After refusing to approve about $170,000 in legal bills from Algonquin Township Road District Robert Hanlon the Wednesday before last, the Township Board voted 3-1 for a $166,620 payment, inlcuding no interest, Friday night.
The bills dated back to December and remained unpaid because they exceeded the amount budgeted in the Fiscal Year ending two months ago.
Thirty-three minutes of the hour-long meeting were spent behind closed doors discussing litigation and “threatening litigation.”
Lack of payment led Hanlon to withdraw his representation on the case involving the labor agreement that former Road Commissioner Bob Miller signed with Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers shortly before leaving office after his defeat by Andrew Gasser.
Approval came on a 3-1 vote from a motion made by Trustee Rachael Lawrence to pay all but the claimed interest.
David Chapman voted against the motion, saying that he had examined the bills “line by line” and found “questions on each one of the bills he submitted.”
Newly-appointed Trustee Elaine Ramesch, an attorney, questioned why documents submitted with Gasser’s signature were undated in two out of three instances.
“For all we know, ” Lawrence observed, “this could have been written yesterday.”
Ramesch noted that the notarized affidavit submitted by Gasser was dated Decemer 12, 2018, while most of the bills were for susequent months in 2019.
Lawrence added that this month was “the first time we’ve seen the bill.
“We aren’t late in paying the bill,” she said, arguing against paying the interest.
“For all we know this could have been written yesterday”.
Really?
Did Gasser jump forward in time to sign these bills?
Wasn’t it the board who cut his budget and then reprimanded him for not budgeting appropriately?
This board and this county is an absolute mess.
Why anyone would want to try and fix the problems we have in Illinois with unions is beyond me.
Maybe Gasser should just let the guys shoot up a car on township property, jump in a loader, and dump the car on 14.
Works for Bob.
The more venom spewed at Gasser there is the more I like him.
“This board and this county is an absolute mess”. Wait a minute! I thought our orange buffoon, Nobel Prize Winner wannabe had already fixed this country for good. Or is it the unions now? Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meeeeeeoooooooowwwwwwwwwwww…
Talk about stupid.
I read the rider and it says interest accrued from the time the work is completed.
It makes no difference when they got the bill.
Dumbass
So what will these morons think he will Do next?
After reading the above post I remembered another article I read:
https://wchstv.com/news/local/wvsp-wasp-spray-used-as-synthetic-meth-contributed-to-three-overdoses
One of the side effects is “erratic behavior”.
In the real world, pay is based mostly on success!
At Alg Twh Road Dist, pay is based on taking care of Patronage pals!
I thought patronage was suppose to change under this guy?
Ryan, Rob, Andrew, plus more, nope same old same old.
Nob how come Local 150 lost all of the unemployment benefit cases?
Have you ever hired a lawyer for anything?
Agree with Jegs on.
This board is a mess.
Chapman’s comment just another attempt to appear that he really has the ability to interpret billing, or look intelligent.
Hes a time waster introducing useless resolutions!
To the incumbent trustees, please do us all a favor
and get out of politics and find another outlet to feed your egos.
Why is the maladroit Kelly still in the picture?
He’s the dreadful grey eminence who engineered the Board’s long-running and wasteful fiascos.
He used to brag that Lutzow didn’t run Algonquin, he did.
In a way he’s right — he ran it into the ground and exposed townships for what they really are: A way to rip off the public through waste, nepotism, graft, corruption, pension piggery, bloated government, entitlement ruination, bad accounting, over spending, cronyism, patronage and influence peddling.
Cereal Killer- yet there Kelly is and the Board isn’t willing to pull the plug on him
Goodness, $170,000.00 is a lot of money.
Did it include shuffling around in loafers or is that included?
Kelly is absolutely necessary to keep on as township consigliere.
He’d rat out the Millers if he ever got defenestrated.
Mr. Gasser your board sure is interesting.
They manipulate your budget and criticize you at every turn.
They never miss a chance to raise fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
I find it especially ironic when they refuse to pay the legal bill, at local 150’s request, until it negatively impacts local 150.
Trustee Chapman is the only one who has any spine.
While I do not agree with him at least he is consistent.
To be fair to this board.
It is a pro-Miller board and their sole job, along with Jim Kelly, is to destroy Gasser and make his life miserable.
I would say they are doing an excellent job at that.
Conveniently this meeting did not get recorded/streamed on YouTube.
Telling.
Maybe the camera broke again like the last time they made a critical decision at a special meeting.
Hmmm.
They are all colluding to keep voters in the dark.
Algonqun Township Clerk Karen Lukasik was absent from thme meeting.
Trustee Rachael Lawrence recorded the meeting.
It is unknow if she will post the recording on the Township web site.
Lukasik should be charged, not pampered.
She’s a human leech.
But she did have cameo as a young leach in an old B grade 1959 sci fi movie, “Attack of the Giant Leeches”
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=80Aak6Vo&id=33084228109827D907A4C2C03C676A7E6A2353D6&thid=OIP.80Aak6VoY3HgwB-zm2oJqgHaFz&mediaurl=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-O41V372kU1w%2FVg_o2Utly8I%2FAAAAAAAAlOI%2FvPHuzDRkBHQ%2Fs1600%2FGIANT%252BLEECHES.jpg&exph=1255&expw=1600&q=attack+of+the+giant+leeches&simid=608055312342452634&selectedindex=5&vt=4&eim=1,2,3,4,6,8&sim=11
Here’s the synopsis of the flick:
A retired US Air Force officer, a conservative blogger and assorted angry villagers (taxpayers) discover that giant leeches are responsible for disappearances of large cash sums and deaths in a local swamp (Algonquin Township) but the local state’s atty doesn’t believe them, and tries to cover up the scam.
@JEGS, agreed.
The township’s antics and lies are backfiring.
Besides Gasser being the only straight-shooter at that township, that’s gotta be the best damn name for a Hwy Commish I’ve ever seen.
Lawrence says “this is the first time we’ve seen the bill”.
That board’s been denying said bills for months!!!
More bullsh!t.
The only reason they voted to pay up is ‘cuz Roberts was about to sue them for payment plus interest plus damages, and he would have won, causing another lawsuit that stupid township board would be responsible for.
The new lawyer Trustee must have filled them in on that likelihood.
Their hired Atty sure hasn’t been advising them.
But he prolly knows where the bodies are buried…