Meeting Summary and Briefs: Montgomery County Board Development & Personnel Committee for July 6, 2026

Montgomery County Board Development & Personnel Committee Meeting | July 6, 2026

The Montgomery County Board Development & Personnel Committee met for just under two hours on Monday, July 6, 2026, in the County Board Room on the second floor of the Historic Courthouse in Hillsboro, working through 13 items and taking a single substantive vote. All six committee members attended — Rob Corso, Chris Daniels, Jeremy Jones, Roy Schieferdecker, Russ Beason and Chair Chad Ruppert. Board Chairman Doug Donaldson, who is not a member of the committee, was listed absent.

The meeting’s weight fell at the end, on the Pattern Energy land agent list filed with the County Clerk on June 25 and the letter from Butler Grove Township landowner John Rundquist that Ruppert read into the record — both covered in a separate story, as are the committee’s review of draft wind and solar ordinances, its vote to recommend $22,000 from the coal fund for the Green Diamond Bike Trail in Waggoner, the Asarco cleanup report, the Small Biz Grant accounting, Animal Control’s failed incinerator, and the Nokomis building giveaway described during public comment.

The lone motion of substance carried unanimously. The committee also voted to pay the bills, on a motion by Daniels seconded by Jones, and adjourned at 6:48 p.m. on a motion by Beason seconded by Daniels.

MCEDC Asks for More, and Possibly From a Different Pocket

The committee discussed a request by MCEDC to increase the county’s $15,000 contribution for FY2027 — and, perhaps, to move the contribution from the General Fund to Fund 375, the county’s coal royalty fund. The minutes record no proposed figure for the increase and no rationale for the fund shift. The committee will make a recommendation next month, prior to August budget hearings. The question arrives against a General Fund the county’s own audit work has flagged, and a coal fund the county has been drawing on for a widening range of purposes. No motion was made.

Geronimo Power Presentation Pushed to Fall

Under “Geronimo Power Update/Approval,” the minutes record one sentence: Jack Haley will reschedule later this fall. The record does not state who Haley is, what organization he represents, what he intended to present, or why the presentation moved. The Coordinating Committee’s June 25 preview had said a presentation from Geronimo Power was likely. Nothing in any county document describes Geronimo Power’s project, its location, or its relationship to any other energy company active in the county, and this newspaper does not supply one.

County Asked to Contact Developer Working the Former UKA Footprint

Under “Other Business,” Ruppert asked County Board Administration to make contact with a developer who is making contacts in the former UKA project footprint. The developer is not named in the minutes. UKA Energy is the company whose $250,000 wind farm application permit was reported as county revenue but never filed — a shortfall the treasurer has identified as a primary driver of an anticipated deficit. The minutes do not say where the former footprint lies, what the developer is doing there, whom it is contacting, or what Ruppert wants the administration to say. No motion was made.

Union Talks to Begin in August

Ruppert will meet with the union in August to exchange proposals and schedule negotiation meetings, according to the minutes. The union is not named. The minutes do not say which employees it represents, when the current contract expires, or how many workers are covered. The item was titled “Union Negotiation Schedule Update/Approval” and drew no motion.

Handbook Waits on Consultant

The committee is awaiting required language changes from Bushue HR on the employee handbook, the minutes state. The agenda item is titled “Employee Handbook (NICU) Update/Approval.” The parenthetical is not expanded anywhere in the county’s record, and the minutes give no indication of what the required changes are or what requires them. Bushue HR, an Effingham firm, is the same consultant whose return-to-work program and FOIA verification recommendations went before the Coordinating Committee on June 25.