Nokomis council holds special meeting on police department

July 9, 2026 9

NOKOMIS — The Nokomis City Council held a special council meeting Wednesday night to discuss the future of its police department.

The meeting comes following the sudden departure of its second Chief of Police in less than a year. It is also further prompted by multiple ethics violations, including two major incidents within the past year.

Further scrutiny of the Nokomis Police Department follows the June 17 incident at Casey’s General Store. The incident, which involved K-9 Officer Nathan Brookshire, alleged that Brookshire was visibly intoxicated while on duty. During the incident, Brookshire had mistakenly taken out his Taser instead of his wallet. That incident continues to be under internal review pending the outcome of the wider investigation. The wider investigation is currently under the scope of the Illinois State Police.

The other investigation was initiated during the tenure of former police chief Talon Burton. That investigation involves an unnamed officer disclosing confidential information from the department’s case files in public, reportedly in front of a sitting City Council member. The status of that investigation is currently unknown. It is also not known whether this alleged officer is still on the force.

Mayor Dylan Goldsmith gave a statement at the beginning of the meeting regarding the investigations. Due to legal restraints regarding ongoing investigations, very little was stated regarding the incidents that sparked the investigations.

One glaring issue brought forth by Goldsmith was the department’s failure to comply with proper standards and practices involving law enforcement. This was something that he said the City Council would have to work painstakingly to fix, because the lack thereof helped create the ethical issues before them.

Commissioner Michael Glenn motioned for the council to start the process of hiring a new police chief. It would die for lack of a second to the motion.

Potential Open Meetings Act violation

The council would cede the floor for public comments at the end. Mayor Goldsmith would provide the guidelines that speakers would have five minutes to speak on the matter. Several speakers were allowed to speak on the matter.

The following is on the borderline of being a violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act: allowing speakers to provide additional commentary after they’ve already spoken on the matter.

Per the Open Meetings Act, the City Council satisfied the law by giving proper guidelines for public comments. A maximum time threshold limit of five minutes was established.

By adding extra spoken commentary from speakers Terra Mills and Katherine Sleboda, both exceeded the statutory time limit established by Goldsmith at the beginning of public comments. They were well exceeded by well over a minute.