McHenry County Blog

Grafton Trustees Ask for Additional Delay to Appeal Judge Caldwell’s Order to Appoint John Nelson Township Attorney

Hi ho. Hi ho. It’s off to court we go.

Again. For Grafton Township.

May 4th Grafton Township Trustees were ordered by Judge Michael Caldwell to vote to approve Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore’s attorney in her separation of powers case as Township Attorney.

Needless to say, the Trustees do not want the guy who stripped them of all the power that Ancel Glink Partner Keri-Lyn Krafthefer cooked up for them.

The power that Judge Caldwell ruled was improper.

The Trustees’ attorney, Ancel Glink Partner Thomas DiCianni immediately asked for a stay (delay) of the order so the Trustees could file their own separation of powers appeal to the 2nd Appellate Court in Elgin.

Judge Caldwell granted a thirty-day delay so an appeal could be filed.

It was.

Now the Trustees are coming to Judge Caldwell’s courtroom again June 8th to ask for a delay in his order concerning the appointment of John Nelson until the appeal is over.

The document is dated June 6th.

“Do you think the trustees have management (power) day-to-day?” Supervisor Linda Moore asked Ancel Glick partner Keri-Lyn Krafterfer.

She replied in the affirmative to which Moore asked her to

“Please put that in writing.”

On the offensive again, Moore asked newly-appointed Township Administrator Pam Fender,

“Do you intend to force your way into my office again?”

Discussion then went to the trustees desire to have internet “live access” to the Quick Books accounting program for themselves and Fender.

“A kid in high school can handle Quick Books,” Trustee Rob LaPorta observed. He added that he would exclude records about public assistance.

Then, back to the newly-designated Township Supervisor’s office again.

“You want me to served General Assistance clients in a room without windows?”

“It has a window,” Gerry McMahon said, but was corrected.

“As long was we’re in the majority, we’re in control,”

said McMahon.

“Do you see any errors we’re making here,” LaPorta asked the attorney.

“No,” was the reply.

“She’s going to hired another attorney to block this thing,” LaPorta said.

“You’re directing an employee to give orders to an elected officials,” Moore said as the township trustees delegated the switching of offices to Fender.

“Motion for Pam to quarterback the move,” LaPorta said.

“Coordinate moving the offices,” McMahon suggested.

“Pam will direct and manage,” LaPorta offered.

That’s when we learned that he was in television at one time. He starting talking about reading the “script.”

“Take 2.

“…for the Grafton Township Administrator to coordinate the three office move that the Grafton Township Board voted upon tonight until completion.”

‘If you’re talking about Pam doing the directing…”

The motion passed, as others previously 4-1.

Then it was budget time.

“I messed up last week,” Trustee Betty Zirk admitted.

“All of the trustees did,” LaPorta agreed.

Then they started talking about the $3.5 million budgeted for the new township hall and how they had incorrectly added in about $600,000 that is sitting in the bank from the sale of the township hall to the township road district.

That’s when I took a break in the hall that lasted until the meeting was adjourned mercifully close to 9 o’clock.

= = = = =

Here is Part 1.

Here is Part 2.

“If you want to remove me from office, do it officially,”

Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore challenged her board of trustees is where our story about Tuesday’s Grafton Township meeting begins.  (Here is Part 1.)

“You’ve proven yourself incompetent,” Trustee Rob LaPorta asserted.

“We never talked about that,” Gerry McMahon added.

“You are being a micro-manager,” Moore inserted.

“You should resign. Face it,” LaPorta said.

After Ancel Glick attorney Keri-Lyn Krafterfer spoke again without recognition, my notes say LaPorta said, “You have no rights.”

“You do not have a right to an office,” McMahon echoed.

Moore brought up again her attorney’s suggestion that they sit down with the township attorney and a trustee and try to work things out.

“Who would want to talk to you, Linda?” McMahon asked bombastically. “It’s bad enough we have to talk to you.”

“If you move me from my the offices, then you will be impeding my duties,” Moore added.

“Then sue us,” LaPorta said.

“The actions of these trustees will lead the township into litigation,” Moore relied.

The township attorney again took the offensive:

“The supervisor is not entitled to an office.”

“You have received poor legal advice,” Moore told the trustees.

The subject jumped to emails, which have been requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

“I don’t have any emails,” Trustee Barb Murphy said.

“You’ve been withholding them from me,” Moore said to the trustees.

At this point LaPorta said,

“It’s a comedy.

“The Grafton Township Reality Show.”

Raising his voice again, McMahon interjected,

“I keep telling you. It’s four against one and you lose.”

= = = = =
More tomorrow.

Another night at the Huntley Park District complex, another contentious meeting.

But, unlike the previous meetings, the real reason for the conflict—Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore’s decisive role in killing the $5 million (including interest) new township hall—didn’t come up except in revising the budget as the meeting was winding down.

The township board decided to move Moore out of her two-office complex into a windowless office heretofore occupied by the very part-time township clerk.

To the conference room will go Moore’s assistant, right next to the public bathroom.

While Township Trustee Rob LaPorta thought “none of (the instructions ordered by the board the week before had been carried out) but the (provision) of a stapler has been accomplished,” Township Administrator Pam Fender answers repeatedly indicated they had.

Moore went on the offensive, telling the board members she had talked to Assistant Illinois Attorney General Paul Gaynor about criminal violations concerning taking, hiding or destroying public records.

“Trustees should not cross over from governance to management,” Moore stated as she
passed out the cover of the latest edition of the township officials’ magazine. On the cover of Township Perspective is this headline:

Supervisor is…
manager, coordinator,
administrator of township

Later Moore accused the trustees of micromanaging township affairs.

“The employee works for the official. The board may have no employee of their own,” she read, apparently from the magazine article.

“That wasn’t a reflection of law,” interjected Township Attorney Keri-Lyn Krafterfer of Ancel Glick, who often seemed to be in control of the meeting.

‘The Huntley Police say I have the right to have my office locked,” Moore continued.

“Stop threatening us,”

Trustee Gerry McMahon shouted.

“Until we get a letter from the Huntley Police, (it means nothing),” LaPorta said calmly.

“How would she like being at home?”

McMahon thundered.

“We are moving out of her office and into her clerk’s office,” LaPorta continued.

Interrupting, McMahon said, “I’ve heard many townships don’t provide an office.”

= = = = =

Here is Part 2.”>Part 2.

In the soon-to-disappear Northwest Herald comments on its story about the Grafton Township Trustees’ hiring Huntley Village Trustee Pam Fender to basically do all the work that Supervisor Linda Moore is charged with performing now, a gentleman calling himself “Cadman” wrote the following:

“As I have stated before, find which of the trustees and their friends stand to gain from building the memorial and you will know who is causing all the problems.”

I ask that Cadman email me (address on the upper left hand of this page) something a bit more specific.

You can find McHenry County Blog’s story on the Thursday meeting here.

With a wish fulfillment that newly-elected Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore would go poof and disappear in the night in the Huntley Park District meeting room last night being unattainable, the other four members of the township board decided to do the next best thing.

To punish the person they blame for derailing their new $3.5 million township hall, they voted to hire a township administrator, a post unheard of in McHenry County, but apparently common in patronage-ridden Cook County Townships seeking ways to justify their existence.

The trustees’ minds were obviously made up before the meeting began.

As Trustee Gerry McMahon pointed out to Moore after LaPorta had taken the high road by vowing the township was going to “follow best practices,”

“There are going to be a lot of changes. Get used to it!”

The perfunctory discussion of the need for such an employee to effectively replace the township supervisor and the presence of the person being hired—political ally and Huntley Village Trustee Pam Fender—in the audience is evidence of the choreographed nature of the meeting.

The cost of the action to taxpayers taken by the four Grafton Township Trustees will be in the $50,000 range once family health benefits are added to the $35,000 salary.

LaPorta pointed out that the compensation “was about half what other townships pay their administrators.”

Linda Moore’s reaction:

“It’s another waste of taxpayers’ dollars. No township of similar size or in McHenry County has seen a need to spend money for this purposed.”

Led by Rob LaPorta, he, Barb Murphy, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon voted as a bloc to hire the Fender, who told McHenry County Blog she is a decorator and contractor as well as village trustee.

When asked, she said she considered this a full-time job.

Asked whether she would run for township supervisor, a rumor about town, Fender replied, “I have no idea at all.”

No job description was available and there was not evidence that anyone else had been considered for the position.

LaPorta turned to Ancel Glick attorney Keri-Lyn Krafterfer for help in explaining what a township administrator would do and other townships who had them.

“Counselor, explain what other townships do,”

LaPorta asked.

“They serve the equivalent function of a city manager,” Krafterfer replied. She then added that an administrator could

• order the thank you plaque for the just-resigned Township Clerk Dina Frigo,
• get bids for surety bonds for trustees whom the board majority wants to countersign all checks and issue them, if Moore refuses to do so within a specified time,
• “do whatever,
• recreation programs,
• transportation services,
• health,
• youth,
• day-to-day” management,
• “assemble the board packets,
• all the things that go into the day-to-day running of the township.”

When pressed for other townships that have administrators, Krafterfer cited

• Palatine (112,740 population found here)
• Orland (91,418)
• Elk Grove (94,969)

“There’s dozens of others. It’s very common.”

Grafton Township had 45,427 people as of 2007.

After that brief description that most people would think contains the duties of a township supervisor, LaPorta said,

“I would like to nominate somebody this evening to provide the best services to the township… Pam Fender.”

She had “significant government and leadership background, has a proven history of getting things done for the community…in a timely fashion.”

Dan Ziller, Sr., and Jr., strong supporters of Moore began expressing their displeasure.

“If you can’t keep quiet, I’m going to ask you to leave,” LaPorta said.

After a few more words, the two walked out the door.

“We need to diminish your troublesome conduct,” McMahon next said to Moore. “You’re not doing a good job for the township. It’s as simple as that.”

Fender then made a presentation including, “I would like to serve the whole of Grafton Township.”

Moore asked Fender,

“When the Village of Huntley hires someone do they hire a friend or the best qualified person?”

but received no satisfaction.

McMahon yet again aimed his ire at Moore by stating to 11-year resident Fender,

“We want you to be a good public relations person. You’re working for the board.”

Fender’s start date is Tuesday. Yet unsettled is where her office will be, but Trustee Zirk thought it ought to be near the front door in the same office as Moore.

Although no job description was available at the meeting, the attorney said,

“We’ll get a job description.”

Neither Barb Murphy nor Zirk had questions for Fender.

The hiring came after a another bill of particulars of things Moore had done wrong leading up to a second censure resolution.

Displeasure over the roll Moore played in killing the township hall was evident periodically throughout the meeting.

“We’d have our own building…”

Gerry McMahon said at the end of the meeting before being interrupted by Rob LaPorta, who said,

“Gerry don’t go there,”

as a lease requested by the Huntley Park District was discussed before being assigned to Fender for investigation.

Earlier McMahon strayed from the script by saying,

“We could have had our own building and been in it by now,”

adding, “That’s satire,” after Moore explained that the park district had expressed displeasure with the township board’s late meetings.  (This one ended after 11.)

The meeting was calmer than the one Moore posted, first on the township web site, then on her own after outraged township trustees order them removed.

I only watched the first part of the meeting, but it must have been a doozy because when Loretta Wuich complained about the way she was treated, LaPorta offered an apology for not acting the way he does in other circumstances.

All the officials are Republican.

As reported by McHenry County Blog November 12th, the four Grafton Township Trustees who wanted to build a new township hall, but didn’t want to ask the public for permission in a referendum, boycotted a township meeting.

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

Township Trustees Barbara Murphy, Robert LaPorta, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon weren’t there.

Here’s what the Assistant State’s Attorney Cynthia A. Schaupp said in a January 7th letter to Moore:

This investigation revealed the following:
Mr. LaPorta did contact the Grafton Township attorney to inquire whether he could boycott the November 12, 2009, meeting since the agenda did not contain items he requested to have placed on the agenda.The attorney informed him he can choose to not attend the meeting.

Mr. LaPorta then contacted by telephone Trustee Zire and Trustee Murphy, individually, to inform them that he would not be attending the meeting.

Mr. LaPorta, never told the Trustees that they should also miss the meeting.

Trustee Murphy was not able to go to the meeting due to a work conflict and did not miss the meeting due to the any other reason.

Trustee McMahon did not recall if Trustee LaPorta even contacted him prior to the November 12, 2009 meeting.

The facts presented do not indicate any designed plan or “chain” to violate the Open Meetings Act.

Based on the above facts available to me at this time, this office does not believe there was any violation of the Open Meetings Act and thus will take no further action. However, should any additional information become available, this office may review this decision.

After receiving the above letter Supervisor Moore, who filed an Open Meetings Act violation complaint, sent the following letter to the State’s Attorney’s Office:

Cythia Schaupp
Assistant State’s Attorney
January 8. 2010

Dear Attorney Schaupp,

I have received your letter regarding the boycotting of meetings by the Grafton Township Trustees.  Thank you for contacting the trustees, however, I am concerned that you have overlooked some evidence from reporter Pete Gonigam and new evidence has occurred.

Please review the quote by Trustee LaPorta made at the time that the boycotting occurred to reporter Pete Gonigam who wrote a story the next day on the subject,

“We as a group of trustees decided to do that.”

LaPorta said.  You do not refer to this evidence in your letter even though on November 18th I wrote a letter to you asking you to consider this evidence and contact Mr. Gonigam.

The word boycott defined means

“to join together in refusing to deal with, so as to punish or coerce.”

Source is Webster’s Dictionary and online Your Dictionary.

In your letter, dated January 7th you state that Mr. LaPorta asked the attorney to inquire whether he could boycott a meeting.  Your letter states, “The attorney informed him that he can choose not to attend the meeting.”

Ancel Glick partner Keri-Lyn Krafterfer advising Grafton Township Board.

On November 6, Krafthefer advises the trustees in a letter,

“Further, there is nothing to prevent the Township Trustees from boycotting the regular meeting with your proposed agenda,“

Attorney Krafthefer’s response is also documented in a letter to the trustees dated November 17th,

“There is nothing that prevents one trustee from calling another trustee, then hanging up and calling another trustee.  Such would not constitute a meeting under the Open Meetings Act.”

In other words, she has said there is no such thing as a “chain” call that would violate the Open Meetings Act.

In my opinion, Ms. Krafthefer has given the trustees inappropriate legal counsel in these statements.

Per the Open Meetings Act, “Meeting” means any gathering, whether in person, or by video or audio conference, telephone call, electronic means, or other means of contemporaneous interactive communication of a majority of a quorum of the members of a public body.

November 12, 2009, Grafton Township Meeting that the four trustes did not attend.

In other words, the definition of a meeting can be calls made one after another between more than two board members.  Mr. LaPorta may have told you that he did not tell the trustees to boycott the meeting, however he admits to doing just that when he is quoted by Pete Gonigam,

“We as a group of trustees decided to do that (boycott the meeting.)”

Since my previous contact with you, the trustees have chosen not to attend four meetings in the month of November and as a result many items of township business are not addressed at this time.  In fact, the trustees did not attend meetings dated November 12, 16, 18 and 24th.

Clearly this was not a one time unplanned coincidental event.  It is reoccurring and intentional.

On January 4th Trustee McMahon was quoted by the Daily Herald reporter Jameel Naqvi as follows,

“I don’t want to go to a meeting called by Linda Moore…don’t care about anything she has on the agenda.”

McMahon said.

Is not this further evidence that the trustees plan to continue to violate the Open Meetings Act by joining together to refuse to deal with, so as to punish or coerce with the township attorney’s apparent permission as documented in your letter of January 7th?

In light of this additional information, you have offered to review this decision.

I am asking that you do reconsider the Open Meetings Violation Compliant that was made by myself and an unnamed McHenry County resident.

After receiving your letter I tried to contact you by telephone, but you were unavailable at that time.  For clarification purposes, I have sent you various documents at various times, but I was under the impression that the investigation was started at the request of another McHenry County resident.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Very Truly Yours,

Grafton Township Supervisor
Linda Moore

Attachments include:
Jan. 7 letter from Office of State Attorney
Nov. 17 letter, page 2 Ancel-Glick
Nov. 18 letter from Linda Moore
Jan. 4 Daily Herald article
Nov. 13 Pete Gonigam article
Nov. 6 Ancel Glick letter

When I asked the First Electric Newspaper‘s Pete Gonigam if he had been interviewed by the State’s Attornedy’s Office, he said that he had not.

For the second time in four days, Grafton Township Trustees boycotted a meeting called by newly-elected Supervisor Linda Moore.

Moore was criticized by township attorney Keri-Lyn J. Krafterfer in a November 6th letter for not having included items on her agenda requested by Trustee Robert LaPorta.

They included

• Motion to approve Board rules that were originally submitted by Trustee LaPorta and approved by Trustees in a Grafton Special Meeting that Supervisor Moore did not attend (because of being physically indisposed, I was told).
• Discussion and motion to approve Senior Transportation Fees and Fee Change procedure.
• Inclusion of Huntley Chamber Bill and Attorney Kelly’s open bills on warrant and motion to approve full payment of.
• Motion to define, complete and approve FOIA stating Clerk Fergo as the person to assemble, report on, and delegate FOIA request completions.
• Motion to approve Grafton Township maintenance of Haligus Road property.
• Motion to approve ‘new location’ of Grafton Township Food Pantry inclusion on Grafton Township website and Posting in Grafton Township Offices.
• Motion for authorization to have assessor’s office research available office space within Grafton Township for consideration of a lease and/or purchase agreement.
• Distribution, review, discussion and motion to approve or reject township audit.

These items Moore included in her Monday meeting agenda, but complained at that boycotted meeting that Township Clerk Dina Frigo had removed them from the door of the township hall.

In a letter to Township Attorney Krafthefer, dated November 16th, said the removal “was witnessed by a reliable source.”

Frigo, who Thursday indicated she did not know where the missing trustees were, apparently knew they were not showing up Monday night and joined their boycott.

But Frigo did post a notice for a 7:30 PM Wednesday township meeting called by Trustees Betty Zirk and Rob LaPorta.

Many of the items listed above in LaPorta’s request to Moore were included, as well as others, including

• new locks for Frigo’s office
• paying bills that would have been approved at last Thursday’s meeting
• establishing a procedure for receiving and distributing the trustees and clerk’s mail
• establishing a township investment policy

The changes seems to have had the advice of an attorney.

Moore posted her own agenda for a meeting at the same location—the Huntley Park District at 12,015 Mill Street in Huntley—but starting a half an hour earlier at 7 PM.

At the 12-minute meeting tonight, Sun City resident Ralph Wehnes had some comments:

“Is this really a major problem with you and John Rossi?…It looks like something is going on that’s going to cost somebody a lot of money.”

“It already has,” Moore replied.

Commenting on Rossi, whom Moore defeated by 30 votes in the Republican primary election, she said, “I haven’t spoken with Mr. Rossi since I kidded with him about other people being able to do the job.”

Asked about the problems, Moore suggested,

“Three of the board were on the previous board. I think it’s a case of sour grapes.”

Moore also wasn’t happy at the new attorney’s having suggested in writing,

“Further, there is nothing to prevent the Township Trustees from boycotting the regular meeting with your proposed agenda and posting their own notice of a special meeting with an agenda including their items.”

The attorney wrote that it would be “happy” to prepare the agenda.

In a November 16th letter, Moore asked if “the clerk need(s) to follow the same rules you laid out in your recent opinion letter and include the supervisor’s agenda items on her agenda.”

Moore’s agenda items were not included in the Zirk-LaPorta agenda.

Moore also asked,

“If three or more trustees have a daisy chain telephone conversation and decide to boycott township meetings, twice in a row, does this constitute a violation of the open meetings act?”

Both sides of the dispute are sending the McHenry County State’s Attorney copies of their missives.