A press release from Grafton Supervisor Linda Moore:
GRAFTON TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES ADDICTED TO LEGAL FEES
Grafton Township Trustees Gerry McMahon, Betty Zirk, Rob LaPorta and Barbara Murphy.
Supervisor Linda Moore said today that the Grafton Township Trustees,
- Rob LaPorta
- Betty Zirk
- Barbara Murphy
- Gerald McMahon
appear to be addicted to spending taxpayer monies for legal fees.
Supervisor Moore clarified there is only one lawsuit pending between her and the trustees.
That lawsuit started when Moore was unlawfully evicted from her township office while the township board tried to usurp her duties by the unlawful appointment of a town administrator, Pam Fender.
Those problems were aggravated by the failure of Attorney Keri Lynn Krafthefer to leave when Supervisor Moore fired her.
Judge Michael Caldwell ruled in Moore’s favor on all of those issues.
The total cost of the litigation to date is $400,426.00.
Of that amount, $347,194.28 was paid to the trustees’ attorneys and $53,231.72 was paid to Supervisor Moore’s attorney.
Linda Moore
“Why are they appealing every order Judge Caldwell entered against them?” Supervisor Moore asked.
The attorneys’ fees on appeal will be astronomical.
Moore clarified that her current petition and motion are filed in the existing lawsuit and are directed at further attempts by the trustees to do her job.
“Keep in mind,” Moore said, “…the trustees have filed these same kinds of motions against me in the case already.
“The fees in these straight forward requests will be much more reasonable than the trustee’s appeal,” Moore added.
“I am raising issues that the cancelling of a township credit card has no basis other than harassment,” Moore opined.
“You only need to watch one of our meetings online to get a flavor of the abuse I receive at the hands of the trustees.
“Why else do they refuse to pay for the Huntley Police to be there?” Moore asked.
“They say I am too tough and unbending,“ Moore said.
“My answer is that I stopped the waste of taxpayer’s monies of $5 million plus, for an unnecessary new town hall.
“If I was not this tough, Trustee Gerry McMahon’s screaming and the board’s monkey shines would have driven me from office long ago.
“I am not going anywhere.”
THIS is how Linda responds to the letter written by Grafton Assessor Bill Ottley?
Nice try Cal and Linda . . . nobody is buying it.
If Linda is such a great steward of Grafton Township monies, why did SHE LET the Forensicon (computer investigation) bill go through to the tune of $20K?
Early on Linda could have “copped to” and admitted she erased township financial and bus scheduling data.
You say pulling the township credit cards is being done as harassment and has nothing to do with Linda’s overspending?
Why is Linda REFUSING to produce copies of monthly credit card statements (even when FIOAed)? Linda is trying to point her failure in office to THE BUILDING and THE TRUSTEES.
Wrong!
Trustee Gerry McMahon was a quasi running mate of Linda Moore and was won a trustee position during the same election that Linda won, so Gerry had NOTHING to do with THE BUILDING.
Linda and Cal are great at this revisionist history and pre-election rebranding. Nice try – nobody’s buying it. Especially Grafton taxpayers that have been screwed by Linda’s time in office.
The assessor and the highway guy are not trustees, but they both have to sue to get their bills paid. http://www.graftontownship.us/files/LettertoTaxpayers.pdf
I have watched the videos online, and I see issues on both sides, but the majority of the blame is Linda refusing to pay what the board approves, or asking them in advance about purchases she makes… always without their consent. The township credit card should only be used to pay online bills that are approved, and making reservations or holding meeting room space. It is not and should not be a way for Linda to bypass the board and pay for things that only she wants to pay.
Linda is supposed to handle day to day stuff like paying the light bill, but when you want to buy a $1,000 sound system – that is not day to day expenses. That is something that the people should have to approve – and when I say the people, I mean the peoples elected officials, the trustees. She should present her request, define why she needs the expenditure, and then work with the decision of her superiors! And yes Linda – the TAXPAYERS are your superiors! And we have chosen 4 individuals to represent us at the meetings – they are the trustees. We will vote out those that are not doing their job, but that includes you too! Do the job, or expect to be unemployed soon.
If everyone could check their EGO’s at the door, and just DO THE JOB – perhaps we wouldn’t have a half million dollars in legal fees already?
FELLOW VOTERS: Is anyone else even reading this stuff? Let’s do something about it, there is a meeting on the 14th. Everyone should attend, and sign up to make a public comment. Tell Linda and the board to stop spending money, to present the bank statements for review, and if they don’t start working together – then we need to start picketing the township offices everyday until something happens! I am sick of this and it’s OUR MONEY that is being wasted!
*When Linda brings a lawsuit, the Trustees have to defend themselves.
*When Linda tries to get her personal attorney appointed as the Grafton Township attorney and the trustees say no because of the conflict of interest, Linda takes them to court. She doesn’t bring any other attorney for consideration.
“Judge Caldwell sided with Linda so the Trustees had no other choice but to file and appeal, WHICH.THEY.WON! THAT’s a proper use of funds for attorney fees.
*When Judge Caldwell made the injunction against the Trustees permanent, basically stripping them of their fiduciary responsibilities as elected officials, it is right for them to appeal that decision as well.
*When Linda doesn’t pay the approved bills that are presented for payment by the road district and tax assessor, she gets sued.
When Linda files a suit against the trustees asking for jail time, the trustees have a right to defend themselves.
Please DO watch the meetings!
I HAVE been to the meetings.
I HAVE watched the videos.
I have seen first hand how LINDA is disrespectful to the Trustees AND to the public.
Linda claims that she wants to work with the Trustees but she constantly refuses to answer direct questions, and always tries to find ways to sidestep them, thereby, preventing them from doing their elected duties…which is to audit the township.
Linda’s $53,000???
Aren’t you missing a zero???
How dare you make Linda out to be a hero when in fact she’s a ZERO!!!!
Looks like the readers are smart enough to follow the advice of The Monkees’ hit song, “Don’t Listen To Linda”. That Davy Jones was one smart cookie!
http://www.songstube.net/video.php?title=Don%E2%80%99t%20Listen%20To%20Linda&artistid=10422&artist=Monkees&id=203351
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKvC4NvaS-E
I received this from a concerned citizen who FOIA this data:
Linda Moore Credit Card Usage
Transactions from February 11, 2011 thru September 28, 2011
Statements from 03/03/2011 thru 10/03/2011
Postage = $653.51
$554 in postage stamps in less than 1 month
Eating Out = $76.36
Grocery = $132.32
Items purchased include: 1 Mug Root Beer, 1 Schwepps Ginger Ale, 1 Diet Coke, Variety of coffees, creamer, grapes, donuts, water, Perfect Balance, Swiffer Dusters, hand soap
*Office Supplies = $667.47
Items purchased include: 25ft extension cord, Velcro, labeler tape, binder clips, brass fasteners, 100ct box envelopes, 12pk binders, leather chair, 50reams of copy paper, HP 940 Tricolor ink, color ink cartridges, black ink cartridges, and combo pack of ink. $232 worth of ink in 7 days.
Building Maintenance = $275.76
Items purchased include: fluor lens, CT AA10, Alarm, battery, bar keeper gel, 48″ fluor wrap, snapskru, emergency lighting, remote head, LED, 1.5W, 9.6V, 1 Lamp, Alum.
Training / memberships = $917.00
$387 for NATAT Conference: registration fee, Washington After Dark Tour, Walking Tour of Historic Georgetown, Illinois Hill Breakfast
Subscriptions = $138.02
Hotels = $280.73
**Office Equipment = $2439.61
Items purchased include: 1 widescreen HD monitor, 1 Dell Laptop, folding chairs, desktop computer tower, USB hub and wall adapter, Sony camcorder and tripod.
2011 Annual Meeting = $708.29
Fuel = $379.16
Curious: does the senior bus take diesel fuel or gas and does it go all the way to Woodstock?
***Bingo Supplies = $170.83
Items purchased include: Bingo paper, bingo signs
****Misc Exp = $1185.49
Theater Parking(Enter 9:29AM – Depart 11:16AM) $30.00 17-Feb
Uline – Door Knob Bags(Curious what these are used for.) $43.38 3-Mar
Road ranger $19.09 7-Apr
MLS Listing $778.95 2-May
Uline – Door Knob Bags (Curious what these are used for.) $45.09 4-Jun
Habitat for Humanity – Electrical $21.55 11-Jun
Ed’s Rental & Sales – resale equip, new $55.80 13-Jun
Glo Bowl – Marengo (Is there an explanation for this?) $22.01 16-Jun
Sam’s Club $169.62 12-Sep
TOTAL: $8,109.55
*Invoice not provided
Costco Checks & Forms for $51.64.
**Invoice not provided
Two invoices from BestBuy.com invoices totaling $564.97.
***Invoice not provided
Allied Bingo Supplies for $78.65.
****Invoice not provided
Sam’s Club for $169.62.
No wonder the Trustees want to cut up her cards and no wonder Monkeyshines Moore (thanks Linda for adding that word to people’s lexicon) is so protective of these cards!!!
Wow – she’s really racking it up, and this is from 2011! What does 2012 hold in store??
I hope there was some sort of paper trail for the registration fees, office furniture purchases and camcorder.
I expect, though, that any expenses for personal tours are paid out of one’s OWN pocket, rather than hit up the taxpayers for vacation money.
While credit cards are a necessary evil, they need to be scrutinized and closely monitored.
They’re a ripe opportunity for rampant abuse and it’s beginning to look like the Trustees are justified for questioning the haphazard spending.
That’s why she’s trying to make the contempt charge stick – DON’T CUT UP MY CREDIT CARDS!!!
You can read Linda Moore’s explanation here:
http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2012/06/08/linda-moore-explains-questioned-credit-card-spending/
Can you please give up on the NEW BUILDING stuff already?
It is obvious that this is just a way to revisit the only issue that won her the election in the first place.
There is no new building, everyone knows it – except Linda and her supporters.
And as for the credit card statements – I can’t wait until someone of authority sees that she went on sight seeing tours on tax payer dollars!
Can anyone please forward this to the AG that threw the crooks out of Dixon?
NO MOORE!
We have had enough.