Can someone please explain to me why, after months of my asking, the Office of the Bureau County Sheriff finally held a meeting of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Merit Commission on 18 December, 2009, in the office the Sheriff? And, as an outcome of that meeting, job announcements for the position of Deputy Sheriff have been published for the first time in years. The first thing that you should know is that the Sheriff’s Merit Commission does not BELONG to the Office of the Sheriff. In fact, if you visit the Bureau County Sheriff’s website and look under the tab entitled “Employment Information” you will read that the Merit Commission is “a separate entity of Bureau County Government”. In a nutshell, the Merit Commission has the responsibility to provide the Office of the Sheriff with a list of qualified applicants for a job as a Bureau County Deputy Sheriff/Dispatcher and identify those members of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department who are eligible for a promotion. Please do not read anything into what I say as any thing negative about any employee currently working at the Bureau County Sheriff’s Department. Rather this is to give you insight into another example of the “Chief Law Enforcement Officer” of Bureau County picking and choosing which statutes he wants to abide by. A review of the Bureau County Budget in regard to the Merit Commission will reveal that the annual budget includes such items as Publication of legals, Testing applicants, Polygraph, and Physical exam. A further exam will reveal that for the years 2008 and 2009, the Merit Commission spent $0.00 for publication of legals, $643.00 for testing applicants ($58.00 in 2008 & $585.00 in 2009), $0.00 for polygraph tests, and $158.00 for physical exams($0.00 in 2008 & $159.00 in 2009). Yet, during that same two year time span, the Office of the Sheriff hired 10 full time employees and 7 part time employees. The staff of the Bureau County Sheriff’s Office are a group of hard working individuals and I want to stress that I am not taking anything away from them. The Office of the Sheriff has placed itself above the wishes of the voters of Bureau County and the guidelines as established in the Illinois statutes. Just asking if the timing of this meeting could be for political purposes?