The Tazewell County executive committee approved agenda Item 1 following a short discussion about liability and legal exposure related to a state public act that governs solar and wind projects.

Committee members said the chief legal risk is private litigation by project developers, not direct enforcement action from the governor. A board member who spoke during the discussion said, “The governor of the state of Illinois is not gonna sue Tazewell County. They haven't sued any of the counties that haven't gone along with their public act. But what they do is they sort of, I don't know, whether they're encouraging or looking the other way so that the solar farms or the wind farms file a lawsuit against the counties and it seems like the state's attorneys in the counties feel like they're in much jeopardy going into a courtroom to defend this when this public act is on the record.”

Another committee member clarified the speaker’s focus: “I think Nick was referring to the solar company, not the state,” and a separate board member added, “I think there was a clear purpose in the legislation being passed as it was because now if something bad happens with one of those solar farms or wind farms and blows up or does whatever, the state can say, well, the county approved it.”

The committee conducted a roll call vote on Item 1. Recorded votes in the meeting transcript were: Crawford — Aye; Goddard — Yes; Graff — No; Paul — Yes; Harris — No; Hopkins — Yes; Joesten — Yes; Longfellow — Yes; Mill — Yes; Myla — Yes; Mingus — No; Nums — Yes; Phillips — Yes; Rich Denson — No; Schnickloff — No; Schneider — Yes; Sin — Yes; Stall — No; Stop — No; Woodrow — No. The motion carried.

The transcript does not include statutory citations beyond references to a “public act,” and no formal legal opinion was presented on the record. The committee did not request or direct staff to produce an attorney memo or a legal analysis during the item’s discussion.

The item concluded with the committee carrying the motion and moving on to other agenda business.