Another Township Where a Trustee Shows His Back to Constituents

Grafton Township Trustee Gerry McMahon expresses his disdain for constituents by facing away from them. Here he points at ally Trustee Rob LaPorta.

Grafton Township Trustee Gerry McMahon is known for not facing the audience.

Now, I learn that a Belvidere Township Trustee has the same disdain for his constituents.

Other similarities to Grafton Township include the Board’s desire to buy a building, the old Eagles Club.

It sounds a lot like the old Grafton Township Board before Linda Moore defeated John Rossi.

Belvidere Township Supervisor Pat Murphy and Trustees Debbie Carlson, Bill Robertson, Bob Turner and Paul Zeien seem to have an edifice complex. (A condition in which public officials want to have their names affixed in bronze so people can see who was responsible for it construction or purchase.)

The Board wanted to offer $150,000, but were backed down by constituents.  The building later sold for $60,000 Boone County Board member Cathy Ward wrote in the Rockford Register-Star.

Ward reports on the budget meeting at which no public comment was allowed.

One of the questions someone would have asked was,

“Why didn’t you significantly lower the levies to reduce our taxes when you have more than enough cash on hand to pay projected bills for more than two years?”

That’s probably a question that could be asked of many township boards, such as last year’s Nunda Township Board, sans Supervisor John Heisler, who was not at the budget-setting meeting.

Unlike in Grafton Township, the entire board is unified. A $3.7 million Town Fund was approved, along with a $6.2 Road and Bridge Fund.

The column points out that many consider the amounts “dangerously bloated with projected expenditures that have never been spent in past years and simply cost Belvidere Township residents more in taxes and keep adding to township carry-over funds.”

Ward was joined by Pat Mattison, Bill Wolf and Max Newport, good government guys from the time I served Boone County in the Illinois House of Representatives, joined with Ward and Don Sattler is signing on to the guest column.

The column ends with the information that petitions for next year’s elections will be available in August.

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Thanks to Boone County Watchdog for pointing me to this story.


Comments

Another Township Where a Trustee Shows His Back to Constituents — 2 Comments

  1. “edifice complex. (A condition in which public officials want to have their names affixed in bronze so people can see who was responsible for it construction or purchase.)”

    Interesting concept.

    Makes you wonder why one of the most vocal opponents of the Grafton trustees doesn’t want the township offices to move out of the Ziller Annex?

    Maybe Dan Ziller, Jr. could answer that?

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