McHenry County Blog

Getting rid of the deals that went down to build a new town hall on Haligus Road without a referendum was the primary campaign promise that propelled challenger Linda Moore to a 30-vote Republican primary victory over Grafton Township Supervisor John Rossi.

The message was

“What is someone put a second mortgage on your home…without asking your permission?

“Your Grafton Township Supervisor and his township trustees have done something very close to that.

“Borrowing $3.5 million to build a new township hall without voter approval…in the middle of a recession…while spending less than $17,000 last year helping people in need with General Assistance…is bad government.

“You will have to pay that $3.5 million – PLUS interest – back with your property taxes.

“If you want an elected official who will ask your opinion before you are put into debt

“Vote for Linda Moore for Grafton Township Supervisor”

Put on a yard sign, the message was

NO TAXATION WITHOUT REFERENDUM

A court case led by Dan Ziller, Jr., in which Moore was a co-plaintiff forced to repayment of a $3.5 million township loan intended to pay for most of that building.  Judge Michael Caldwell made the decision.

(Ziller ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign for township trustee in which he emphasized the $3.5 million loan on his yard signs.)

It also forced a voter referendum on whether to borrow $3.5 million to build a new township hall.

Another $611,000 was raised by selling the current town hall to the to the Township Road District. Moore said last night that transaction did not end up in the minutes.

(Two different legal entities were created by the General Assembly resulting from township road commissioners wanting less oversight from township boards.)

In any event, the township hall is now controlled by the Road Commissioner Jack Freund. He has to be repaid over $611,000. He was planning to do so by charging the Town Fund rent, plus kicking in the difference from Road Fund taxes. The township board even paid a $66,000 commission on the transaction to McHenry County Board member Marc Munaretto.

When I left the Grafton Township meeting last night, the board was hiding behind closed doors so the public could not hear what its members were saying or what the two lawyers present were advising.

Newly-elected Township Supervisor Linda Moore had not fared well earlier, as she had been advised that her 7 PM meeting had been improperly posted and the 7:30 meeting, which has also been improperly, but not fatally wrongly posted, had gone according to the majority bloc of four trustees plans.

But when the doors at the Huntley Park District opened, the board took action to “unwind” the loan Grafton Township took out to buy its own township hall (after taxpayers had already paid for it once).

Only Moore’s erstwhile running mate Gerry McMahon voted against

When the vote was taken, Moore wasn’t the lonely girl that she was before going in

So, what happened?

“We were informed by the township attorney that the way things were done were not in accordance with the law,” Moore told me, “and it left the township open to suit.“In order to avoid further legal expenses, four of the five members of the board voted in favor of Barb Murphy’s motion to unwind the selling of the township property to the Road District.”

At the October board meeting Trustee Barbara Murphy signaled her desire to undo the Town Hall loan:

“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.)”

It appears that the four-member Grafton Township Board majority got its act together Wednesday night with the help of newly hired attorney Ancel Glink partne Keri-Lyn Krafthefer.

Left on the losing end of all contested votes was Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore.  So, while she had company, she was still lonely.

No boycotts like Monday and the Thursday before.

A still interrupting, but markedly calmer than before Trustee Gerry McMahon put it best,

“I believe the essence of the problem is majority rules and some people don’t understand majority rule.”

The obvious leader of the four trustees was Robert LaPorta.  Most of the agenda items proposed by LaPorta and Betty Zirk can be seen in this story.  You can see that Laporta was enjoying himself.

When I left, the board was going into secret session to discuss what apparently they dare not discuss in public:

“Discussion and potential action on prior sale of real estate for road district.”

Prior to going into what elected officials prefer to call “Executive Session,” Moore pointed out there was no mention of the sale she could find in the township minutes.

She had elaborated on the perceived legal problem at more length a previous meeting.

The township attorney at the time, Jim Kelly, and Krafthefer were both included in the closed session.

When Moore questioned Kelly’s inclusion, Trustee Robert LaPorta said,

“We need him as a subject matter expert.”

Earlier in the meeting the four trustees voted to pay Kelley $6,351 owed him.

Before the vote Moore pointed out that $48,941 had been spent on legal fees since the change of administration:

• $37,334 – Jim Kelly
• $10,457 – Joe Gottemoller
• $1,115 – Ancel Glink

There was also a bill pending to the latter for “over $5,000,” she said.

Moore observed that only $45,000 had been budgeted for legal fees for the entire year and that state law said that only10% of that total– $4,500–could be moved from other line items to legal fees.

“The only was we can pay any attorney fees if at another meeting we (revise) the budget,” she continued.

The majority four approved payment. In her negative vote, Moore reiterated,

“We do not have the funds available.”

All of the above took place in the meeting called by two of the trustees. The meeting called by Supervisor Moore was ruled illegal by the township attorney because its notice had not been posted by Township Clerk Dina Frigo.

Moore read the opinion and, then, reported that the McHenry County State’s Attorney was investigating where an illegal meeting had been held prior to the Thursday boycott of the township meeting.

Frustrated members of the audience gave their views before a third trustee entered the room. Then, Krafthefer silenced them, saying that no business could be conducted.

One woman echoed Trustee Barbara Murphy’s comments from a month ago about the need to “unwind” the loan which the township’s Road Fund took out to pay the Town Fund for the township hall.

That was some irony in such a discussion being held at the old Huntley High School, which the Huntley Park District bought from School District 158.

Both the town hall and the old high school will be paid for twice by local taxpayers, unless the over $600,000 township loan is “unwound.”

One woman in the audience said that would save taxpayers $50,000 a month.

Of course, that does nothing to keep Huntley Park District taxpayers from paying for the high school twice.

The all-Republican township board, by the way, show no sign of recognizing the opportunity their open disagreements are providing local Democrats in 2013.  Indeed, McMahon announced his intention to increase the Clerk’s salary because of the additional duties she was being assigned by the board majority.

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.

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.

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.

Only reporter Pete Gonigam, who writes the First Electric Newspaper, attended last week’s Grafton Township meeting.

He writes of how the board, by a 3-2 vote censured newly-elected Township Trustee Gerry McMahon.  McMahon and Betty Zirk voted against the motion.  Township Supervisor Linda Moore and Township Tru

McMahon is the one who consistently interrupted his running mate, newly-elected Township Supervisor Moore.

The only other local public officials to have been censured are McHenry County Board members Donna Kurtz and Scott Summers.  They were not censured because of constant interruption of MCC board meetings.  They were censured for changing their minds on the advisability of putting their taxpayers in debt to pay for a minor league baseball team and announcing the change at a Crystal Lake City Council meeting considering the necessary re-zoning.

The photo you see above was taken from the video recording of the prior meeting.  From left to right you see the four Grafton Township Trustees, Barbara Murphy, Rob LaPorta, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon.

The following has been received from the office of Jim Bishop, attorney for Dan Ziller, Jr., et al, in their successful case against the Grafton Township Board’s attempt to build a new township hall without voter approval:

The Illinois Appellate Court officially ended the legal battle of the stalled Grafton Township Town Hall project. No negotiations with respect to settlement are either appropriate or necessary.

The Appellate Court ended all speculation with its Decision of September 18, 2009, ruling in favor of the Grafton Township residents that filed suit against Grafton Township Officials, the Appellate Court ruled that there must be a the then Township Supervisor, John Rossi and the other Trustees.

The Appellate Court has ruled that the issue must be placed on the ballot for the vote of the residents of Grafton Township at the November 2010 General Election. The referendum will determine whether the project to construct a new township hall, estimated to cost in excess of $5 million, will proceed.

For more than seven months, the residents of Grafton Township have pleaded with, and finally sued, the Grafton Township Board of Trustees to delay the construction until a referendum could be placed on the ballot concerning this important matter.

Over a period of many months, the Grafton Board of Trustees refused to halt the project necessitating the litigation.

The Appellate Court sided with the residents on all issues in the Court’s 12 page published Opinion.

Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore, who has been steadfastly opposed to the Town Hall construction project, has been continuously thwarted by the actions of the majority of the Trustees, which led to the recent resignation of Township Attorney, Joseph Gottemoller.

The continued refusal of the majority of the Grafton Township Trustees may well lead to additional litigation against the Township in order that the residents may see certain financial and other documents relating to various expenditures over the past 4 years.

James Bishop, attorney for the Plaintiffs in the “town hall” litigation has recently filed a Freedom of Information request with the Township Clerk, Dina Frigo, and has indicated that should the Trustees continue to refuse to provide such financial documentation, another lawsuit will be forthcoming.

Among financial documentation sought by Bishop are annual

• Township audits for the years 2006-2009, 
• monthly bank statements, check registers, 
• contracts relating to the sale of the existing township property, 
• contracts and other documentation. 

By law, the township is required to respond to Bishop’s FOI request early next week.

= = = = =
Seen at the Grafton Township meeting when attorney Joe Gottemoller rendered his resignation are, from left to right, Township Clerk Dina Frigo, Township Trustees Rob LaPorta, Betty Zirk and Gerry McMahon. Trustee Barbara Murphy has her back to the camera. Township Supervisor Linda Moore was medically indisposed. If you wish, you can read Gottemoller’s parting advice to the board.

After winning his clients’ suit against a Grafton Township board that decided to build a new township hall without notifying, let alone asking township residents for their opinions, Crystal Lake attorney Jim Bishop is filing a Freedom of Information request asking for extensive financial and other information.

“We’re going to file a Freedom of Information request and if the informatin is not immediately forthcoming, we will file an appropriate suite,” Bishop told me.

What’s being sought?

• Financial records since Fiscal Year 2006
• Check register for that four-year period
• Bank statements for the township general and general assistance funds
• Records of purchases and disposition of personal property purchased by the township

The Grafton Township supervisor during that period was John Rossi. Linda Moore defeated him in the Republican primary election by 30 votes. The Democrats ran no candidates for township office.

Grafton Township operated a food pantry, which Rossi turned into a not-for-profit corporation. Since his loss, it has moved out of the township building.

An all-female panel of Illinois’ Second Appellate Court ruled today that McHenry County Circuit Court Judge Michael Caldwell was right when stopped the building of a new Grafton Township Hall which was approved without public notice or vote by Supervisor John Rossi and his four-member township board.

In the too little, too late category was a September 17th letter from the four Grafton Township trustees’ attorney, Jim Kelly, offering to settle the suit in exchange for next year’s fall referendum on the subject.

Grafton Township taxpayers Dan Ziller, Richard and Tamera Lueth, Tom Halat, Frank Kearns and Township Supervisor candidate Linda Moore filed the original suit.  Moore withdrew from the suit when she was sworn into office.

Justice Ann Jorgensen delivered the opinion with Justices Susan Hutchison and Mary Seminara-Schostok concurring.

Jorgensen and Seminara-Schostok were in Crystal Lake recently attending the Nunda Township Republican Picnic.  They are both appointed justices running for their first ten-year term. 

Justice Susan Hutchison is a resident of Crystal Lake. 

Crystal Lake attorney Jim Bishop represented the winning side.
= = = = =
The photo is from the Nunda Township Republican Picnic.  You see McHenry County Republican Party Chairman and State Rep. Mike Tryon posing with Jorgensen and Schostok.

When Linda Moore was elected Township Supervisor over incumbent John Rossi, she dismissed the previous attorney Jim Kelly. The board hired Joe Gottemoller to replace him.

Now, just a couple of months into the job, Gottemoller has tendered his resignation.

Here’s the letter he sent:

“With this correspondence I am submitting my resignation as the Grafton Township attorney effective immediately.

“Since 1982 I have practiced law either in private practice or as an assistant states attorney. I have served in McHenry County on two separate task forces and on the McHenry County Conservation District Board of Trustees. In addition, my private practice has taken me in front of almost every governmental entity in McHenry County and some in Kane and Lake Counties. With all this work, even when the things did not go my way I was proud to be associated with the officials who were doing their best to serve the citizens who elected them.

“I cannot say that about Grafton Township. The township officials appear to have forgotten that their purpose is to serve the residents who entrusted them with these offices.

“During the past few months I have had the responsibility to the Township to give good sound legal advice on how to address many of the complicated issues that are before you. For example, the Township is now saving $426 per day because the $3.5 million in bond debentures was unwound. Bu make no mistake; there are some extremely important issues that remain. I list them here and expand on them in an attachment:

• The lawsuit over the construction of the building
• The sale of the existing building to the Highway Department
• The ownership of the Food Pantry

Although I would have been proud to assist with these issues, it appears that no one on this board actually wants them resolved unless it is done with maximum embarrassment to their political enemies.

“I will not waste another moment of my time of officials who are more interest(ed) in ‘being right’ than ‘doing what’s right.’

And, no, the mild mannered Gottemoller did not say,

as I entitled my article last night about his resignation.

More on this story Saturday.