It was in mid-December that a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield stated that a lawsuit filed by local developer Paul Offutt will be allowed to proceed.
Offutt’s lawsuit names the City of Danville and Danville Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr. as defendants; along with additional parties that include Danville Chief Engineer Sam Cole, Assistant Chief Engineer Eric Childers, and Danville Planning Manager Logan Cronk.
Offutt’s complaint, first filed last January in the U.S. District Court in Springfield, alleges that the parties violated his rights on multiple occasions; and accuses the parties of targeting him for retribution because he supported a rival of Mayor Williams in a previous election.
The numerous incidents referred to by Offutt’s lawsuit include the October of 2021 Danville Planning and Zoning Commission decision to vote down Offutt’s latest attempt to build a gas station and convenience store on land he owns northwest of Bowman and West Newell. Although that property is outside city limits, it is within the one-and-a-half mile buffer zone that by state law allows cities to establish the zoning. That proposal went before the Danville City Council, without a Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation, and failed to pass.
Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr told us there was little he could say about the lawsuit itself, but he expressed confidence in the outcome.
AUDIO: Both my and Paul Offutt’s reputations proceed us. So I’m sure that justice will prevail in the end. I’ve supported lots of people who didn’t support me, financially and otherwise, through the city of Danville. So this lawsuit is ludicrous.
But Offutt’s attorney, Jeffrey R. Kulwin, says the facts will show that Offutt’s support of another candidate in the 2019 mayoral election did indeed lead to an intentional campaign against his businesses.
AUDIO: My understanding (is) that in that campaign there were at least two other candidates who were running against Rickey Williams. One of them, I believe, was Jim McMahon. The allegations of the lawsuit contend, and we expect that the evidence will prove, that there has been a campaign of political retaliation against Paul Offutt and his companies….”
It was U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough that ruled the lawsuit could proceed. There are no subsequent court dates set as of yet, but Kulwin says the defendants named would have 30 days to respond to the complaint, which would mean by mid-January.
