South Jacksonville held their last monthly meeting before the newly-elected trustees and Village President will be sworn in.
Before the full board meeting, the Personnel and Finance committee met to discuss possible misconduct in regards to the leaked memo related to the investigation of Police Chief Josh Hallock back in February.
Village President Steve Waltrip says the committee believes that the village should seek in independent investigation into how the memo was leaked.
“We discussed opening a formal investigation in regards to the leaked memo. I think the board’s opinion was that we should possibly look into going further with this with another law firm independent from ours. They’re going to put some proposals together of what we can and can’t do and then bring it back to the future board,” says Waltrip.
Waltrip, who’s stepping down from his interim position, reflects on his time as village president.
“There have been good times and bad times, trials and tribulations, and the Village is still going to come through. I feel strong for the village employees and for all those that got elected, I wish them luck and I feel they’ll come through as well,” says Waltrip.
Also at last night’s meeting, the Board approved an ordinance allowing golf carts and off-highway vehicles. Waltrip says this is an ordinance that he’d been pushing for quite a while.
“That was one of final things I wanted to get done in my administration. We brought this back last summer, did a lot of work on it and had quite a bit of money invested in it. For the majority of the people, it’s a good thing because people can come from Jacksonville and go to the park and the golf course, whatever they want to do, and they have to adhere to the law, so I think it’s a good deal,” Waltrip explains.
As for the possible investigation, Waltrip says that the decision would ultimately be on the new administration.