Woodstock attorney Robert T. Hanlon was in courthouse this past Wednesday to offer his services pro bono to mediate differences between the Township Trustees and the Supervisor.
Grafton Township Board: Supervisor Linda Moore, Ancel Glink Attorney before Judge Michael Caldwell upheld her firing by Moore, and Trustees Barb Murphy, Rob LaPorta, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon.
There were court appearances in
- the Separation of Powers case that Supervisor Moore brought against the Trustees when they tried to usurp her office’s Executive powers (which the Trustees are appealing),
- the case brought by Highway Commissioner Jack Freund to get Moore to pay bills including one for his wife’s health insurance and
- the suit by Assessor Bill Ottley against Moore for her refusal to pay re-modeling bills.
That’s what the story written by the First Electric Newspaper’s Pete Gonigam said.
Apparently Moore has agreed to try that approach, but when I asked the apparent leader of the Trustees, Rob LaPorta, if it were true that mediation had been agreed to by the Trustees, I received the following email:
“This is not true.
“Neither Moore nor Trustees have agreed.
“This event will not occur.”
When I sent LaPorta’s response to Hanlon for his reaction, he sent me the following reply:
“After making the offer to mediate, the Township Trustees’ attorney indicated verbally that she would recommend it to the trustees.
“Additionally, Mrs. Zirk and Mrs. Murphy appeared willing to embrace mediation.
“Attorney Nelson, who represents Mrs. Moore agreed to the mediation.
“To test Mrs. Moore’s good faith, I asked for a small concession on Mrs. Moore’s part.
“That concession was granted. (The subject of the concession is not for public comment.)
“It is my belief that Grafton Township is in a complete and total state of dysfunction as a result of personal animus arising from prior events.
“As indicated in the E-mail below [above here], it appears that the trustees are not willing to mediate.
“Unless and until the trustees agree to a good faith mediation, there is nothing I can or will do.
“If a special meeting of the Township board is called to address the mediation process, I will attend and then and there present to the trustees and supervisor a proposal outlining the mediation process.
“If approved and later I determine that a particular party is not acting in good faith I will immediately end the mediation.
“My time is too valuable to play games.
Mr. Hanlon is a man of integrity and his offer was very generous.
He was willing to take this on for the good of all concerned and I commend him for it.
It is a shame that small minds prevail.
It looks like the small minds are male only.
Whack jobs, all of them. The Republican Party is now infused with nut-cases. Small wonder Illinois and McHenry County is in such economic turmoil.
The only advantage of the Republican Party has over the Democratic Party is that the Democratic Party is loaded with total nut-cases AND they are intellectually wrong. At least the Republicans have stubled upon the truth.
So, vote Republican this fall. Just hold your nose. If you don’t vote Republican, you’ll lose your job, lose your pension, lose your 401-K, and your job.
From the FEN article –
“On the other hand, according to attorney rumor, Hanlon aspires to a judicial appointment but has a conspicuously empty spot on his resume. “I don’t have any experience with dispute resolution,” Hanlon told Nelson in the hallway.”
Anonymous said…
She’ll just do whatever she wants anyways. She ignores Judges orders and she’s gonna listen to THIS GUY? Yeah, right!
July 18, 2012 11:44 AM
Anonymous said…
Mr Hanlon: I hope you’ve done your homework, so you understand exactly with whom you will be dealing. A word to the wise – Moore will agree with you in person, then do the opposite when you aren’t looking.
July 18, 2012 2:57 PM
Anonymous said…
Non-binding mediation should be free because it’s worthless! Hope this guy is ready for a black mark on his resume.
You can’t make a deal with someone who has no integrity and the supervisor doesn’t have a drop of it!
July 18, 2012 5:15 PM
Anonymous said…
I am going to sit back and watch this, this man has no idea what Linda Moore is like. A nice gesture but ,she wants it her way and will do it her own way in the end.
July 18, 2012 10:41 PM
Anonymous said…
Moore’s attorney stated no to this, as did trustees. If Moore will not listen to and follow court appointed orders, then what logic states she will positively respond to a mediator; especially one who lacks professional conflict resolution experience. Guess we all need comic relief along the way.
Precious time and emotions will no longer be wasted on attempts with Moore. She lives within her own perception of reality, which uniquely maps to her and her alone. Her deception is contained within her own little universe.
July 19, 2012 7:37 AM
Anonymous said…
If he is doing this just to get a notch in his resume, then he may want to consider something else to tackle.
NOTHING and I mean NOTHING good ever happens when Linda Moore is involved.
Run as fast as you can!
July 19, 2012 2:13 PM
Anonymous said…
One can only hope.
July 20, 2012 1:30 PM
Anonymous said…
The voters have already figured it out. That’s why Moore’s re-election campaign groupies have already started to rebrand her shredded image. She’s hoping people fall in love with her smiling face and forget her shenanigans and train-wreck administration.
Cal – You will need a thicker, more opaque material to use in trying to paint Linda Moore in a better light. Do you think Linda will get ANY endorsements when she runs for re-election? Halat and Ziller, (former?) Moore backers are said to be fielding a different candidate to run against her in the next election. You just blogged about the Grafton Republicans distancing themselves from Moore. http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2012/07/17/grafton-township-republican-party-chairman-favors-primary-election/
I have been to a couple of meetings and I could say that Rob LaPorta and Gerry McMahon appear to have a Napoleon complex’s’ and my feelings are that they do not like a woman (Moore) in a position of power over them.
To be fair I will say that Barb Murphy was a little on and off, Linda Moore is just done, while Betty Zirk is the rock of the group.
If I vote for anyone to return it would only be Betty.
The township is designed within a Board framework thereby the majority of votes contain the ‘power’ of the postion i.e. democratic. As you have stated, you have only attended a couple of meetings thereby have missed over 3 years of dis-communications and lawsuits to best understand the context of monthly meeting communication delivery.
My professional background includes many years within Fortune 500 companies whose Human Resource requirements would not allow Napoleon-complex to take place. I have had highly competent female managers that I worked for, and I have promoted highly competent female members on my national teams; all that I had and shown high respect for.
Grafton Township sessions consistently introduce unproductive communications; I simply attempt to keep flows in process to cover at least the minimum process of paying the bills to our vendors in a timely fashion.
Myself, Barb & Betty are proud of our first term and the values that we delivered to the taxpayer community. Unfortunately our plans for our second term were destroyed by the multiple lawsuits that we were forced into. I will continue to make best efforts towards processing Grafton business during my last weeks in this term thereafter ending my time at Grafton.