Pay the ones that are in dispute in the separation of powers suit now pending or pay none of them.  That was their position.

Not even electricity and gas.

Now gas probably isn’t an essential in summer, but Com Ed does have a limit on how long it will keep the power flowing to computers and lights during the summer.

Just in case you might like to see the bills now on the unpaid list, here they are:

Grafton Township Trustees (from left to right) Barb Murphy, Rob LaPorta, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon

• Ace Hardware – $49.80
• Ancel, Glink -$39,994.88
• AT&T – $393.62
• AT&T – $393.62
• AT&T – $393.63
• Cardunal – $418.69
• Cash – $140.00
• ComEd – $275.55
• D’Angelo Spring Water – $7.75
• Eder, Casella & Co. – $35.00
• First Congregational Church – $25.00
• Grafton Twp. Road District – $150.00
• Interact Business $134.61
• Jack Freund – $284.60
• Trudy Jurs – $43.93
• J.A. Ketchmark – $1,550.00
• Key Equipment – $230.57
• Legal Link, Inc. – $548.36
• Linda Moore – $3.20
• Matuszewich, Kelly & McKeever, LLP – $1,886.10
• McHenry Co Council Of Government – $76.00
• Nicor Gas – $52.19
• Printing & then some – $123.50
• The Law Office of David R. Gervais – General Assistance
• $507.50
• Shaw Suburban Media – $174.30
• Tom Peck Ford – $28.18
• TOI – $240.00
• TOI – $971.51
• TSI – $25.00
• Vahl Reporting Service, LTD – $5,907.60
• Verizon – $111.61
• BlueCross BlueShield – $2,645.51
• Humana – $519.18

The big bills, you may notice are related to the court case.

And these doesn’t include the Road Fund.

“Can we all get along?”

Obviously, not in Grafton Township.

The question is why not?

Half John Rossi re-election campaign postcard.

Most observers believe the fight is all about the township trustees having lost their leader John Rossi and, with the help of a taxpayer lawsuit in which to-be Township Supervisor Linda Moore was a plaintiff until she took office, the loss of their planned new township hall.

Promises made on the John Rossi re-election campaign postcard. Note what is written in boldface type: "no tax referendum or tax increases." One of the main issues of the campaign was that the township hall was approved without referendum approval.

Both Trustees Rob LaPorta and Betty Zirk have testified under oath that is not the reason for the ongoing fight.

Indeed there was this interchange between the Trustees’ attorney, Tom DiCianni, and Zirk on the last day of testimony in the case after Moore attorney John Nelson completed his cross examination:

“The problems you had with Ms. Moore had nothing to do with the town hall, right?”

“Right.”

In today’s article, I’ll lay out testimony on the last day of court proceedings about the conduct of township board meetings.

Betty Zirk was on the stand first.

After questioning Zirk about the dire condition of township finances, Moore attorney Nelson asked the twelve-year trustee about how meetings were conducted by her first township supervisor, Millie Ruth.

“Things went smoothly,” Zirk explained, saying they lasted an hour to an hour and a half.

“When Mr. Rossi was supervisor, he was in charge, wasn’t he?” Nelson continued.

“No, he wasn’t,” she replied. “He was in charge but he had trustees watching over him. I helped him with the book work…I was making the deposits for him.”

“Whatever Mr. Rossi wanted, you found you wanted?” Nelson asked.

“Not all the time.”

Nelson asked for an example and a date, saying, “We’ll look in the minutes and check it out.”

“We didn’t always agree. We’d negotiate and make things work out.”

You will remember what I would call the “list of horribles” in which Zirk outlined her problems with Moore. [See “Another 'Linda Moore Must Go' Day in Woodstock.”]

Here's a still of a video of a Grafton Township meeting from last September or October that hasn't been posted on the internet yet. A visably exacerbated Trustee Barb Murphy watches Trustee Gerry McMahon make an impassioned speech which Trustee Rob LaPorta appears to desire to be elsewhere.

I think it safe to say that Grafton Township meetings are contentious.

Enter Nunda Township Supervisor John Heisler.

McHenry County map showing townships and muncipalities. Click to enlarge.

While Grafton Township is located in the southwestern part of Crystal Lake and points west and south to Huntley, Nunda comprises northern Crystal Lake to southern McHenry along the Lake County line.

Heisler is a veteran public official, having served eight years on the county board and being in his 10th year as township supervisor. A CPA, he audited public entities as far back as the 1960′s when he audited my books when I was McHenry County Treasurer.  He’s examined banks for the Federal government and he was also a finalist for the position of Auditor General for the State of Wisconsin.

To say that he is a “respected public official” is an understatement and, as you will see, Judge Michael Caldwell wanted to hear what he had to say.

Nelson pitched him a softball first, asking him to describe a typical meeting.

Heisler said they “last less than an hour,” unless there is “a teaching opportunity or a program or levies.”

He was asked who prepared the agendas.

“I do.”

John Heisler

He said he bases those agendas on what he knows is coming up or should be considered and that he considers requests from other elected officials.

“The meetings are primarily to approve the bills,” he said.

Nelson asked Heisler “the procedure with providing information to trustees.”

This drew an objection concerning relevancy from DiCianni.

Nelson pointed out in asking for injunctive relief, “testimony from an experienced supervisor” could be useful.

Judge Michael Caldwell’s ruling:

“Objection overruled.”

Heisler said he gave his trustees “three or four days to come in and review invoices.”

“During office hours?” Nelson inquired.

“I ask them and they do.”

“Who prepares the budget?”

“Those same three department heads prepare their budgets and submit it to me.”

Heisler explained that there have been “work sessions” on the budget.

He also prepares the tax levies.

“I prepare the tax levies for the entire township. We have a public hearing and they’re approved thirty days after the posting.”

= = = = =

More tomorrow.

Supervisor Linda Moore

Trustee Rob LaPorta

10 AM is the time court begins.

It’s the trial between Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore and the Grafton Township Trustees consisting of Robert LaPorta, Betty Zirk, Barbara Murphy and Gerry McMahon.

Trustee Betty Zirk

At the last hearing, Township Administrator Pam Fender, appointed by the township board to supplant Moore in as many functions as legally possible, testified that Moore had not cooperated with her.

In addition, Township Trustee Rob LaPorta, the floor leader of the trustees, testified as to the difficulty of getting along with Moore.

One point LaPorta made was that attorneys had been approved by the township board under Moore’s predecessor John Rossi.

Trustee Gerry McMahon

I have filed a Freedom of Information request asking for newly appointed Township Clerk Harriet Ford to produce any pages of minutes from 2005-2009 that would verify that sworn testimony, but have not received a satisfactory reply.

I even narrowed my request by listing the legal firms that had received payments under Rossi with their first and last payments.  I figure board approval would have come before the first payment and termination would precede the last payment.

Trustee Barb Murphy

Here is what included:

• Ancel Glink – the first payment I found was 6-20-5 for $1,110.  The last significant one was $5,878 on 8-14-5.  Another $87.50 was paid on 3-24-6
• Chapman and Cutler – $15,000 on 8-11-8. This is the only bill.
• Matuszewich, Kelly & McKeever – The first bill ($2,850) was paid on 7-11-6.  I am informed that Linda Moore terminated the first when she took office, but bills were being paid well into the first year.
• Militello, Zanck & Coen – I see a 5-9-5 payment for $50 and a 7-15-5 payment for $100.

I told Ford after last Thursday’s meeting that a statement from her that no such minutes can be found would be adequate.

In any event, the trial will resume in Judge Michael Caldwell’s court.

I’ll be sitting on the hard seats, so you won’t have to.

You can find the details here.

Conferring after the meeting on the steps of the Huntley Park District Recreaction Building were Grafton Township Trustees Betty Zirk and Rob LaPorta. Trustee Barb Murphy can be seen to the left next to the waving Township Clerk Harriet Ford.

Pete Gonigam reports that an email was sent to Trustee Rob LaPorta, which he read after the meeting last night.

In the continuing separation of powers trial, Supervisor Linda Moore has already testified that she asked her computer guy to remove the financial information, which she took home nightly and reinstalled in the morning.

“I choose not to use the server in my office. It’s unnecessary. The use of a server is another example of my predecessors waste of the taxpayers’ money. In an office the size we have, we can network computers without the need for a server,” Moore said.

At least for ones when the trustees showed up.

I got there late, walking through all the halls of the Huntley Park
District Recreation Center before I thought to read the public notice near the entrance.

Grafton Township Trustess Gerry McMahon and Better Zirk sit to the left of newly-appointed Township Clerk Harriet Ford with Turstees Barb Murphy and Rob LaPorta to her left.

And, miracle of miracles, the township trustees attended a meeting called by Supervisor Linda Moore.

She seems to have called the meeting to get approval to post the township budget for next year. That got approved before I arrived. State law says it has to be posted for a month ahead of passage and passage must be before the end of June.

Patrick Coen, the Grafton Township Road District's attorney, explained that the proposed intergovernmental agreement prepared by Ancel Glink did not include paperwork pledging the township would lease office space from the Road District.

Since it’s May 27th, the township board was cutting it close.

The second major subject Moore put on the agenda was paying back the loan to the township road district (a separate governmental entity), which was ordered Shortest Grafton Township Meeting on Record by the electors at the Annual Town Meeting on April 13th.

Apparently the lawyers for the road commissioner and the township trustees had not had time since the May 13th regular board meeting to get together.

Patrick Coen, Jack Freund’s attorney, pointed out that the intergovernmental agreement prepared by Ancel Glink Partner Keri-Lyn Krafthefer did not contain the lease-back document attached.

Krafthefer did not attend the meeting.

Neither did a stand-in.

When I arrived Coen was pointing out the problems with the Ancel Glink paperwork.

Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore and Grafton Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund sat next to each other Thursday night.

Moore then read a statement telling the trustees that Freund had agreed to a short-term loan to the Town Fund from Road District money so the loan could be repaid the bank.

“We do have the money to pay the Road District $600,000 immediately,” Moore said. She pointed out there is $702,000 in the Town Fund and $366,000 in the Road Fund.

“Every single outstanding bill must be paid first,” Trustee Gerry McMahon insisted…repeatedly.

Moore has refused to pay bills that she did not sign the paperwork for. That includes the one approaching $10,000 for computer experts Forensicon to determine who took what records off the township computer and bills that Township Administrator Pam Fender authorized. Moore, of course, contends that Fender has no right to employment, let alone authority to spend township tax dollars.

Unhappy to be attending a Thursday night meeting, Trustee Gerry McMahon expressed himself forcefully, as usual.

“I did not force you to sell the building,” McMahon stated. “All this is a money grab!”

Trustee Betty Zirk, the longest serving member and strong advocate of building a new township hall, stated, “We said we would bring this up at our regular June meeting.”

“You understand that it’s costs the Road District $100 a day?” Moore asked.

Grafton Township Road Commisioner Jack Freund explained how he had just received a bill from the bank for $15,000 interest on the loan which the Township Electors ordered repaid April 13th.

Trustee Barb Murphy concurred with delaying the vote, as did Trustee Rob LaPorta. He argued for “correspondence between the two attorneys.”

“I just got the bill from the bank this month,” Road Commissioner Freund revealed. “It’s $15,000.”

Moore ruled something McMahon was saying was not “germane.”

“When I talk, it’s germane,”

he retorted forcefully.

LaPorta moved to table the discussion “because the Road District doesn’t agree with the intergovernmental agreement.”

Freund pointed out that with the agreement of the township to lease office space, “you guys could say, ‘Good-bye.’”

I think it was Road District Attorney Coen who pointed out that without the leaseback’s inclusion in the intergovernmental agreement, it “doesn’t comply with the electorate (passed) resolution.”

“It will be taken care of by the attorneys,” LaPorta said.

“It’s just another bill,” McMahon asserted.

“I want to make a motion to adjourn,” Zirk interjected.

“It’s bad enough I have to be here…” McMahon said loudly, to which Murphy told him to “Shut up and…” I didn’t catch the rest.

“Have you looked at my budget,” Freund wanted to know before adjournment. “You’ve had it for over a month.”

McMahon spoke negatively of it, the second meeting I have noticed that he is antagonistic toward Freund.

“I haven’t had a chance to go through it,” Zirk said.

The meeting adjourned as Moore was offering to show any trustee who wished to see the township books, which were on her computer being projected on a screen behind her.

As Grafton Township Clerk Harriet Ford and Trustees Rob LaPorta and Barb Murphy leave, they had to pass the screen on which Supervisor Linda Moore had project township financial data. No trustee took up her offer to look at the information.

The meeting was over in a half an hour.

Less for me, since I got lost getting there.

Because it’s so long—14 pages totaling $36,432.14—I’ll break it up for you so your eyes won’t glaze over.

Or at least they’ll have to glaze over every day for a couple of days.

You saw the $36,432.14 summary of the bill here.

Below you see the first page of what the law firm of Ancel Glink characterizes as “Corporate” work for Grafton Township. There are four more, which will be published one a day.

In this page of the Ancel Glink invoice, after workking on Township Administrator Pam Fender's job description, Keri-Lyn Krafthefer spends 4 1/2 hours at $185 an hour preparing for and attending the March 2nd budget workshop. She also reports work for Trustee Barb Murphy, Rob LaPorta and an unnamed trustee. The phone and financial records controversies come up, as does the bus schedule and changing of locks on Township Superivsor Linda Moore's office. Krafthefer also bills an hour and a half for organizing township files. Eavesdropping relating to Moore is addressed, as is David Moore's "recording of personal lienesses of township employees." Click to enlarge.

In four days, Keri-Lyn Krafthefer bills 14 hours at $185 per hour and associate Jason T. Olson bills 1.5 at $105 per hour, if my addition is correct.  There are three pages to come.

Betty Zirk makes the motion for what she calls “reasonable rules.” Photo is from David Moore's video.

Trustee Barb Murphy points to the back of the room where the Township Trustees' $250 a meeting videographer is recording the meeting. Photo is from David Moore's video taken from the front row of seats.

Gerry McMahon makes sure the public record includes his intention that Township Supervisor Linda Moore's husband, who took the video above, is included in the motion that all taking pictures of the meeting must be at least in the back row of chairs.

The article with my complaint and the initial reply from the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor’s Office can be found here. You may remember that the McHenry County Board considered a similar plan to banish photographers to the back of the county board room.  After pressure from the Northwest Herald, the board members changed their minds. And, here’s an ironic twist. The Northwest Herald lawyer who sued my on my birthday last summer defended my actions in taking photos. My guess is that, having sued me, the Northwest Herald won’t get involved this time around. They have no corporate stake in the matter. I’ve never seen a NW Herald photographer at one of Grafton Township’s regular or special township board meetings. Usually, there’s not even a reporter.

Grafton Township Trustees Barbara Murply, Betty Zirk and Gerry McHMahon, who voted to banish any reporter with a camera, video recorder or tape recorder to the back of the meeting room. In the foreground can been seen David Moore with his unobstrusive videoing machine sitting on a low tripod. To his left is the First Electric Newspaper's Pete Gonigam. Trustee Rob LaPorta left the meeting early.

After three Grafton Township Trustees passed a motion (Supervisor Linda Moore voting, “No”) to restrict me to the back of the room with my camera, not to mention Moore’s husband David, who unobtrusively videos the meeting from the front row, not to mention the First Electric Newspaper’s Pete Gonigam, who snaps a picture now and then, I filed a complaint with the Public Access section of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

If a reporter wanted to sit in the front row and just take notes, that would be OK.

But to the back of the room for anyone wanting to take a photo or use a tape recorder.

I smell a lack of equal protection under the law.

My complaint follows:

The Grafton Township (Board voted)  all “photography, recording media and video” to the “rear of the room.”

There are multiple recordings of the action taken at the meeting held in the Huntley Park District building.   The URL’s of my McHenry County Blog article and Pete Gonigam’s First Electric Newspaper article are below:

• http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2010/04/09/fenders-severance-pay-cut-to-three-months/
• http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/2010/04/grafton-board-gives-new-administrator.html

My article points out that camera flashes may not be the main objection.  For one trustee, Gerry McMahon, the objective is to prevent a good, close video being made by Township Supervisor Linda Moore’s husband.  Note the link in my article to where such videos have been posted.

My complaint is obviously being prevented from taking photographs from anywhere in the room except the back row or behind the back row.  I understand that flash photography may be prohibited, but I do not believe the Open Meetings Act allows a governmental body to mandate where those who record public meetings may sit based on the mode of recording.  The Grafton Township Board’s mandates allows those who just take notes to sit in the front row, but those who video, audio record or take pictures to the back of the bus, so to speak.  Such discrimination must be illegal.

Sounds like a pretty clear violation of the First Amendment right of Freedom of the Press to me.

May I have your advice in this matter?

Cal Skinner
McHenry County Blog

The Attorney General’s Office has sent the following message to Moore in her role as Grafton Township Supervisor:

Township Supervisor Linda Moore
Grafton Township

Dear Supervisor Moore,

This letter is to advise you that we have received and reviewed a written Request for Review from Mr. Cal Skinner regarding the decision by Grafton Township (Township) to restrict to a certain portion of the Township meeting room the recording of Township board meetings.  I have attached a copy of Mr. Skinner’s Request for Review.

We have determined that further inquiry is warranted with regard to this matter.  5 ILCS 120/3.5(b).

To begin, please forward me a copy of the meeting minutes reflecting the Township board’s April 8, 2010, vote involving the above-referenced matter.  The Township must provide this information to me within seven (7) working days after you receive this correspondence.  5 ILCS 120/3.5(b).

Additionally, please note that the Township may submit to us an answer to the allegations raised in Mr. Skinner’s Request for Review within seven (7) working days after you receive this correspondence.  This answer may take the form of a letter, brief or memorandum.  5 ILCS 120/3.5(c).  Please note that if the Township submits an answer, we may ask the Township to provide a redacted copy of this answer if necessary.  5 ILCS 120/3.5(d).

For your reference, there are three possible outcomes for a Request for Review.

• First, the Public Access Counselor (PAC) may decide that no violations have occurred and will so inform the public body and requester.
• Second, the matter may be resolve through informal mediation by staff from the PAC’s office.
• Third, the PAC may decide to issue a binding opinion.

Should you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Very truly yours,

Sara Gadola Gallagher
Deputy Public Access Counselor
Office of the Attorney General

= = = = =
Since no minutes have been approved since sometime last fall, it will be a neat trick for the township board to comply with the request of the April 8th minutes. I would imagine the Trustees will opt to be paid another $100 each by holding another special township meeting.

This Huntley High School Gym was packed to the rafters--over 700 people--with several rows of chairs in front before the Annual Town Meeting began. Certainly this meeting was the largest Annual Town Meeting in McHenry County I've seen since 1966.

Township Attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer, partner of the law firm Ancel Glink. Citizens petitioned for a Annual Town Meeting vote on whether to fire the firm, but another Ancel Glink lawyer, Rob Bush, ruled the people did not have that power, so that motion was not listed no the meeting agenda.

With over 700 registered voters in attendance, electors at the Annual Town Meeting overwhelmingly refused to follow the script laid out by Ancel Glink partner Keri-Lyn Krafthefer.

There were so many people in attendance that the 700 pink ballots designed by Township Administrator Pam Fender ran out.

About ten people stood on the sidelines as a result of the slight miscalculation.

They were told if there were ever a close vote, their vote would count.

They were not happy campers.

But none of the votes were close and none were taken by paper ballot.

There were so many people that the meeting did not start until after 7:30.

T-Shirted Grafton Township activists like Loretta Wuich passed out "poop" sheets as people were entering the Huntley High School Gym. The huge number of people could not be processed in time for the meeting to start at its advertised 7 PM beginning.

The opponents to the Trustees’ position clearly outmaneuvered the proponents.

On the way in people in bright green (they look yellow to me, but I’m color blind) tee-shirts saying,

“NO MORE TAXES,”

handed out a one-page explanation of what the meeting was all about…from the opponents’ viewpoint, of course.

Huntley Police were out in force. No problem occasioned their services to be required, except for traffic control getting out onto Harmony Road.

The Huntley Police, including its Chief were visible throughout the night and quite helpfully had flashing lights to slow down Harmony Road traffic as hundreds of cars left one by one after the meeting.

Most of the nine intricately worded resolutions written by the Trustee’s lawyer were ignored as it became obvious that opponents to the Township Trustees’ desire for new offices were not in control of the only form of direct democracy left in Illinois.

The test vote came when Jim

Newly-appointed Township Clerk Harriet Ford swears in Jim Kearns as Annual Town Meeting Moderator.

Kearns overwhelming was elected Moderator of the meeting.

My guess is that about 80% of the audience voted for him.

Next came a motion to do first what Ancel Glink put last on the agenda, a motion proposed by Township Road Commissioned Jack Freund to “unwind” (undo) the sale of the township hall to the Grafton Township Road District.

A motion was made to make the last first and it passed overwhelmingly without a paper ballot.

The desires of Township Road Commissioner Freund were explained by his attorney Pat Coen and after its combination with the sale of the Haligus Road property—the subject of three other resolutions—was split, that reversal of the past Supervisor John Rossi Board action was accomplished.

Trustees Betty Zirk and Rob LaPorta were sitting front and center next to Pam Fender, who did not get the opportunity to present the visual presentation she had prepared.

Six irrelevant resolutions that were intended to be considered first were then almost summarily disposed of. Among them were ones ratify the unlawful sale of the Town Hall to the Road District.

“Hot button issues should not rule the day,” Diane Ayers said.  “Maybe by leaving this at the end of the agenda some of the tempers will cool, so we can have a reasonable discussion.”  Ayers is a Democratic Party precinct committeeman.

Numerous attempts to slow down the meeting were made by those supporting the Trustees’ desires.

District 158 Board member Don Crzal calling for a paper ballot.

More and more mainly older residents left the meeting confident that their side was winning the day.

District 158 School Board member Paul Troy calling for a paper ballot.

District 158 School Board members Don Drzal and Paul Troy, at different times, tried to slow down the meeting by requiring a paper ballot.

Neither succeeded.

“This sounds like the township meetings,” Don Glogovsky, a Sun City man who ran for township trustee, interjected.

“Let’s continue with the agenda and do away with all the minutia and let democracy prevail.”

Opponents of unlawful action taken by the previous townshp board win a vote. Electors are holding up numbered and padded ballots intended to be used in a paper count. (Click to enlarge any photo.)

The first Haligus Road property resolution would have ratified the unlawful purchase. It was voted down. There was no question as to the outcome, although one supporter of the Trustees wanted to delay resolution until the next meeting.

His suggestion was met with a chorus of ‘No’s.”

A third school board member, Aileen Seedorf addressed the motion:

“They’re trying to ratify what they did.” (If you want to do that, vote ‘Yes.’  If not, then, Vote ‘No.’”

Before the meeting Ancel Glink attorney Rob Bush confers with Township Trustee Rob LaPorta with Trustee Barbara Murphy seen on the right.

The second Ancel Glink attorney at the meeting, Rob Bush, explained people who want to approve the purchase should vote in favor.

‘If you don’t want to take the deed, you should vote, ‘No.’”

The vote was not even close.

“Is this the way Christ would want it?” a man from the far end of the bleachers asked.

The next Haligus Road resolution would have the Trustees offer the property back to the Village of Lake in the Hills for the price the township paid, about $99,500. The motion carried with, it seemed, both sides’ support.

Both Huntley School Board member Aileen Seedorf and Crystal Lake City Councilman Jeff Thorsen were sitting in this section of the gym, a place where supporters of the Trustees were clustered.

The final motion would have the Trustees sell the property if Lake in the Hills did not want to buy it back. The motion was amended to require that the sale would have to be for at least $99,400.

Crystal Lake City Councilman Jeff Thorsen, sitting among a stronghold of Trustees’ supporters, observed,

“I don’t see anything here that that makes (the motions) mutually exclusive.”

During discussion, one man said, “Any price that’s market value should be acceptable.”

The amendment was adopted requiring the $99,500 payment, which Peter Hoffman figured would be about $36,000 an acre.

Prior to some votes, opponents of the Township Trustees' plan to obtain new township offices held up signs saying, "Yes" or "No."

The amended motion passed overwhelmingly.

Except for giving the Township Road Commissioner the right to sell some surplus property, that pretty much ended the meeting. It was after 9:30 and people were leaving in droves.

Afterward I asked each Trustee the same question:

“What now?”

Gerry McMahon, who had been most out front in his desire for the township to have new offices, said,

“I don’t know. (We) have to digest it first and then proceed with bankruptcy…maybe.”

This Grafton Township Elector confronted Township Trustee Rob LaPorta after the meeting was adjourned.

Betty Zirk’s reply?

“Nothing.”

As I was approaching Rob LaPorta, a man was berating him, telling him he got $100 a meeting for (doing less than a stellar job).

“Who are you serving?”

he said in a loud voice, using a barn yard epitaph to LaPorta’s reply.

“Who is this Bozo?” LaPorta asked.

“We don’t do anything behind closed doors,” I heard LaPorta say.

Lake in the Hills Trustee Steve Harlfiner, who lost the role of Moderator to Kearns, approached the cluster, saying, “Good luck selling (the property).”

This unhappy taxpayers told Trustee Barb Murphy that Linda Moore would not have been elected if the Trustees had not decided to spend $3.5 million on a new township hall without asking the voters.

“Linda Moore wouldn’t be in office if you hadn’t bought that building,” a second man said.

“We went by the advice we were given,” LaPorta replied.

“We made mistakes,” Trustee Barb Murphy, standing nearby, conceded.

“If you hadn’t tried to get that three and a half million dollar building, Linda wouldn’t have been elected,” the second mean reiterated.

I asked Murphy what was next.

“We can unwind,” a position she was the first Trustee to suggest last November.

You'll see me wearing a tee shirt like this one being wore by Rick Lueth at the Grafton Township meeting at the Crystal Lake TEA Party on Route 14 in front on Best Buy from 3-6:30 this Thursday afternoon.

When I got to talk to the acknowledged leader of the Trustees, LaPorta told me,

“We’re going to follow what was completed tonight and get the township processes to run smoothly.”

As I was walking out the meeting with two folks I was taking home, I asked Fender if I could have a commemorative ballot.

I had already been given an extra large tee-shirt saying,

“No More Taxes,”

which folks will see me wearing this Thursday at the Crystal Lake TEA (Taxed Enough Already) at the corner of Route 14 and Main Street.

“That’s the most fraudulent meeting I even saw in my entire life,” the Township Administrator remarked.

The separation of powers suit that Township Supervisor Linda Moore filed against the four trustees is scheduled for arguments during the second week of May before the same judge, Michael Caldwell, who issued the ruling that stopped the new township hall dead in its tracks.

Sitting to the right of Trustee Gerry McMahon (back facing audience) are fellow Trustees Betty Zirk, Rob LaPorta and Barb Murphy. At the head table, left to right, are Township Attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer and Township Supervisor Linda Moore. Taking future pictures like this was forbidden by the four Trustees at the April 8, 2010, meeting. They ordered all photographers to sit in or stand behind the back row of chairs when they take photographs. The same rules apply to those audio or video recording future meetings.

The Ancel Glink attorney argued more time was needed to take depositions, even though at the last questioning of Moore the firm failed to have a court reporter present to record the inquiries and answers.