don’t think he cares about the poor and broken people and that’s what concerns me,” Eckert said. “I think he wants to brag about cutting the levy.”

“We saw that this graduate student who is doing her studies in community development and human resources would be a great person” to help the city, Eckert said.

In May, Cook and Eckert had a heated exchange of words during a City Council meeting about how the city should assume the township’s duties.

The township is tasked with giving assistance to needy individuals, who can receive up to $245 a month in aid.

Up next

The Township Transition Task Force is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Belleville Fire Department’s administration building at 1125 S. Illinois St. and agenda calls for the board to discuss whether to hire the SIUE intern and to vote on naming someone to chair the task force.

This story was originally published July 19, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Belleville Township rejects plan to hire intern."