Danville’s City Council rejected an ordinance at their meeting Tuesday that would have officially set the required number of votes to pass ordinances to seven. It also would have given the mayor of Danville a vote should an ordinance secure only six yes votes.
Alderwoman Eve Ludwig voted in favor of the ordinance, saying it is impractical to expect alderpersons to attend every meeting, making it difficult for the council to “pass city business.”
She cited a statistic that only 20% of City Council meetings in 2024 were attended by all 14 alderpersons, so Danville should utilize their home rule right to dictate their own voting rules, regardless of state statutes.
Vice Mayor Tricia Teague disagreed, saying the democratic process was working if ordinances were failing to garner votes.
“Business is actually getting conducted, and many votes are failing,” Teague said. “On those nights when something failed to pass because it was seven to five [votes], that’s what was supposed to happen, because that’s the Democratic process. It was supposed to fail because it was not convincing enough for everybody to agree.”
Teague also read from the official 2025 Illinois Municipal League Handbook, saying cities with home rule do not have the right to override state law — which requires a majority of elected officials to pass votes, regardless how many are in attendance — in an effort to “shift the balance of power.”
Teague also warned the council against lowering the number of required votes to just seven and awarding the mayor a vote to get to seven, saying it could “introduce chaos.”
“It’s a lot of political games where somebody says, ‘Oh, I’ll just wait for certain people to go on vacation because I know they’re going to be gone at specific times of the year, and then we bring certain things back up,” she said. “That could happen … That is not what should be happening in a democratic system.
Alderman-elect Doug Ahrens, who will be sworn in alongside winners Jaleel Jones and Tom Hightower at the next City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 6, spoke against the ordinance during public comment.
“If you have members that are not attending meetings, accountability and managing that situation should come before something as drastic as changing the number of votes it takes,” Ahrens said, adding that alderpersons who don’t attend meetings should not be paid.
Ludwig, Carolyn Wands, Sherry Pickering, and Chairman Mike Puhr voted in favor of the ordinance, while Teague, Jon Cooper, Darren York, Bob Iverson, Mike O’Kane, Heidi Wilson, Chairman Rick Strebing, and Ed Butler voted against it.
Aldermen Robert Williams and James Poshard were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
This is a developing story. For the full story, see the Thursday edition of the Commercial-News.