From Illinois Leaks, reprinted with permission:
Silly season alive and well – Political candidates that might want to consider a different line of work
BY KIRK ALLEN & JOHN KRAFTON MARCH 31, 2021
Illinois (ECWd) – Every election cycle we see an increase in communications related to local government candidate malfeasance. We appreciate that there are more and more people taking steps to expose those asking for their votes.
Out of the dozens of tips over the last few weeks, the following are noteworthy and took little work to validate and we believe the voters should know some details on those asking for their vote.
Remember, these people could be making decisions with your taxdollars.
Algonquin Township Road District Highway Commissioner election:
Derek Lee is the candidate for Highway Commissioner.
As the foreman of the Road District, Lee brought his wife and daughter to a conference in New Orleans and the taxpayers picked up the tab for his family members.
Court records reflect his father-in-law [Bob Miller], his boss at the time, failed to describe any public purpose for such an expense on the backs of the taxpayers. Shortly before his father-in-law was to leave office,
Lee transferred the public paid-for cell phone to a personal account.
Court records reflect Derek Lee was in charge of keeping records for salt deposited at the Road District.
How special no such records were ever found.
Derek Lee wants your vote to be the next Highway Commissioner.
For those that remember the video of the car being shot up by three people connected to the Township, according to deposition transcripts, the union stipulated that Mr. Lee would testify that he was one of the persons shown in that photograph shooting a weapon.
Mr. Lee would also testify that of those 3 persons, one other person who was firing a weapon is still employed by the Township Road Commissioner.
According to deposition transcripts, the union stipulated that Mr. Lee would testify that he was one of the persons shown in that photograph shooting a weapon.
Mr. Lee would also testify that of those 3 persons, one other person who was firing a weapon is still employed by the Township Road Commissioner.
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Other featured candidates can be found here.
They include Maine Township Trustee Kimberly Jones, who has a particularly interesting set of campaign contributors.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Don’t be a FOOL.
Even today….
More half truths, only telling part of the story for bias political gain by our pals the Dog’s.
I
t was township wide policy to allow spouses to accompany employees at township expense on conferences.
If the lawyers that were employed by the township didn’t advise that policy was illegal, suit the lawyer in 2008 for malpractice, and the one employed now for good measure.
When the Union contract was agreed upon, the Employee in the future would have to pay and maintain a cell phone to be used for Highway Dept related activates.
The Old phones had low to no value, so the phones were given to the employee with the understanding they have to pay for all future phones.
After Gasser was forced by court order to bring the unjustly fired employees back, Lee went to the computer and showed Gasser and his patronage pal Sandberg the Salt data base, they are to ignorant of computers usage apparently.
The employees were shooting NE, not NW towards the parking lot.
Odds of a almost 90 degree ricochet traveling through the dense trees and elevation changes had to be almost nil.
Look at McH co gis map 2005 satellite view, NE was safe also, a dramatic elevation change and heavy trees and brush. A 20mm canon would take multiple shots to cut a path through.
Young Men do stupid things, it’s a given.
Do we penalize them for ever especially as no harm was done?
The danger has been exaggerated for political gain, nothing new.
Using the video for political gain to benefit a Republican candidate, ya anti 2nd Amendment dudes love this.
The shooters paid, they lost their boss and got a loser like Gasser, almost a living hell.
Dog’s are bias, they don’t represent the best interest of Alg Twh tax payers.
They still have the lawsuit about them piling on abusing FOIA laws to feed their hobby.
http://derekleenotforme.com
His and his family’s ‘experience’ is the last thing the taxpayers of this township need!!!
You must not live on a AT road.
Thanks for pointing out the facts and circumstances ‘The Nob’.
“If the lawyers that were employed by the township didn’t advise that policy was illegal, suit the lawyer in 2008 for malpractice, and the one employed now for good measure.”
Really, do we need lawyers to tell us when something just smells bad.
Did they ever approach the lawyers at anytime with the question beforehand?
If it was anyone else my bet is they don’t get the same treatment.
We don’t need anymore of this drama in Algonquin Township.
We’ve cast out the devil, do not bring back his minions.
related info:
Audits done when they are normally done each year for the years listed in the Gasser/Dog’s audit showed no problems, probably because the auditors were given all the info required to make a accurate audit.
So why does the Gasser/Dog’s audit show problems for those years, political bs of course.
The so called transparent highway commissioner and so called watchdog pals are bias, far from being transparent.
Abolish townships.
If what the Nob is saying is true, that is prima facia evidence to get rid of Townships.
I worked for a Government and when I travelled, my wife and family was on MY DIME, not the City.
That is why we need to look and see what each Township policies are so that this stuff doesn’t happen again.
If I remember at one point, the one family was about 70% of the total budget.
Imagine that, 70% of a budget going to the same family.
PS, I never got to keep my company phone either, we donated them I believe to the domestic violence folks.
@Nob Nothing but excuses Nob!
If that was Sandburg out there firing at the vehicle you can bet that Lee and you would be crying about it for political gain!
And making excuses about spouses going on trips is another one.
They can go all they want but taxpayers should not be funding that at all!
Plus the article specifically states that Miller couldn’t come up with a reasonable reason of why they were even there.
You may not like Gasser but he brought forward the nepotism that has been going on in ALG TWP for half a century.
Plus Gasser did bring down the levy as well.
I would vote for a rodent before any other Miller clan ever!
Those are the last people that need voted in.
Fools, history lesson.
Miller was saving $$$$ to improve the Silver Lake at Crystal Lake intersection in 2018.
Gasser killed the improvement and started spending the saved $$$$.
That allowed him to spend the same amount as Miller did while also being able to reduce the kevy.
Next Highway Commissioner will not have the extra $$$ to spend, so more service will have to be cut or levy increases for a few years.
Gasser also hasn’t paved a township road for a couple years, instead spending $$$$ on improving private subdivisions roads, expanding the township road miles, in essence making more work with less $$$$ to repair them?
Short term savings with a increased long term costs.
There is some question about improvements to those private roads not meeting min standards, which has yet to be revealed to the general public.
No excuses, explanations.