Former Illinois state Rep. Avery Bourne took the stand Tuesday.
She lives in Morrisonville, Illinois, and has for the past five years.
She is an independent contractor focusing on communications work.
Bourne served in the state legislature for almost eight years, since 2015.
Bourne explained the requests made to her to add the Chinatown parking lot parcel to the land transfer bill at the end of the spring session.
On May 31, 2018, McCreery texted her, "Is there any chance you would run that bill with our Chinatown language as a floor amendment? The speaker would call and support it."
Bourne responded, "I won't if IDOT has concerns. They're the experts on this, and I'm not comfortable with a different process with this piece."
Bourne was also concerned about the timing, saying, "the process and the timing of this and having it rushed at the end of session."
Bourne had a conversation with Jim Durkin about this, as well, in which she told him she was not in support of the added Chinatown amendment.
There were attempts to find another sponsor, Dan Burke.
However, Bourne remained the sponsor of the land use bill. It ended up passing in the fall of 2018 (without the Chinatown amendment).
