True or false? We fact-checked campaign claims by Belleville’s candidates for mayor
.jpeg "Mayor Patty Gregory and her challenger, City Clerk Jenny Gain Meyer, have been distributing campaign literature to Belleville residents in recent weeks. The consolidated election will be held April 1.")
‘Tis the season for campaign literature, and that includes the closely watched Belleville mayoral race.
Mayor Patty Gregory and challenger Jenny Gain Meyer, who now serves as city clerk, have made their pitches to residents through several mailers. Contractor Ryan Musick also is running as a write-in candidate in the consolidated election, which will be held April 1.
As an incumbent, Gregory has focused on what she sees as her accomplishments in the past four years. Meyer touts her experience, community involvement and vision for the future.
Some of Gregory’s literature shows her as part of a team with Irma Golliday, candidate for city clerk. One mailer is covered with hats, which have become Gregory’s trademark. Both Gregory and Meyer allow their dogs to share the campaign spotlight in photos.
Gregory criticizes the late former Mayor Mark Eckert’s administration, without naming him or Meyer, who served as director of health, housing, building, cemetery operations and animal control before she became city clerk in 2017. Eckert was in office from 2004 to 2021.
Gregory alleges that the former administration was “asleep at the wheel” and refers to its economic development department as “lackluster.”
One of Meyer’s mailers is lined with images of derelict homes with boarded-up windows and overgrown weeds, arguing that new ideas are needed to solve the problem.
“Belleville’s dilapidated housing ... Fosters Crime and Lowers Property Values,” it reads. “Why hasn’t anything been done? Patty Gregory has failed us. IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE.”
.jpeg "UPDATED_GregoryMeyerCandidate_fitted (1).jpeg")
Here’s a list of specific claims in Belleville mayoral campaign literature fact-checked by the BND:
Lindenwood
Gregory’s claim: Gregory secured a state grant to purchase the former Lindenwood University campus, which was sitting vacant, and transformed it into a criminal justice center.
Facts: Lindenwood University closed its Belleville campus in 2020, citing financial and enrollment issues, when Eckert was mayor. The following year, under Gregory, the city bought the property for $3 million. Gov. JB Pritzker announced in 2022 that the city would be reimbursed for the cost through an Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grant.
The complex, now called the Southwestern Illinois Justice and Workforce Development Campus or simply “the Campus,” has undergone extensive renovations and houses the Southwestern Illinois College Police Academy, other programs and some city offices.
Police protection
Gregory’s claim: Gregory boosted “police strength” from 59 to 75 officers to keep Belleville’s streets safe, an increase of 16 officers.
Facts: The city employed 72 sworn police officers on April 30, 2021, the day before Gregory took office, compared to 74 today, a net gain of two, according to city records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. One of the two is part of command staff. The number of officers answering service calls is 59, the same as in 2021.
The police department employs a total of 102 people, compared to 97 in 2021. The five additional employees include the two officers, two dispatchers and one secretary. Gregory has stated that her administration inherited a lapsed police union contract and agreed to a new one that has helped with recruitment by increasing pay and benefits.
No-bid contracts
Gregory’s claim: Gregory brought “integrity” back to the mayor’s office by eliminating no-bid contracts that were costing the city money.
Facts: The Eckert administration requested bids for street and other infrastructure projects but not for engineering, noting that such bidding for professional services is prohibited under state law. As a mayoral candidate, Gregory complained that one company, Kaskaskia Engineering Group, was getting too many contracts.
The city still doesn’t request bids for engineering. But after the 2021 election, the Gregory administration switched to a “qualification-based-selection” (QBS) process, according to officials. It compiled a list of five firms, ranked according to qualifications, that departments can hire after negotiating prices. Kaskaskia isn’t on the list.
Derelict housing
Meyer’s claim: The Gregory administration hasn’t done anything to solve the “dilapidated housing” problem in Belleville.
Facts: The city has demolished or contracted for demolition of 51 derelict homes and other buildings in the past four years, according to Scott Tyler, director of health, housing and building. Demolitions cost $10,000 to $40,000 each. The Gregory administration has signed agreements with developers to build six or more homes on vacant lots as part of an “infill” program.
Meyer argues that the city needs to do more to revitalize properties before they reach the point of condemnation by working with neighborhood groups, local banks and real-estate companies.
Street repairs
Gregory’s claim: One mailer states that Gregory invested $7.2 million in repairs and paving of more than 50 city streets and $4.6 million in sewer renovations. Another points to more than $24 million in infrastructural improvements.
Facts: The amount spent in three years and projected to be spent this year on street and storm-sewer improvements total about $24.3 million, according to City Engineer Scott Saeger. Level of street repairs goes up and down, based on needs and available funding each year. Some recent projects have been funded by COVID relief through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Commercial permits
Gregory’s claim: Gregory energized the city’s “lackluster” economic development department under the former administration, spurring 380 new commercial permits in the last three years.
Facts: Gregory replaced Eckert’s economic development director, Annissa McCaskill, with Cliff Cross, who still serves in that position. The city issued 415 commercial occupancy permits in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. This represents a period that roughly corresponds with Gregory’s first term from May 2021 to present. The city issued 443 permits in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, which roughly corresponds with Eckert’s last term from May 2017 to April 2021.
The lowest number of permits in a calendar year was 84, issued in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, followed by 93 last year. The highest number was 129, issued in 2017, followed by 121 in 2021.
Economic development
Gregory’s claim: Belleville was singled out in a 2024 study commissioned by the Illinois Realtors and Southwestern Board of Realtors as a “future hot spot” due to the Gregory administration’s efforts in economic planning.
Facts: The study analyzed how communities around Scott Air Force Base could help meet housing needs of its personnel. Belleville wasn’t singled out, but it was listed as a “potential future hot spot” due to recent economic planning and efforts to address challenges such as an older housing stock, decreasing population and lower income and home values.
Mascoutah, O’Fallon and Shiloh were listed as hot spots. New Baden, Trenton and Lebanon were listed as non-hot spots.
Long-term planning
Meyer’s claim: Gregory has “never offered a plan to move Belleville forward.”
Facts: The city commissioned a “comprehensive plan” in 2000 with a 15- to 20-year outlook. In 2013, the Eckert administration hired a company to do a major update called “Imagine Belleville” that addressed vision, principles and preferences, growth capacity and infrastructure, mobility, housing and neighborhoods, economic development, land use and character.
According to Gregory, Cross recognized that another update was needed, but he advised starting first with the city’s economic development plan, which was updated in 2023-24. Officials are preparing to seek bids from companies later this year to update the comprehensive plan.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
