Resident complaints over circulated property list and alleged false harassment report dominate Marseilles public comment

Several members of the public used the council's public-comment period to raise complaints about local record handling and to allege misconduct by city staff.

Denise asked why a donation box for the town's conflict/memorial wall has not been restored while other donation methods (including QR codes) remain in place at municipal sites. She said no meeting had occurred to resolve the inconsistency and asked whether city policy—rather than ad hoc practice—could be established. City attorney Kamlin said staff had reached out to involved organizations, recommended a consistent donation policy across city property and that the city would coordinate a meeting to decide how best to proceed. The attorney said her general advice was to avoid physical donation boxes on public property because of difficulties distinguishing appropriate uses, but that meeting the stakeholders was the next step.

Melissa told the council that a circulated "price list" showing Timber's Edge sellers' original purchase prices, sale prices and an implied profit had prompted harassment of some property owners. She said the list appeared to have been compiled from publicly available GIS data but argued that the spreadsheet presented misleading impressions because it did not reflect owners' subsequent investments in their properties. She also said she received a FOIA response requiring a $2,317 deposit for paper copies and described the copying fees as "exorbitant," saying she had filed a complaint about the charge. Council members and the mayor reminded speakers not to attack city employees during public comment and said staff would take up the donation-box and record-request issues.

Scott Demianovich used his time to accuse the city clerk of filing a false harassment complaint against him on April 22 and said the ensuing police report by Detective Weiss omitted expected details. Demianovich said he had obtained body-camera footage through FOIA and that footage was not properly accounted for in the investigation; he asserted the report had been falsified and said he planned to sue. Council repeatedly cut off the speaker when his allotted time ended and instructed him to sit down as the public-comment period concluded.

What the city said next: council members and staff did not dispute that public records exist and that copying fees can be assessed; they emphasized the need for consistent policy-making, promised to reconvene stakeholders about the memorial wall donations, and said staff would review the FOIA fee and the record-search procedure. The mayor and attorney reiterated that attacks on municipal employees would not be permitted during public comment.

Next steps: staff will circulate meeting invitations to the memorial-wall stakeholders and coordinate any follow-up; the city clerk and city attorney will handle the FOIA fee and records questions through the city's normal public-records channels.