County Board appointment gets tabled after GOP chair questions process

QUINCY — Adams County Board Chairman Bret Austin’s attempt to fill a vacancy on the board hit a snag Tuesday night.

Theresa Bockhold resigned from her District 7 seat at the board’s January meeting and Austin moved Tuesday night to fill the position by nominating businessman Adam Booth.

Austin said there were two candidates who he interviewed.

“I talked to a lot of the precinct committeemen, talked to a lot of outside people, inside people, people in the board,” Austin said. “I talked to Mr. (Jon) McCoy, who is our Republican chairman.

But McCoy, who also sits on the County Board as one of the three members representing the county’s District 5, requested both candidates be put up for a vote of the board rather than just Booth.

McCoy said the other candidate was Russ Hinkamper, who recently retired from the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Hinkamper was a Republican precinct committeeman for years before he moved into Melrose Township, where he currently sits on the township board. Hinkamper’s late father, Ron, was a long-time County Board member and his brother, Ryan, currently sits on the board representing District 2. Ryan Hinkamper was absent from Tuesday’s meeting with an illness.

Austin said an up or down vote on Booth’s needed to happen before more discussion could be had. Booth’s nomination was not supported by the board, falling 10-8. Board member David McCleary (R-District 6) was the other member absent with Ryan Hinkamper.

Voting against the appointment were Steve McQueen (R-District 4), Dave Bellis (R-District 3), Tim Siemer (R-District 1), Keith Callaway (R-District 1), Barb Fletcher (R-District 2), Mark Dietrich (R-District 3), Jeremy Farlow (R-District 4), Tim Finlay (R-District 5), Brad Poulter (R-District 6) and McCoy.

Voting with Austin were Travis Cooley (R-District 4), Mark Sorensen (R-District 2) Marvin Kerkhoff (R-District 3), Robert Reich (R-District 5), Les Post (R-District 6), Brent Fischer (R-District 7) and Joe Zanger (R-District 7).

Austin then conferred with State’s Attorney Todd Eyler and said the statute for appointments gives the board chair “the authority to appoint members to fill vacant seats with advice and consent from the board.”

Austin followed that by saying he did not want to make an appointment against the board’s wishes, so he asked for the nomination to be tabled. McCoy, who said he wanted to speak on the subject before the board, agreed to Austin’s request to table.

McCoy did not want to elaborate on the topic following the meeting, saying he wanted to have the discussion in front of the full board.

The appointment must be made with 60 days from Bockhold’s resignation, so the board can fill the seat at its March 11 meeting.

The board also had discussions about how to pay for the courthouse’s new HVAC system, which is going to have a price tag of more than $8 million.

Cooley, who chairs the finance committee said he had talked to representatives from Bernardi Securities of Chicago about bonding the project. Bernardi is who the county used to finance the building of the jail.

Cooley said that a 20-year bond would mean the county would pay about $618,000 annually for the first 10 years based on a projected 4.13 percent interest rate that would probably increase to 7 percent during the second 10 years.

Bellis, who chairs the Transportation, Building and Technology Committee said the request for bids for will go out next week and, if financing is approved by the board in March, plans for public review would be put out in April for a board vote to move forward on the project in May.