McHenry County Blog

Longest serving Grafton Township Trustee Betty Zirk tries to convince electors at the April Annual Town Meeting to approve a new township hall. The motion lost on a 70-70 tie vote. Court action confirmed the over $5 million property tax liability was invalid.

Yesterday and the day before, McHenry County Blog chronicled what the Grafton Township trustees said about the John Rossi Township Board new town hall debacle.

You remember, illegally committing taxpayers to repay over $5 million in principal and interest for a new township hall on land purchased from the Village of Lake in the Hills on Haligus Road.

Part of the cost was to be paid for by selling the current township hall to the Grafton Township Road District, allowing area taxpayers to pay for the same building twice, a seeming Huntley tradition. (The Huntley Park District bought the old high school from District 158, giving park district taxpayers the privilege of paying for that building twice.)

Grafton Township Clerk Dina Frigo makes a point as Road District attorney Pat Coen patiently awaits his turn.

It was finally time for Pat Coen, Road Commissioner Jack Freund’s attorney, to speak.

Another picture of Road District attorney Pat Coen patiently waiting.

He had sat patiently through the kangaroo court we-won’t-show-you-the-censure-motion-until-after-we-vote condemnation of Supervisor Linda Moore.

The agenda subject?

“Discussion and potential action to approve payment of $700,000 road ordinance plus interest to date of loan.”

Pat Coen explains what a meeting of the electors is needed to reverse the previous township board's sale of the township hall to the Grafton Township Road District. Road Commissioner Jack Freund sits to his left.

Coen concluded that approval of the electorate was needed to “unwind” (a word virtually everyone uses to describe undoing the court-determined improper acts committed by the prior township board to build a new township hall) the selling of the current township hall to the Road District part of Grafton Township government.

“I can find nothing in the statutes that says unwinding is any different than conveying property,” the lawyer said.

He suggested calling a special meeting of the electors.

He was asked if he had made a mistake.

“I’m not admitting to any mistake,” Coen replied.

Coen pointed out that the entire loan–$700,000–would have to be repaid to Harris Bank. That included the cost of a salt shed.

Zirk wondered if the Town Fund would just “pay what the Town Fund owes.”

“I haven’t gone that far,” Coen replied

“66,000 had to go for the commission,” Zirk added, but didn’t mention who got the commission.

That commission to MJ Munaretto and Company was revealed exclusively in McHenry County Blog on July 7, 2009. Munaretto is a Republican County Board member who chairs the Finance Committee.  Neither the Daily nor the Northwest Herald have revealed this.

McMahon favored delaying until next spring’s annual meeting:

“Let it go. Let the electoral handle it (at the annual meeting).”

“Barbara Murphy, who has repeatedly expressed distaste at the length of time it is taking to resolve the problem countered,

“It’s costing a ton on this.

“We want to get done with this, excuse my word, crap.”

Shortly thereafter, LaPorta made this admission:

“We did the best we did with the information we had at the time.

“You think we did this illegally for crying out loud?”

Focused on completing the reversal of the actions taken to build a new township hall, Murphy pointed out,

“This is the second half of it.”

The first half was repaying the Harris Bank the other $3.5 million loan.

McMahon, the only trustee not in office when the decision was made added,

“Maybe we should sell the township building to the Road Commissioner. That’s what you wanted.

“I don’t see giving up the dream.”

McMahon supported a continuation of efforts to build a new township hall.

At this point, Supervisor Moore asked,

“Would you like to hear a suggestion?”

“No, not from you,” McMahon retorted.

“We need to negotiate with Jack,” Moore continued.

LaPorta suggested having a representative from the trustees and the supervisor meet with Road Commissioner Freund.

And, that’s what the Grafton Township Board decided to do.

During the non-meeting of the Grafton Township Board last night, a song has been running through my head.

“Hey there, lonely girl.”

There was Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore sitting at the table.

Not all alone, because her landlord, Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund, was at the table, too.

But the township board members and township clerk were apparently deliberately and with the complicity of newly-appointed Township Attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer missing in action.

The best show in town Wednesday starts at the Huntley Park District, 12015 Mill Street at 7.

There will be an encore at 7:30.

Four township officials, including all the full-timers, attended the Grafton Township meeting at Faith Community Church on Algonquin Road, but the four part-timers boycotted it.

Of the members of the township board, only Supervisor Linda Moore attended.

Barbara Murphy, Robert LaPort, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon were absent.

Township Clerk Dina Frigo, Road Commissioner Jack Freund and Assessor Bill Ottley attended the meeting.

Without a quorum of three out of five members of the township board, Moore adjourned the meeting.

To read what the township trustees did not want to discuss, click here.

At the last board meeting of Grafton Township, the one in which constantly interrupting, newly-elected board member Gerry McMahon was censured, there were comments from Trustee Barbara Murphy (the one seen on the far left of the table) that may portend for big happenings Thursday night.

I’ll quote her comments in their entirety, but, first, let me set the stage.

Township governments are two entities in one. There is the Town Fund. It pays for township assessing, public aid, officials’ salaries, etc.

Then, there is the Road District. It is run by the road commissioner. About the only control the township board has over the road commissioner’s operation is making sure he doesn’t spend more than is appropriated.

Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund had handed out a proposed rental contract which would have the separate Town Fund paying his fund $3,500 a month rent starting November 7th.

“Digest it and next month I will bring my attorney, if you’re ready.”

McMahon didn’t seem to have a clear grasp of the separateness of the two parts of township government.

“It’s like charging your son rent for the basement of the bedroom.“Why should one arm of the government pay another for something the township owns?

“I don’t get it.”

Senior Trustee Betty Zirk explained the situation:

“We had this offer for $1.2 million for our property.“Jack said, ‘I want to buy it.’

“So, Jack bought it. He paid the town (fund) $611,000. The agreement was we’d probably be out of the building by November 7th.

“The Road Commissioner owns all the property. If we want to stay we’re going to have to pay rent.”

“Are we signing for both the lessor and the lessee?” McMahon asked.

“The only thing we can do with Jack is is he has a budget. We have to make him stay within the budget,” Zirk replied.

“We really don’t have any control over it.”

Zirk had previously suggested that the township board look for rental property elsewhere.

“Well, then I agree with you,” McMahon replied, “…as quickly as possible. It’s time to look for other places to move.”

Road Commissioner Freund was getting a bit irritated as this point.

“The Road District paid twice for that property. Once when they bought it originally and once when we bought it from the township and paid the township a year and a half ago.”

Referring to the proposed $3,500 month rent, Freund said, “That isn’t even making the payments on this property I have to pay.”

Then Trustee Barbara Murphy entered the discussion:

“My own opinion—I say we do the unwind. Put it all back to where it was and start from scratch.“Frankly, in my own opinion, I’m tired of this garbage.

“I’m tired of it.

“I’m tired of it. (I want it done.)”

Newly-elected Township Supervisor Linda Moore put in her two cents:

This board never approved the ordinance to borrow $700,000.”

Moore also noted that,

“In the Town Fund, we have $600,000…We’ve got some unwinding to do just as we did with the three and a half million.”

She further pointed out that the loan was for 20 years, but that “the township can borrow for 10 years.

“Basically, we have not followed the statutes.”

McMahon interrupted, but Moore finished her thought:

“I am concerned that the public was not properly noticed. Unwind this and soon.”

At the beginning of the meeting, right after public comments and approving bills the board will go into Executive (secret) Session for the following purposes:

1.Sale of Real Estate to Road District
2.Pending Litigation

The next item on the agenda is

Action on Sale of Real Estate to Road District

There’s a whole lot more on the agenda for the 7:30 meeting, which will be held at Faith Community Church at 10,547 Faiths Way in Huntley. It is located west of Tom’s Vegetable Market on the north side of Algonquin Road.

Since I do not subscribe to the Northwest Herald and the electronic edition of the paper is too much of a hassle to wade through, I missed this quarter page ad published in the Northwest Herald the Sunday before the election.

It supports all the opposed incumbents and was purchased by a pop-up committee calling itself “Citizens to Reelect Quality Leaders.” (Click to enlarge.)

The ad cost (I left the NW Herald a message requesting the amount for a quarter page ad on Friday morning; no reply so far).

Because the price paid was less than $3,000 no one the purchaser does not want to tell will ever learn know who paid for it.

It is interesting that Grafton Township Supervisor John Rossi’s favorite candidate for road commissioner, Mike Romanelli. Instead, incumbent Jack Freund is supported.

So, here’s the mystery on which you speculate.

Who supported both John Rossi and Jack Freund and all the incumbent trustees?

The ad could be said to have worked for Freund, but not for Rossi.

I would note that advertising in newspapers is not a favored route for most candidates.

But some candidates and supporters still advertise late in a campaign when they are desperate. It is a way to spend a fair amount of money at the last minute.

The problem is one can end up having one’s ad put somewhere in the paper where readership is light.

The last ad I placed in the NW Herald was in my primary election campaign in 1996. It advertised a real estate assessment appeal seminar well before the election.

It had political overtones since I successfully led the 1970 real estate assessment revolt to the Illinois State Property Tax Appeal Board. It lower 14 new homeownes’ assessments from 60% of market value to 42.6% (or whatever I proved the median average to be–might be off by a couple of tenths of a percentage point).

But the meeting, held at Martinetti’s, also was a public service.

The NW Herald put the ad on the obituary page, even though it had been running much, much smaller ads on page three for someone charging to help people appeal their property tax assessments.

I concluded that ad placement in the NW Herald had more to do with whether the paper supported a candidate than anything else.

By the placement of campaign signs, you can see that Grafton Township Supervisor wanted to replace fellow office holder Jack Freund with Mike Romanelli.

He did not succeed.

Even the early voting and absentee ballots are not yet counted, it is safe to say that the incumbent road commissioner won.

Freund received 1,020 to Romanelli’s 598.

I admit to not seeing much of a campaign from Freund, but road commissioners make lots of friends by the nature of their jobs.

The Republican primary was essentially the election because the Democrats have no candidates on the ballot and no independent is running.

Below you can see Lake in the Hills resident Mike Romanelli’s hand out.

He is challenging incumbent Road Commissioner Jack Freund and, from the placement of his signs, I would guess that he and Township Supervisor John Rossi are running something of a coordinated campaign.

Below you can see Lake in the Hills resident Mike Romanelli’s hand out.

He is challenging incumbent Road Commissioner Jack Freund and, from the placement of his signs, I would guess that he and Township Supervisor John Rossi are running something of a coordinated campaign.

Incumbent Grafton Township Supervisor John Rossi seems to be winning the sign war. It’s interesting that this Lakewood and Miller Road posting has both candidates for Township Road Commissioner beside the big Rossi sign. From the design and other joint placements I have seen, I assume that Mike Romanelli is running with Re-elect Rossi, while incumbent Jack Freund seems to be on his own.

You will note a smaller sign with Rossi’s name, along with the incumbent township trustees.

It’s not like his challenger, Linda Moore, has none.

But, it’s hard to compete with 4 by 4 foot signs with simple yard signs.

Some of Moore’s do have a theme that echoes her literature’s criticism of Rossi’s having borrowed $3.5 million without benefit of getting voters to approve it in a refernedum.

They say

on one side.

The other says,

Both sides have Linda Moore bumper stickers underneath.

Incumbent Grafton Township Supervisor John Rossi seems to be winning the sign war. It’s interesting that this Lakewood and Miller Road posting has both candidates for Township Road Commissioner beside the big Rossi sign. From the design and other joint placements I have seen, I assume that Mike Romanelli is running with Re-elect Rossi, while incumbent Jack Freund seems to be on his own.

You will note a smaller sign with Rossi’s name, along with the incumbent township trustees.

It’s not like his challenger, Linda Moore, has none.

But, it’s hard to compete with 4 by 4 foot signs with simple yard signs.

Some of Moore’s do have a theme that echoes her literature’s criticism of Rossi’s having borrowed $3.5 million without benefit of getting voters to approve it in a refernedum.

They say

on one side.

The other says,

Both sides have Linda Moore bumper stickers underneath.