Bourbonnais Township Assessor Doug Anderson is giving up the job he has held for 27 years, submitting a resignation letter Thursday that will take effect at the close of 2026. The move comes the day after Highway Commissioner Jason Diaz went public with a threatening, obscenity-laced voicemail he says Anderson left on his township-issued cellphone.
Anderson’s resignation letter does not mention the voicemail at all, according to Shaw Local, which reported that Anderson plans to stay on through the end of the year specifically so property tax assessments are handled properly before he hands off the role. The timeline has become its own point of friction: Diaz said he feels Anderson’s resignation should take effect immediately rather than two months from now.
The voicemail itself landed on Wednesday, Oct. 21, while Diaz was dropping his daughter off at school. The roughly one-minute message included graphic threats and obscene name-calling, the outlet's report states, and Diaz posted the recording to his Facebook page that same day. He has described what he heard in blunt terms — not as a personal attack, but something darker. “It was incredibly grotesque,” Diaz said.
A Case That Closed As Fast As It Opened
Diaz didn’t stop at going public. He filed a no-contact order petition against Anderson in Kankakee County on Thursday, the same day Anderson’s resignation letter surfaced. The petition was denied and the case was closed that same day, the report notes, leaving the dispute to play out in public statements rather than in court.
There is also a wrinkle in how the call reportedly came about. Diaz believes Anderson thought he was leaving the voicemail for former Highway Commissioner Steve Bisaillon — the man Diaz unseated in the 2025 election — rather than for Diaz himself. Anderson did not return calls or texts seeking comment on the voicemail, according to the same account, so that explanation comes from Diaz alone.
Township Leadership Tries To Lower The Temperature
Bourbonnais Township Supervisor Jeff Umphrey issued a statement Friday condemning the use of insulting language, whether delivered publicly or privately. Diaz, for his part, said he disliked the wording of that statement and felt it was off — a sign the dispute hasn’t fully cooled even as both men's roles shift. Township records confirm the resignation letter is attributed to Douglas Anderson, as posted on the Bourbonnais Township government site.
Umphrey has also tried to steer attention toward the Nov. 3 ballot, urging residents to remain focused on the referendum to abolish the road district rather than the personal clash. He stressed that the ballot question has nothing to do with whoever currently holds office. The township board identified the referendum as its immediate focus in materials posted to its own site.
What's Actually On The Nov. 3 Ballot
The road district question traces back to Aug. 10, 2026, when the Bourbonnais Township Board approved a resolution putting the Road District Consolidation measure before voters. If approved, the road district's responsibilities — currently overseen by Diaz as highway commissioner — would shift to the township board, with help from current staff, once his term ends. Both the township's own materials and the earlier Shaw Local report on Diaz's allegations describe that same transfer mechanism.
For now, the assessor's office and the highway department remain separate fights playing out on parallel tracks: one a personnel resignation under threat of a public voicemail, the other a structural question headed to voters in less than two weeks.
