Algonquin Township Trustee Melissa Victor took exception to paying two of Algonquin Township Highway Commissioner Andrew Gasser’s bills.
Trustees Melissa Victor and David Chapman challenged two of Road Commissioner Andrew Gasser’s bill.
She argued that attorney Robert Hanlon’s bill should not be approved, nor should the one to pay for a forensic audit of the Highway Department computers.
“I don’t believe the case [against Local 150 of the Operating Engineers] has any merit,” she said.
“$40,000 is way too much.
“We need to put a stop to it.”
With regard to the computer examination, Victor said, “We need to know if it’s Mr. Gasser’s role to investigate.”
Attorney Jim Kelly observed that he did not know what the forensic audit was for, but that duties of township officials were specifically stated in the Township Code.
Senior Trustee Dan Shea said,
“My experience is that we really don’t have the authority [not of pay] if there’s enough money in the line item.”
Trustee David Chapman refused to second the motion not to pay Hanlon’s legal bill, but said,
“We need to draw a line in the sand.
“A quarter of a million dollars needs to stop.
“I’m not comfortable with not paying…the legal bill, but this is it.”
Andrew Gasser
Road Commissioner Gasser was allowed to speak.
“I have a duty as Highway Commissioner to look for every single record.”
He pointed out that CCleaner had been used to wipe out the hard drive.
“Two drives were actually removed and I would never have know this without [the audit]>
“When you find somebody deliberately pulling out a hard dive and replacing it…it’s completely within my authority.”
On the motion not to pay the legal bill, the vote was tied with Victor and Chapman voting in favor and Shea and Supervisor Chuck Lutzow voting on the other side of the question.
“The Clerk doesn’t break the tie?” Chapman asked.
“No,” answered attorney Kelly.
“What happens next month if there’s a $40,000 bill?” Victor asked.
“We don’t pay it,” Chapman replied.
Township Clerk Karen Lukasik then complained that she did not have the original forensic audit.
Gasser explained that all had been sent the computer PDF.
“All I have is the PDF and you have that.”
Gasser offered to print off a copy for Lukasik.
With regard to Hanlong’s legal bills, Shea explained, “My concern is that if we don’t pay, he’ll go into court and sue us.”
“That’s right,” said Gasser.
After the discussion audience member Mike Tauler explained that CCleaner is “a commeon tool. It does not any sort of secure delete. It’s used for cleaning up registry files, temporary files and cookies?” (See correction in comment section.)
Rachael Lawrence did not attend the meeting.
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Read about the forensic audit here.
CCleaner can be used to wipe unused space on hard drives, or at least the older versions could. I don’t really keep up with Windows stuff any more.
IDK if it’s thorough enough to stifle the NSA, but it’s probably good enough that the local IT consultants wouldn’t be able to recover the deleted files.
Seams really stupid that this board approved unanimously the contract for legal services with no limit on the bill and now don’t like having been billed.
These buffoons have no clue about their own job.
““I don’t believe the case [against Local 150 of the Operating Engineers] has any merit,” she said.”
Is Victor a lawyer?
What do we care what she believes.
She needs to keep her trap shut and let the professionals worry about the 150 case.
Correction:
“a comment tool. It does not any sort of secure delete. It’s used for cleaning up registry files, temporary files and cookies?”
should be:
“a common tool. It does not do any sort of secure delete. It’s used for cleaning up the registry file, temporary files and cookies”
why Aren’t they bitching And crying about Millers legal bills that the township is paying for?
Those bills they wouldn’t have to be paying if Miller wasn’t worthy of an FBI investigation!
Why dont these idiots Victor, Chapman, Kelly etc just sue Miller for legal bills incurred?
Because they’re all complicit!
From what I’m observing, this township needs a new Lawyer too.
Correction make.
Thanks.
one more small correction on myself: after looking in to the latest version of ccleaner this morning, it does have a “empty space overwrite” tool built in to it.
I stand corrected.
When did she become a lawyer?
And if there is no alleged records of any communication between the past secretary and commish, why did he have to do anything to the computer system?
Dosent sound like he ever used it.
Makes no sense!
Where are the hard drives Miller removed???
Did he steal them?
That would be very serious.
At least Shea is catching on that Hanlon is serious and this isn’t a game.
Victor needs to catch up.
She’s no great mind, let alone a legal mind.
Their complaints are all misdirected. Miller should be their target.
@ Mike Tauler: to further clarify, if you wanted to securely delete files, you would delete them as normal, then use CCleaner to secure the now “empty space” making the recently deleted files unreadable.
Sounds like the right thing to do would be to post a comment on the nwherald mobile or fb page with the full clarification, IMHO.
Perhaps you should also qualify your “IT Professionall” credentials while you are at it.
victor is a misguided puppet attached to the Miller/Lee strings, very very sad excuse for a board member
Nice ‘Mike’ and ‘You must …….”
And while you’re at it, let’s see if the NorthWorst Herald censors your comment!
They’re doing that today under this particular article.
Anyone else seeing their comments disappear?
Tell you what “you must” I will clarify my credentials as soon as you use your real name, I am using my real name, I own up to my mistake, and I have associated all of it with me in the real world.
Who are you?
The NWH is censoring comment’s.
I first saw things disappearing a few weeks ago, and again today.
To Ms. Victor’s credit, it was good of her to show up.
What, how, and why a cleaner was used to delete files becomes moot when the hard drives are ripped out, and given to the Miller dynasty.
It’s baffling how anyone can think that shouldn’t have an internal forensic audit.
Or, she’s deliberately lying trying to protect the Miller family.
Hey, some people will fall for it.
Murmuring? Comments? You’re kidding. I didn’t even know they HAD comments. I have been ostracized from their comments since about 2009!
How does a public commenter get rank in an article without qualifications?
Turns out he didn’t know what he was talking about and the Herald quoted him giving credence to his mistaken claim.
Now the Herald is censoring anyone critical of the article.
What do they expect when they’re so unprofessional!
It was a quit amateurish effort to wipe the unused drive space with CCleaner if a forensic audit could determine that was the program that was used.
It sounds as if someone installed the program on the computer and didn’t remove all traces of it – that can be difficult to do.
If you wish to be sneaky, it’s much better to boot the computer from a usb stick that contains a live operating system and appropriate disk wiping tools.
How about making an issue of what the rats erased?