Two Grafton Township Thursday meeting agendas arrived today.
The Trustees’ and the one developed by Township Supervisor Linda Moore.
Linda Moore
Present on Moore’s, but not on the Trustees’, is
“Action to approve $400,000 payment to Harris Bank (Bank of New York Mellon) on $700,000 road district loan with the Road Commissioner’s approval per the intergovernmental agreement.”
Moore’s agenda is never approved by the Trustees, of course, but sometimes items on it are added to the Trustees’ version.
Maybe Moore has talked the bank into accepting partial payment in a lump sum.
Last month Moore handed Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund a $200,000 check after the Township Trustees approved the re-payment.
No word on the agenda as to where the other $200,000 would come from.
“They approved $200,000 at the April meeting and they also approved $200,000 at the March meeting,” Moore told me when I asked the source of the other $200,000.
I thought that the residents voted on what they wanted done with this loan at the special meeting, did they not? Is Ms. Moore not listening to the residents who voted during the special meeting that was called?
Does that mean you don’t think the $400,000 should be repaid?
I think it should be repaid, yes. But on the agreed upon schedule and once the audit(s) is/are done to prove that the township can afford to make the payments without bankrupting the township. It seems like the responsible thing to do – make sure there is money in the bank before paying bills.
Trustees refuse to approve the lowest bidder for the audit, even though the company is the same one D158 uses. Unreasonably with holding their approval for the attorney and now the auditor. I hear more cha ching for Ancel Glink.
Gee, Sunshine… unreasonably withholding their approval for the attorney who is currently suing them and the township, as well as planning on charging the township twice his normal rate, $75 an hour more than any other attorney providing services to townships in the area.
I know you would be screaming if the trustees’ recommended someone like that for the township attorney, why do you take it from Linda?
As for the auditor, Linda refused to even hear the presentation from the firm that at least showed up to the meeting. Add to that the threatening letter that her attorney (who has no authority as of yet in the township) to the firm that was already lined up to do the audit…
You are right, Linda is a sparkling example of a fine Illinois politician!
“Trustees Donna O’Malley, Don Saville, John Ponio and Laurie Rabattini want the village to hire David McArdle and his firm, Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle, to be the village’s attorney, replacing its current counsel, the firm of Ancel Glink. The four trustees cited high attorney bills as the reason for the switch. ” NW Herald story on Island Lake
Q: Who hired Ancel Glink to begin with?
A: LINDA MOORE.
Q: Who took the trustees to court, got Ancel Glink fired as the township attorney and proposes to hire her personal attorney at DOUBLE the rate that he charges other townships?
A: LINDA MOORE
Q: Who brought the first lawsuit and EVERY lawsuit against the trustees since she’s been “supervisor”?
A: LINDA MOORE
Sunshine, don’t you think it’s all the lawsuits that are causing the high attorney fees and not Ancel Glink themselves? Are you suggesting that the trustees go to court without representation? Would you suggest that to Linda Moore since Nelson’s rates are much higher than Glinks? I didn’t think so.
Sunshine,
You quote the story on Island Lake as support to your argument but it honestly better supports the Trustee’s arguments. You state that they “unreasonably with holding their approval for the attorney” but the attorney presented by Linda Moore charges MOORE (oops, I mean more) than Ancel Glink. So if you think it’s appropriate for Island Lake to fire Ancel Glink because they charge too much, then I would except that the higher charge from Nelson would also be inappropriate.
Another option needs to be researched and presented (if one exists).
So if I were an electrician and I charged you $25 an hour to install a new outlet but it took me 10 hours to install the outlet for a total cost of $250, would that be better than an electrician who charges $50 an hour and takes 2 hours to install the outlet for a total of $100 to do the same job, are you better off hiring the half price electrician? By the way the electrician who charges the lower rate wants you to pay for his breaks, his unsolicited advise, questions from your friends and many other “related” work.
Grafton Resident, you are working from the assumption that the Nelson will work more efficiently than Ancel Glick. The only way to make sure this is the issue is to STOP the litigation happy supervisor. If she would do her job, the situation would be so much better
Grafton Resident, Nelsons fee has nothing to do with how well he can perform his duties as township attorney. He said himself that his fee included a “risk premium”. http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/2011/05/supervisors-attorney-charges-grafton.html
Let’s try an experiment. Let’s have Linda Moore and Nelson go away for 2 months. Let’s see how much better our township will be!! And, after the 2 months, if the township is in better shape without her then she cannot go back to her job as supervisor.
The problem for Grafton is no attorney wants to touch the fire burning in the township. This fire is caused by a woman who has no experience and no aptitude for the job she was hired to do and trustees who are so fed up they are just digging in til the 2013 elections. I would LOVE to do your brand of experiment CaddyCassandra. If you start the petition I’ll circulate it. We, unfortunately, won’t be able to do anything proactive for another couple years. I guess we, the taxpayers, are just stuck with the sequel to the nightmare of Ancel Glink’s running up legal fees through fomenting dissention because Ms. Moore has made this township untouchable for so many good attorney’s so no competition stepped to the fore to offer another price. Good for Nelson, not so much for us. PLEASE work to change this culture of awfulness in 2013. I will.