After uppity taxpayers elected their man as Moderator of the Annual Town Meeting, Trustee Betty Zirk, Trustee Rob LaPorta and Township Administrator Pam Fender do not look like happy campers.
Pete Gonigam’s First Electric Newspaper has been given a scoop about the Grafton Township Trustees ‘ continuing efforts to reverse last year’s election results, which ousted their leader, Supervisor John Rossi.
Township Trustees lose another vote.
Just one day after being knocked out by Electors at the Annual Town Meeting, the Trustees have finally gotten bold enough to admit what has been obvious to even the most dense observer of Grafton Township politics.
Linda Moore
The Trustees want to get rid of their nemesis, Township Supervisor Linda Moore.
Attempts to get the McHenry County State’s Attorney to file criminal charges against Moore has apparently stalled, so they have gone into civil court in an attempt to get Judge Michael Caldwell
“to find ‘that Moore has engaged in a palpable omission of duty, malcontent and misfeasance in discharging the office of Township Supervisor under Section 55-37 of the Illinois Township Code.’
“You have to cross-reference to find that section reads, ‘The court in which the conviction occurs shall enter an order removing the convicted officer from office,'”
according to Gonigam’s article.
Is this a “Hail Mary” toss or what?
Three of four Grafton Township Trustees can be seen at the same table as Township Administrator Pam Fender. Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund is seated behind to the far left.
This comes after the Trustees’ attempt to keep Citizen-Electors from voting on a resolution presented by Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund to have the Town Fund buy back the Town Hall from his Road District was thwarted.
Road District lawyer Pat Coen reading the resolution to undo what the Rossi Township Board did unlawfully.
The Road Commissioner’s attorney, Pat Coen, even had to read the resolution to those assembled because
Township Administrator Pam Fender prepared a visual presentation, presumably to convince people to vote to buy and remodel an empty Huntley factory.
Most of her work went unseen, because the uppity taxpayers went right to the task of completing undoing the unlawful actions of the Rossi Township Board.
So, by margins of at least 5-2 and maybe as much as 8 or 9 -1 before those among the over 700 attending the meeting started leaving in droves after the first motion of the supporters of Linda Moore’s position won so handily.
In any event, just one day after that massive loss, the Trustees’ attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer filed a 44-page brief, Gonigam reports, asking for the judge to throw Moore out of office. Details are in his article.
The next question that comes to my mind is whether Moore should go tit for tat.
Slide shown by Township Administrator Pam Fender before the Annual Town Meeting stating that the Township Supervisor is the "Chief Executive Office."
Think Moore will file a motion asking that the Trustees be removed from office for thwarting her attempts to be the township’s Chief Executive Officer?
I note that the Grafton Township Food Pantry is included in the complaint. In the last audit, the outside auditors were unable to look at the Food Pantry books because those financial records had been deleted from the township supervisor computer before Moore took office. The auditors concluded that the Food Pantry was not part of Grafton Township.
In their new filing, the Trustees claim Moore drove the Food Pantry out of the township office space.
Moore might welcome its return, because then she could provide the outside auditor with records so it could complete the audit for the Fiscal Year ’08-’09. At the meeting with the auditor, she clearly wanted them to audit the Food Pantry’s books.
Darn those pesky uppity Taxpayers!
They’re speaking out about how they want THEIR money spent.
They’re speaking out about other things as well.
They’re speaking out ……..oh, right, that’s all I have to say. They, the Taxpayers, are speaking out and it is ticking off the Trustees big time.
I can hear those Taxpayers now –
NO to a new or used huge building.
NO to giving a contract to a newly hired person they chose to protect if that newly created job suddenly disappears after a judge’s ruling. A 10 months severance suggestion was given. OKAY Trustees, what do you not get about don’t waste Taxpayers’ money? The reduced to 3 months severance – NO NO NO. It’s not your private money to spend, it’s the Taxpayers money. If you don’t accept that, close up shop and stop collecting Taxes.
Ancel Glinks lawyers (in my opinion) are nothing but greedy scum. They need to be fired by every municipality who uses them.
What was Linda’s vision for the township BEFORE she took office? Besides stopping the building, what has she accomplished? Has she implemented her vision or platform since being elected? I know, someone will post that the trustees have hampered Linda’s plans. That I’m not buying since Linda was in office for several months before the trustees “hampered” Linda. So I ask again . . . (besides stopping the building) What has Linda accomplished in office???
I guess what I am confused about in this whole matter is that the registered voters, put Linda Moore into that position by a legal, election. So, how does the board have the right to remove her? I think it’s time we get rid of the whole bunch and just let the municipalities and county take over those tasks. The books for the food pantry were erased from the server???? So, what’s to say that even if people voted with paper ballots on Tuesday evening, these people that run the township government like they did the meeting, wouldn’t have tossed out unfavorable ballots in the garbage to make sure the building went through? This is worse than the dirtiest, Chicago politics.
Oh, yes……..by the way………who do those darn tax payers think they are?
The only way you will be able to get rid of Township government is to vote people on the Board that haven’t been on the Board. You have to only vote for one on November 2, it still counts. Because if you vote for 2 the one you want won’t get elected. It Still counts if you vote for one. We need people to get on the board that won’t stay with the same old system. And do the same old things like The trustees did. the last time I checked running a cue in the united States was against the Law and that is what they did. Government take over. If someone did that to the Governors office the National Guard would of been called in and they would be in Jail. Whats the difference with Township govenment?
Looks like the previous supervisor and clerk should be included in the criminal investigation. All food pantry records deleted, WHY?