Danville Dispute: Mayor, DACC President at Odds

 THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY

Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. presented a 2,089-word letter with his allegations against President Stephen Nacco to DACC’s board of trustees meeting.

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DANVILLE — What started out as a disagreement over whether to welcome undocumented immigrants to town has led to the city’s mayor publicly chastising Danville Area Community College’s president for alleged “tyrannical behavior,” the president’s wife accusing the mayor of being dishonest and the school launching an investigation.

Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. presented a 2,089-word letter with his allegations against President Stephen Nacco to DACC’s board of trustees at Thursday night’s meeting — and shared it, and more, on social media. The mayor, the son of two DACC employees had informed members ahead of time of his plans to file a complaint.

The board did not discuss Williams’ accusations during the meeting. When reached Friday by The News-Gazette, DACC board chair Dave Harby and trustees Tracy Cherry and Sandra Finch declined comment.

Friday morning brought an awkward moment when Williams and Nacco were both on hand at Danville’s City Hall for a previously scheduled swearing-in ceremony for a probationary police officer. Nacco serves on the city’s board of fire and police commissioners.

In a statement to The News-Gazette, Nacco confirmed that trustees were “conducting a review of the mayor’s allegations and the evidence I provided.”

DACC’s legal counsel, Jerry Davis, and vice president of human resources, Jill Cranmore, will conduct the investigation.

“Once the investigation is completed,” Nacco said in Friday’s statement, “the board will take appropriate action.”

Williams said he was moved to write the letter by Nacco’s efforts “to help bring undocumented immigrants to our community, and subsequent deplorable behavior when confronted about it.”

The mayor said he became involved when Nacco invited him to write a letter of support for the nonprofit Immigration Project’s bid to secure a state grant to be used for “the recruitment of undocumented people as workers in downstate regions.”

According to an email thread Williams included with his letter on Facebook, the grant would fund social services and three months of rent to 20 individuals in the Danville area, including assistance with application for public benefits.

Williams said he and Hoopeston Mayor Jeff Wise both declined Nacco’s Aug. 3 request for a since-rescinded grant application due two days later. The turnaround time wasn’t the problem.

“Respectfully,” Williams wrote in response to Nacco’s email, “this is a terrible idea for a host of reasons.”

During a follow-up phone call with Nacco, Williams said he asked the president if DACC trustees were aware and supportive of the idea.

According to Williams, Nacco stated, “I don’t have to ask them. I run the college, I’m in charge.”

“(Nacco) compared this to his placement of Black Lives Matter signs without your approval,” Williams wrote in his letter to trustees. “He went on to say that the college is responsible to educate whoever shows up and compared this situation to Viscofan bringing lawful visa holders here from Mexico. I explained that these were completely different circumstances for two reasons.

“First,” Williams wrote, “there is a huge difference between educating whoever shows up and actively recruiting individuals who have no resources to take care of themselves or their families to our community. Second, the Viscofan process was legal and well-thought-out. After vetting existing employees at their Mexican plant, Viscofan applied for and received temporary work visas from the federal government to bring folks here to train our workers on the new line.

“Their people were provided with six months of housing (including deposits) as opposed to the three months with no deposit this grant would provide. They were also provided transportation and guaranteed good paying jobs which would allow them to live incredible lives once they return home. This grant made no such provisions.”

While emphasizing that he supported “lawful immigration,” Williams added that the arrival of “undocumented individuals” would only exacerbate Danville’s “already overwhelmed” social services and “huge rise in homelessness” since the closing of the city’s two largest shelters.

“We only need to look at major cities such as Chicago and LA to see the havoc that an influx of people with no resources can do to a community,” Williams said. “In fact, that’s why they’re attempting to send undocumented individuals to communities like ours. This is not acceptable.”

“We’ve all heard the previous rumors about illegal immigrants coming to the mall or former county nursing home,” Williams wrote. “We spent a great deal of effort dispelling these mistruths, only to have our college president participate in actively recruiting people who have come here unlawfully.”

Wise, the third-year Hoopeston mayor and a 26-year full-time DACC faculty member, said “this story should not be about the Immigration Project. It should be about the disgraceful interaction that happened between two Vermilion County leaders.”

Nacco has been DACC president since 2016, when the former VP of administrative services at New Jersey’s Union County College was chosen to succeed Alice Jacobs.

Williams, a former city alderman, was elected Danville mayor in 2019, succeeding Scott Eisenhauer. The city’s first Black mayor was reelected in 2023, defeating Jackie Vinson.

In his letter to DACC trustees, Williams went on to describe other exchanges between he and Nacco, including his account of an Aug. 8 Vermilion Advantage executive committee meeting both attended: “I gave a city update and explained Immigration Project’s efforts to bring illegal immigrants here, reiterating why the City could not support it. In an effort to be diplomatic, I did not mention Dr. Nacco or DACC. Before I could even finish, Stephen screamed aloud, ‘That’s a lie and you’re a liar!’ He then went on a tirade in which he called me a liar again and said I was nothing but a political hack.”

Nacco’s wife, Cindy, said her husband apologized to Williams, calling the mayor’s reaction a “travesty” when reached Friday.

In a Facebook post earlier Friday, the DACC president’s wife accused Williams of being hostile toward her after she supported Vinson’s campaign for mayor, writing in part: “I have been a cheerleader for Danville for 8 years. My husband has worked tirelessly for this community and our college which we love. I am deeply saddened by our Mayor’s latest drama. Here is someone we have shared bread with. Someone who has constantly commended us for our contributions to this community. We don’t seek to be commended but we certainly don’t deserve to be lied about.

“Shame on you, mayor. You have attacked me in public all because I chose to support your opponent in the last election. I stood up for her when lies were told about her. You won and we moved forward, but this is just so profoundly sad. Danville deserves better.”

While Williams’ letter to DACC trustees did not include any examples of Nacco mistreating employees, the mayor said Friday in an interview with The News-Gazette that the president “treats people terribly, including his own employees. His behavior was going from just being abrasive to completely inappropriate and continues to escalate. And I think his outburst and handling of me was only a minor demonstration of that.”