McHenry County Blog

A press release from Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore:

Grafton Food Pantry Invited to “Come Back Home”

After reading that the Grafton Food Pantry has lost its facilities, Supervisor Linda Moore is inviting the pantry to come back home.

Shortly after the 2009 election, former Supervisor John Rossi with the assistance of Pam Fender and others, without authorization, removed this original pantry from the township offices and relocated it, cutting ties with the township altogether.

Area businesses have offered to store food nearby at no charge, to accommodate the growing use of the Grafton Township Pantry.

The original pantry has been in the township office since 1989 when former Supervisor Vernon Brunschon started it to help those who were in financial difficulties.

All townships are required, by law, to provide a general assistance program for their indigent. Grafton Township also offers emergency assistance once a year, to help residents in life threatening situations such as no electricity or impending eviction.

Applications for assistance are available at www.graftontownshipsupervisor.us and can be submitted anytime 8am to 4pm at the Grafton Township office, 10109 Vine Street, Huntley IL. Call 1-847-669-3328 if you have questions. Supervisor Moore’s number is 1-847-630-6325

Tom Poznanski

Monday night Grafton Township Party Central Committee Chairman Tom Poznanski told me that he favored letting the voters decide who the Republican Party candidates for township office would be.

This is the third cycle during which partisan candidates have run for office.

For the first, eleven years ago, the Central Committee held a caucus.

In 2009, the Party decided on a primary election at which Linda Moore beat out the incumbent John Rossi by a couple dozen votes, while re-electing three out of the four incumbent Trustees from the Rossi years.

The fourth Trustee elected was Gerry McMahon. He was supported by those behind Moore, but quickly switched sides and became Moore most vociferous critic.

Moore has been isolated on the Township board which she chairs, having to go to court to keep the Trustees from usurping her executive branch functions.

The Trustees have appealed Judge Michael Caldwell’s decision.

A primary challenge to Moore is a certainty.

Grafton Food Pantry recipient Ellen Drivakos is interviewed by Channel 7 for this evening's story at 5 o'clock.

Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore has never given up on the idea that Grafton Township government should run a food pantry.

The Daily Herald article.

The one run by former Supervisor John Rossi, reportedly organized as a not-for-profit organization in order to obtain food from the Northern Illinois Food Depository, moved lock, stock and barrel to a new location south of the McHenry-Kane County line in 2010.

Its independence was questioned by Grafton Township’s outside auditors Evans Marshall and Pease.  Nothing could be found in the Township minutes by the auditing fire to show it is not still a “component unit” of the Township, to put in auditor speak.

Today, the Daily Herald features the shortages at Township Hall’s Food Pantry in a front page article.

The Food Pantry shelves in the room that Grafton Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund is attempting to claim, were found to be empty, according to the story.

“…a mother-daughter team took up a collection among their Huntley neighbors and used the money to help fill the pantry with food. They had visited the pantry recently and were shocked at how bare it was,” according to Moore, as seen in Lenore Adkins’ story.

Sun City donor to the Grafton Township Food Pantry is interviewed by Leah Hope.

ABC TV reporter Leah Hope was out during the mid-day picking up on the Daily Herald’s story.  Channel 7 will have a story at 5 o’clock, she told Moore.

Linda Moore

The litigation concerning who has what power in Grafton Township has been long and expensive, but also interesting.  I’ve discussed how it involves the pitting of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of local government with Linda Moore’s attorney John Nelson and an attorney at Ancel, Glink, suggesting the case would be wonderful for law school students.  The one at Ancel, Glink said he would talk to a professor at Northwestern University.

The first case was won by Moore.

Judge Michael Caldwell ruled that she had executive powers much as do village board presidents.  (Both, you will note have a vote on their legislative bodies.)

Ancel, Glink, dismissal by Moore was ratified and Township Administrator Pam Fender, installed by the Trustees to take over pretty much ever duty the Supervisor had had under the man she beat in the GOP primary, John Rossi, performed, except the administration of General Assistance (a very limited welfare program) and keeping the books.

The second time around, Caldwell also ruled for Moore, saying that her choice for Township Attorney, Nelson, would be installed even though he had been rejected by the four Township Trustees.

The Trustees attorney, Thomas DiCianni, seemed visible stuck (read the bottom of the transcript) by Caldwell decision.  After regaining his composure, he asked to appeal and, upon consideration, Caldwell granted him that request.

Trustees Rob LaPorta, Barb Murphy, Berry Zirk and Gerry McMahon won that effort in the 2nd Appellate Court.

Now, Moore has announced that she will not appeal the ruling that Trustees must approve her nomination for Township Attorney.

Last night two Trustees, LaPorta and Murphy, joined more in appointing Michael Torchalski as “Special Counsel” to handle legal affairs in the sale of the Haligus Road property.  That parcel was purchased from the Village of Lake in the Hills for a new township hall.  That decision by the Township Board headed by John Rossi.  Moore used the issue to defeat Rossi in the first GOP primary election in Grafton Township.  (Previous township officials were elected on ad hoc party names.)

Here is the press release from Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore:

Grafton Township Supervisor Declines Appeal to the State Supreme Court

Linda Moore, Supervisor of Grafton Township announced today she did not authorize an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court as to whether it was legal for the trial court to order confirmation of her Attorney, John M. Nelson, as Grafton Township Attorney.

The Second District Court of Appeals reversed the order of the trial court in its decision on August 2011.

“The case involves complicated issues of enforcement of a court’s injunction versus arguments of separation of powers. While my attorney was anxious to have the Illinois Supreme Court decide these important issues, unfortunately, the cost to township taxpayers of such an appeal would vastly outweigh the benefits to Grafton Township and it’s taxpayers, “

Ms. Moore stated.

“The trustees’ attorneys, Ancel Glink have charged a total of $57,379 for just their appeal to the Second District. This is in addition to Attorney Nelson’s charges of $ $11,707.

“I can only imagine how many more tens of thousands of dollars it would cost to make law on this issue,”

stated Moore.

In addition, there is no guarantee the parties could obtain an expedited hearing for a quick decision.

“The Illinois Supreme Court is very deliberate because they set the rule of law in the state, “Ms. Moore said.

“We need a township attorney now, not months from now.”

Ms. Moore pledged she would continue to nominate qualified attorneys to assist Grafton Township in their legal matters. She continued by saying,

“Hopefully the trustees will come to their senses and confirm this appointment so we can move beyond the self-defeating actions that have driven this board.”

CPA’s Jeffrey Rollefson and Paul Thermen present their draft audit to the Grafton Township Board minus Trustee Gerry McMahon.

Because of the legal wrangling, the audit that should have been ready last summer has just been completed in draft form.

Still holding up finalization is the lack of a reply to a routine letter sent all law firms who represented Grafton Township.  Ancel, Glink’s reply is the only one missing.

Receipt of that reply, plus the signing of a “representation letter” by the proper township authority are the big things in the way of a final report.

Evans, Marshall & Pease, P.C., is the firm that took on the task of auditing Grafton Township.

Paul Thermen and Jeffery Rollefson were the pointmen who came to a special township board meeting Thursday night to present their draft findings and answer questions.

Just as they were getting started, Township Trustee Gerry McMahon walked out.  He stayed only twelve minutes.

My understanding is that Trustees get $100 a meeting.

CPA aul Theremen answers Trustee Robert LaPorta’s questions as Supervisor Linda Moore listens.

So, what did the auditors find?

“Nothing was missing,” Thermen explained in answer to a question from Trustee Rob LaPorta about the transfer of large amounts of money between township bank accounts.

Where there big problems?

“We really found nothing untoward in the audit,” Thermen said.

He complained about the “laborious” effort it took to read the minute and review the legal fees, but said the financial portions of the audit “went as smoothly as could be expected.”

LaPorta led the questioning on the Trustees’ behalf.  He wanted to know if the detailed questions raised by multiple township officials had been investigated.

Theremen wondered if some of the questions had not been handed in the courtroom.

“Procedures were a matter of differences of opinion.  Given the large legal expenditures, frankly, very bluntly, (the size) blew my mind, some of these concerns must have been handled by some of of these attorneys.”

“We must utilize ‘professional skepticism,’” he added.  He said the firm had solicited documents “relative to fraud.”

Grafton Township Trustee Robert LaPorta dominated the questioning of the outside auditors.

LaPorta interjected he agreed the township had had “astronomically large attorney fees” and observed that “some are still open,” but said the concerns brought up by various Grafton Township officials needed to be addressed in “the management letter, especially because of the extensive number of pages of concerns.”

“In all bluntness, I found some of it to be more politically oriented that accounting,” Thermen replied.  “In no way do we look at every single transaction…We didn’t see anything glaring.”

The CPA mentioned a complaint about allocation of a $5 expenditure to an unnamed official.   He used the word “minutia.”

LaPorta asked about “adjusting entries.”

“It did not affect the financial reporting,” Thermen replied.

“It is not uncommon to see adjusting entries.  (They are) not an indication of something done wrong.”

Indicating that the audit might end up in court, LaPorta pointed asked if the firm kept work papers.

They do for five years.

Paul Thermen, CPA

There was much conversation flowing from a draft note on “Contingencies.”

Its subject was the Grafton Township Food Pantry, moved out of township offices last year.

The basic question, raised by at least one attorney in the past, was whether the Township Board has taken official action to transfer the Grafton Township Food Pantry to a not-for-profit organization or is it still a “component unit” of the Township.  [Read Attorney Joe Gottermoller's September 2009 advice, including about the Food Pantry here.]

Theremen pointed out that a township employee had helped staff the Food Pantry in year’s past.

“The fact that it was housed here would lead the public to believe it was under the Township,” he added.

LaPorta agreed, “Mary was assigned to the Food Pantry.”

The auditor did not object to organization under a not-for-profit format so food could be purchased cheaper from the Northern Illinois Food Bank, he questioned whether the transferal from Township to non-Township governance had been done properly.  He stressed, however, that he was not giving a legal opinion.

He pointed out that board was made up the former Supervisor, former Clerk, present Clerk and one Trustee.

“Who appointed the (Food Pantry) Board?” he asked.

Trustee Betty Zirk explained the history of the Grafton Township Foor Pantry.

“I don’t recall,” Trustee Betty Zirk replied.

“How did any of you get on the Board?” was his follow-up question.

LaPorta said that former Supervisor John Rossi acted in his capacity as a private citizen, not as Township Supervisor, when he filed the Food Pantry’s legal papers.

Thermen wondered how that was possible, if the Food Pantry was being run by the Township.

“It kind of walks like a component unit and acts like one.  I think it is one.  That’s my non-legal opinion.

The auditors wanted everyone to know they were talking about the FY10 “DRAFT” audit. I hope this makes that clear.

“The Board has done nothing, zip, zero,” he observed concerning the Food Pantry’s transfer to a private entity.

LaPorta noted that its finances had been run out of Supervisor Millie Ruth’s personal checking account.  He added that after Rossi was elected Supervisor a separate account was set up to accept donations.

“Action needs to be taken by the Board to divest itself of the Food Pantry,” Thermen said.  “It could be done.  It hasn’t been done.  Hence, my note.”

Trustee Barb Murphy asked if a motion were made at the next Township meeting, “do we need to go back?”

CPA Paul Thermen answers question from Trustee Rob LaPorta.

Thermen again advised to get an attorney’s advice.

LaPorta stressed that they had followed an attorney’s advice at the time.

Thermen observed that the Township “had more attorneys than anyone I can think of.”

He noted that his firm’s predecessor as auditor had also commented on the Food Pantry situation in its management letter.

The draft audit for the immediate past year is almost completed and the firm intends to write a joint management letter to address both years.

The Grafton Township Food Pantry was started by former Supervisor Jack Brunschon and continued to operate under his successor John Rossi.

During that time it was turned into a not-for-profit entity in order to get better prices on surplus food, as I understand it.

Grafton Township Trustee extolls the benefits of a new township hall to Annaul meeting three years ago.

Providing more space for that Food Pantry was a motivating factor for the Township Trustees ill-fated efforts to build a new township hall.

GOP primary candidate Linda Moore used the borrowing of millions without a referendum to squeak out a victory over Rossi.

Those running the Food Pantry moved everything to private quarters in Rutland Township last summer.

Leaders of the Grafton Township Food Pantry accept check from McHenry County Board member Paula Yensen. From left to right are Kathy Schneiter, Yensen, John Rossi, Harriet Ford and Betty Zirk. Photo by The First Electric Newspaper.

Moore subsequently started a General Assistance Food Pantry.

Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund is about to evict that Food Pantry from the back room where the old one once was.

Grafton Township Road Commission Jack Freund's August 11, 2011, eviction letter.

Moore has sent him the following letter:

8/18/2011

Dear Highway Commissioner Freund,

I am in receipt of your letter dated August 11, 2011, wherein you threaten to remove me from a portion of my offices by self-help. The last elected township officials who attempted to do so cost the township taxpayers thousands in attorneys’ fees in a losing effort. I would caution you accordingly.

As you know, the room you have termed “storage area” has been and continues to be used for our Grafton Township Food Pantry which is part of the Grafton Township’s daily operations. I am surprised you want to interfere with the delivery of food to the needy people of Grafton Township.

I have reviewed the current lease attached to an intergovernmental agreement that I never had anything to do with. Nonetheless, the room in question, according to the lease is a township office. Thus, your letter is without foundation.

Please review this matter with your counsel. It would be prudent to avoid litigation in this matter that simply will enrich attorneys at taxpayer expense. Since there is no reason cited for your action in your letter and since the room has been used for township purposes opposed to road district purposes for at least the last twelve years, the taxpayers of Grafton Township, as well as myself, are going to wonder why you are attempting to go down this path.

Please come to your senses on this matter.

Sincerely,

Linda Moore, Grafton Township Supervisor

Supervisor Linda Moore hands Road Commissioner Jack Freund a check for $200,000, which she signed after the Trustees approved payment. Township Clerk Harriet Ford is seen to the right.

Township government consists of two parts, the Road District, which was spun off as a separate unit of government by the General Assembly and the rest of township government, usually called the township.

The last administration of the Grafton Township Board borrowed $700,000 from the Road District to build a new township hall.

The motion to borrow the money was done without proper notice and township residents successfully sued to stop the building of a new township hall.

Linda Moore rode the issue to election, narrowly beating Supervisor John Rossi.

Rossi’s allies remained in control of the board, however.  They ever gained a fervent supporter of building a new township hall in Gerry McMahon, one of Moore “running mates.”

Pretty much everything about Grafton Township politics revolves around the defeat of those in control of the board–the Township Trustees–in getting their dream of a new building constructed.

At last year’s township meeting, with over 700 attending, the electors overwhelmingly voted to unwind the loan, that is have the township repay the road district the borrowed $700,000.

For whatever reason, the Township Trustees delayed in doing so until after a citizen-initiated referendum on the question of building a new township hall overwhelmingly lost last November.

Meanwhile Supervisor Moore and her allies wanted all of the money paid back at once so the loan could be repaid to Harris Bank.  Under terms of the loan, the bank will not accept partial payment, so interest must be paid until the entire amount is tendered.

In addition, the Road District will charge Grafton Township rent each month until the loan is repaid.

That issue was argued at a Special Town Meeting before the Annual Town Meeting Tuesday night and Moore’s supporters lost their effort to force a lump sum repayment.

At Thursday night’s regular township meeting, Moore followed the wishes indicated by the Electors’ votes.

Mentioned many times by those in opposition to the lump sum repayment was the fact that an audit of last year’s books is overdue.  The reason for the delay was the Wayne Brown accounting firm did not want to start prior to the end of the separation of powers litigation filed by Moore when the Trustees decided to hire Pam Fender as Township Administrator to do everything legally possible without her being the Township Supervisor.

This was found by Judge Michael Caldwell (the same judge to stopped the new township hall) to have been done improperly. In short, he found the Trustees had overstepped their bounds, that the Supervisor was in charge of the day-to-day business of a township. the same way a village president is in charge of the day-to-day business of a village.

The lack of an audit was brought up Thursday night, with the Trustees asking for a firm that was not located in McHenry County.

About fifteen citizens attended the April 14, 2011, Grafton Township Meeting.

Moore had two suggestions, which, coincidentally, were both non-McHenry County firms.

The Trustees decided they want a presentation from both firms.

As usual, the meeting was free form, which is to be expected for a governmental body that has voted not to follow Roberts Rules of Order.

Trustee Gerry McMahon lived up to his reputation of shouting loudly a couple of times.

But, unlike past meetings I have attended audience members added to the disrpuption of decorum.

There was the usual talking over one another between Moore and the Trustees.

Unusual were fights that Moore picked with Township Assessor Bill Ottley over paying the second installment of a bill for new computer software and with Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund over the fixing of a shed that it turns out that salt pushing outward damaged.

Both clearly resented Moore’s intrusion in their balliwicks.

In other action, the Trustees refused to pay Linda Moore’s separation of powers lawsuit attorney, John Nelson, stating they wished to contest his hourly rate of $250.

They deferred payment to Richard Cowen, the attorney that Moore consulted prior to engaging Nelson.

Cowen’s name appeared in the meeting packet as being a speaker on “Township Personnel – Who Hires, Fires and Controls” at the Township Attorney’s Association meeting on in Bloomington on May 6th.  No Ancel Glink attorney was listed on the program.

The regular meeting ended something before ten. Conversation continued among some of the Trustees.

I took a lot of notes and could give provide a pretty good blow by blow, but these Grafton Township meetings last too late and I’m tired.

Attorney Nelson also attended the meeting and took a lot of notes.

By being out of the room, I missed what Lake in the Hills Democrat Paula Yensen said at the McHenry County Board on organization day, but did hear Crystal Lake Democrat Kathy Bergan Schmidt tell fellow board members what she was going to do with the pay raise that she thought should not have been granted the coming year.

Schmidt’s is going to the McHenry County Cooperative Dental Clinic. It is a joint effort by the McHenry County Dental Society and the County Health Department, offering dental services to lower income residents.

“If others (follow my example), well and good,” she said.

Seen from left to right at the check passing are Grafton Food Pantry Board member Kathy Schneiter, County Board member Paula Yensen, Food Pantry President John Rossi and Board Members Harriet Ford, Betty Zirk

Here is the press release Yensen distributed:

Paula Yensen (D-Lake in the Hills) today donated half ($250) of her McHenry County board member pay raise for FY 2011 to the Grafton Food Pantry.

She also donated $250 to Turning Point.

Yensen had voted against the pay increase for County board members, but the State’s Attorney’s office has said that board members could not refuse the increase nor return it to the County. Yensen decided to donate her entire pay increase to the two charities.

This is the first page of the Grafton Township separation of powers court decision by Judge Michael Caldwell. Click to enlarge.

As you can see the decision by Judge Michael Caldwell was filed Friday.

The last page of the court decision shows where copies were presumably mailed.

Lawyers for the two sides received copies of the decision. I believe the judge said he was going to mail them.

Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore is flanked by her attorney John Nelson on the left and her husband on the right as she leaves the McHenry County Courthouse after a day in Judge Michael Caldwell’s courtroom.

In the Grafton Township separation of powers case filed by Township Supervisor Linda Moore against her Township Trustees, Moore largely won.

Judge Caldwell wrote,

“What was done here by this board to the supervisor was not a policy but rather a deliberate usurpation of the supervisor’s authority and a clear case of unnecessary meddling and illegal micromanaging.”

On the other hand, the power of the Township Trustees to set the agenda, meeting times and places, plus award contracts and set employee salaries was affirmed.

Linda Moore seems to be looking on in disapproval at something the Township Trustees are doing.

Labeling the relationships “dysfunctional,” Judge Michael Caldwell ordered Trustees Betty Zirk, Gerald McMahon, Rob LaPorta and Barbara Murphy not to

• implement or attempt to implement the position of Township Administrator
• employ or attempt to employ Pamela Fender in the position of Township Administrator or in any other capacity
• 

  Ancel Glink partner Keri-Lyn Krafthefer is out of her job as Grafton Township Attorney.

  employ or attempt to employ Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Bush Dicianni & Krafthefer as township attorneys

• require that the Township Supervisor secure the advice and consent or approval of the township board before hiring any employee
• require that the Township Supervisor secure the advice and consent or approval of the township board [before] the firing or discharge of any employee
• require that the Township Supervisor secure the advice and consent or approval of the township board [before] the firing or discharge of the township attorney
• interfere, hinder, obstruct “Moore in the exercise of her duties as Township Supervisor and Chief Executive Officer including, but not limited to, the day-to-day organization and operation of the township offices, access to township business records, data and information of any kind and the computers used for the storage and creation of same, the preparation of agendas for township board meetings, the calling of special meetings and the posting of notices therefore”

Grafton Township Trustees Gerry McMahon, Betty Zirk, Rob LaPorta and Barb Murphy have less power than they have asserted as a result of the court decision.

Moore was forbidden from

• “removing, taking or transporting, secreting or concealing any township financial records, computer disc drives or computer-stored information by any means from the township offices
• “hindering, obstructing or preventing or attempting to hinder, obstruct or prevent access” of the Township Trustees to “official records…including but not limited to, all financial information regarding the business and operations of the township
• “failing to promptly present for consideration by the board of trustees”…”all bills, statement and invoices for goods and services rendered to the township.”

Huntley Village Trustee Pam Fender, who serves as Grafton Township Administrator, is out of the township job as a result of the Judge’s decision.

The Judge devotes most of his opinion to a summary of the facts and testimony, including the entire job description of Township Administrator Pam Fender, and relevant portions of the Township Code.

He points out that Moore “began her assault on the status quo in Grafton Township with a legal challenge to the township’s announced plans to issue bonds for the construction of at $3,00,000 town hall.’”

Caldwell notes Moore participation in the lawsuit to stop construction and her filing for office against incumbent Republican Supervisor John Rossi and her victory in both efforts. He notes that the Trustees spent $88,000 on attorney’s fees defending the new town hall. Half was spent in the case in which Judge Caldwell sided with Moore and her fellow plaintiffs and the other half was spent in the Trustees unsuccessful appeal.

“That is when the genesis of this lawsuit began,” he writes.

“Judging from the testimony elicited at the hearings before me, Moore’s term was marked by

• controversy,
• bitterness,
• conflict and
• outright hostility

from the very outset. She and the trustees battled over meeting notices, agendas, audits, access to public records and just about every facet of township government imaginable.”

He notes using Latin words I don’t understand even after two years of that language (sui generis rules) that the board stopped using Robert’s Rules of Order.

He points to the hiring of Pam Fender to be Township Administrator and installing her in Moore’s office.

Then, Moore filed her lawsuit and the trustees filed a counterclaim.

Reached for comment, Moore said,

“Until I hear from my attorney, it appears this ruling will enable me to do the job of Supervisor which is what the electors put me in office to do.”

Moore’s attorney is John Nelson.  Thomas DiCianni represented the Township Trustees.

More tomorrow. (See Part 2 here.  Read Judge Caldwell’s decision here.)