2 weeks Ago By BRENDEN [email protected]
DECATUR — Josh Sapp has never craved the spotlight. "I'm not much of a self-promoter," Sapp, 49, who has served as business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 146 since 2015, told Herald & Review in an interview. "I just always try to do the best that I can do for the membership because that's what it's about.
" For the past 15 years, much of Sapp's work with the IBEW and several other labor organizations — most prominently the Decatur Building and Construction Trades Council, which he served as president — has been behind the scenes. He has quietly been "in the center of everything" in Decatur and Macon County as one of the region's most prominent labor and community leaders. Sapp will briefly step into the foreground on Monday when he serves as grand marshal of the annual Decatur Labor Day Parade and Picnic.
But it will also be his swan song in Central Illinois. The Warrensburg native and lifelong Macon County resident is leaving in mid-September for a position at the IBEW International office in Washington, D.C.
In his new role, Sapp will work as a representative in the union's construction and maintenance department, which handles construction agreements for all the IBEW locals within the United States and Canada. "It's kind of a bittersweet thing knowing that you're leaving behind a lot of great friends and relationships, but still being excited about being able to help the labor movement," Sapp said, adding that the "opportunity to take some of what I've done here locally and help locals across the country..
. was appealing to me." "My kids are old enough now that a move to Washington, D.
C. is viable, where maybe in years past it wouldn't have been," he said. "It just feels like the right time.
" Sapp's departure will undoubtedly be felt across the community. In addition to his aforementioned roles, Sapp is a vice president on the executive board of the Illinois AFL-CIO, an executive board member of Climate Jobs Illinois, a board member for the Economic Development Corporation of Decatur and Macon County, a member of the Macon County Electrical Commission and a trustee for the South Wheatland Fire Protection District, among other roles. Sapp has helped establish pre-apprenticeship programs, which are designed to increase the amount of apprentices in the construction trades who are women, people of color and from other underrepresented backgrounds.
Decatur community leaders also credited Sapp with building relationships between labor and the business community, which has allowed interests historically viewed as at odds to present a unified front to attract more economic development to the region. Kara Demirjian Huss, the senior vice president of global marketing, sustainability and public affairs for Decatur-based TCCI, said Sapp is "a convener, a connector and a collaborator." "He has had just an incredible impact on helping us develop a strong economy and growth strategy for our region," Demirjian Huss, who serves on the EDC board with Sapp, said.
"And he has been able to bring together and unite different perspectives that support business and regional needs for not only our community, but, I think quite honestly, for our state." Amy Rueff, resource director for the Illinois AFL-CIO and treasurer of the Decatur Trades & Labor Assembly, said the labor community is "over-the-top thrilled" for Sapp, but acknowledged that "he's really going to be missed in Decatur because he's kind of our go-to guy." "He knows all the history, he knows where we've been, he knows where we're going, and so it's just so nice that when we call Josh, we know that he's going to help us move things in the right direction," Rueff said.
Rueff said that Sapp was chosen as grand marshal before it was known he had been offered the position in Washington. She said he was chosen for his longstanding ties to Macon County and for being "the center person who we all know we can go to if we need anything." Rep.
Nikki Budzinski, a Democrat from Springfield, told the Herald & Review in an interview this week that Sapp was one of the first calls she made when she considered a run for Congress in 2022. Sapp has long been someone Budzinski, a fellow trade unionist, has leaned on for "smart" and "practical" advice, including when she briefly served as executive director of Climate Jobs Illinois, a coalition of labor unions advocating for workers in the clean energy economy. Budzinski also consulted Sapp before introducing her first bill in 2023.
Known as the Leveraging and Energizing America's Apprenticeship Programs (LEAP) Act, the legislation would provide businesses that hire apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship workers a $1,500 federal tax credit. "Josh has just always been one of my go-to people in the district as it relates to those issues," Budzinski said. "And he's a community leader, I mean, even in addition to being a labor leader.
So he's been a trusted kind of friend and adviser to me for quite a while." Budzinski said that Sapp was "the number one call that you make to get things done in the community" and that "he has those relationships within the community to kind of strengthen his own internal programs and create opportunities for other people." Michael Carrigan, the former president of the Illinois AFLCIO who served four terms on the Decatur City Council and had a brief stint as mayor, said that Sapp has been successful because he "sees the big picture.
" "He sees the need to be out into the community and involved," Carrigan said. "And he's just done that. He just knocked that out of the ballpark.
" "We miss him already," Carrigan said. Sapp, a journeyman electrician by trade, said he is confident he is leaving IBEW Local 146 in "a good position." The local, which covers 12 counties in Central Illinois, has grown to more than 715 active members, an "all-time high.
" He said the relationships forged with the business community and the creation of pre-apprenticeship programs are what he is most proud of during his tenure. "My membership maybe didn't agree with me on every decision that I've made, but they will look back and say at least I was always straightforward with them," Sapp said. "I treated everybody the same, and I did what I felt was best for all the members, not some of the members.
" It's not a stretch to say IBEW Local 146 has been the cornerstone of Sapp's life thus far. He met his now-wife, who works at the Clinton Power Station, when they were in the same apprenticeship in 1998. "Everything that I have in my life right now, I feel like is owed to the IBEW, to the local," Sapp said.
"It hasn't been just a job or just a career. It really has kind of been my life. My kids are probably wore out with it to hear about mom and dad both being in the trade.
It's kind of been a way of life." Sapp said he did his best in the roles he's had. "I hope that they look back and say that I was always fair and that I always did advocate for my members and that I truly care about the community in Decatur and Macon County," Sapp said.
"I've lived here my whole life." Contact brenden moore at brenden.moore@lee.
net . Follow him on twitter at @ brendenmoore13. LABOR DAY EVENTS The Decatur labor Day parade kicks off at 10 a.
m., following the traditional parade route through downtown Decatur, with a picnic to immediately follow in Fairview park. the latter event is free to union sponsors and $25 for everyone else.
the theme of this year's parade is "every vote counts.".
