GREENE: Roodhouse council fills vacancies

By Editor | June 4, 2025 |

By Carmen Ensinger

Less than two weeks after four aldermen and the city clerk resigned at the May 14 meeting, Roodhouse now has a full council.
Mayor Jim Riley called a special meeting on May 27 at which time he appointed Dawn Weckmann as city clerk; Gage Giberson and Steve Speeks for the open seats in Ward 1; William “Rusty” Henline for Ward 2 and Ernest Brown for the open seat in Ward 3.
Riley, who defeated interim mayor Charlie Huffines in the April election, had a chaotic first day in office after council members Dennis Cumby and Kent McGee submitted their resignations in writing and Alderwomen Tina Cathers and Dawn Crum resigned at the meeting, followed by City Clerk Kala Wahl.
This left only newly appointed aldermen Shane Kessinger and Steve Pope as sitting council members, which meant the council did not have a quorum so no business could be conducted until at least one of the seats were filled.
“Some people said I should appoint two now and two later, but I figured if I had good people for all four of them and the city clerk, then I might as well do it now,” Mayor Riley said. “This way we are all on the same page and are all going through it together. No one is behind and we can get a move on full force.”
At the end of the day, Riley said he really only had to find two people to fill the empty seats.
“Gage Giberson and Ernie Brown had both ran for seats in their respective wards in the last election, so I thought they deserved first choice for those seats,” Mayor Riley said. “Ernie ran against Shane Kessinger and lost and then when Tina (Cathers) resigned, that left an open seat in his ward. Gage Giberson lost to Dennis Cumby.”
That left him with an open seat in Ward 1, which he filled with former Roodhouse Police Chief Steve Speeks and one in Ward 2, which he filled with Rusty Henline.
“Everyone seems to be genuine which is why I picked them,” Mayor Riley said. “I tried to pick people who didn’t have an ego and were basically decent people.”
The one thing he was most pleased with was the crowd that was in attendance and their support.
“There were a lot of people who came out to support us and, even though we had a few hiccups throughout the meeting, they were right there to help us out,” Mayor Riley said. “Wes Bradford, who has been an alderman before, caught a couple of things and pointed them out to us and we corrected them.”
Mayor Riley had originally scheduled a council meeting for May 21, but that meeting had to be cancelled after he and Police Chief Kyle Robison consulted with the Illinois Municipal League Chief Executive Officer Brad Cole.
“When we scheduled the May 21 meeting, we didn’t know that we didn’t have the resignation letters from Cumby and McGee in our possession,” Mayor Riley said. “Charlie (Huffines) still had them and Cole told us we shouldn’t have the meeting until we had those resignations in our possession.”
Mayor Riley said the reason was that they were told that even though McGee and Cumby had resigned, until the council had those resignations in their possession, they were still part of the quorum.
“So, if we would have had that meeting, it wouldn’t have been good because two of our aldermen wouldn’t have been informed of it,” Mayor Riley said. “They could then come back on us. He told us to cancel the meetings, get the resignations and reschedule it, which is what we did.”
Riley was also faced with finding a new city attorney after their attorney, Jon Hurst, resigned after the election. He contacted Todd Parish, who is currently the city attorney for both Carrollton and White Hall, to see if he would be interested in being their city attorney as well.
“When I talked to him, he sounded like a really sharp guy and seemed very down to earth,” Mayor Riley said. “He was really good at explaining stuff to us when we were talking to him. He knows the technical stuff but is able to explain it to where you have no issues understanding what he is saying.”
Mayor Riley said he still has to get Parrish’s information to the council members and will need their approval before appointing him. However, if they do appoint him, Roodhouse will be facing changing their meeting days.
“If we do finalize things with Mr. Parish, we will be changing our meeting dates from the second Wednesday of the month to the fourth Wednesday of the month,” he said. “He has another meeting on the second Tuesday and like me and Kyle said, getting a good attorney is very important and so if we have to change the date to do that, it won’t be an issue.”