FAIRFIELD, Ill. — The cork board is where the threads live before they become stories, and after. Some of them are pins we put up ourselves; some are records we have pulled and not yet read. This is the September board, kept as it stood, so that what we promised to check can be checked against what we actually published.

Three threads carried September. One of them was the county’s own.

1. The seat federal law reserves for a tenant

On the record: At the Wayne County Board’s meeting of Sept. 10, the board filled a seat on the Wayne County Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners with the owner of a local realty company — not a resident of the authority. Federal regulation 24 C.F.R. § 964.415(a) requires an authority’s governing board to include at least one eligible resident, unless a narrow small-agency exception applies. The appointment was taken by voice, without a roll call, and no member’s name is attached to it in the minutes. The chair asked whether there were objections; hearing none, it moved.

Why it matters structurally: The resident seat is not decorative. It is the one position on a housing authority board that federal law requires to be occupied by someone who lives under the authority’s rules — a tenant who sees the inspections, the notices and the grievance calendar from the inside.

What we published: The Silence Was the Vote, Sept. 14.

What we are still pulling: the county’s appointment file; the authority’s own board minutes for the same period; any correspondence with HUD’s Chicago regional office; and the current composition of the authority’s board as filed with the county clerk.

Background our readers should have: In March, the outlet Illinois Leaks reported that a resident commissioner of the same authority, Ron Baker, had raised complaints about board action and his own status, and that the board addressed them. That is another outlet’s reporting, dated months before this board; we have not yet verified its underlying documents, and we are listing it here as a lead to pull, not as a finding.

2. Four notices. Zero hearings.

On the record: Since April 16, a tenant at the Fairfield Hi-Rise has received four separate lease-termination notices from the Wayne County Housing Authority, whose executive director is Kim Musgrave. Each notice was answered with a timely, written demand for an administrative grievance hearing — the procedure federal public-housing rules provide a tenant who disputes the charges. Four demands. No hearing, no written disposition, and the eviction proceeding advancing anyway.

Why it matters structurally: A grievance procedure is not a courtesy. It is the mechanism that produces a written record of disputed facts before a person loses housing. When the hearing does not happen, the record does not happen either — and the tenant’s version of events has no official home.

What we published: The Hearing That Never Comes, Sept. 14.

What we are still pulling: the authority’s grievance log and hearing calendar for the year; the lease language it cites as its procedure; its HUD-approved admissions and continued-occupancy policies; and any disposition letters issued in these four cases.

3. The federal money nobody counts

On the record: The people who run Wayne County and its housing authority also appear in the federal farm-payment database. The Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database attributes payments to names and addresses in Wayne, Hamilton and Jefferson counties, and the same names appear in county government. We reported the figure the database carries and the years it covers.

The honesty requirement: EWG matches names and addresses, not tax identification numbers. These are not audited FSA figures, they do not establish title to anything, and they are not evidence of wrongdoing. What they are is a ledger big enough to be worth a records request, and that is exactly how we are treating them.

What we published: The Real Welfare Queens, Sept. 13.

What we are still pulling: FSA payment records requested directly rather than by name-match; the county’s economic-interest statements, which Illinois law requires officeholders to file with the county clerk by May 1 each year; and the housing authority’s own procurement and contract file.

4. What actually changed for residents in September

Not every thread is a controversy, and the board should carry the ones that change a Tuesday.

Carmi (White County): Hamilton Memorial Hospital District announced on Sept. 18 that its Carmi Family Clinic was relocating to 1690 Falcon Avenue. The old location saw patients through Sept. 28, the clinic transitioned Sept. 29–30, and the new site opened Oct. 1. Reported by WFIW Radio. For a county where a clinic move means a different drive, that is the month’s real news.

Wayne County: The county board held its regular monthly meeting on Sept. 10 — the second Thursday, as posted. The housing authority appointment above is what came out of it.

5. On the board, not yet pulled

These are records we have identified and not yet read. They are listed so that the gap is visible rather than implied.

White County Housing Authority, meeting of Sept. 15. The authority posts its agendas and minutes online; it operates 115 public-housing units in Crossville, Grayville and Norris City. We have the agenda listed and the contents unread. First item on our own list.

White County Board, September meeting. The county’s posted agenda and notice pages have not yielded readable records yet, which is itself a thread: a public body’s notice page should be readable by the public it serves.

Carmi City Council, Sept. 1 and Sept. 15. Agendas and minutes listed; we have not worked through them, including the council’s legal-representation business. Carmi’s local outlet, The Villagers Voice, follows the council closely, and its pages have been intermittently unavailable to us.

Fairfield City Council, Sept. 8. Minutes listed by the city; not yet read.

Wayne County Board, September minutes. We have the meeting and the appointment. We want the full minutes, including the parts of the evening nobody wrote to us about.

What we do with a cork board

A cork board is not an accusation. It is a list of questions with a date on each one. Some of the pins come out because the record answers them. Some stay up for months, which is how four notices survived four hearings’ worth of silence. Some become the story we lead the month with.

If you have a document that belongs on this board — a notice, an agenda, a receipt, a contract, a letter from an agency — send it to the newsroom. Records are what this page is made of, and the ones that arrive from readers are usually the ones nobody else thought to request.