East Central Reporter

Charleston Police have no new leads in the vandalization of a senior-assisted living work site owned and operated by local Rep. Reggie Phillips, Detective Sgt. Tony West told the East Central Reporter.

Phillips has posted a $25,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the suspects in the crime, which occurred in April. He told the Central Reporter that vandals broke into the construction site and damaged valuable equipment during off hours.

In the days leading up to the crime, union members had targeted the non-union work site for multiple protest demonstrations.

“At this point, we don’t know anything more,” Phillips said, adding that his son has largely overseen operations at the site as he’s dealt with legislative matters recently.

His son, Chad Phillips, said he and other project execs have met with local union workers in hopes of talking through some of their differences.

“We’ve met and exchanged ideas,” he said. “We’re a non-union company, but we hope by networking with some individuals we might figure out a way to mitigate some of the problems we we’re having. We hope it’s the end of things.”

The vandals busted equipment and spray painted things like “‘Trump’ with a ‘not’ circle over it and ‘Rauner’ with an ‘X’ over it." The words “union strong” and “rat” were also sprayed across the grounds.

Phillips owns several senior assisted-living sites in the area, all of which were constructed by his non-union crew of workers.

He acknowledged that his use of non-union workers for early work on his latest privately funded project seemed to rub area union workers the wrong way, even though he insists that they had not been entirely shut out of the process.

According to the veteran lawmaker, the bidding process was ongoing and unionized crews were being allowed to make their pitches.

As the incident became public, many of Phillips’ Springfield colleagues rushed to show their support, with Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) promoting House Bill 2052, which would expand the parameters under which aggravated stalking charges can be filed.

Ives also compared the intolerance and my-way or no-way thinking displayed by those who victimized Phillips with political struggles.

“It is the same message the union-backed legislators in Springfield send to business every day,” she said.