Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / La Salle Land Use director still on the job despite call for resignation
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- 0:05Speaker 1: LaSalle land Use director still on the job despite call
- 0:08Speaker 1: for resignation. Written by Matthias Werner, this article is being
- 0:14Speaker 1: read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
- 0:18Speaker 1: One week after a LaSalle County board member called for
- 0:21Speaker 1: his resignation, County land Use Director Brian Gift is still
- 0:25Speaker 1: on the job. At the board's July ninth meeting, Reid
- 0:28Speaker 1: questioned Gift on the director's communication with a representative of
- 0:32Speaker 1: Jamil Ahmed sukera founder and CEO of VERT, the interested
- 0:36Speaker 1: buyer of the Fox River Resort in Sheridan. During the questioning,
- 0:40Speaker 1: Gift left the meeting, prompting Jim reidar Sandwich to request
- 0:43Speaker 1: Gift's resignation. I'm still employed, Gift said on Wednesday. He
- 0:48Speaker 1: declined to comment further. Hundreds of residents turned out to
- 0:52Speaker 1: the meeting, held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Ottawa,
- 0:56Speaker 1: in anticipation of a crowd there to oppose the proposed
- 0:59Speaker 1: faith center community VERT was looking to open on the
- 1:02Speaker 1: defunct site. During the meeting, Reid said Gift should have
- 1:06Speaker 1: presented his communication with the buyers to the board earlier,
- 1:10Speaker 1: which board chairman Don Jensen said would be more concerning
- 1:14Speaker 1: regarding a potential resignation than Gift leaving. Gift had reported
- 1:19Speaker 1: to the board that there was no final sale on
- 1:21Speaker 1: the property, but had not disclosed that he'd been in
- 1:24Speaker 1: contact with Ray Melton, an attorney representing Vert and the
- 1:28Speaker 1: v Resort Living Project, who had been communicating with Gift
- 1:31Speaker 1: since May one. I would like to get the application started,
- 1:35Speaker 1: Melton said in early messages with the director. Jensen said
- 1:40Speaker 1: that he does not anticipate follow through on Gift's resignation,
- 1:44Speaker 1: something he has not seen during his tenure on the board.
- 1:48Speaker 1: On Wednesday, Reid was noncommittal about further action against Gift,
- 1:52Speaker 1: suggesting the next possible time for anything to occur would
- 1:55Speaker 1: be the county board meeting. I would think, but I
- 1:59Speaker 1: have no idea, he said. I don't know if there's
- 2:01Speaker 1: a formal process for that. If there were to be
- 2:04Speaker 1: further discussions before gifts reappointment to his position on December one,
- 2:09Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, Jensen said they would be held in
- 2:12Speaker 1: executive session before reaching the floor of the LaSalle County Board.