McHenry County Blog

McHenry County Blog has obtained the statements that Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore and Grafton Township Administrator Pam Fender made to the Huntley Police Department after Village Trustee Fender called the police Tuesday morning about twenty minutes after the incident described below.  (Click to enlarge.)

Meanwhile, Keely Cat is taking the Northwest Herald approach to the adding of about $50,000 worth of administrative cost to the delivery of Grafton Township services.

Keely ignoring what's going on in Grafton Township.

Linda Moore

Pam Fender

It’s said that the best defense is a good offense.

And that’s what Huntley Village Trustee Pam Fender, newly hired to, in effect, supplant elected Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore, did when she called the Huntley Police after apparently trying to force her way into Moore’s office.

At 8:30 AM, at the start of her second week as Grafton Township Administrator, Fender precipitated a confrontation with the elected Township Supervisor she was hired by the four township trustees to replace.

That’s when Pam Fender tried to force her way into Linda Moore’s office.

Anybody over 30 knows that something bad is going to happen when you try to force your way into someone’s private office.

Moore told her not to come in the office, but Fender didn’t heed the instruction. This led to Moore’s defending her territory.

At 8:52, some twenty minutes, later Fender had decided to call the police. One can only wonder to whom she talked in the intervening time.

You can read the police report below for details below.  I note with amusement that the second sentence of the narrative says,

“…the victim had been struck by her supervisor…”

One thing is for certain.  Pam Fender does not consider Linda Moore “her supervisor.”

The narrative of the Huntley Police Department's report 10-0289 can be found in three parts above. You can enlarge each section by cllicking on the image.

Grafton Township Trustees revising the budget six weeks before the end of the fiscal year. $50,000 was transferred from a contingency line item.

I’d forgotten how boring budget committee mark-ups could be.

That was the first order of business at the Grafton Township meeting Monday night.

Held at the Huntley Park District headquarters (the old high school that local taxpayers have had the privilege of paying for twice because of Illinois’ multi-layered form of local government), the main order of business seemed to be to make sure there was enough money to pay newly-hired Township Administrator Pam Fender, who is also a Huntley Village Trustee.

Pam Fender advising Rob LaPorta during the meeting.

The budget discussion went on and on.

And in the reallocating of $50,000 in contingency funds, making sure Fender would get paid was the primary objective.

Consider these three separate comments from Trustee Rob LaPorta:

“We have to keep in mind we have to add Pam’s salary in this. Plus benefits.”

“…and Pam’s has to be factored in here, too.”

“Is there going to be enough for Pam?”

What the officials side of the room looked like.

Before the meeting started, Fender asked me not to take pictures from behind the row of desks where all but Trustee Gerry McMahon sat and not to sit on the counter as I had for a while during last week’s too long meeting.

I told her that there wasn’t room behind the desk and asked her why she cared whether I sat on the counter top.

She said I might fall off, get injured and sue the township, that I was “a litigious person.”

I told her I haven’t sued people, that she ought to get her facts straight before making such a charge.

Perhaps she was relying on the Northwest Herald’s account of its owner’s suit against me. If so, check out the court files. The paper sued me, not the opposite. My legal representation by Patrick Ouimet was outstanding, as was the result.

(Or maybe Fender is thinking about the days forty years ago when I sued about 2,500 people a year for non-payment of Personal Property Taxes when McHenry County Treasurer–a deliberate statewide strategy to get the General Assembly to abolish the tax that actually worked–but I doubt she’s been around long enough to remember that.)

In any event Fender was in a take charge mood, interrupting to say,

“Trustees, this isn’t going to go anywhere,”

when discussion veered to mistakes made by listening to various lawyers and bond counsel about how it was legal to borrow the $3.5 million from the Harris Bank.

Some of the audience at the meeting.

That made me wonder why the board has not looked at recovering the $600,000 plus dollars that the trustee side of the table accused the taxpayer side of the table of costing township taxpayers.

Surely the attorneys who gave advice that led to actions Judge Michael Caldwell and the 2nd Appellate Court ruled improper have legal malpractice insurance.

Grafton Township Administrator explaining what she needs to do her job.

But, there I go talking about potential lawsuits, helping make Fender’s point, I guess.

Later when the board was methodically, stripping Supervisor Linda Moore of every duty not specified by state law, the high speed copy machine, her files on other subjects, that is, leaving her with nothing to do but administer welfare relief and be treasurer of the township, Fended asked,

“Can I say something?”

Moore replied,

“The time for public comment is over.”

Fender’s comment was

“I’m an employee now.
“I’m an employee now.”

I’ve attended a good number of municipal meetings and, while city managers or village administrators sometimes interject themselves into the meeting without being asked, that is rare. Maybe Huntley’s village board meetings have a different dynamic.

Trustee McMahon was vociferous as usual.

Grafton Township Administrator advising Trustee Gerry MaMahon.

Joining trustees, Administrator Fender attempted to calm Trustee McMahon down when he got excited.

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.

Watercolor of $3.5 million Grafton Township Hall the majority of the township board tried to build without adequate notice to the taxapyers. Linda Moore was party to the suit that stopped expenditures before she became township supervisor, basing her campaign on opposition to the proposal.

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!”

At the annual Grafton Township meeting, Huntley Village Trustee Pam Fender was standing to the left of the trustees (in the photo, a bit to the right of the 20 MPH sign) voting with them to approve a new $3.5 million ($5 milion with interest) township hall. (Click to enlarge.)

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.

In the next to the back row, Huntley Village Trustee Pam Fender waited to be hired as Grafton Township Administrator, akin to a city manager, with her male supporters beside and behind her.

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.”

Ancel Glick attorney Keri-LynKrafterfer offers explanation of other townships, none in McHenry County, that have hired adminstrators.

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,

Dan Ziller, Sr., and Dan Ziller, Jr., leave Grafton Township meeting after the board selects Pam Fender to take over Supervisor Linda Moore's duties. Dan Ziller, Jr., was the lead plaintiff in the suit that stopped the building of the new township hall and required a referendum on the subject in November.

“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.”

Huntley Village Trustee Pam Fender makes presentation to the Grafton Township Board after Rob LaPorta made a motion to hire her for $35,000, plus health and other benefits, to become Township Administrator.

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.

Gerry McMahon

Linda Moore

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…”

Rob LaPorta, the leader of the four trustees whose goal is to freeze Linda Moore out of township affairs.

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.

Grafton Township Clerk Dina Frigo makes a point at a township board meeting.

Confirmed by Grafton Township Trustee Rob LaPorta, Grafton Township Clerk Dina Frigo has resigned.

“Resignation of clerk confirmed. She is excited about a new full time job and will be putting full focus on that and her family.

“We thank her for her time with us and wish her much success.”

I assume Township Supervisor Linda Moore will nominate Frigo’s replacement.

Moore and Frigo have been at odds.

But any nomination would have to be confirmed by the township board on which LaPorta seems to be the leader.

It will be interesting to see if the two sides can agree upon some more or less neutral or non-involved person for the job.

Maybe selecting a professional secretary who cares not one wit for politics might be the answer.

Maybe I’m sensitive about the question because I was McHenry County Treasurer as a child way back from 1966 to 1970.

As you might guess, the question is arising in Grafton Township as the four trustees try to garner the power that Trustee Gerry McMahon keeps insisting belongs to the majority, of which he is a member.

By now, the four trustees have probably passed a resolution giving Trustees Betty Zirk and Robert LaPorta signature authority on township checks.  ( I was at the Crystal Lake Kiwanis Club’s Christmas Party tonight.)

At the last meeting and in his management letter, the auditor had pointed out that requiring two signatures was a good check and balance to implement.

So far, so good.

But the resolution being considered tonight says that if Supervisor Linda Moore, who, by statute, is the treasurer of all Grafton Township funds, doesn’t sign them within seven days of approval, the two township trustees can.

Setting aside that Moore is the one with the bond that would repay the township if anyone made off with some money, that procedure could take away the supervisor’s authority as treasurer.

It would be like the McHenry County Board’s proposing that two board members be given the keys to the county treasury, just in case Treasurer Bill LeFew didn’t want to do the job.

I’m certainly no attorney, but the section in the resolution stating that if any part of the resolution is found invalid, the rest remains valid seems to be more than boilerplate.

= = = = =
The photo of the Grafton Township Board comes from last week’s meeting.

Related articles:

Auditing Grafton Township Style – Part 1

Auditing Grafton Township Style – Part 2

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.

Yesterday, McHenry County Blog started outlining what was mentioned about the court-determined illegal actions of the prior board–three of whose members were re-elected–in notes of the 7:30 PM to 12:15 AM Grafton Township board meeting last Thursday night.

The topic kept coming up in the discussion of the motion to add Township Supervisor Linda Moore’s name to that of newly-elected Trustee Gerry McMahon on the list of board members censured who have been censured.

Trustee Rob LaPorta, clearly the leader of the board majority, was among those to comment on the township hall lawsuit during the debate to move the censure resolution from the bottom to the top of the agenda:

“We were forced to hire an attorney because our names were on the lawsuit.”

McMahon returned to the court action brought by Grafton Township citizens, directing his comments to Moore:

“You started all of this by encouraging all this litigation against the township.

“You hurt the township. You should resign. You do not have a clue how to run a township.”

“We have to take responsibility for the decisions we make,” Moore replied.

“I admit I don’t think I made a good decision.

“Get over it.

“I don’t take kindly to your accusations,”

Barbara Murphy then said.

The reply from Moore,

“We can’t made decisions based on our legal (advice) alone. Just because a lawyer makes a recommendation doesn’t (mean it’s right).

“You believe what Mr. Kelly told you to do. Now, it turns out not to be the right thing to do.”

I have over four pages of notes on LaPorta’s reading of the condemnation resolution, but he was reading so fast, they are incomplete. After looking over the text sent to me by Trustee Rob LaPorta, I don’t see anything concerning the new township hall except Moore’s termination of Kelly as township attorney and her refusal to present his bill for payment.

But, my guess is those items stimulated the censure movement.

When it got to public comment time after the censure and paying of bills Tammy Lueth, a plaintiff in the suit to invalidate the board’s decision to build a new township hall, came to the podium with a stack of agendas and minutes.

“I’ve been through all the agendas for the last four years.”

She told of the decision at the annual meeting to approve the new township hall.

“You weren’t right.

“You took it upon yourself to appeal (Judge Michael Caldwell’s) decision. The Appellate Court ruled you guys didn’t do what you should have done.

“You spent more time bickering about $400 in chamber of commerce fees (than you did when it) took you six minutes to approve land acquisition.

“That was all brought about by the former supervisor (John Rossi) and some trustees.”

She added that she had to spend $12 in a Freedom of Information Act request to get minutes which ought to be on the web site.

Cutting Lueth’s comments short was McMahon, the only current trustee who did not vote for the new township hall and land acquisition:

“You’re into your three minutes.”

Trustee Betty Zirk, one of the three remaining trustees who supported the new township hall, pointed out the rules on the specificity of agendas changed in 2007.

“Now we have to be very specific,” she said.

McMahon returned to the undercurrent of the meeting:

“On some points you are right. What (attorney Jim) Kelly said to us was that he thought it was winnable.

“I’ve learned my lesson…

“I think you opened a can of worms and you hurt the township.”

McMahon then offer his opinion on the chances of passing the court-ordered referendum during next November’s general election:

“We can’t win a referendum. We will never get the PR out.”

The official part of the agenda when the discredited deal was next on the agenda.

Read about it tomorrow.

There was a leitmotif during the almost five-hour meeting of the Grafton Township Board on Thursday night.

Not too light, though.

More like an elephant plunging through the local Republican Party, setting up all Grafton Township incumbents for defeat at the hands of the Democratic Party in 2013.

Although the subject was only listed on the agenda once, a recurring undercurrent about the stunning court-mandated reversal of the trustees’ majority’s votes to sell the current township hall to its own Road District—complete with non-refundable $66,000 commission to real estate agent and Republican County Board member Marc Munaretto—to finance the building of a new township hall that would have cost the taxpayers over $5 million (with interest) was just under the surface.

But, it kept popping up during the meeting, especially during the debate over the resolution to censure Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

Surely, the

• loss of the prestige of having a new township hall, plus
• loss of the bronze plaque which would contain the trustees’ names, plus
• loss of face, plus
• the election loss of Supervisor John Rossi, the man who convinced them to do the deal, and
• the threat of having to pay their own legal fees

were among the inspirations for the multi-page censure resolution, which was not provided to Moore before the meeting, indeed not until after the kangaroo court passed its judgment.

(After the meeting I asked Rob LaPorta for a copy. He told me that his copy had notes on it, but said he would ask the lawyer to email it to me. While I was writing this article Saturday morning, I got a copy from LaPorta that indicates it will be published in pamphlet form “by authority of the township board” during December.  Click to enlarge.)

The trustees can’t reverse Judge Michael Caldwell’s court decision and confirmation of that decision at a rehearing now that it has been upheld by the 2nd Appellate Court, but they can censure one of its original plaintiffs, which, incidentally, was mentioned in the meeting and they can attack the most public messenger to divert public attention from their own court-determined illegal board majority actions.

Here’s the court suit reference from Gerry McMahon, who was elected because Moore put his literature in with her own during the Republican primary election campaign. (I know that because I helped distribute it one cold winter Saturday.)

The board was discussing a motion to move the censure resolution from almost the end of the agenda to the top.

(The trustees clearly did not want the Northwest Herald reporter to miss that part of the meeting since Herald reporters often do not stay until the end of late meetings, as was the case Thursday night when the adjournment was about 12:15 AM.  Better a story on censure than on the incredibly bad audit of ally John Rossi’s last year in office.  The strategy worked.  Not a word was printed in the NW Herald about the audit.)

Moore had told the board that she had conferred with an attorney about the censure resolution, which, incidentally, she did see before passage.

“Our legal bills (since she took office in April) are at $69,000,”

Moore said.

Among the other things McMahon, censured himself last month, said was,

“I heard your remarks about the courts.

“You started this all. That has cost immense legal bills. That was personal and vindictive…You have cost $600,000. When you don’t get your dictatorial way, you go around (the board, to court, for instance—McMahon was talking so fast my note taking couldn’t keep up.)

“When you are in the minority you should reg(?) and live with this. This is simple. If you would do the thing the majority wants everything would be (alright).”

Moore replied,

“Judges don’t award rulings because somebody (has something personal and vindictive). Governments can do anything they want until somebody says they are wrong.”

Moore then pointed out,

“Legal fees were $40,000. The trustees hired that attorney…We’ve got to stop wasting taxpayer dollars.”

“Where do we start?” Trustee Barbara Murphy (one who voted for the new township hall, but was the first incumbent to figure out that something illegal had been done and say the resulting loan had to be repaid) expressed her frustration. The frustration started out with the trustees being disturbed that Moore would not put items they wanted to discuss on the agenda, which led to the township’s attorney being instructed to prepare it. The attorney is paid $200 an hour.

Then, Murphy referred to the township hall dispute

“We were green when we took the last four years.

“I thought we (were following good advice).

“It’s done. They won it. It’s over. When you fired (Jim) Kelly (as township attorney), you expected us not to have a lawyer?

“I feel like there’s no working with you.”

More tomorrow.

The Grafton Township Trustees voted 4-1 to stop following Robert’s Rules of Order.

At Thursday’s meeting Supervisor Linda Moore tried her best to require trustees to speak one at a time and not among themselves, but wasn’t overly successful.

Not that she didn’t try.

Some, like Barbara Murphy, cooperated.

Others, primarily Gerry McMahon, did not, repeatedly interrupting.

Even when fellow trustee Murphy tried to stop him.

The motion to “strike Robert’s Rules of Order from the board rules” was made by Trustee Rob LaPorta, who is obviously leader of the four-person board majority.

“What model shall we follow? Moore asked.

I didn’t hear an answer.

Considering the way the trustees acted, I think the Mike Myers Saturday Night Live approach might work.  You remember.  Coffee Talk with Linda Richmond:

“Talk amongst yourselves.”