{"id":6722,"date":"2026-06-09T14:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/?p=6722"},"modified":"2026-07-20T14:27:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:27:02","slug":"continued-city-council-meeting-minutes-06-23-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/?p=6722","title":{"rendered":"Continued City Council Meeting Minutes &#8211; 06-23-2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MINUTES OF THE CONTINUED MEETING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>BENTON CITY COUNCIL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tuesday, June 23, 2026<\/p>\n<p>The continued meeting of the Benton City Council convened on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. in the Council Room of Benton City Hall, located in the basement of the Campbell Building, 901 Public Square, Benton, Illinois 62812.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Present: <\/strong>Mayor Messersmith; Commissioner Storey; Commissioner Cockrum; Commissioner Kays; Commissioner Garavalia (present at the start of the meeting).<\/p>\n<p><strong>RETURN TO OPEN SESSION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mayor Messersmith stated that a motion and a second were needed to return to open session. Commissioner Cockrum moved to return to regular session. Commissioner Kays seconded the motion. A vote was taken: Yeas: 5 \u2013 Commissioner Storey, Commissioner Cockrum, Commissioner Garavalia, Commissioner Kays, and Mayor Messersmith. Nays: 0. Motion carried.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MOTION TO RECESS INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mayor Messersmith stated that a motion was needed to go back into executive session. Commissioner Cockrum made the motion. Commissioner Kays seconded the motion. A vote was taken: Yeas: 5 \u2013 Commissioner Storey, Commissioner Cockrum, Commissioner Garavalia, Commissioner Kays, and Mayor Messersmith. Nays: 0. Motion carried.<\/p>\n<p>The Council recessed into executive session at 9:06 a.m. and reconvened in open session at 10:24 a.m.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RETURN TO OPEN SESSION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mayor Messersmith stated that a motion and a second were needed to return to open session. Commissioner Garavalia did not return to regular session. Commissioner Cockrum moved to return to regular session. Commissioner Kays seconded the motion. A vote was taken: Yeas: 4 \u2013 Commissioner Storey, Commissioner Cockrum, Commissioner Kays, and Mayor Messersmith. Nays: 0. Motion carried.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Messersmith stated that, coming out of executive session, no action was being taken at this time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>ADJOURNMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Kays moved to adjourn. Commissioner Cockrum seconded the motion. A vote was taken: Yeas: 4 \u2013 Commissioner Storey, Commissioner Cockrum, Commissioner Kays, and Mayor Messersmith. Nays: 0. Motion carried.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting adjourned at 10:28 a.m.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MINUTES OF THE CONTINUED MEETING BENTON CITY COUNCIL Tuesday, June 23, 2026 The continued meeting of the Benton City Council convened on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. in the Council Room of Benton City Hall, located in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/?p=6722\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]"},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6723,"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6722\/revisions\/6723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bentonil.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}