From Judge Michael Caldwell’s concluding comments, I gather that the February 24th hearing on Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore’s separation of powers case was mainly about paying bills.  (See Part 1 and Part 2 of the original decision.)

Linda Moore campaigning for Township Supervisor at the Huntley Expo.

I’ll cut it up into a couple articles so you can see the decisions made by the judge in this on-going dispute.

First Judge Caldwell addresses bills associated with the new township hall that the outgoing administration wanted to build and that supervisor challenger Moore used as the wedge issue to win election over John Rossi:

THE COURT: On the subject of these bills, starting with the architect fees and the legal fees, fees — any fees related to the construction of the — proposed construction of a new town hall have always been a matter of controversy and contention between Ms. Moore and the trustee, primarily over where, if beyond the point of whether they should be paid, but they’ve been a contest over where they should be properly placed in the budget.

Proposed Grafton Township Hall.

The trustees keep insisting that they have to post this — these legal fees in the building or the capital improvements are in the building budget, they have a special fund for that.

I disagree with that and I think Ms. Moore’s disagreement with it is well taken and well founded.

When I made my injunction, when I enjoined the further construction of that hall, what I found was that the action taken by the township trustees in going forward with that was illegal.

Now, that did not have any retroactive effect.

The action of the township up until the time of my injunction order enjoining the building of the new town hall, and at least during that period of time the presumption of legitimacy, so that bills incurred, either in developing the building or in defending the plan by the attorney are properly payable by the township.

A bit down in the transcript, Caldwell specificially says, “On the issue of — so the Kelly bill and the Lamp bill are payable and they’re payable out of the general fund.”

Part 2 tomorrow.