McHenry County Blog

The person who sent this picture to me wrote,

“Saved you a seat.”

Here’s the summary from one person who attended:

‘The meeting only lasted less than 15 minutes.

“About 20 people came.

“Joe Vokaty gave public comment imploring the new board to have a lawyer at every meeting.

“[Dan] Ziller Sr. responded to him and said that was the biggest bunch of baloney he ever heard.

“Not much else.”

The following was received from newly-elected Algonquin Township Trustee Larry Emery:

A point of view by the numbers

The 164th Annual Algonquin Township Town Meeting was called to order at 7 pm on Tuesday April 16th 2013 by Marc Munaretto.

A much larger group from normal monthly meetings of about 30 people was in attendance.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, it continued as many have gone before.

But after the election of a moderator, Charles Lutzow, a slight change was made during the normal flow that will be setting the tone for this years elected board, officials, and the township organization.

A motion was made to pay the moderator $1 for the services rendered that night.

Charles indicated to make it 0 and save the cost of writing a $1 check. The old fee was $50.

This is showing how the newly elected clerk is looking at all expenses and, like every vote counts, every dollar is important.

The meeting had the open discussion by the audience, the approval of all motions on the agenda, and the reading of the Annual Reports like many other township meeting going on that night.

The $1,486,000 ending balance in the Town fund, the $145,000 in the General assistance fund, and the 834,000 in the Road Fund indicates a very sound financial position.

There was a concern given by Citizen Anne Majewski on the sale/purchase of township property and if a certain dollar amount was needed to be approved.

Road Commissioner Bob Miller indicated there is no amount level but all activities must follow state township requirements.

Also a statement of concern for township employees having individual credit cards was raised by Citizen Lou Anne Majewski. Since it was not an official motion, it would have to be pursued during a regular monthly meeting in the future.

The underlying feeling I was sensing was a concern for change, but not for the sake of change.

A bible story from Luke 16: 1-13 came to mind. To paraphrase Money, utilize it effectively in a quick 5 point recap:

1. Value what you have and don’t waste. Use what you have to impact others. Help the poor and unfortunate.
2. Plan for the future and don’t rationalize. Humility, repent, do what’s right, and be frugal.
3. Operate shrewdly and Heaven rewards it. “Wise as serpents, but harmless as doves.”
4. Start early and God sees it Faithful with a little will be faithful in much. Tithe, save, and live on what you have.
5. Fire a master if you have more than 1, it’s time to settle it. Only can have one master. Don’t worry, be Happy.

For the second year in a row Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore was out organized by forces supporting her arch-opponents, the four Township Trustees.

There were two meetings announced for Grafton Township citizens Tuesday night.

The first turned out to have improperly noticed.

The shouts from Moore opponents as it began somewhat after 6 PM was as close to raw democracy as is likely to be seen in McHenry County.

The word “raucous” comes to mind.

After the meeting was called to order, a couple of people shouted, “I make a motion to adjourn the meeting.”

Nothing wrong with such a motion at any time during a meeting.

The motion passed 87-75.

At some point Supervisor Moore pointed out that the meeting’s notices had not been properly posted and she hoped that people would use what was left of the scheduled hour to ask questions and listen to what her attorney and the Township Road Commissioner’s attorney had to say about the motions on the agenda for the 7 o’clock meeting.

Lakewood Turnberry subdivision resident Alan Zielinski, a newcomer, commented,

“I’m not sure whether I ought to appalled or amused…This is not Monopoly money. This is taxpayer money.”

He asked that the rest of the meeting be conducted in a civil manner and it was.

He also asked that factual material be presented and, for the most part, it was.

The one glaring, but inadvertent, omission was when Road Commissioner Patrick Coen forgot to announce that $66,000 of the purchase price went to real estate agent, McHenry County Board member and Algonquin Township Clerk Marc Munaretto. (The linked article shows where all the money went.) That money was paid to Munaretto even though there was no sale of the property to the buyer he found.

Karl Ottosen, Moore’s attorney in the case brought against her by Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund, pointed out that the 6 PM Special Meeting was called because the Township Trustees refused to put items on the agenda, such as whether a real estate agent should be hired to sell the Haligus Road property that the previous administration under Supervisor John Rossi had improperly purchased.

Two Annual Meetings ago, the Electors had voted to sell the property, but not for less than the $99,500 price that was paid for it.

Last September, a congregation wishing to build a mosque there offered $100,000, but the Township Trustees nixed the deal, countering with a request for $120,000. The prospective buyers were not heard from again.

Attorney Patrick Coen gave the Road Commissioner’s point of view, arguing that the unwinding of the deal found to have been improper by Judge Michael Caldwell was being accomplished over a three-year period with $200,000 having been repaid over the first two years and the final $300,000 due this Fiscal Year (that is, before the end of next March).

A CPA-lawyer from Algonquin, Martin Waitzman, was pretty scathing in his comments about “all this crap with infantile attacks and ill will.”

He was critical about all of the legal bills, saying,

“I’m an attorney.  I like getting paid legal fees.  I don’t like paying them.  Stop all this extraneous crap that costs [taxpayers money].”

The major motion in the 7 PM meeting was to ratify that intergovernmental agreement between the Township Board and the Township Road Commissioner.

But first there was an election for Moderator of the Annual Meeting.

The three people listed below were nominated and you can see the votes they received:

• Marci Gorden – 89
• Tad Walters – 42
• Dawn Ellison – 13

There was much talk about the lack of an audit from the first year of Moore’ term of office, plus subsequent audits, but the outside auditing firm wrote a letter saying the firm would not submit more than a draft until it was paid the $14,470 owed for the FY 2010 and 2011 audits, both of which had been completed.

The Trustees were not at all pleased when CPA Paul Thermen offered his doubts as to the legality of the taking of the Grafton Township Food Pantry off-site. The verbal opinion last August about the accounts for the first year of Linda Moore’s term was,

“We really found nothing untoward in the audit.”

That fact did not come up in the discussion at Tuesday night’s meeting, but the lack of final audits was repeatedly mentioned by supporters of Trustee Rob LaPorta, Barb Murphy, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon.

Arguing that the Supervisor’s financial report should be presented during discussion of a motion for it not to be read, CPA Waitzman said,

“If unaudited, at least we have some data.  [We'd be] looking at numbers, instead of conjecture.”

Unsuccessful candidate for Moderator Ellison pointed out that the reason the Township Board had not paid the auditor’s bill was that the auditors had not come and explained it “line by line.”

Waitzman regained the floor and pointed out it is “not typical for auditors to come in an explain line by line.  [They present an opinion of whether] the accounts are fairly presented.”  He added that this line of argument was “more finger pointing…more red herrings.”

The crowd decided not to hear neither the Supervisor’s nor the Road Commissioner’s financial reports.  They were, however, included in the material handed out to attendees by Moore.

The main item on the agenda  was approval of the intergovernmental agreement approved by the Road Commissioner and the Trustees.  This calls for payment of $700,000 over three years.

Moore’s attorney pointed out the question was “whether or not you want to wait for transfer of the title.”

He pointed out that the Electors at the 2011 Annual Meeting had not approved the terms of the lease.

Without introducing herself, former Township Administration, fired by court order with the court ruling the Township Trustees had deliberately tried to usurp the executive powers of the Township Supervisor, took the microphone she was carrying to people to speak and defended the prior (Supervisor John Rossi’s) administration’s actions.

“Some said it was done legally, some said it was done illegally.  The Board put the property up for sale.  It was appraised.”

Someone from the audience chimed in that the appraisal was for $1 million.

Fender indicated that there was somebody that wanted to buy the property (the person found by real estate agent Munaretto), but “Jack decided he wanted to buy it.”

Fender, a Huntley Village Trustee then said, “The rules changed.”

She did not point out that Judge Caldwell ruled the sale was done improperly because a person reading the Township Meeting agenda would not have been able to figure out what the Board might be doing.  In other words, improper notice.

“Don’t say things weren’t intended to be on the up and up,” Fender continued.  “Things changed after John Rossi lost the election.”

Those with good memories will remember that Moore campaigned against the new township hall that Supervisor Rossi and holdover Trustees LaPorta, Murphy and Zirk supported.

Dan Ziller, Jr., who was the lead plaintiff in the suit that stopped the building of the new $5 million (cost with projected interest), said he was “holding the original [Annual Meeting] resolution” and that there was nothing in it concerning a twenty-year commitment to the Road District.

Zielinski, an appraiser by profession, asked if the appraisal were for $1 million, why the Township was paid $700,000.

“We bought the property, not the building,” Road Commissioner Freund pointed out.

“The Road District built the building we’re in.”

“We didn’t know where we stood financially,” Trustee Barb Murphy interjected.

“We didn’t have enough money to pay it in a lump sum,” Huntley’s Dawn Burke added.

After this and more debate, the intergovernmental agreement allowing a three-year payoff of the loan was approved by a vote of 99-23.

After the vote there was a period of public comment.

One man said,

“What is the building doing here?

“Someone with a power grab still wants to build a new building.

“Unbelievable!”

A Veteran who said he had not cast a vote during the evening, but was there as an observer said,

“It’s really disappointing.

“All I want is my money taken care of responsibly.

“If someone is wasting my tax dollars, stop wasting it now!”

A woman added,

“We voted in 2010 not to sell it [the Haligus Road property bought by the previous Board from the Village of Lake in the Hill on which to build a new Town Hall].  That’s probably why they haven’t sold it.”

Moore pointed out that the agenda item about selling the property was submitted to the Trustees, “but they refused to follow the statute, refused to put it on the agenda.”

Tom Halat added  the information about the $100,000 offer and compared that to the $99,500 purchase price.

“I think they had an ulterior motive. ”

“That’s why we have all these problems.  We can blame the Trustees for that.”

= = = = =
You can read other articles on the meeting as well:

• The First Electric Newspaper
• Huntley Patch

If anyone can find another one, please point people to it in a comment.

Grafton Township voters got a robo-call from Township Supervisor Linda Moore this afternoon

It reminded them of the Annual and Special Town Meetings tonight starting at 6 PM at Heinemann Middle School in Algonquin off Red Barn Road south of Algonquin Road.

Moore asked residents

• to vote “to have the [Township Hall] property transferred back to the township immediately,”
• to “Vote no to the lease of the township office by the township”and
• to “Vote Yes to hiring a realtor to sell the Haligus Road property.”

Grafton Township is not alone in holding its Annual Meeting tonight.

All townships in Illinois are doing so.

Check out the web site for your township to find out where yours is being held.

With the election for Grafton Township officials up next spring, both sides are gearing up to get their messages across. Below you see what Township Supervisor Linda Moore mailed out. It was paid for by her campaign fund.

Linda Moore, Grafton Township Supervisor

13904 Harmony Road
Huntley, IL 60142
1-847-630-6325
April 3, 2012

Dear Grafton Township Voters,

As the April 17th income tax deadline approaches, I am sure you are as frustrated with the waste in government as I am.

Over the last few years, Grafton Township residents have been subjected to a gross and unreasonable waste of tax dollars. Our prior board made inappropriate decisions regarding the sale, purchase, building and lease of Township properties. My election to office in 2009, coupled with a citizens’ initiated lawsuit against the Grafton Township Board, resulted in a successful referendum against the building of an unnecessary multi-million dollar town hall. We still have three of the same Trustees, the same Assessor and Road Commissioner in office who gave their full support to the unlawful acts.

They have tried everything possible to remove me from office. They have spent the last three years trying to usurp my authority. Typical of “spin politics”, they blame me for their wasteful spending on legal bills and on lawsuits. (They even voted against using “Roberts Rules of Order” at our township board meetings. Insults and personal attacks towards me are the daily “norm” in this political environment.)

WE, THE PEOPLE, ARE PAYING FOR THESE LEGAL BILLS.

If we didn’t have these legal bills, we could decrease the township levy.

Some law firms encourage discord on township boards thereby running up their bills and increasing the law firm’s profits. In our case, one lawyer was restrained from acting or attempting to act as the township attorney.

Thankfully, township government is unlike any other form of government. We have Annual Town meetings where any current Grafton Township registered voter can vote on certain Township business items.

On April 10th at 6:00 PM there will be a Special Grafton Town Meeting to address those items your trustees would not allow on the agenda for the 7:00 PM Annual Grafton Town Meeting. These meetings will be held at Heinemann Middle School, 725 Academic Drive, Algonquin, Illinois.

The Road Commissioner borrowed $700,000 to buy the township property, thereby generating a large amount of cash to contribute toward the town board’s failed new town hall project. You, the electors, told our township board to pay back our Commissioner’s loan two years ago. But, they didn’t. He has surplus funds from over levying in a money market and can retire this debt. Instead, our Commissioner is paying 5% interest on the loan while holding the surplus funds for the last twelve months earning less than 1% interest.

This does not make sense. He is even asking the township to pay him back rent on an unlawful lease.

(The electors never gave the required mandatory approval of this lease for the township offices or the purchase of the township property). You can vote to direct the Road Commissioner and Town Board to return the property deed and retire this debt within 10 days by YOUR direct action at the 6:00 PM meeting.

In fact, your vote will make a difference in court.

By voting yes to the agenda items at the 6:00 PM Special Grafton Town Meeting and no to the resolution at the 7:00 PM Annual Grafton Town Meeting you will make it clear to the court that you want this debt retired and the property deed returned now.

PLEASE COME AND VOTE! Plan to attend both meetings and come early to sign in. Feel free to call me with any questions or for additional information at 1-847-630-6325.

Sincerely,

Linda Moore
Grafton Township Supervisor

Paid for by Committee to Elect Linda Moore, no tax dollars were used to send you this message.

There was a new wrinkle in the effort to encourage people to attend the annual meeting of Grafton Township residents this year.

Actually, I’ve seen two new wrinkles.

The first was a yard sign placed in various places that people might see it.

It announced the meeting and gave a phone number to call for details.

The second was a township newsletter to registered voters.

As I look at it, it seems to be a newsletter from Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

You see the address and back sides below:

Here’s the back of the newsletter:

The First Electric Newspaper reported last week that a group called Citizens for a Better Grafton Township charged that the newsletter was “electioneering.”

No individual’s name is attached to the group.

I asked Moore about the charge and she said that she had run the newsletter’s contents by an attorney prior to publishing it and the attorney saw no problem with its contents.

In fact, all seventeen McHenry County Townships will be holding their annual town meetings on Tuesday night.

Grafton’s has been the most interesting for the past three years because of the contention among the two sides.

At all three meetings since Linda Moore won the election for Township Supervisor, the fight has revolved around the township hall that the old board illegally approved.  (And, that’s not my opinion, it is that of Circuit Clerk Judge Michael Caldwell and the 2nd Appellate Court, which upheld his decision.)

In any event in the first meeting, in 2009, there was a tie vote to approve a new township hall.

The motion lost, because ties lose.

In the 2010 meeting Moore marshaled enough people who want the township loan paid off that her forces carried the day.

Last year, Moore was unsuccessful in getting a majority of the meeting attendees on her side.

As was the case last year, there will be two meetings, one right after the other.

Both will be held at Heineman Middle School, 725 Academic Drive, Algonquin.

The first starts at 6 PM. You can see the agenda below:

2012 GRAFTON TOWNSHIP SPECIAL ANNUAL TOWN MEETING

PUBLIC NOTICE GRAFTON TOWNSHIP 2012 SPECIAL ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, to the legal voters, residents of the Town if Grafton Township in the County of McHenry and State of Illinois, that the Annual Town Meeting of said Township will take place on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, being the second Tuesday of the said month, at the hour of 6:00 PM at Heineman Middle School, 725 Academic Drive, Algonquin, IL 60102 for the transaction of the miscellaneous business of the said Township; and after a Moderator having been elected, will proceed to hear and consider reports of officers, and decide on such measures as may, in pursuance of law, come before the meeting; and especially to consider and decide the following:

I. Call to Order

II. Pledge of Allegiance

III. Explanation of Procedures

IV. Selection/Oath of Moderator

A. Nomination for Moderator

B. Close of Nominations for Moderator

C. Vote to Elect Moderator

D. Administration of Moderator’s Oath of Office

E. Signing of Moderator’s Oath

V. Adoption of Rules

A. Discussion and possible action on Motion to adopt Robert’s Rules of Order as the sole rules of Grafton Township with no amendments for the 2012 Annual Town Meeting.

VI. Approval of the Minutes from the April 12, 2011 Special Annual Town Meeting.

VII. New Business

Pursuant to 60 ILCS 1/30-10, The objects of the meeting, which are relevant to the powers granted to the electors under the Illinois Township Code, are as follows: The electors, having had their authority ignored and contravened by the Township Trustees and Road Commissioner, make the following direction regarding the property commonly known as 10109 Vine Street, Huntley, Illinois, pursuant to the authority of the electors, 60 ILCS 1-30-50, to make all orders for the sale, purchase or conveyance of Township corporate property (including the direct sale of single township road district property). The electors specifically find that the deed to the property has not been transferred as required by resolution 2010 ATM 1 and that the actions taken in the Intergovernmental Agreement dated February 10, 2011 were not authorized by the electors. The electors find these actions to be willful violations of the direction of the electors. As a result, the electors deem to be in the best interest and conductive to both the Road District and Township that:

A. The Road District, within ten (10) days, deliver warranty deed to the property located at 10109 Vine Street, Huntley, Illinois to Grafton Township and legally described in resolution 2010 ATM 1. In lieu of any balance remaining on the sale price provided by the electors at the 2010 annual meeting owed by Grafton Township, the Grafton Township Road District shall pay no rent to Grafton township for the term of the lease between Grafton Township as landlord and Grafton Township Road District as tenant for the garage portion of the premises, other than provided in elector resolution 2010 ATM 1, for a period of twenty (20) years. The electors specifically do not authorize any additional leases of any real property between Grafton Township and Grafton Township Road District except a twenty year lease of the garage portion of 10109 Vine Street to the Grafton Township Road District under the terms provided herein and in resolution 2010 ATM 1. To the extent that any other leases have been executed outside of this authority, Grafton Township Road District and Grafton Township are directed to take all steps necessary to cancel said agreements, including the Intergovernmental Agreement dated February 10, 2011. Pursuant to this authority, the electors require that any debts incurred as a result of, incident to, or for the purpose of effectuating the transfer, at any time by any entity, of 10109 Vine Street be extinguished, defeased, or repaid to the greatest extent permitted by law within ten (10) days.

B. A resolution of the electors to direct the Township Supervisor to engage the services of a Realtor, for a fee not to exceed six percent (6%) of the sales price, to auction or otherwise sell the property on Haligus Road under the authority and conditions contained in Resolution No. 2010 ATM 8. Further, the resolution shall censure the Town Board for failing to accept an offer of $100,000 for the township property at 9260 Haligus Road pursuant to the Resolution No. 2010 ATM 8, of the electors at the April 2010 Annual  Meeting of the electors filed by the township clerk April 19th, 2010.

VIII. Public Comment

IX. Adjournment

The agenda of the regular Town Meeting is below:

All the air was sucked out of the 7 PM Annual Town Meeting of Grafton Township as Linda Moore’s opponents won the vote in the Special Town Meeting that started an hour before.

The Annual Town Meeting started about twenty after seven and was adjourned without any real business being done at 7:55.

At issue in the earlier meeting was whether the Township Board should be mandated to repay the $700,000 loan from the Township Road District (a separate governmental entity) to build a new Township Hall in a lump sum or whether the three-year payback contained in an intergovernmental agreement reached between Road Commissioner Jack Freund and the four Trustees was good enough.

Jim Kearns, the same man who was elected Moderator of the last year’s meeting, which Moore’s forces dominated, won that vote against Huntley School Board member Mike Skala for the six o’clock meeting.

When the time for repayment debate came, however, supporters of the Trustees managed to frame the issue.

They seized the initiative.

A drum beat of comments were made referencing the lack audits for the last two years and, because of that, not knowing if the township had $700,000 with which to repay the loan.

[No one mentioned that just-resigned audit firm Wayne Brown & Company refused to perform the audit until Moore's separation of powers litigation was concluded. Moore won that case in which Judge Michael Caldwell ruled that the Trustees overstepped their authority.]

Both the Trustees and Moore have selection of an auditor on their dueling agendas for the next regular township meeting on Thursday, April 14th, at 7:30 at the Huntley Park District building.

(After the meetings were over, Moore insisted that the Grafton Food Pantry account had been removed from the Quick Books data base after she defeated John Rossi for Township Supervisor. She said that Wayne Brown keeps the books for the Food Pantry.)

Trustee Barb Murphy lead the attack on the lump sum motion, defending the Trustee’s actions and blaming Moore for the not repaying of the first installment of $200,000.

“The Trustees are not refusing to repay the loan. The Supervisor is,” she said.

Tammy Luecht, one of Moore’s allies, outlined how the bank will not accept partial payment of the $700,000 loan, how the township will be paying $2,600 a month in rent to the Road District, plus running up interest on the loan for the three years.

She also pointed out that there was $611,000 sitting in the bank that could not be spent for anything but loan repayment.

“We’re going to be very, very short of funds,” Township Trustee Betty Zirk, going on her 12th year on the Board said.

One CPA told the audience,

“One payment just appears to me, based on Ms. Moore’s own numbers, to be an incredibly bad idea.”

A woman questioned a telephone transfer of the $611,000 made by Moore.

Moore explained that she put in a money market fund so it would earn interest.

“If indeed we haven’t had an audit, any of us who run a business wouldn’t run our business that way. I don’t think we ought to ramrod paying something off (without it),” a Sun City man stated.

A second Sun City businessman immediately added, “Why haven’t we had an audit?”

A woman on the pay-back-immediately side argued, “It’s not ours to do anything with. It’s not our money. Give this money back.”

A blond woman replied, “Last year we didn’t vote for a lump sum (repayment). We don’t have a 2009 audit. A 2010 audit is due soon.”

” My son does audits and they find things wrong. I don’t know why we can’t wait until after the audit is submitted,” another woman added.

The elephant in the room was brought up by Tom Legowski (?):

“A lot of the money we don’t have is because of the litigation. I think it would be a wonderful idea if they start representing the people, rather than their own interests.”

“We’re trying to save the township from bankruptcy,” Trustee Murphy said in her second trip to the microphone.

“I’m tired of the bickering,” a life-long resident said. She said the $700,000 loan was “illegal. It is wrong.” [A story about Judge Caldwell's decision overturning the former Township Board's decision to borrow the $700,000 can be found here.]

“I don’t know how you can drain all the money. Right now, I wouldn’t trust any figures,” a Lakewood man replied.

A CPA from Lake in the Hills noted the over $65,000 a month “burn rate of cash.”

He said, “Mrs. Moore is absolutely correct (re having enough operating money), but suggested going with “what the Trustees have done. He then mentioned the quarter of million in legal fees.

“I’m absolutely not trilled with either side.”

A Huntley man observed, “We now have $611,000. If we don’t (fall) short before June (when real estate tax money comes in), we’ll have to borrow less than $700,000.

“If we hadn’t spent $485,000 in legal fees since this started, we’d have plenty of money.

An amendment was offered something during the debate to require the repayment “sixty days after completion of the audits for both years.”

A voice vote on the amendment failed.

The vote on the lump sum repayment failed 140-85 [I got a larger number of positive votes last night after asking for verification of the tally.]

As the tally was announced, part of the crowd cheered loudly.

The next motion talked about personally penalizing township board members who didn’t follow the directions of the Annual Town Meeting.

Road District Attorney Coen took the floor and said,

“What you’re voting on electors don’t have the authority to do.”

The motion disappeared under the weight of that opinion.

And, at about 7:20, the six o’clock meeting was adjourned.

At that point, a lot of people started leaving the room.

How many?

Remember how the vote for the early lump sum motion was 140-128.

Mike Skala won the moderator post for the Annual Town Meeting 42-38.

Over half the people filed out during the intermission.

Reports from the Township Supervisor and Road Commissioner were read.

Someone wanted to ask Moore about the audit situation, but she had stepped out of the room.

During the public comment period, Lake in the Hills’ Bruce Augustine tried to make a motion to add an agenda item to discuss the audit, but was ruled out of order by Skala.

A female ally of the Trustees said, “The Trustees have not initiated any single law suit. They did not want to spend a half million dollars on law suits. The Trustees had to pya for their defense. Please stop bringing lawsuits against (the Township). ”

She added that she’d like to have the Forensicon audit to be completed and paid for.

A man retorted, “For the last six years what the Board has done has been illegal. It was proved in court and the appellate court.

“They’re still fighting. The $611,000 could only be paid for the loan. It should not be in the General Fund.”

A young woman pointed out that the lump sum payment had been voted down at the previous meeting and added, “I’d like to find a way to force Linda Moore to get the audit done.”

Tom Halat, who was one of the people whose suit resulted in the John Rossi Township Board having acted out of accordance with state law when it borrowed the $700,000 made this reply:

“The former administration perpetrated illegal acts. Ancel Glink twice said it was an illegal act (at the Annual Meeting last year). In December, Judge Caldwell said illegal, illegal, illegal. They spent $300,000 of our tax dollars defending their illegal activities.”

It was Trustee Murphy to the microphone again.

“Hiring Pam Fender was not an illegal act. It’s just the Supervisor had to do it…(what) Mr. Rossi (and the former Township board did) wasn’t illegal. It was two items done improperly.”

Luecht took the floor saying she had read the minutes of the Township meetings and “”There was never an action taken by the Board to separate the Food Pantry from the township.”

She said she was still waiting for the Food Pantry records to be included in the audit.

Trustee Betty Zirk took the floor saying she was going on her 12th year and

“The Food Party never had a line item on the (Township) budget.  It was housed by the Township, run by volunteers, some of our employees helping out.  the Food Pantry never was part of the Township.”

A man from the other side of the room noted, “It’s been a whole year and nothing has been paid back. How can we trust people when they continually  (against the voters’ wishes).

“They are a bunch of liars.  What makes you think they’re going to pay it back in three years.

“Betty, you’ve been there twelve years too long.”

That earned him an admonition from Moderator Skala.

“The Trustee have attempted to pay back the money.  It has been blocked by the Supervisor,” Augustine retorted.

“I’ve worked for public bodies. My understanding is there is supposed to be an audit every year.  I don’t now how you can operate.  I don’t understand it.”

Jim Kearns took the microphone.

“I understand that the $700,000 will be held in the Road fund for three years because the bank will not take back anything but a lump sum.

“I’d like to see everyone start getting along and stop this bull.

“You need to start growing up, you guys.  That goes for everyone.

“Start doing it today!”

Another man advanced the opinion that it was “time to have a recall and start over again and get people in office to be stewards of our tax money.”

[Recall is not an option in Illinois.]

“‘Liars’ is a pretty strong statement.  I’d hate to think an elected official is a liar.”

 

At this point someone moved to adjourn and the motion passed.

= = = = =
Want to know how the missing part of the $700,000 was spent. Here’s the only place you’ll find out.

All townships will hold annual meetings tonight were everyday voters have have much say as elected township officials.

The only one sure to have fireworks is at the Huntley High School, where not one, but two meetings will be held.

The regular one is at 7.

But, there’s a special one initiated by petition at 6.

A post card send out by supporters of Supervisor Linda Moore went out late last week encouraging people to attend both meetings.

I’m not sure whether that spurred the broadside from her opponents, which you can see below, or whether it was the filing of the petition for the 6 PM meeting.

Both of these can be found on the anti-Moore web site called Taking Back Grafton Township.

The piece above seems to have inspired the flyer below. Because of the difference in layout, I shall run the left hand side first and, then, the whole piece, which you will have to click on to make large enough to read.

I have no doubt both will be distributed to voters attending tonight’s meetings.

People are being urged to attend a Grafton Township Special Town Meeting next Tuesday at 6 at the Huntley High School.

Here’s what the post card looks like:

It points out that the Township Trustees have not followed the instructions of the electors at last year’s Annual Town Meeting to repay the money borrowed from the Township Road District to build a new township hall.