A village board meeting in Mapleton last month included a public request for Mayor Carl Bishop’s resignation.
The letter, signed by five citizens may not seem like much. But it grows on the Village Board’s no-confidence vote. The tumultuous August board meeting also included six resignations and questions from the NAACP.
Former village clerk and trustee, Sherry Boswell is among the signers of the letter. Boswell says the Mayor ordered the sign-off on payroll checks, without having proper signature authority. “The bank would not accept the signatures because they had never been approved or the minutes had never been presented to the bank, proving that this person could sign them.”
That resulted in about a dozen village employees’ checks being worthless and about a week of a work stoppage. Those who signed the letter say Mapleton can’t afford the additional legal liability.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office is also asking to review the village’s meeting minutes from August 8th. The Peoria NAACP requested the investigation over what it calls “multiple violations” of the Open Meetings Act.
The Mapleton Village Board meets again next Monday to finish interviewing attorneys and fill the vacancy.